@annasoh323, I love it! What a great build and write-up. Those mirror finish panels are really cool, too!
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Completed S401: Salvo Studios <8L mITX Steel Unibody Chassis w/ GPU & CPU fans in same direction
- Thread starter grsychckn
- Start date
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- Tags
- mitx s400 s401 s700 salvo studios steel case
@annasoh323, thanks for the promotion! Sweet build and the mirrored panels look great.
Update 1: The fabricator gave me October 24th as the target date for finishing the remaining 100+ chassis. That means I'm still on target for having more ready to ship by the end of the month.
Update 2: Although the panels had all been punched before I could request the GPU slot changes, the fabricator will nibble out about 0.1" of each GPU slot to open it up for more tolerance on those pesky ports that seem so close to the edge.
Update 3: I made a build video but have yet to splice the clips together and narrate. This may take me a while and I have to say I'm not too pleased with the quality but I won't have time to do this again so this is what will be posted to YouTube in the coming days.
I know @Sahaj got a lot of traffic on PCPP. He also gave a great endorsement of yourself and Salvo. On my post, I did mess up a bit with the part. I called it the "Salvo Studio S401" instead of "Salvo Studios S401". I'll see if I can't fix that. Updates all sound good! Build is up and running already but I'll still watch the build video just for the sweet joy of reliving the build over... and probably finding out things I did wrong
I know @Sahaj got a lot of traffic on PCPP. He also gave a great endorsement of yourself and Salvo. On my post, I did mess up a bit with the part. I called it the "Salvo Studio S401" instead of "Salvo Studios S401". I'll see if I can't fix that. Updates all sound good! Build is up and running already but I'll still watch the build video just for the sweet joy of reliving the build over... and probably finding out things I did wrong
Yes, @Sahaj also has an awesome S400 build and his custom panel looks great! Thanks to him as well for posting his build. I need to add a product on the website for a custom acrylic S400 panel as I have the program to make those as well now. The only problem is finding the right size boxes to ship them in.
BTW, in the build video I forget to add the lower 60mm fan extension cable until after I install the GPU and I forget to install the USB cable. I did both with the GPU installed - it's messy but it works. I went back and tidied up the cables after I completed the build video. I recorded it on a knock-off GoPro so the fisheye view is a bit annoying (as is the low camera angle), but I think I did a good job of walking through a build from scratch in 30 minutes.
!!! That's a speed build for sure. I started building at 8pm I think and when I blinked it was 11pm. I may be a bit confused since I also had the unbuilding to do...
I definitely forgot the USB cable also. I fished it under the graphics card but then I was worried I had damaged the little bits and pieces on the backside of the PCB (EVGA reference, non-Founders card; no backplate) so I ended up removing the card again anyway. I managed to sling one zip tie around the middle bundle but I may leave it at that unless I decide to do something crazy like sleeve cables. The CPU power juuusst reached around the corner and my fan extension cable may someday interfere with the fan itself. So far so good. Experimenting a bit with fan curves but it's a bit annoying going back to UEFI to do so. I'm thinking it may be better to have the 60mm slightly lead the CPU fan just to provide more negative pressure away from the heatsink.[/user]
There are 3 #4-40 standoffs mounted in the chassis upon which the USB adapter mounts. The adapter itself was purchased from a contact I made on alibaba. You can buy them on Amazon here.
I can say that USB ports are in there solidly. I can far more reliably plug my USB-C cable into it than the back panel on my mobo. I suspect my cable may be a bit funky though since it'll charge but not transfer data with my phone (at last check, and this is with both front and back ports). I'm working on a USB-C connectorized keyboard so hopefully that works! Overall, I'm really happy with the I/O. No audio, no problem for me - I've got an audio interface for that.
I wonder what an arcade game looks like with RTX on???
That's pretty awesome. You should try out for the Performance per Liter thread! I think you'd have a good shot.
So, I installed the dust filter. I did a pretty obvious hack job on the sticky tape but I digress. With the filter installed, it does seem like my CPU fan is trying to work harder to pull air, such that the temps are slightly higher (i.e. cause and effect: fan tries to pull air through vent, temp goes up, fan curve pushes higher rpms and obvious increase in noise indicates). I fired up a pretty demanding game and with my 1080 on blast, the CPU fan noise didn't seem that bad and the temps seemed about the same. Still, it may be worth revisiting the fan curves. I've also not swapped in the not-Delta fans I got from the Salvo site for the Gelids. I expect an improvement from that as well, though it may not be a night-and-day difference. It'll take some cable tweaking to do (not a bad thing after seeing @Sparkles masterwork).
I've had a couple of questions from friends about console size comparison. I'd figure I'd throw them up on here for anyone needing that for a size idea.
Hey Brian,
I got my MOBO in today and decided to go ahead and start putting things together even though it will be a while until I have the rest of the components.
I started by following the quick start guide and also browsing the motherboard manual to make sure I wasn't missing anything. The MOBO is in, and things look good.
However, I plugged in both the USB header cable and the PCIE riser cable, and they both seem to stick up too much to close up the case. So I was wondering...
1. Should the PCIE cable have extra length like that? It seems like it is an inch or two longer than it needs to be and I'm having trouble understanding how to lay it so that it won't stick up and run into the door of the case.
2. Should I get a 90 degree adapter for the usb cable or something? It sticks up really far and I don't think I can really bend it into a position where it won't be in the way.
For now I've disconnected both cables so that I can put the case together and away. I apoligize if i'm doing something wrong or asking stupid questions. It's my first SFF build and this case is preeeetty darn tiny.
I got my MOBO in today and decided to go ahead and start putting things together even though it will be a while until I have the rest of the components.
I started by following the quick start guide and also browsing the motherboard manual to make sure I wasn't missing anything. The MOBO is in, and things look good.
However, I plugged in both the USB header cable and the PCIE riser cable, and they both seem to stick up too much to close up the case. So I was wondering...
1. Should the PCIE cable have extra length like that? It seems like it is an inch or two longer than it needs to be and I'm having trouble understanding how to lay it so that it won't stick up and run into the door of the case.
2. Should I get a 90 degree adapter for the usb cable or something? It sticks up really far and I don't think I can really bend it into a position where it won't be in the way.
For now I've disconnected both cables so that I can put the case together and away. I apoligize if i'm doing something wrong or asking stupid questions. It's my first SFF build and this case is preeeetty darn tiny.
You wouldn't happen to have any pics of it would you? We all should have roughly the same height on those components.
Right! I happy to help too and pics would help! I have a feeling you just need to bend the blue USB cable back down at more of an angle? If you flip back to one of my earlier pics, I was able to keep it down by zip tie-ing it to the nearest mount. Let's us know to get ya sorted!!
Sorry for the tardy reply - kids.
1. The PCIe cable can be bent - in fact I encourage it. I typically bend it on the motherboard end because there is usually more room to position it out of the way. See picture below, but note that before I put the vented panel on I press down on the PCIe cable just a bit to ensure it clears the panel.
2. The blue USB cables that come with the adapter are very stiff. I would recommend you heat it up gently with a hairdryer or heat gun (be careful not to melt anything!) and hold it in place while it cools. It should hold it's shape much better. I will attempt to get pictures tonight of my setup but I'm using it right now to work on the S700 finally. The other option is to buy a custom-length 20-pin USB cable. I bought a 14" cable from moddiy.com and although it was expensive (~$15 + shipping), it fits much better and with more clearance inside the case. Here is a link to the product page on moddiy.com.
It's not our normal format, but an experiment. Keep that in mind
