Completed S401: Salvo Studios <8L mITX Steel Unibody Chassis w/ GPU & CPU fans in same direction

[annasoh323]

I may try posting there but TBH, I haven't even sent out the newsletter yet. Work has been so busy I don't have time to write the e-mail and include pictures.

Side note: I now suspect that it is only my first batch of S401s that have a compatibility problem with the EVGA cards. I need someone to either confirm that they are running the EVGA cards without problem in their S401 or I need someone willing to allow me to purchase an EVGA card so I can test fit it myself and then I'll ship it to you. I can offer a filter, handle, spacers, or something else (I have a lot of hardware I've purchased for this type of problem).

This is the only picture I have of the EVGA card in an S401 and I believe this is an early-run chassis that I hadn't opened up the slots vertically (as oriented in this picture) towards the GPU mount tab. Later chassis had the top of these slots opened up 1/4" more for better clearance for DisplayPort interfaces. Ignore that this is a white chassis as the owner purchased it on ebay after the original owner had stripped it down and painted it white. This is NOT one of my white chassis.

Are we talking about any EVGA cards or just the new RTX ones with the bump on the I/O cover? My EVGA 1080 reference card has the very top DP port juuuust barely nicked in the corner so that I can't quite fit the DP plug in.

Unfortunately, since I have a 1080 already, I will be recusing myself from the graphics card market for a fair long while (at least, that's what I tell myself).

 

[BeethovenNinja]

Here's the link to my build.
https://pcpartpicker.com/b/tkKBD3

Thanks to everyone in this forum that helped make this.

 

[Poblopuablo]

Here's the link to my build.
https://pcpartpicker.com/b/tkKBD3

Thanks to everyone in this forum that helped make this.

Did you make those stickers yourself? If so could you make me some? I have almost the same layout.

 

[BeethovenNinja]

Did you make those stickers yourself? If so could you make me some? I have almost the same layout.

You can go to stickermule.com. They got you covered

 

[Poblopuablo]

You can go to stickermule.com. They got you covered

What size?

 

[BeethovenNinja]

Choose circle stickers. They let you choose up to the one hundredth of an inch. Just get a ruler and use your best discretion. However, my gpu stickers are 1.12", the cpu fan was 1.18" and the PSU fan was 1"

 

[grsychckn]

Here's the link to my build.
https://pcpartpicker.com/b/tkKBD3

Thanks to everyone in this forum that helped make this.

Extremely cool build. I particularly love the PSU cables and all the attention to detail on the inside. For so little space, you really put your stamp on it.

 

[Soul_Est]

Again, @grsychckn , I have to express that this case is great. Will we be seeing something smaller than the S401 after the S700; like a S301 perhaps?

 

[annasoh323]

Friendly Salvo-ite here: Per the S700 thread post here and here, the S700 project will be on hiatus till the fab costs can come down to a reasonable demand level. However, one of those methods may be for @grsychckn to pick up some machinery of his own for his mysterious garage (that already has the laser cutter). He mentioned wanting to make an updated S401 with lessons learned from the current S401 and the S700 protos.

What I've talked a little bit with grsy about before is that Salvo Studios could use some help on the public outreach/marketing side. It's not my forte but hopefully someone here can help someone out who is doing the good work of SFF.

 

[Sparkles]

Friendly Salvo-ite here: Per the S700 thread post here and here, the S700 project will be on hiatus till the fab costs can come down to a reasonable demand level. However, one of those methods may be for @grsychckn to pick up some machinery of his own for his mysterious garage (that already has the laser cutter). He mentioned wanting to make an updated S401 with lessons learned from the current S401 and the S700 protos.

What I've talked a little bit with grsy about before is that Salvo Studios could use some help on the public outreach/marketing side. It's not my forte but hopefully someone here can help someone out who is doing the good work of SFF.

I'd be curious to see what a S401 revision might look like. Personally the case is *almost* perfect, with the only changes I would like is the motherboard pushed down to fit NF-A6x25 fans on the top (without extending the case because there's plenty of room between board and GPU as is) AND a way to have the GPU slot on the back opened up more to make sure all ports are available for future-proofing.

 

[grsychckn]

Again, @grsychckn , I have to express that this case is great. Will we be seeing something smaller than the S401 after the S700; like a S301 perhaps?

Thank you! First, I thought about going smaller, but I feel that market is really already saturated with good options that will be more affordable than anything I can offer. Instead, I was thinking of going slightly larger than the S401 (at least in width). The S500 would probably be the model and I would target a width of around 80mm. The goal would be to natively support taller CPU coolers, my flex-slot adapter, and 80mm chassis fans. I don't know when I'll have the time to start designing something but I do intend on this being the next project of mine once I can definitively say the S700 concept has been OBE. This would address @Sparkles comments of both the larger fan support and having the PCIe slots be more open to support cards like the EVGA RTX-series.

However, one of those methods may be for @grsychckn to pick up some machinery of his own for his mysterious garage (that already has the laser cutter)

I've got to have a conversation with my fabricator to see what kind of sheet metal brake/press would be something of the right size for the material I'm working with first. Also, my wife and I are having serious conversations about moving so there is the possibility I want to wait on acquiring new tools until after I move (don't want to move it twice) - depending on timing of course. Needless to say, from here out I'm going to reduce the quantity I produce of my individual designs and try to have more options available. I'm even thinking of offering some pre-built, custom systems that are turnkey. The problem with this though is the tax implications and tracking all my expenses for such an endeavor. I'm currently assembling a custom system for a customer in Hong Kong with an i9-9900k, an RTX 2080 Ti, and 64GB of RAM. This has presented several challenges like modifying the S401 to accommodate the Asus Z390-i motherboard by enlarging the rear IO on the S401 by hand.

I also purchased my own i9-9900k to run some CPU cooler tests on. I'm not a reviewer so I can't offer a whole lot of detailed results but I want to know what hardware to recommend to customers trying to push the envelope of the S401 in terms of cooling. I've also purchased the Big Shiruken 2, ID-Cooling IS-60, NH-L9i, and LP53 to go along with my C7/C7 Cu coolers to test and see which perform well with the i9-9900k. I don't expect any to be stellar compared to standard ATX coolers, but I do want to know which performs the best given my set of hardware. I also bought a delid tool, liquid metal, and a copper IHS for the 9900k to see what results that will bring. I can't imagine I'm going to have time to finalize my tests into a post on my website anytime soon, but I do intend on doing this as soon as I can. I will most likely have to be done with these tests before I ship this completed build to my customer in Hong Kong so the clock is ticking.

Now, I have about 30 minutes of time to make some progress on this build to establish a baseline using the C7 original before the kids are done with their quiet time and I have to remove the Salvo hat and put the Dad hat back on.

 

[Soul_Est]

Thank you! First, I thought about going smaller, but I feel that market is really already saturated with good options that will be more affordable than anything I can offer. Instead, I was thinking of going slightly larger than the S401 (at least in width). The S500 would probably be the model and I would target a width of around 80mm. The goal would be to natively support taller CPU coolers, my flex-slot adapter, and 80mm chassis fans. I don't know when I'll have the time to start designing something but I do intend on this being the next project of mine once I can definitively say the S700 concept has been OBE. This would address @Sparkles comments of both the larger fan support and having the PCIe slots be more open to support cards like the EVGA RTX-series.

I see what you mean. The reason I asked is that I am looking for something similar in size and orientation to the NFC Systems S3 Mini. The goals for the S500 are an excellent idea as well.

 

[annasoh323]

Here's the link to my build.
https://pcpartpicker.com/b/tkKBD3

Thanks to everyone in this forum that helped make this.

Whoa man. If there's a Salvo-off for who has the best Salvo Studios S40X build, I am not competing if you're competing. Stunning.

I'd be curious to see what a S401 revision might look like. Personally the case is *almost* perfect, with the only changes I would like is the motherboard pushed down to fit NF-A6x25 fans on the top (without extending the case because there's plenty of room between board and GPU as is) AND a way to have the GPU slot on the back opened up more to make sure all ports are available for future-proofing.

Thank you! First, I thought about going smaller, but I feel that market is really already saturated with good options that will be more affordable than anything I can offer. Instead, I was thinking of going slightly larger than the S401 (at least in width). The S500 would probably be the model and I would target a width of around 80mm. The goal would be to natively support taller CPU coolers, my flex-slot adapter, and 80mm chassis fans. I don't know when I'll have the time to start designing something but I do intend on this being the next project of mine once I can definitively say the S700 concept has been OBE. This would address @Sparkles comments of both the larger fan support and having the PCIe slots be more open to support cards like the EVGA RTX-series.



I've got to have a conversation with my fabricator to see what kind of sheet metal brake/press would be something of the right size for the material I'm working with first. Also, my wife and I are having serious conversations about moving so there is the possibility I want to wait on acquiring new tools until after I move (don't want to move it twice) - depending on timing of course. Needless to say, from here out I'm going to reduce the quantity I produce of my individual designs and try to have more options available. I'm even thinking of offering some pre-built, custom systems that are turnkey. The problem with this though is the tax implications and tracking all my expenses for such an endeavor. I'm currently assembling a custom system for a customer in Hong Kong with an i9-9900k, an RTX 2080 Ti, and 64GB of RAM. This has presented several challenges like modifying the S401 to accommodate the Asus Z390-i motherboard by enlarging the rear IO on the S401 by hand.

I also purchased my own i9-9900k to run some CPU cooler tests on. I'm not a reviewer so I can't offer a whole lot of detailed results but I want to know what hardware to recommend to customers trying to push the envelope of the S401 in terms of cooling. I've also purchased the Big Shiruken 2, ID-Cooling IS-60, NH-L9i, and LP53 to go along with my C7/C7 Cu coolers to test and see which perform well with the i9-9900k. I don't expect any to be stellar compared to standard ATX coolers, but I do want to know which performs the best given my set of hardware. I also bought a delid tool, liquid metal, and a copper IHS for the 9900k to see what results that will bring. I can't imagine I'm going to have time to finalize my tests into a post on my website anytime soon, but I do intend on doing this as soon as I can. I will most likely have to be done with these tests before I ship this completed build to my customer in Hong Kong so the clock is ticking.

Now, I have about 30 minutes of time to make some progress on this build to establish a baseline using the C7 original before the kids are done with their quiet time and I have to remove the Salvo hat and put the Dad hat back on.

I see what you mean. The reason I asked is that I am looking for something similar in size and orientation to the NFC Systems S3 Mini. The goals for the S500 are an excellent idea as well.

Lots of good thoughts! I hope closed doors turn into new opportunities for you @grsychckn. Also, cool to hear about the new purchases for science reasons. 9900K definitely sounds like a worst-case scenario of the highest magnitude (barring someone trying to do the whole AsRock X299 thing). Can you use a regular delid kit on the 9900K since it has the soldered IHS? Or do you have to do something more extreme-ish like baking it to flow the solder before you delid? This is going to get messy before it gets cool, I think...
@Soul_Est, what was the S3 like? I'm not that familiar with it.

 

[DSmithBYU]

Thanks for the spacers, grsy!

Refresh me: which screws should I use to install them??

 

[grsychckn]

Thanks for the spacers, grsy!

Refresh me: which screws should I use to install them??

There are extra long screws that should have come with them. If you did not receive these, send me an e-mail with your address and I'll send them out to you via USPS. In case anyone comes across this thread and is in need of replacements, they can be purchased here. The only value add I perform is I powder coat the heads black to match the chassis.

 

[Soul_Est]

@Soul_Est, what was the S3 like? I'm not that familiar with it.

It's page is here (https://nfc-systems.com/mini) and could look like this inside:

 

[annasoh323]

It's page is here (https://nfc-systems.com/mini) and could look like this inside:

Huh, so it did the long extender card trick that the S40X does while maintaining the same relative size profile as the current S4? I wonder why Josh moved away from that design - popularity maybe? Personally, I've been loving this orientation of components (which is why I hang out here all the time).

 

[annasoh323]

Here's the link to my build.
https://pcpartpicker.com/b/tkKBD3

Thanks to everyone in this forum that helped make this.

<ahem> Congratulations are in order to @BeethovenNinja and @grsychckn for Ninja's white S401 build being featured on PCPP's front page (as of this writing)! People over there really took to the uniquely, and simultaneously, clean, colorful, and powerful build. Granted, half the comments over there are about Ninja being Banksy but that's all part of the territory. Round of applause to our most accomplished of Salvo-ites!

 

[BeethovenNinja]

<ahem> Congratulations are in order to @BeethovenNinja and @grsychckn for Ninja's white S401 build being featured on PCPP's front page (as of this writing)! People over there really took to the uniquely, and simultaneously, clean, colorful, and powerful build. Granted, half the comments over there are about Ninja being Banksy but that's all part of the territory. Round of applause to our most accomplished of Salvo-ites!

I am stunned. I thought my time had passed. Again thanks so much to everyone in this forum. You all have a hand in this feature!

 

[grsychckn]

Update: I wanted to get the word out that I'm working on producing the C7/AM4 modified mounts that orient the fins parallel to the RAM (exhaust out the S401 will be much more efficient). I got the plans from @Thehack and when I get some numbers back on the cost I'll want some feedback on who would be interested at different price points. I'm hoping I can sell these for less than $10/each but I agree with @Thehack that there's a market for them up to around $15. BTW, I have permission from @Thehack to use his design and sell them if I wish. Know though that I don't plan on taking advantage of him by making profit off his plans. I only want to ensure that my time and resources are covered for this endeavor.

I can say that I've been testing cooling solutions for the 9900k in the stock S401 and so far I've got baselines for the C7 original and the LP53. The C7 original mounts so that the fins direct the exhaust towards the 60mm fans inside the S401 while the Asus Z390-i board I'm testing with forces the LP53 to exhaust into the RAM and the motherboard IO. The performance delta when I run with Prime95 is a 10C advantage to the C7. This could be a massive temperature savings for the AM4-platforms running the C7/C7Cu. Of course, I'll probably order the brackets and then get some numbers of my own before I decide to sell anything. Also, I want to avoid be held responsible for any damages that might occur to CPUs so I've got to figure out a disclaimer (like "for off-road use only") that would protect me against misuse of the product. If you're interested in a set of these let me know because if the cost is prohibitive for me to sell through the website, I will be purchasing a set or two for myself regardless so I could add a few extra sets to my order.

See the original thread from @Thehack here.