Production SENTRY 2.0: Evolution of console-sized gaming PC case

[Thrusher]

Thank you for checking and updating the sheet. I guess i'll wait for the PowerColor 2 Fan card to get stocked in my neck of the woods. I have all other parts for the build now.

I have PowerColor 5700 XT Standard version and I have to say I realy like it. I am silence geek and undervolded is realy quiet for so powerfull card

 

[Treshy]

So I modded my AsRock Challenger 5700 XT with ptfe washers and 2x Noctua A9x14 fans and 2x A4x10 fans, replaced the VRM heatsinks on my AsRock x570 ITX/TB3 and am waiting for my copper plates to arrive to replace the thermal pads for the chipset heatsink. I guess I will be able to finish my whole build once the case arrives has anyone measured what lengths of custom psu cables would be required to reach the 24 pin and 8 pin eps as well as the 2x 8 pin pcie power cables? I kinda wanna order them from moddiy in advance

 

[Treshy]

I have PowerColor 5700 XT Standard version and I have to say I realy like it. I am silence geek and undervolded is realy quiet for so powerfull card

I kinda think the asrock challenger card is superior for use in the sentry case because the vertical fins will allow for using the vent holes on top of the case as exhaust holes, which would not be possible with the horizontal finstack on the powercolor dual fan. I had to do the washer mod with my challenger card to get temps down to tolerable levels on mine because my current case has awful ventilation.

 

[Thrusher]

I kinda think the asrock challenger card is superior for use in the sentry case because the vertical fins will allow for using the vent holes on top of the case as exhaust holes, which would not be possible with the horizontal finstack on the powercolor dual fan. I had to do the washer mod with my challenger card to get temps down to tolerable levels on mine because my current case has awful ventilation.

Maybe you are right. If I will have problems with that graphics card in sentry then I will replace it. I hope you will post your build

 

[polarium]

OH LOL I thought @Treshy was replying to himself and I was like"???" but it's actually @Thrusher

So I modded my AsRock Challenger 5700 XT with ptfe washers and 2x Noctua A9x14 fans and 2x A4x10 fans, replaced the VRM heatsinks on my AsRock x570 ITX/TB3 and am waiting for my copper plates to arrive to replace the thermal pads for the chipset heatsink. I guess I will be able to finish my whole build once the case arrives has anyone measured what lengths of custom psu cables would be required to reach the 24 pin and 8 pin eps as well as the 2x 8 pin pcie power cables? I kinda wanna order them from moddiy in advance

I bought these to replace my Corsair cables due to them still being way too long and cramming it in my case. I emailed J-Hack and he said it's a perfect size for the Sentry, but couldn't test it out until December/January since I'm currently not in the US.

Will update more if it works nicely with my Sentry 1.1 to get custom cables other than Pslate's

 

[Thrusher]

OH LOL I thought @Treshy was replying to himself and I was like"???" but it's actually @Thrusher

I changed my avatar

 

[John Grimm]

So I modded my AsRock Challenger 5700 XT with ptfe washers and 2x Noctua A9x14 fans and 2x A4x10 fans, replaced the VRM heatsinks on my AsRock x570 ITX/TB3 and am waiting for my copper plates to arrive to replace the thermal pads for the chipset heatsink. I guess I will be able to finish my whole build once the case arrives has anyone measured what lengths of custom psu cables would be required to reach the 24 pin and 8 pin eps as well as the 2x 8 pin pcie power cables? I kinda wanna order them from moddiy in advance

Any images of this mod? How are you keeping the fans on?

 

[Treshy]

Any images of this mod? How are you keeping the fans on?

I posted it on Reddit a while ago, it did not have the washer mod back then, I added that afterwards. I still need to shorten the fan cables and adapter cables, they are still dangling around below the card. I will take more pictures once I disassemble my current atx build to transfer it to the sentry and do a more in depth post about the whole build

link

 

[John Grimm]

I posted it on Reddit a while ago, it did not have the washer mod back then, I added that afterwards. I still need to shorten the fan cables and adapter cables, they are still dangling around below the card. I will take more pictures once I disassemble my current atx build to transfer it to the sentry and do a more in depth post about the whole build

link

This looks great! Are you sure the card with this mod will fit the case, how many mm of thickness is it? Can you also link the cable you are using to connect to the card fan controller and split it 4way?

 

[Treshy]

This looks great! Are you sure the card with this mod will fit the case, how many mm of thickness is it? Can you also link the cable you are using to connect to the card fan controller and split it 4way?

it is the same thickness as the stock card, just the 2 40mm fans are slightly tilted so they extend the thickness by like 3mm which is still fine for the sentry case afaik.

these are the adapters I used, I will probably solder the gpu fan connector to the 4 way splitter directly to slightly reduce cable clutter around the card.
adapter 1
adapter 2

 

[cyberhoundMkII]

I noticed that Zotac 1080 Ti mini is marked as incompatible in the spreadsheet, but the dimensions on the product page appear to fit requirements. Was it verified that dimensions on the official page are incorrect?

Has someone tried to stick 3900X inside and reported performance? I want to make a little oven build. I want it to melt through my desk, but I want to know if there is some compatibility issue that would make it impossible.

Thanks!

 

[SaperPL]

I noticed that Zotac 1080 Ti mini is marked as incompatible in the spreadsheet, but the dimensions on the product page appear to fit requirements. Was it verified that dimensions on the official page are incorrect?

Zotac has renders on their product pages which falsely depict how the card really looks. The card measurement contradicts what we can see on real photos and we have no idea how did they measure it. So you are on your own figuring out if it fits or not.

Also note that the card being marked as "Mini" doesn't mean it's ITX sized and thus those zotac cards won't let you install 120 mm AIO. So you're simply better off with a full length GPU with three fans.

Has someone tried to stick 3900X inside and reported performance? I want to make a little oven build. I want it to melt through my desk, but I want to know if there is some compatibility issue that would make it impossible.

Zen2 thermals is a complex topic. My 3700X doesn't really like NH-L9i or IS-40X. I haven't had time to test it out with Black Ridge V2, but I don't expect much better temps. For 3900X I recommend going with AIO if you absolutely must have such thing, but if you are going for it right now, maybe wait for 3950X either to have more cores or better price for 3900X. There may be some people selling 3900X to get more cores as well.

As for GPU, I recommend going for 1080/2070 Mini ITX from Gigabyte if you want to use an AIO.

 

[cyberhoundMkII]

Thanks for the quick reply.

Since I already have the 1080 Ti mini in my current build, and I am waiting for the Sentry to be shipped, I will be able to test myself if it fits and will share my result here when the time comes.

I realise AIO is out of the equation with my current GPU, so I wonder what is the most powerful CPU you would recommend putting inside with air cooling? Sorry if there is already an answer to this question, but the thread has been going for a while now... its hard to catch up.

 

[SaperPL]

Check out our tests with various coolers on our gallery: http://zaber.com.pl/sentry/#gallery (below youtube reviews & features)

Right now the current generations of CPUs both from intel and amd make it pretty hard to tackle how to use them with low profile air coolers.

Intel was going out of the TDP bounds when boost for some time now, so 9900K can pull 150W when loaded and if you enable all core boost or overclock it it might go even further.

So far Ryzen TDP's where reasonably and behaved sensibly until Zen2 launched.



Right now we're waiting for the next agesa update that will launch along 3950X in November hoping this will bring some improvements.

 

[masteraleph]

As for GPU, I recommend going for 1080/2070 Mini ITX from Gigabyte if you want to use an AIO.

Just a head's up- for US customers, 2070 Mini ITX from Gigabyte is nearly impossible to source. And I don't believe the MSI 2070 or 2060 Super ITX versions ever made it to the US at all.

 

[masteraleph]

Sorry, double post.

 

[Ironic_Golem]

Hey guys, this is going to be my first pc build
can you recommend anything regarding the fin-stack orientation on the gpu? Currently I'm considering either the 2060 super from Galax or Inno3d. I'm going to use the case in a vertical orientation and would rather avoid blower style coolers.

 

[SaperPL]

Hey guys, this is going to be my first pc build
can you recommend anything regarding the fin-stack orientation on the gpu? Currently I'm considering either the 2060 super from Galax or Inno3d. I'm going to use the case in a vertical orientation and would rather avoid blower style coolers.

It's better to have fins oriented towards the top of the card than towards the bracket inside Sentry because there's no fan in the GPU compartment that would help vent the card front to back. Some cards have most of the fins oriented to the side while the area near the bracket is oriented towards the bracket.

With that said, while it sounds like Inno3D card would be better here, it's not. From the photo you can easily see that it has extruded aluminium radiator which is cheaper way to implement it and it will limit the airflow because bottom of the radiator needs to connect somewhere and not like with a fin stack where air passes through completely. Apart from that, the extruded radiator will generally have less fins/more space between fins, so less heat dissipation area.

Apart from those issues, I wouldn't really take low end brands if you want to keep your system on the desk, unless there's a warranty that covers coil whine issues. Having a whining card next to you is not ideal.

 

[Ironic_Golem]

It's better to have fins oriented towards the top of the card than towards the bracket inside Sentry because there's no fan in the GPU compartment that would help vent the card front to back. Some cards have most of the fins oriented to the side while the area near the bracket is oriented towards the bracket.

With that said, while it sounds like Inno3D card would be better here, it's not. From the photo you can easily see that it has extruded aluminium radiator which is cheaper way to implement it and it will limit the airflow because bottom of the radiator needs to connect somewhere and not like with a fin stack where air passes through completely. Apart from that, the extruded radiator will generally have less fins/more space between fins, so less heat dissipation area.

Apart from those issues, I wouldn't really take low end brands if you want to keep your system on the desk, unless there's a warranty that covers coil whine issues. Having a whining card next to you is not ideal.

Alright, thanks. Good to know.

 

[Solo]

Having a whining card next to you is not ideal.

Damn straight. Believe me, I would know. I had an R9 Nano for four years. ?