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

Treshy

Average Stuffer
May 4, 2019
87
91
I doubt that you can swap slim GPU fans for 25 mm fans. Even using 15 mm will probably be pretty close to perforation and will get loud.
once I get my hands on a 5700 xt challenger Ill measure the thickness of the fans and then plan accordingly :)

Here's the measure, not very accurate but can give a general idea, one thing to notice is that the heatsink at the port's side (3 in total), is irregularly shaped, the highest part is 30mm, and it's inevitable if putting a 120mm fan on it, unless you shift the fans to the other side to avoid this piece of metal totally, the rest 2 are all 20mm height (blue circle, another one unseen in the picture).

Got mine in China preordered for 3300 yuan :)
thank you so much for taking your time measuring this :) I hoped the heatsink would be completely flat, this will make it a lot tougher using 3rd party fans for it :(
 

NovaProspekt

Cable Smoosher
May 9, 2019
11
4
Has anyone been able to identify any high performance RAM kits other than Corsair Vengeance LPX that will fit under the 2.5 inch drive mount? It looks to me like all G.Skill and HyperX sticks are too tall. I would love the Thunderbolt connectivity on the ASRock x570 ITX board, but currently leaning towards the Gigabyte model since it has 2 m.2 slots, which would allow me to not use the 2.5in drive bracket and free up RAM choices.
 
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Treshy

Average Stuffer
May 4, 2019
87
91
Has anyone been able to identify any high performance RAM kits other than Corsair Vengeance LPX that will fit under the 2.5 inch drive mount? It looks to me like all G.Skill and HyperX sticks are too tall. I would love the Thunderbolt connectivity on the ASRock x570 ITX board, but currently leaning towards the Gigabyte model since it has 2 m.2 slots, which would allow me to not use the 2.5in drive bracket and free up RAM choices.

not 100% sure, but ballistix sport lt should fit (and its e die available in 8 and 16gb per stick variants). plus its pretty cheap.

Im using the asrock x570 board with 3800x, 16gb ballistix elite 3600 and C7g right now and its great (apart from temps)
 

Idle2824

Average Stuffer
Apr 26, 2018
67
68
Well, it looks like the black ridge cooler fits on the gigabyte x570 itx board with just a minor modification to mount the fan a little closer to the heat pipes. They also seem to have revised the am4 mount by dropping am3 support and so should avoid the crushing of components that you showed us a while ago. The last question is whether or not it interferes with the sentry's pcb pcie riser, which I don't think anyone has tested for this board (the images on the x570 thread in this forum and elsewhere on r/sffpc look like it's going to be close). I wonder if this cooler then becomes a better option than the C7g or the L9am4. It's definitely nice to have options.

On a (sort of) related note, I get the feeling that the B550 motherboards are going to be ideal for sff builds, but I doubt I'll have the patience to wait at this point.
 

John Grimm

Cable Smoosher
Aug 21, 2019
12
5
Hi All,

Has any checked the Radeon RX 5700 XT MECH OC, the dimensions seem to fit: 232 x 126 x 46 mm (below pick suggests that the connectors are on the PCB lvl so it should fit)
I've got all my components for the build now, only missing the case and the GPU. :D

(Why can't I insert pics from manufacturers :( ) https://asset.msi.com/resize/image/....png62405b38c58fe0f07fcef2367d8a9ba1/1024.png

The overhang of the 2 slot limit seems small as well as seen below, so it should fit:

Much appreciated if someone can assist with picking an RX 5700 non-reference model for the Sentry.

Thank you, kindly.
John
 

Thrusher

Caliper Novice
Aug 12, 2019
26
16
Power Color 5700 xt V2 looks best for now but I will wait for tests.


Sorry for website with polish language but I didn't found any english ones with that info.
 
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SaperPL

Master of Cramming
DR ZĄBER
Oct 17, 2017
472
882
Hi All,

Has any checked the Radeon RX 5700 XT MECH OC, the dimensions seem to fit: 232 x 126 x 46 mm (below pick suggests that the connectors are on the PCB lvl so it should fit)
I've got all my components for the build now, only missing the case and the GPU.

(Why can't I insert pics from manufacturers ) https://asset.msi.com/resize/image/....png62405b38c58fe0f07fcef2367d8a9ba1/1024.png

The overhang of the 2 slot limit seems small as well as seen below, so it should fit:

Much appreciated if someone can assist with picking an RX 5700 non-reference model for the Sentry.

Thank you, kindly.
John

It should fit, there's 8~9mm of clearance below the 2 slot card, but with 46mm card you'll end up with 2~4mm of clearance for the fans which may get loud due to turbulence of perforation being close.
 

SaperPL

Master of Cramming
DR ZĄBER
Oct 17, 2017
472
882
Well, it looks like the black ridge cooler fits on the gigabyte x570 itx board with just a minor modification to mount the fan a little closer to the heat pipes. They also seem to have revised the am4 mount by dropping am3 support and so should avoid the crushing of components that you showed us a while ago. The last question is whether or not it interferes with the sentry's pcb pcie riser, which I don't think anyone has tested for this board (the images on the x570 thread in this forum and elsewhere on r/sffpc look like it's going to be close). I wonder if this cooler then becomes a better option than the C7g or the L9am4. It's definitely nice to have options.

By the way, I'm pretty sure the OEM for the black ridge is ID-Cooling. The brackets, the mounting mechanism and the way of packing the product are the same for IS-40X that I got recently (although it came with the proper brackets like the most recent black ridge). They also had the info about the AM4 brackets issue on one of the coolers, where they said you should contact them to get the separate bracket for AM4.

IS-40X is an interesting cooler because it has direct touch heat pipes and this may be better for the chiplet design, although I'm not sure about the cooler itself. So far it feels like it's slightly better than NH-L9i, but its fan is louder and I'm still waiting for the agesa update to fix the boost control.
 

riba2233

Shrink Ray Wielder
SFF Time
Jan 2, 2019
1,630
2,101
www.sfftime.com
By the way, I'm pretty sure the OEM for the black ridge is ID-Cooling. The brackets, the mounting mechanism and the way of packing the product are the same for IS-40X that I got recently (although it came with the proper brackets like the most recent black ridge). They also had the info about the AM4 brackets issue on one of the coolers, where they said you should contact them to get the separate bracket for AM4.

IS-40X is an interesting cooler because it has direct touch heat pipes and this may be better for the chiplet design, although I'm not sure about the cooler itself. So far it feels like it's slightly better than NH-L9i, but its fan is louder and I'm still waiting for the agesa update to fix the boost control.

I have tested it against noctua, you can see here:

 

SaperPL

Master of Cramming
DR ZĄBER
Oct 17, 2017
472
882
I have tested it against noctua, you can see here:

Cool, good to know.

What's interesting about the IS-40X is direct touch heat pipes in context of Zen2 chiplet design, so your test is not relevant for this. Also you've done your test in open case, so it's far from ideal as the panel will cause air turbulence with fans close to the perforation and will keep some of the hot air inside.
 

riba2233

Shrink Ray Wielder
SFF Time
Jan 2, 2019
1,630
2,101
www.sfftime.com
Cool, good to know.

What's interesting about the IS-40X is direct touch heat pipes in context of Zen2 chiplet design, so your test is not relevant for this. Also you've done your test in open case, so it's far from ideal as the panel will cause air turbulence with fans close to the perforation and will keep some of the hot air inside.

Yeah, I just wanted to test raw cooling capability, not related to the case. Regarding turbulence, noctua and amd spire were A (no turbulence) while the IS40 was C+ (some turbulence, but could be worse).

Regarding heatpipes and chiplets, I think that they are actually the disadvantage because you want to have some additional copper to spread the heatload from the small off-centre chiplet to the rest of the heatpipes.

Also IS40 has very rough surface finish.
 

Treshy

Average Stuffer
May 4, 2019
87
91
Do you think a wireless mouse dongle like the logitech lightspeed solutions would work through the case wall? I want to put 2 of them in my case for wireless keyboard and mouse to free up the limited I/O of my Asrock x570 board.
this is the kind of solution I was thinking about, I would mount them somewhere like on the 2.5" mounting points as I dont intend to use them.
 
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SaperPL

Master of Cramming
DR ZĄBER
Oct 17, 2017
472
882
That depends on how your case will be oriented towards your mouse and keyboard. The front will definitely block the signal, if you put your case on the left side, you might have some luck because of the perforation, but I'm not so sure.
 

Treshy

Average Stuffer
May 4, 2019
87
91
according to measurements by someone in the discord the pulse is 124mm from the bottom of the pcb to the top of the card, so it should fit the case. I guess the measurements sapphire shared are from the bottom of the pcie bracket

read post below by saperPL
 
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SaperPL

Master of Cramming
DR ZĄBER
Oct 17, 2017
472
882
according to measurements by someone in the discord the pulse is 124mm from the bottom of the pcb to the top of the card, so it should fit the case. I guess the measurements sapphire shared are from the bottom of the pcie bracket

From what I can see on the photos on the Sapphire website, the card is 135mm from the pci-e connector to the top of the card and it definitely will not fit.
Those 124mm were probably measured without the pci-e connector.
 

Treshy

Average Stuffer
May 4, 2019
87
91
From what I can see on the photos on the Sapphire website, the card is 135mm from the pci-e connector to the top of the card and it definitely will not fit.
Those 124mm were probably measured without the pci-e connector.
possible, I guess what I wrote should be taken with a grain of salt... Ill buy the asrock challenger card
 

Treshy

Average Stuffer
May 4, 2019
87
91
Now that September is almost here can you maybe give a more accurate timeframe on where we can expect the cases to be finished? I can absolutely understand if you dont want to give a more specific date though, take your time :)
 
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silentfilozofer

What's an ITX?
Aug 31, 2019
1
0
This case looks awesome and like exactly what I would be looking for. Is there ANY way to order one of these at the moment? Or at the least, any hope to buy one at a later date?
 

polarium

Trash Compacter
Aug 31, 2019
35
8
PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Hr2djy

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L9a-AM4 33.84 CFM CPU Cooler (with fan shroud)
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty B450 Gaming-ITX/ac Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory
Storage: Intel 660p Series 1.02 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 8 GB PULSE Video Card
Case: Dr Zaber Sentry 1.1 (White)
Power Supply: Corsair SF 600 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply


Hey all, I recently bought all this from Microcenter and was wondering is there anything wrong with this build? Any problem with thermals?
 

Treshy

Average Stuffer
May 4, 2019
87
91
PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Hr2djy

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L9a-AM4 33.84 CFM CPU Cooler (with fan shroud)
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty B450 Gaming-ITX/ac Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory
Storage: Intel 660p Series 1.02 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 8 GB PULSE Video Card
Case: Dr Zaber Sentry 1.1 (White)
Power Supply: Corsair SF 600 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply


Hey all, I recently bought all this from Microcenter and was wondering is there anything wrong with this build? Any problem with thermals?

I think the Pulse card will be too large to fit the case (unless you have tried and can confirm the opposite).
other than that you will be fine.