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

John Grimm

Cable Smoosher
Aug 21, 2019
12
5
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
Much appreciated m8. I ordered these.
And my Challenger arrived yesterday! I'm ready for this case to arrive now. :D
 

GioRgSaVv

Cable Smoosher
Oct 6, 2017
11
6
So what are other ways of getting this case except from winning it from online giveaway?
I can't find it anywhere...

Also I have a question, I have a Zotac RTX 2070 mini (211mm in length), so, can I fit a bracket with stacked 2.5inch hard drives in the space in front of the GPU?
Right now I have x2 2.5inch drives, one 7mm thickness and the other one 15mm thickness, in the future I want to buy at least one more 2.5inch 15mm hard drive, what should I do to fit all of them in this case having this GPU with 211mm in length? If they fit in this space I could probably find some hard drive brackets on Amazon for 10€
 

SaperPL

Master of Cramming
DR ZĄBER
Oct 17, 2017
472
882
Linus as always NOT following any instructions, please don't do this when you get the case :p

So what are other ways of getting this case except from winning it from online giveaway?
I can't find it anywhere...

Wait till we deliver campaign cases and figure out what to do next. Or you might look for a second hand 1.1 unit.

Also I have a question, I have a Zotac RTX 2070 mini (211mm in length), so, can I fit a bracket with stacked 2.5inch hard drives in the space in front of the GPU?
Right now I have x2 2.5inch drives, one 7mm thickness and the other one 15mm thickness, in the future I want to buy at least one more 2.5inch 15mm hard drive, what should I do to fit all of them in this case having this GPU with 211mm in length? If they fit in this space I could probably find some hard drive brackets on Amazon for 10€

Quad 2.5" drive brackets and 2.5" support in the GPU compartment was in 1.0/1.1 versions, the 2.0 supports 3.5" drives instead although you'll need a ITX sized card - ~170 mm long.

The support was switched instead of adding new one because the drives are mounted onto the perforation and thus the perforation layout was tweaked from supporting three spots for 2.5" drives to two spots for 3.5" drives and one spot for 120 mm AIO. All of those are not mainstream configurations and that's why they are supported just by hole spacing in perforation and not some additional brackets.

Anyway you have the space in front of the GPU to fit some 2.5" drives, you can fit a stack of up to 50 mm in there. As for brackets, I don't really think you'll find stuff that'll fit specifically your config as if you were to adapt the 3.5" mount to 2.5" you won't fit the 211mm card in there.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Brude27

Octagoncow

Efficiency Noob
Mar 21, 2019
6
16
Linus as always NOT following any instructions, please don't do this when you get the case :p
Linus didn't even use the pci-e support bracket...

I said it was A video that featured the Sentry 2.0. Not a very educational one :). I think I've started to become numb to his inability/refusal to follow directions. I was basically screaming at the livestream he did with this case. His videos are great for coverage, but not always for educating people.
 

Brude27

Master of Cramming
Jun 21, 2018
384
878
Linus gave me another opportunity to see the Navy Grey in a variety of lighting scenarios, so while he maybe didn't put the case together properly... I'm still appreciative, and look even more forward to mine arriving!
 
  • Like
Reactions: evil4dmin

SaperPL

Master of Cramming
DR ZĄBER
Oct 17, 2017
472
882
There's something I haven't had time to show for some time.

Some time ago one of the backers asked about various ways we could adapt Black Ridge to the boards other than the Aorus ones that have socket far enough from pci-e slot so the fin stack doesn't obstruct it.

I found one way to do this, but you'll need different riser set than the one coming with 2.0, if you have 1.1, then you'll just need a single piece.
And you need to be extra careful when bending the riser.



Also for reference if you haven't seen how the complete thing looks inside Sentry 2.0, because Black Ridge obstructs 2.5" drive mounts:

 

S2000Gan

Chassis Packer
Oct 15, 2019
13
4
Looking forward to hearing about when the Sentry will be available again!
Is there a mailing list to get an email notification when another production wave happens?
 

Treshy

Average Stuffer
May 4, 2019
87
91
There's something I haven't had time to show for some time.

Some time ago one of the backers asked about various ways we could adapt Black Ridge to the boards other than the Aorus ones that have socket far enough from pci-e slot so the fin stack doesn't obstruct it.

I found one way to do this, but you'll need different riser set than the one coming with 2.0, if you have 1.1, then you'll just need a single piece.
And you need to be extra careful when bending the riser.



Also for reference if you haven't seen how the complete thing looks inside Sentry 2.0, because Black Ridge obstructs 2.5" drive mounts:


from the pics it kinda looks like the 5cm riser cable alone should be enough. Do you know why the additional 90 degree riser is used?
 

SaperPL

Master of Cramming
DR ZĄBER
Oct 17, 2017
472
882
from the pics it kinda looks like the 5cm riser cable alone should be enough. Do you know why the additional 90 degree riser is used?

With 5cm riser alone I have tested black ridge when it came out last year and the excess of the ribbon was being pushed by the fin stack and this was breaking the riser. I broke two risers like this and stopped testing black ridge afterwards because of it.

With Sentry 1.0/1.1 this excess of the ribbon was required to be able to mount the riser into the slot, so in effect the ribbon made a 90 degree knee rather than a neat arc. With Sentry 2.0 it would be possible to have shorter ribbon riser because you can mount it into the motherboard slot first and then mount the lower assembly of the riser grip, so you don't need that excess of the ribbon to plug it into the slot, but I don't know if there are any 30 mm long ribbon risers.
 

Treshy

Average Stuffer
May 4, 2019
87
91
With 5cm riser alone I have tested black ridge when it came out last year and the excess of the ribbon was being pushed by the fin stack and this was breaking the riser. I broke two risers like this and stopped testing black ridge afterwards because of it.

With Sentry 1.0/1.1 this excess of the ribbon was required to be able to mount the riser into the slot, so in effect the ribbon made a 90 degree knee rather than a neat arc. With Sentry 2.0 it would be possible to have shorter ribbon riser because you can mount it into the motherboard slot first and then mount the lower assembly of the riser grip, so you don't need that excess of the ribbon to plug it into the slot, but I don't know if there are any 30 mm long ribbon risers.

thanks for the heads up. I hope the black ridge will just fit my x570 itx tb3 without using a flexible riser cable, but I wont know until like monday when it arrives. Ill replace all the heatsinks on the board to put it on there if I have to, but I really want that 120mm cooling in the sentry 2.0... plus the black ridge would allow me to use liquid metal instead of paste on the cpu because its nickel plated...
 

SaperPL

Master of Cramming
DR ZĄBER
Oct 17, 2017
472
882
Which X570 board did you go with? As far as I know only the aorus boards have the layout with socket so far from the pci-e slot that black ridge fin stack doesn't overlap with slot location.
 

Treshy

Average Stuffer
May 4, 2019
87
91
Which X570 board did you go with? As far as I know only the aorus boards have the layout with socket so far from the pci-e slot that black ridge fin stack doesn't overlap with slot location.
Im using the asrock itx board
 

SaperPL

Master of Cramming
DR ZĄBER
Oct 17, 2017
472
882
Consoles usually support an external 3.5 any plans for sentry to support that as well?
as in an externally accessible drive bay.
No plans for that, if you want additional external storage, either connect e-sata or usb 3.0 drive or connect NAS to your network.

There is literally no space to add something like drive bay that would be accessible from the outside because this case is all about space saving.

Im using the asrock itx board

Fin-stack-spacing-wise it might be a tight fit with PCB riser based on what I see from my mockups on Z390 Gaming-ITX which has similarly placed mounting holes.
My concern would be whether you can actually safely remove all radiators for lower one replacements to be able to fit the black ridge even with stock 92mm fan.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Nathanking1997

SaperPL

Master of Cramming
DR ZĄBER
Oct 17, 2017
472
882
Small or potentially big Zen2 update:


According to our source, the updated bios on asrock B350 fixed thermal issues on 3700X. I'm waiting for some more info on this as I don't have the asrock board for testing right now.

It seems like so far quite a lot of boards pushed PBO regardless of what you have had set in the bios. There were some leaked marketing materials from MSI boasting over 100 fixes in bios which should come along upcoming AGESA that will launch around 3950X launch in November, but it seems as asrock did go with it to have some edge while this specific fix may not have been a part of the AGESA update itself or they could simply implement the fix on their own.

Anyway, my assumption is that either way we should get some reasonable thermals once the 3950X launches.
 

Treshy

Average Stuffer
May 4, 2019
87
91
Small or potentially big Zen2 update:


According to our source, the updated bios on asrock B350 fixed thermal issues on 3700X. I'm waiting for some more info on this as I don't have the asrock board for testing right now.

It seems like so far quite a lot of boards pushed PBO regardless of what you have had set in the bios. There were some leaked marketing materials from MSI boasting over 100 fixes in bios which should come along upcoming AGESA that will launch around 3950X launch in November, but it seems as asrock did go with it to have some edge while this specific fix may not have been a part of the AGESA update itself or they could simply implement the fix on their own.

Anyway, my assumption is that either way we should get some reasonable thermals once the 3950X launches.

yea I got the new bios a few weeks ago from asrocks support, before all asrock boards reported half half of the actual power usage, leading to practically no power limit and way higher power use without any more performance. Now they fixed that completely though and pbo works as expeted.

regarding the black ridge cooler, I think Ill have to switch to the x570 gigabyte board, even if it doesnt have optical audio output, because there the black ridge should fit once I removed the chipset fan piece. the 120mm fan of the black ridge will probably provide enough cooling with the small chipset heatsink that is under the m.2 slot.

the black ridge I got is the inofficial V3 version with updated AM4 mounting brackets that are smaller and dont have compatibility issues so I should be fine on that one.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: SaperPL