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Concept SENTRY 3.0: Development and Suggestions

Atremo

Caliper Novice
Mar 3, 2018
21
8
As long as there is no 3.0 I will keep on using my 2.0 build untill in falls apart :) no other pc case can charm me so far.
 

steelfractal

when in doubt slap a delta on it
Silver Supporter
Bronze Supporter
M...M...M...M...Multi-Tier...Subscriber...
Aug 15, 2019
396
502
@SaperPL iirc there was a picture of you taking a angle grinder to one of your cases do you still have that picture as I can't seem to find it on your site anymore
 

steelfractal

when in doubt slap a delta on it
Silver Supporter
Bronze Supporter
M...M...M...M...Multi-Tier...Subscriber...
Aug 15, 2019
396
502
Yes idk why I didn't look there
Face Palm No GIF
 

RoZzny

What's an ITX?
New User
Feb 6, 2024
1
0
Guys, don't you think it's time to bring the 3.0 to life? It has been nearly 6 years of waiting and I am going crazy without it (I am waiting for my first ever PC build since 2.0 sold out!)...
 

SaperPL

Master of Cramming
DR ZĄBER
Oct 17, 2017
478
899
Guys, don't you think it's time to bring the 3.0 to life? It has been nearly 6 years of waiting and I am going crazy without it (I am waiting for my first ever PC build since 2.0 sold out!)...
It's just barely 3.5 years, I think, since we've sold last 2.0 batch post-campaign, not 6 years... And in the meantime we had covid pandemic.
We're working on the design step by step when we can, but it's still not a priority project for now.
 

SaperPL

Master of Cramming
DR ZĄBER
Oct 17, 2017
478
899
3 slot GPU support and 47mm air coolers 🙏

2.5 slot GPU with standard 2U risers and proper support for 48mm air coolers is what we're aiming for. If we'd want to support thicker cards, then it means longer riser or lower cpu cooler and (in both cases) no 2.5" drive support.

On top of that 3 slot cards would be so heavy that relying on just slot and bracket connection to handle the cards isn't something we can accept if we're promoting the case as something portable. Take a look at the problem of Gigabyte cards cracking around the pci-e lock - if something like this happens for someone while travelling with our case, he could argue that it's our fault that we're supporting such cards without the hold on the end of the card, and of course making a supporting piece that supports all shapes and thicknesses of the card would be both cumbersome and expensive to make.
 

Mosskovskaia

Average Stuffer
Mar 15, 2019
61
25
Could you consider making the cpu cooler clearance a Little bit higher? Having 3mm from the blades to the case helps with turbulence.
For the gpu: it’s a good point I haven’t considered so I’ll trust you with that.
 

SaperPL

Master of Cramming
DR ZĄBER
Oct 17, 2017
478
899
Could you consider making the cpu cooler clearance a Little bit higher? Having 3mm from the blades to the case helps with turbulence.
For the gpu: it’s a good point I haven’t considered so I’ll trust you with that.
We're aiming to support properly Cryorig C7, regardless of it's shortcoming, so it's a 47mm cooler that had 1mm of space to perforation. We will probably have +1.5~1.75 mm more so it'll be 2.5~2.75mm now which should be better.
 

Mosskovskaia

Average Stuffer
Mar 15, 2019
61
25
We're aiming to support properly Cryorig C7, regardless of it's shortcoming, so it's a 47mm cooler that had 1mm of space to perforation. We will probably have +1.5~1.75 mm more so it'll be 2.5~2.75mm now which should be better.
Alright sounds good. Thanks for the reply
 

L91

Average Stuffer
Dec 21, 2021
66
73
www.youtube.com
I hate that basically no modern Mini-ITX MoBo is compatible with Alpenföhn's Black Ridge, it's such a great CPU cooler, even better if you manage to find good VLP RAMs!
Black Ridge loses out to AXP90-X47 Copper on AM5 tmk, and also doesn't affect RAM compatability. The BR is compatible with ASUS B650E-I, but you'll need to removed M.2 heatsink and use aftermarket one. They've just released rev.D with AM5 support. I'd certainly be curious to see the two compared with official brackets since I've only used DIY modified versions.
 

darksable

Chassis Packer
Jun 3, 2017
19
24
So, what do you guys think about Nvidia's new "SFF-Ready" scheme? Will you be designing with that in mind?



It's larger than I'd like, but it'd sure be easier to get more people onboard with small form factor computers if all they had to do was look for a little badge, rather than comparing dimensions and hoping the numbers are accurate.
 
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SaperPL

Master of Cramming
DR ZĄBER
Oct 17, 2017
478
899
So, what do you guys think about Nvidia's new "SFF-Ready"
It's a missed opportunity to set things straight. The whole problem of not informing end user what the actual measurements are with a proper product spec sheet is missed, so still if you have a case that is not exactly those dimensions and thus certified, you will still need to ask someone who has the card physically to check the measurements for it.

We should be angry about this because it's nvidia treating the SFF community as idiots by forming the communication of this SFF-ready as idiotproofing for newbies that can't figure things out for themselves while even I who made the whole compatibility spreadsheets of cards can't be 100% sure until I have a specific card in my hands.

But there is a reason for not providing the spec sheet with exact dimensions - kind of like security by obscurity - if you get a drawing with dimensions and you get a card that doesn't match the measurements on the drawing, in some countries you can return the card including the seller having to pay you back for the shipping because product wasn't as advertised. If they don't provide this, along other details in other hardware, like for example exact memory chips in the card, in SSDs, in RAM sticks etc, they can switch suppliers, change the cooler size on the card and so on, and it won't have effect on returns because of mismatched spec if they don't provide that.

Will you be designing with that in mind?
We would be fitting perfectly the cards within 304mm limit, except for the stupid new Nvidia Fire-Hazard [TM] connector and the space required for it.

Overall whole situation with how the cables are handled in GPUs is simply stupid, especially with the trend for hiding the cables, where Quadro cards have had for ages the power connectors at the far edge from the pci-e slot which makes it so that it fits slim HP/DELL workstations. Nvidia having the amount of control they have over the board partners could simply force everyone to comply with one setup of the power connector at that end, and then it would mean everyone is designing cases around similar requirements. And also they could have, I don't know, maybe say that SFF-Ready cards require spec sheet with dimensions marked on a drawing of the card?

It's larger than I'd like, but it'd sure be easier to get more people onboard with small form factor computers if all they had to do was look for a little badge, rather than comparing dimensions and hoping the numbers are accurate.
Well, for one, the cards with 8-pin power connector can have those dimensions and still use some low profile connector, or simply be a pci-e spec reference sized card, so they simply can plug 8-pin and 6-pin connectors without problem into the card from the side. Also this means that cards above RTX 4070 are not going to fit into Sentry 2.0 because of that plug, but there are RTX 4070 cards which are a perfect fit for Sentry 2.0, exactly as we designed with the proper TDP for such case.

Also I think we shouldn't be conforming to to a bad standard like this 12(+4) pin connector that nvidia is forcing because they want to squeeze more power draw into the card because they have to have constant performance grow to make investors throw money at their buble, while also wanting the card to look clean when showed on the stage, while also not caring about the tri or quad headed hydra dongle sagging off the card in our cases.

So the GPU compartment will actually be the same size with same compatibility as per drawing on our website for the 2.0. Also we'll have to see if we're going to be officially supporting 2.5 slot cards because again, if we don't have proper dimensions shown, just saying the card is 50mm thick doesn't mean it's within 2.5 slot card outline. Technically there can be a 50mm card that is sticking out 5 mm outside of 2.5 slot outline if there's nothing sticking out at the back of PCB.