Concept SENTRY 3.0: Development and Suggestions

[SaperPL]

Hi there, I have a sentry 2.0. I am planning on building with 5080. Your manual says the highest length of the GPU is 305 mm. I saw one GPU with 306 mm and 50 mm thick. Can I cram that inside the Sentry 2.0? I couldn't find any info on the thickness allowance in the manual.

If the card isn't taller/wider than what's in the drawing, then you have 306mm minus powder coating thickness of 0.1~0.125 per side so 305.75, but that's assuming perfect bends, but these maj be slightly tighter for various reasons, so you should assume something like 305.5mm. Sentry 2.0 wasn't stamped but each bent was made separately so that's some leeway there, but you have the case so you should be able to measure this somehow. The question is how precise is that 306mm length of the GPU you want to buy. Also note the surface of the side bracket attached at the front that will affect this if the card is significantly taller/wider than the reference card.

As for thickness, we've seen 50mm cards fitting in Sentry, but we've also seen different ways of measuring the thickness because pci bracket is slightly offset from the card, and also there are some fans that can move outside of the card thickness on their bearings and potentially scratch themselves against the perforation. The case was designed for 2 slot cards, so we didn't show a specific thickness anywhere. 2 slots means ~41mm of thickness.

EDIT: I forgot another thing - how are you planning to squeeze in the 12 pin power cable?

 

[SaperPL]

Not saying you should do a Sentry 3.0 now, but, it sure looks as an improving landscape for it.

The angled connector is a step in the right direction, but we're still in the situation where the card measurements are not all that needs to be taken into account it's fitting. Actually Inno3D's 4070 stealth approach is the only approach so far that was within roughly reference sized cards outline, but seeing the list of the cards, there's no 5000 series cards like this from them listed.

Founders Edition card having that angled connector is still an inch taller than the reference sized card, which creates this situation where it's not really good for console cases unless they have really a lot of space for the GPU and at the same time it's not good for sandwich cases if it's going to push the hot air into the back of motherboard and PSU. And also most of us probably won't be able to get our hands on the FE models anyway as they will be scarce and scalped right away.

Curiosly enough back in june 2024, NVIDIA decided to launch the SFF-Ready program, in which they defined the category "SFF-Ready Enthusiast GeForce Cards"
with this size limitations:

• 151 mm maximum height including power cable bend radius
• 304 mm maximum length
• 50 mm or 2.5 slots maximum depth

Which no RTX 4090 complied and very few 4080s, and also noticed they have quickly updated the diagram picture showing the dimensions from a 40 series design to a 50 series design.
In hindsight seems like they were preparing themselves.
Again, seems too much effort for just one-off of reasonable sized GPUs

I wrote an editorial about this here on sff, the SFF-Ready program has a lot of shortcomings. Maybe a step in right direction, but still seems like a paper marketing to promote friendly brands of cases.

Now think about it like that - that 5090 is technically compliant, and there are SFF-ready sandwich cases where it'll try to blow that hot air right into the riser behind the motherboard and back wall of the PSU - is it really that properly planned thing?

 

[Shak]

If the card isn't taller/wider than what's in the drawing, then you have 306mm minus powder coating thickness of 0.1~0.125 per side so 305.75, but that's assuming perfect bends, but these maj be slightly tighter for various reasons, so you should assume something like 305.5mm. Sentry 2.0 wasn't stamped but each bent was made separately so that's some leeway there, but you have the case so you should be able to measure this somehow. The question is how precise is that 306mm length of the GPU you want to buy. Also note the surface of the side bracket attached at the front that will affect this if the card is significantly taller/wider than the reference card.

As for thickness, we've seen 50mm cards fitting in Sentry, but we've also seen different ways of measuring the thickness because pci bracket is slightly offset from the card, and also there are some fans that can move outside of the card thickness on their bearings and potentially scratch themselves against the perforation. The case was designed for 2 slot cards, so we didn't show a specific thickness anywhere. 2 slots means ~41mm of thickness.

EDIT: I forgot another thing - how are you planning to squeeze in the 12 pin power cable?

Thanks for the response.
I think with this generation of GPU we will have smaller cards. I just saw one 5080 with 41 mm width from Inno3d. I should wait for the GPU purchase, I am optimistic that we can see a blower-style GPU from one of the vendors this time. Also from the last generation Asus ProART 5080 was awesome. If I can fit everything within, I wish to play with the thermal management.
By the way, will be happy if we can see the Sentry 3.0 very soon. ***Great Design *** Sentry 2.0. A few mm of headroom for the v.3 will be very appreciated given the trends of the cards. Although you already have some space left if you consider the space behind the GPU.
Another thing is all of GPU now a days have flow through design. If you could consider the perforation on the back side of the GPU that would be a great addition to the Sentry 3.0.

 

[Shak]

Watch out this page

small-form-factor-sff-ready

small-form-factor-sff-ready

www.nvidia.com