Concept SENTRY 3.0: Development and Suggestions

Pevtrick

Minimal Tinkerer
New User
Apr 6, 2021
3
0
That you are working on the Sentry 3.0 is good news. I love my Sentry 2.0 case, unfortunately it is in a thermally unfavorable location (TV sideboard) in horizontal orientation.

Due to insufficient air circulation in the sideboard, the heat accumulates, so sooner or later all components are throttling. My plan was then to use an external water cooling circuit for the CPU and GPU.
An ambitious idea, which unfortunately failed due to the too small GPU bay, because the connectors of GPU water blocks extend beyond the specifications mentioned in the manual "possible oversize area".

Hence my wishes:
- Make the GPU area bigger, so that it can fit water blocks (wider and a bit higher).
- PCI-E 4.0 riser
- An optional cover to elegantly lead watercooling hoses out of the back of the case (Okay, that's very special but one can still dream)
 

Barracuda727

Average Stuffer
May 27, 2018
68
10
This is thinnest rtx 3090 and its perfect for this case with corsair sfx 750 PS,all that combine with alpenhohn black ridge or ID-COOLING IS-47K cpu cooler , and some good cpu ryzen 9 5800x or 5900x,it should be fine for all.

Or just go with 2 slot 3080/3070 some gpu, cmone guys this case for gaming, I dont think so, video editing maybe,but not for hardcore video editing U know and some multimedia, there is no good air ventilation, because everything is so tight/closely.

If they made it thickening for 75mm cpu cooler then great for me, but idk they made it so biggy, only 47 mm cpu fan for sentry in the future, if u wanna similar size case for gaming then u should go for Sliger Cl530 Conswole, 3-slot gpu, 75mm cpu fan, SFX-L for 1000W if u wanna, front panel usb C-type, riser pci-E 4.0, and all that in 10,9L, so make compromise for 2-3 L more U get gaming slim console/PC silmilar PS4/PS5.

Or go with new LOUQE RAW S1 12L,it is more similar to XBSX and all that in 12L.
This is new case for 2021 and its freaking cool, so just choose what is your purpose, hardcore gaming Sentry is too small.

10-12L for slim design is I think great for gaming, but 7L is 7L, but for me Sentry is the one of the best case in world, perfectly design......

Links for Sliger CL530, LOUQE RAW S1, and thinnest RTX 3090 for now......



 
Last edited:

riba2233

Shrink Ray Wielder
SFF Time
Jan 2, 2019
1,630
2,103
www.sfftime.com
This is thinnes rtx 3090 and its perfect for this case with corsair sfx 750 PS,all that combine with alpenhohn black ridge or ID-COOLING IS-47K cpu cooler , and some good cpu ryzen 9 5800 x or 5900x,it should be fine for all


Yeah it will be "fine" just like in that meme with dog sitting inside of a burning house holding a cup of tea.
 

Vir

Average Stuffer
Apr 26, 2020
71
61
This is something I don't agree with because:

1) We are making a case that is supposed to support specific graphic cards. We should not assume people are supposed to overclock nor undervolt their cards. We should state compatibility/compliance for products at stock settings.


I know where you are coming from with this, but we can't take responsibility for card vendors streamlining their production and making same type/size of cooler for most of their products. Also such products with huge coolers despite the requirements always existed because there were people who wanted such cards because those would be really quiet. The difference now is that vendors knew there will be issues with production and they cut their product stacks from the bottom to streamline simply because you can't axe the flagships when you are competing against others doing the same thingfor the client.
You don't accomodate even the smallest mid-range cards. 220w would work at stock config in this case. Founders Editions cards are limited to US consumers. Nobody in the rest of the world will be able to build in your case because of increasing cooler sizes Make what you will of it. I'm not here to be rude. Simply trying to be constructive.
 

SaperPL

Master of Cramming
DR ZĄBER
Oct 17, 2017
472
882
You don't accomodate even the smallest mid-range cards. 220w would work at stock config in this case. Founders Editions cards are limited to US consumers. Nobody in the rest of the world will be able to build in your case because of increasing cooler sizes Make what you will of it. I'm not here to be rude. Simply trying to be constructive.

Current market situation is out of the question of handling cards. Note that there were always vendors with reference sized cards available even up to to top tier of cards. The current situation is simply streamlining of production of the cards that have most appeal.

We won't just completely redesign the product based on temporary situation when it is even hard to get those cards at this point just to be stuck with design and manufacturing tooling for product that won't be competitive with other existing on the market. There are cases from big vendors that can handle those bigger cards. We've been differentiating our product from the cases that support bigger cards and this enabled us to have smaller case. If we make case bigger and end up with something comparable with sliger's conswole or node 202 to support those bigger cards, we'll end up in situation where we have product that will still be more expensive than those cases, but it will only have the unique looks to compete against those.

So support for thicker cards, the 2.5 slot ones - we are working on that, but the 3.0 slot ones and taller oversized cards than what we already had are not something we want to support because it would mean significant change in case volume.
 

Barracuda727

Average Stuffer
May 27, 2018
68
10
Im ok with all U say SaperPL, for me in that case will be enough 2 slot gpu, but ok if u wanna go for 2,5 slot, Im ok with that......cmone guys 7L, incredible,its little taller than PS4 what is perfect.....
But only one thing we all wanna see in new case is PCI-E riser 4.0,that would be great if U can handle that.....
 

Barracuda727

Average Stuffer
May 27, 2018
68
10

riba2233 Kolko kosta tvoje kuciste sa postsarinom,ja sam iz Zagreba, i dal se moze uzet onaj prvi nosac tj postolje sto si bio stavljao uz concept u pocetku, slicno kao i Sentry, i dal imas u planu mozda novi reviziju svog kucista.....​

 

Solo

King of Cable Management
Nov 18, 2017
855
1,422
This would probably look sick with a flush, PCB-style metal power button. It would also probably be expensive as hell, but yeah.
 

dmznsdp

Caliper Novice
Jan 5, 2020
25
7
I'd like you to remain the shape and size of the sign on the back of Sentry, the one with a serial number. If possible, please make the sign customizable. I'd love to be able to put a QR code on it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SCUDatk

tja4430

Trash Compacter
Mar 14, 2020
39
45
You don't accomodate even the smallest mid-range cards. 220w would work at stock config in this case. Founders Editions cards are limited to US consumers. Nobody in the rest of the world will be able to build in your case because of increasing cooler sizes Make what you will of it. I'm not here to be rude. Simply trying to be constructive.
The NVIDIA FE 2XXX, and 3060ti, 3070, and 3080 FE's all fit in the sentry. The EVGA mid range 3060 and 3060ti cards, as well as their 3070 and 3080 XC3 cards also fit in the sentry.

Some Gigabyte 3060, 3070, and 3080 cards fit.

I am truly not sure what your point is here. There are plenty of mid-range cards that fit in the Sentry. Even the AMD Stock RX6700XT and RX6800 fit. There are several previous AMD RX5700 and RX5700XT cards that fit as well.

Power and thermals is another thing entirely, and the more powerful card you have in there, odds are you will have to tweak the fancurve and voltage to manage thermals in order to have a good balance of performance/noise.
 

Pevtrick

Minimal Tinkerer
New User
Apr 6, 2021
3
0
I don't think it makes sense to think about air cooled 300+ watt GPUs in this case. As I said before, it might be a possibility to enlarge the GPU area to fit waterblocks. Enthusiasts could then run high end GPUs with an external water cooling loop and the case would barely get any bigger. This would not affect the aesthetics and would greatly increase compatibility for hardware.
 

Analogue Blacksheep

King of Cable Management
Dec 2, 2018
831
688
Two questions:
1. Would you consider creating a back-side access panel for motherboards with a bottom M.2? I remember this idea was explored with the 2.0 but was scrapped.
2. Will this support 2 2.5 SSD's like the 2.0?
 
  • Like
Reactions: SCUDatk

SaperPL

Master of Cramming
DR ZĄBER
Oct 17, 2017
472
882
Two questions:
1. Would you consider creating a back-side access panel for motherboards with a bottom M.2? I remember this idea was explored with the 2.0 but was scrapped.
2. Will this support 2 2.5 SSD's like the 2.0?
While the access panel would be something that would help a lot for example with replacing CPU, cooler and m.2 ssd, the issue is we are saving space everywhere we can including under motherboard, and when we designed potential locking mechanism for that access panel that could work, it was something that might be hard to manufacture and pose risk of being unreliable and prone to damage.

You have to remember that the area under motherboard has defined restrictions in ATX form factor specification, and thus if we want to be compliant, we need to obey those. That's one of the reasons why the round feet for horizontal orientation are plastic riveted feet and not ones that are mounted with a screw because that one feet that goes under the motherboard would need to have a bushing with thread inserted there and it's against the spec to intrude with conductive elements in that area.

Figuring around something that would fit - be a really, really slim, like 1.5 mm thick mechanism on the inside, is really hard. And on top of that figuring out a way to design the hole in a way it doesn't degrade the aesthetics, while it is still useful to access M.2 and cooler mountings, without compromising the case rigidity is also hard. Finally most of the people voted against the concept when we had the poll for it.

As for support for 2 x 2.5" drives, it will still be there, but if we want to support 2.5 slot cards properly, we need a bit of leeway for them, so the rail with riser mount and 2.5" drives will go slightly up, which means supporting slimmer drives than before. In 2.0 we could still fit 10.5mm thick drives (there are 15mm, 12.5mm, 10.5mm 9.5mm and 7.0mm SSDs) but it might mean dropping down 2.5" support to 9.5 mm, which in essence means only SSDs and 1TB drives, but the latter depends on the drive construction. Anyway whether we drop this is also dependant on whether the case will remain in exact same dimensions or whether it'll slightly (1 or 2 mm) grow in thickness.
 

sos

Chassis Packer
Feb 11, 2021
15
20
I'm not sure if I can explain it any better than saying it's complicated and combines aesthetic, functionality (including performance) and manufacturing capability (including keeping up with EU safety regulations).
You have mentioned EU safety regulations many times. Is there any more technical name for it? I couldn't find it 🤔
 
  • Like
Reactions: riba2233

SaperPL

Master of Cramming
DR ZĄBER
Oct 17, 2017
472
882
You have mentioned EU safety regulations many times. Is there any more technical name for it? I couldn't find it 🤔
CE mark stands for Conformité Européenne - European Conformity - compliance with European safety standards
Essentially it works like this: you build a product based on safety norms for electrical or mechanical devices etc that apply to your type of product/device, and state compliance by putting CE mark on it.

The norms though are a pretty annoying part of this whole safety thing as you need to buy them and they get updated once in awhile or replaced by newer ones and you're supposed to use the most recent ones applicable when designing a new product and stating CE for it. They also often refer to other norms, so you need to have those to make sure what they are referring to in specific situations.

For products you sell to consumers, the general idea is that if the user/anyone in vicinity didn't read instructions or doesn't follow instructions, it shouldn't possess risk of injury or damage to the mechanism to a reasonable degree - for example you can put huge holes for unprotected fans, but a child or a cat will try to play with that fan for example, so big holes are a no-go and I've explained this a few times already, in various places. But something like dropping whole PC on your feet isn't what you can completely prevent as a manufacturer, so what applies here is whether it's not too easy to accidentally tip over where positioned vertically etc.

For businesses you may sell products that are either without CE or state CE with manual that states for example that trained operator is required and it shouldn't be used outside what's stated in the manual and so on. So for example for devices like this, it means that if some business wants to buy something like it, and there's an employee that will work with such device and get injured because he didn't get an actual safety training with whole paper trail etc, he can go to court. Also when it's about damaging the device because the employee wasn't trained correctly etc.

So for example we could make an open bench test style frame and state CE for it because it wouldn't pose a risk on its own, but you probably couldn't state CE compliance for the whole system on such open frame, without stating this to be used by skilled electrician (in the work environment), so if a business wants to buy such systems for example for office workers to have a stylish element in it, technically they shouldn't allow people from outside to the vicinity of those machines and again should have safety training for new employees if not require a secretary to be an electrician if the norms say so about open access to device under operation.

If we want our case to be sold at retail at some point and we do want it, it needs to be made according to this safety. Consider situation where a store has an option to put together whole system and a business buys it from them. If we don't state CE, so not all components required to do so have CE marks, then the store is responsible for stating the CE and they won't sell such system. If we put in instructions stuff like "only to be operated by trained personnel" etc, then at some point the business that bought it will get back to the seller for not informing on the website that this is not a consumer friendly device, or maybe even the retailer will not accept such product after checking the samples.

TLDR - not a simple topic, essentially selling a consumer device in EU requires it to be safe not only to the user that read and follows the instructions, and there are a lot of "rules of a thumb" on how to do things and how to approach to designing new things that are not necessarily specified, and a lot of that stuff is in the EU safety norms.

Rule of a thumb for vent holes or any other openings in device enclosure is that you can't touch the devices components that are doing the work through them, so you can't touch circuitry or spinning fans inside etc. For a big device it may be protected by a fence in a way that you can put whole hand through the fence so a grown man doesn't reach the mechanism this way, but for a small device it's that you shouldn't put the finger through the hole if the PCB or fan is right behind it. And at this point it also applies to the finger size of the child that just started walking, so for example you can have a hole that the kid will fit finger through, but the distance to the fans and PCB is big enough to not reach it, but an adult or teenager won't fit the finger through because he could reach the mechanism.

And there's of course stuff like electrical grounding, isolating wires and connectors, deburring sharp edges etc, but most of that is industry standard, so other PC case start-up can't go wrong there since it would look outright poorly and get backlash from reviewers right away, but when it comes to perforation on small cases, some of them are going for big holes that are not safe and even boast "the super patented hole design" when it's simply not safe, but most people won't notice it until something bad actually happens.

For a small startup making one type of product in limited quantities, having a risk of lawsuit over safety omissions might be okay and part of the business, but for a company like ours, that designs machinery that literally can kill if not designed and operated properly, making a PC case not to the safety standards would mean that if we can't design such simple product according to safety standards, why a potential industrial client should believe that we will do it properly with bigger projects. For big case vendors it's a bit different, but they still won't risk having to recall thousands of cases if something were to be designed not to safety standards and also not getting back the investment in expensive mass production tooling as well.