SKYREACH 4 MINI (S4M)

[Nanook]

So I drew @Josh | NFC this pretty picture. It is a concept to extend the front bezel out a good bit to allow for more connections and things such as:

• possibly housing the HDPlex DC/DC
• if DC/DC is moved, can put in the 50 mm fans to allow for moar airflow.
• allowing for Front usb ports, front audio ports.
• This would also allow for slightly longer graphics cards.

If this were made as one unit, could remove the visibility of the front screws by screwing the 3D front bezel in from the inside.
Comments, suggestions?

You should follow up on that design! Think of it as an extra deep 3D bezel mod!

 

[D90]

You should follow up on that design! Think of it as an extra deep 3D bezel mod!

I like it. Certainly like the thought of not having visible screws on the front.

 

[LFO]

Hi @Josh | NFC apologies to bring this back up, after your advice about the aviation connectors in this post S4 MINI Classic (S4M-C) I bought some GX16-3 connectors along with sleeved cables, heatshrink, schuko connectors and prepared them very nicely.

Anyway, that said... while they are laying aside on my desk for some time now I just came to the conclusion that the GX16-3 connector doesn't fit the cutout hole on mini without making it bigger!

So I was wondering if you have any tips to make this work nicely, without making to much damage to the Mini? Or maybe you can briefly show us how you do this in the next live stream?

Thanks for any help!

 

[Thirumal Kumaran]

Hi @Josh | NFC apologies to bring this back up, after your advice about the aviation connectors in this post S4 MINI Classic (S4M-C) I bought some GX16-3 connectors along with sleeved cables, heatshrink, schuko connectors and prepared them very nicely.

Anyway, that said... while they are laying aside on my desk for some time now I just came to the conclusion that the GX16-3 connector doesn't fit the cutout hole on mini without making it bigger!

So I was wondering if you have any tips to make this work nicely, without making to much damage to the Mini? Or maybe you can briefly show us how you do this in the next live stream?

Thanks for any help!

May I know which hole we are talking about?
If its the rear ones, definitely it wont fit, as its 12mm. If its front ones, i dont see why it can't because the connecting diameter is less than 16mm.
Some pictures might help.

 

[Acty_ly]

FIRST!

NO.1

 

[LFO]

May I know which hole we are talking about?
If its the rear ones, definitely it wont fit, as its 12mm. If its front ones, i dont see why it can't because the connecting diameter is less than 16mm.
Some pictures might help.

I was talking about the hole on the back yes. Since Josh mentioned that his method is using the GX16-3 connector to connect the power cord I didn't check the mini first before I assembled my cables as I assumed it would fit right away.

 

[napptr]

Due to delays in getting a replacement HDplex AC-DC, I am going to go for a Dell brick instead. How does one connect the dell brick to the 400 watt HDplex DC-ATX? Thanks in advance!

 

[memorylane]

Due to delays in getting a replacement HDplex AC-DC, I am going to go for a Dell brick instead. How does one connect the dell brick to the 400 watt HDplex DC-ATX? Thanks in advance!

 

[napptr]

Thank you. Glad I saved the accessories.

 

[H3lix]

Sorry is this has already been asked, but could you fit a mini-dtx board, like this one inside an S4? I couldn't see an answer, but I might have missed it.

 

[Penguin]

That is a micro-ATX board that you've linked. The S4M only supports mini-ITX boards.

If you wan't to do some modding you could fit an mATX board in the chassis but can't use the expansion slots for a GPU or alike.

 

[NateDawg72]

Sorry is this has already been asked, but could you fit a mini-dtx board, like this one inside an S4? I couldn't see an answer, but I might have missed it.

That specific board will fit without any modding, but you'll be giving up the ability to fit a GPU in the expansion slots since the motherboard will block it. The S4M just has the 4 standoffs for ITX, the lowest 2 mounting holes of the 6 on that board will not be secured but that shouldn't stop you from doing anything.

 

[H3lix]

That specific board will fit without any modding, but you'll be giving up the ability to fit a GPU in the expansion slots since the motherboard will block it. The S4M just has the 4 standoffs for ITX, the lowest 2 mounting holes of the 6 on that board will not be secured but that shouldn't stop you from doing anything.

Ok, thank you. I'm looking at a kind of weird use case using two single slot cards, so I need a second PCIe slot, but if I wouldn't be able to fit a GPU, than its a no go.

 

[NateDawg72]

Ok, thank you. I'm looking at a kind of weird use case using two single slot cards, so I need a second PCIe slot, but if I wouldn't be able to fit a GPU, than its a no go.

You could potentially look into ITX boards that support PCIe bifurcation, so that you can run two cards off a single slot using a specialized riser. That's all I know though as I have no experience trying that, so I don't even know if there is a riser that would fit the mini and which itx boards support that feature.

 

[Thehack]

Took some time today to make a quick video of installing Distro 400 inside the S4M:

 

[br3nd0]

Took some time today to make a quick video of installing Distro 400 inside the S4M:

Neat!

 

[Vaderator]

@Josh | NFC I took some photos of the inside of my S4 and did a little test fit proving that, at the very least, it would be possible to reverse the PCIe slots in the S4M and mount a Zotac 1080mini / 1080ti mini in this alternate orientation without expanding the case. This may or may not hold for other GPUs.


I'm going to see what I can do about creating a model for the hypothetical alternate part because these pictures and drawings aren't great.

EDIT: Here's a link to an early sketchup model for the hypothetical reverse GPU chassis back / bottom. Since the sketchup model I was working off of doesn't appear to reflect the S4M 100% accurately, this isn't likely a viable model for a real part. Any chance there's a model of the S4M floating around the internet that is 100% reflective of the final S4M design? Either way, I'm going to convert this sketchup model to solidworks and get some quotes to have a one-off part manufactured.


This configuration would not be viable for brickless builds, GPUs with power connectors on the top of the card that are too close to the motherboard, or builds with sata drives. A small amount of space above the GPU would likely have to be sacrificed to ensure there is enough room for the PCIe riser cable underneath the GPU, but the configuration should still allow for full thickness fans to be placed on the GPU heatsink.

Waiting for my parts to get in on Monday so I can do some benchmarks to show why / if anyone should care about the possibility of mounting their GPU "upside down."

SECOND EDIT: Riser cable and A9s showed up today. Riser cable was a bust, will need to try a different cable. A9s seem to be a marked improvement over the A9x14s, but I didn't do any proper benchmarks with the A9x14 without the side panel on, so it's hard to say exactly how much of an improvement the A9s made, versus how much of an improvement pulling the side panel off the case made. Seemed to be about a 7C improvement at least, but the card was maxing out around its thermal limit with the A9x14, so the difference might have even been a little bigger, had I been running the card in its purely stock configuration.

Heard back from one sheet metal fabricator, who said that they cannot make the part using their conventional press brakes. Anyone have recommendation for good shops that I might want to reach out to who might be able to manufacture this part?

Thanks for doing all this investigative work. I’m in the same boat. I have a skyreach and g-unique 12v power system and would love to operate in console mode with the gpu inverted. Has anyone actually created an inverted faceplate for the gpu itself? In your pictures you’ve removed it, but I’ve seen other posts describing how it would be possible to commission a new GPUs faceplate for the 1080 ti mini or altering a Tesla backplate. Both of these options strike me as easier than creating a replacement for the skyreach part.

 

[wilson735]

Hi everyone! Just wanted to ask a couple of questions, I was wondering if the noctua L9i would be sufficent enough for an i5-7600k?

and if not i saw this Titan cooler from a post here and i was wondering how i would go about getting my hands on it if anyone knows
https://www.titan-cd.com/en/product...n-46-mm-Height-TDP-130W/TTC-NC75TZ_PW_RB.html

i think everything else i looked at should be okay, im gonna go with the gigabyte 1070 and some 16 gb corsair vengance ram which is 31mm tall, and the Asus ROG strix b360 motherboard, just trying to make sure everything is set and stone when the winter comes!

Not sure if I'm too late with this response, but a few weeks ago I built a computer in this case for a buddy which is running an (SiliconLottery) i9 9900K @ 5.0GHz cooled by a Noctua L9i and a Gigabyte 1080. Thermal throttling is minimal, and he's been super happy with it so far. I would say that cooler is definitely more than enough.

 

[iaomw]

I found some high power 12V PSU which small enough to fit into S4 mini. 450W & 600W. Only 220.0 (L) x 50.5 (W) x 40.0 (H) mm
Looks like something using in 1U server, but much more narrow. Anyone already tried similar PSU? What is the name for this form factor?

https://www.3ypower.com/?p=3&lang=zh&o=2&l=5&cid=47
https://www.3ypower.com/?p=5&lang=zh&cid=47&pid=5391

 

[JohannesMP]

The SFFLab website lists the Skyreach 4 Mini as being back in stock in March, but those seem to be the default silver color scheme.

I personally love the look of some of the custom paint jobs that can be seen in Josh's videos, such as this Black+Orange one

and would love to purchase one.

Does Josh do custom orders for just the case, or does it have to be a complete build? I am comfortable putting the build together myself if that was an option, and if really necessary I'd be fine getting it powder-coated locally as well, but I'd prefer to pay Josh for his work directly.