Starfield MC600 with Ryzen 1700 and GTX 1060

asymingt

Case Bender
Original poster
Nov 11, 2017
2
11
I have been meaning to put together a small form factor PC for simulation work, VR, etc. I needed something small, quiet and very powerful (for a highly graphical and multi-threaded application). I've been fairly impressed by the latest 65W TDP performance of the eight core Ryzen 7 series. The final product is shown in the image below. I hope you can tell, but the lid is meant to look like space. I sprayed the lid with a heat-resistant black spray paint and then did little bursts with white plasti-dip to give a star field effect. If I find the time, I will attach an attiny85 controller and some neopixels to the interior to provide a white twinkling effect.



I chose the Logic Supply MC600 case, because I liked its modular nature and industrial feel. One of my biggest issues was determining the orientation of the graphics card. I eventually chose fan-down, because it was the only way I could accommodate the HDPLEX 400W in the case. I imagine I will get torn apart from readers for this choice, but I really didn't have any other realistic option.

Here's what it looks like inside -- motherboard on the left, Zotac GTX 1060 inverted on the right. The two 40mm Noctua fans draw cool air from the side across the motherboard. Warm air (hopefully) rises and filters through the many, many little holes (AKA stars in my starfield) that I have drilled in the lid of the chassis. The HDPLEX is on the right of the GTX 1060 under the cabling. The heat sink is pressed firmly against the air vents, and I've found this is a fairly decent method for pulling heat off the device. The chassis gets warm to the touch during game, which I hope is a good thing. Also note that the upper chassis side vent on the left-hand size has been purposefully blocked by the Noctua bracket. This is to encourage air to flow through the case, rather than back out close to where it was pulled in.




On first booting I had GTX idle temperatures in the 41C range, and peak temps at 95C (yikes) during a one hour Dota2 session. I felt this was too high, and so I changed my strategy slightly and drilled holes under the fan area of the graphics card. The idea was that the chassis feet provide sufficient clearance for card to actually suck ambient cool air from the underside of the chassis. It turns out this worked fairly nicely. The equivalent gaming session was now peaking at 75C, which I can deal with. I don't think I can push it any lower.




Here's my build list

Processor - AMD Ryzen 7 1700 3.0GHz 8-Core Processor
CPU cooler - Noctua NH-L9i 33.8 CFM CPU Cooler (plus AM4 mounting bracket)
Motherboard - ASRock AB350 Gaming-ITX/ac Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard
Memory - G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3200 Memory
Storage - Samsung 960 EVO 500GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive
Graphics card - Zotac GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB Mini Video Card
Case - Logic Supply MC600
Chassis fans - 2x Noctua NF-A4x20 PWM 5.5 CFM 40mm Fan

I also had to 3D print several things to make this work -- a base to elevate the graphics card from the bottom of the chassis, a PCI bracket for the graphics card, and a mounting for the two Noctua 40mm chassis fans. I have TInkercad designs for anybody who might want to follow my build. Although, I make zero guarantees that everything will just fit perfectly. You'll need to double-check yourself!



And, so much drilling.



Finally, here's an image showing the chassis before drilling with the position of the HDPLEX 400W.



UPDATE:

For those who might find them useful, here are my 3d models:
Note: these models aren't perfect. I had to make some simple modifications to the chassis fan brace and PCI slot bracket with a craft knife.
 
Last edited:

RichMasTa

Cable Smoosher
Oct 26, 2018
10
23
Very nice project! Clean and built with purpose ;)

If there is something I learned from my previous builds:
  • Fresh air in = ok, a necessity
  • but even more important is to get the hot („used“) air out!

Therefore I would suggest to try the following:
  • First have a look at the temps with the lid (top) open - this would be your reference
  • Change the direction of the airflow of your two little 40mm Noctuas to exhaust the hot air
  • For better results I would also recommend to turn the L9a 90 degrees so the fins (= 50% of the airflow) already points in the right direction
    (if I understood correctly you are avoiding to cut a hole for the CPU cooler on the top...? How much clearance do have anyway?)
  • Maybe you need some additional holes on the opposite side of the case to get better airflow (still the hot air of the GPU will be going through the CPU cooler before it leaves the case)
  • I can't see how tight the 1060 is mounted to the vent-holes - maybe it is recycling to much hot air (from itself/system) and therefor could benefit from an extra piece of foam around its fan, so it will only get fresh air

Tell me what you think about it or if you tried something similar already ;)
Good luck!