Completed STX160.0 - The most powerful ATX unit, in the world!

[rokabeka]

can't release the idea based on this project:
to build a mobile phone into the case of a hdd or ssd. maybe 3.5" is easier than 2.5".
it could be fun with or without the display. with the display it should be e.g. the 'top' of the disk. without is would require some wiring but then maybe a larger screen (with the same resolution) could be attached.
power could be coming on the regular hdd power connector (5V only) and the data connector could be e.g. the USB (serving as a USB host) or if the pins are enough that could also be the screen data. if it were an x86 based phone (e.g. Z3580 SoC) then running windows/linux with DisplayLink would be possible. so the usb hub could be inside the case and just providing multiple usb connectors outside.
just for basic browsing this should be enough. and if it is time for gaming then the stx160.0 could be turned on...
wehehe, answering a call with a 3.5 hdd

 

[ColorZepppelin]

Fusion 360 has sheet metal functionality but Onshape and FreeCAD currently do not

@Aibohphobia Just thought you might consider updating this info for new people reading your guide.
Been looking at softwares lately. Now Onshape supports sheet metal but is not highly developed as of yet. So it doesn't fillet corners ("round off sharp corners" for us noobs) which I consider important.
Fusion 360 seems to not have sheet metal yet, only some beta testers can use it and it is not finalized and seems to be delayed.
Next stop Inventor, Solidworks and Spaceclaim....!

 

[jeshikat]

I need to do an overhaul of that section, but I'll just add a quick note about Onshape for now. Thanks for the heads up.

And you can fillet corners on sheet metal parts, but it requires making a sketch and extruding. Not very convenient but it's doable until they fix that.

 

[Limit Cube]

Like your design, is copying a similar aluminum chassis, do you mind it?

 

[jeshikat]

I don't mind, I'm not going to do anything further with this design. It was for fun, but it's not very practical

 

[Limit Cube]

Thanks, I try to reduce the length by 10MM

 

[BaK]

Great thread Aiboh!
I'm glad I asked you the linked to it, case without empty space is the way to go!

What kind of tape did you wrapped the SSD into?

 

[RenG]

This is one of the coolest PC case I've seen. Sadly it won't go into production. At the very least it is a proof of concept.

 

[jeshikat]

What kind of tape did you wrapped the SSD into?

Gaffer tape since the electrical tape I had on hand was junk. Really anything non-conductive will work.

Sadly it won't go into production. At the very least it is a proof of concept.

Yeah, there are just too many limitations to work as a commercial product. It was fun though.

 

[JosephEK]

The NFC video brought me here. I'd love something similar to this, but with the 300W board and a more widely available mITX motherboard. That would drastically increase compatibility for stuff like AMD Ryzen and more GPUs. Obviously it wouldn't be PSU sized anymore. Anyways thanks for making this project it gives me a lot of inspiration.

 

[jeshikat]

Protocase has another entry in their blog: http://www.protocase.com/blog/2017/...components-need-to-be-placed-close-to-a-bend/

I'd love something similar to this, but with the 300W board and a more widely available mITX motherboard.

There are other cases here on the forums like that, the CustomMOD Mini comes to mind: https://smallformfactor.net/forum/threads/custom_mod-mini-itx-3-24l-rev3.1407/

 

[futterwacken]

https://www.chiphell.com/data/attachment/forum/201704/26/150743zwq3jh2jh23o8hq1.jpg

 

[jeshikat]

https://www.chiphell.com/data/attachment/forum/201704/26/150743zwq3jh2jh23o8hq1.jpg

Got a link to the thread?

 

[jeshikat]

I saw this at Computex

 

[Josh | NFC]

I saw this at Computex

THE SEQUEL

 

[jeshikat]

No kidding, I couldn't have asked for a more perfect donor: 1600W, 230mm long, and a bare metal chassis.

 

[rokabeka]

so 8.5" is too optimistic?

 

[jeshikat]

215mm, it's doable but on the ASRock STX board you'd have to solder the power leads since there wouldn't be space left between it and the AC-DC for the DC jack. At least with the original STX160.0 layout.

An alternative I've considered for reducing the case length required is to use a LP video card and put the AC-DC in the space saved.

 

[rokabeka]

further shrinking could be done probably by using pico-itx like this:

but I do not think the price of this board is reasonable and I am not sure it does pcie x4 on either mini slots but Axiomtek has some gadgets for sure.

 

[jeshikat]

A NUC would make more sense since they're available with the PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slots required and have already been proven to work with a discrete GPU.