Sub 3Litre Silent Case for up to 65W TDP

[iFreilicht]

Very nice! The adjustment mechanism you made is pretty close to what I had in mind, it looks like a very good option! The shape for the cutout seems to be well chosen, too.

If you want to get a finer level of adjustments, you could probably do some clever staggering of the mounting holes and have multiple threads in the top panel, but that might be unnecessary.

The gap from the underside of the motherboard to the bottom of the case is 20mm, no volume has been added to the case as the storage bay has been moved under the motherboard into the space and the alignment panel has been integrated into the cover.

Very good, I like that! More functionality in the same volume is always great!

I like this idea of using bigger standoffs, thankyou!

Currently the motherboard is sat on 6mm standoffs resting on a raised platform that the storage drives will screw into the under side of. But instead the storage drives can be screwed directly into the base of the case, this platform can be removed completely and the motherboard can sit on 16mm standoffs. This would shave around 4mm off the case height and as you say the standoffs can then be swapped out to suit different socket heights if deemed neccessary.

Do any components on the rear of a motherboard get close to the 6mm in height of the standoffs? i.e. if the gap was 4mm would it reduce motherboard compatibility? Does anybody know what the height of the M.2 connectors on the rear of motherboards usually are?

This document is absolutely vital for those sorts of questions. Refer to section 3.4.2. It says 0.2in (5.08mm) is the maximum height a solely structural component is allowed to have. Not sure whether M.2 sockets count as structural, but they'll never be taller than that.
In general, a PC case must have 6.35mm of clearance below the mainboard, so 16mm standoffs are ideal if you're supporting 2.5" drives with a maximum height of 9.5mm.

 

[Hahutzy]

On top of what iFreilicht mentioned, the NH-L9i's mounting screws require 5mm of clearance under the motherboard. So that is the practical minimum clearance.

 

[K888D]

Thanks for the information @Hahutzy and @iFreilicht

Just a quick update on this project - ever since @Soul_Est mentioned about Shapeways I have been looking into whether it would be a viable and cost effective option to design a 3D printed Mini-ITX case.

The formed Acrylic/sheet metal has been on the backburner for a little bit whilst I invetigate the 3D printing route.

I have put together some very basic designs to get an idea of 3D printing cost with Shapeways. The biggest proportion of cost is how much machine space your model takes up (not the actual material cost), with this in mind I have investigated many different ways of printing the case from a full single piece shell design, frame and panel designs, to clip together sidewalls and bases.

From my initial investigations I have a rough idea of how much the case will cost, as you would expect the cost is directly associated with the size of the case

My idea is to offer a range of cases based around the same core design, certain components like clip on feet could be shared amongst the different designs, depending on what components you would like to put into the system would determine its size. For example if you did not require any 2.5" storage drives you could reduce the height of the case by 10mm. Adding a 140mm slim fan to the top would increase the height by around 15 - 20mm. A low profile dual slot card would increase the width by 30mm. You get the idea.

For the smallest and most basic case that could fit a Mini-ITX motherboard with a Noctua NH-L9 cooler you are looking in the region of $140 (US), that would be for a 2 Litre case with a performance of up to 65W TDP.

Adding a 2x 2.5" storage bay would increase this cost to around $180.

The costs are for printing in an SLS Nylon simulant, it is very strong and flexible allowing for durable clip type features. I've used this material before for other projects I've worked on, its very impressive stuff compared to other printing methods, the only downside is that it has a slight grainy surface finish.

My questions:

- Is the above price something that people would be willing to pay for a custom 3D printed mini PC case?

- If you were to buy a 3D printed case, what features would you like to see added to the design or available to addon?

 

[iFreilicht]

The costs are for printing in an SLS Nylon simulant, it is very strong and flexible allowing for durable clip type features. I've used this material before for other projects I've worked on, its very impressive stuff compared to other printing methods, the only downside is that it has a slight grainy surface finish.

My questions:

- Is the above price something that people would be willing to pay for a custom 3D printed mini PC case?

- If you were to buy a 3D printed case, what features would you like to see added to the design or available to addon?

Nice idea in theory, but I think for that sort of price, people want an extremely novel design on the outside and an extremely well thought out system that has good functionality, so all components you make have to fit together absolutely perfectly and look like it as well. I can't see myself paying 140 bucks for a case that'll only hold 300 worth of hardware.

A good thing about shapeways is that you omit international shipping costs, IIRC, because they have multiple locations where they can print.

If you're going for this shared component stuff, though, it makes sense to look into other manufacturing methods that have high setup costs but low per-unit costs, especially with things like feet, or try to incorporate as many standardised components as possible to reduce cost.
3D printing is mostly viable for small series production runs.

 

[K888D]

Nice idea in theory, but I think for that sort of price, people want an extremely novel design on the outside and an extremely well thought out system that has good functionality, so all components you make have to fit together absolutely perfectly and look like it as well. I can't see myself paying 140 bucks for a case that'll only hold 300 worth of hardware

Yes I suspected that $140 would be too high, I will have to get my thinking cap on on how to reduce this price down.

As you say the design would have to be novel and take advantage of being able to make shapes that are not possible with other manufacturing techniques.

A good thing about shapeways is that you omit international shipping costs, IIRC, because they have multiple locations where they can print.

The shipping rates seem very reasonable at around $15 in most European countries.

If you're going for this shared component stuff, though, it makes sense to look into other manufacturing methods that have high setup costs but low per-unit costs, especially with things like feet, or try to incorporate as many standardised components as possible to reduce cost.
3D printing is mostly viable for small series production runs.

Crowdfunding would be the only way to get enough money together to start thinking about low per-unit costs such as Injection Moulding tools, you would need to sell thousands of cases to make the finished product affordable.

For example - an injection moulding tool around the size of Mini-ITX case would cost in the region of $25k - $30k, plus a few more tools for the smaller components of around $5k - $10k each tool. If the tools were made in China and parts were also moulded in China then you wouldn't need to ship the tools, but you will need to ship components. So your looking at an investment of around $50k tooling costs for a set of parts. A run of around 1,000 parts would cost somewhere in the region of $5 - $6 per set of parts plus shipping and import costs, so maybe $10 per set.

So based purely on guestimated tooling and production prices, the costs would be:

To make and receive 1000 parts = $60,000 = $60 per case
To make and receive 2000 parts = $70,000 = $35 per case
To make and receive 5000 parts = $100,000 = $20 per case


You would need some really healthy pre-order numbers to make that work! A Kickstarter campaign of around $100K would probably do it, which isn't that unrealistic I guess.

 

[iFreilicht]

I was more thinking about parts of the case being moulded or deep drawn or whatever works, not the whole case, but if you can get down to 20$ per case and it still looks good and has good functionality, it could easily sell 5000 units if you reach enough people.

 

[K888D]

The $20 is a rough estimate for just the moulded pieces, you then have the buttons, standoffs, screws, packaging and any other accessories you want to include.

You would also need to factor in assembly costs and whatever markup you want for profit, so a case cost of $50 - $70 (without power supply) for the consumer is probably more realistic.

 

[EdZ]

One advantage of using 3D printing for production is that the cases could be parametric: Given known component sizes, the case itself could be resized to be as small as possible for any given configuration.

 

[Thehack]

What about using cnc or laster cutting? I made a wooden version of the same layout, around 8x8 inches with raised platform for ssd under the motherboard. It would be possible to cut 6 interlocking panels that can be secured by easily.