in order of assembly (off the top of my head):
Case setup
Handle mount goes on top. I tried mounting the Cryorig slim 140mm fan with the motherboard in during dryrun, but the rubber feet and CPU cables were rubbing against each other, so that has to go in first.
SFX PSU mounting. The SSDs and its cables should mount BEFORE this step! I actually removed the conventional mount to have it mounted by the PSU fan. Paid off a slight bit afterward in terms of squeezing something in later.
By the way, a 140mm fan will not fit under an SFX-L PSU because of the cables. (c'monn regular SFX 700W PSUs!)
Rear Power plate. Had an idea to use that as a disk brick with the fan outside. turned out pretty well, although replacements would mean removing the brick, then the fan, then the screws
I started off with included general purpose small roundhead screws, but then switched to the flathead ones meant for the motherboard tray 2,5" disk mounts (since I'm not using them at their intended spots at the moment)
Oh right, the switch comes "proud" above the top plate, but I don't prefer once-action buttons proud, so I switched the spacer to the underside to recess that button.
(technically proud buttons are always above their frame even when pressed, but I kinda want to describe the whole switch better)
SSD cables. had the thought of going under the motherboard, since I went HAM and bought low profile cables. went with tape at first, but after a bit of peeling I decided to go with twist ties instead.
Tied them in a half-clover way in pairs, so my fingers have a mnemonic to follow (right-to-left top-to-bottom one-to-four)
(on hindsight, I should have checked if more cables could have fitted under there ,_,)
motherboard next. the IO shield had some gentle hoaxing to do, because the side closest to the PCIe slots might bend if all-out pressure is applied. The board fit without any pushback from the IO shield (well, relatively. most cases I worked with had this pushback due to the padding)
cable population afterwards. had to do some spin tests on the fans to clear out cables touching the blades, especially the top fan. had to do an additional test with my PSU fan since I replaced that with a PWM fan.
CPU cooler. that thing's like the keystone of the entire build, since the removal of major components requires removal of the cooler ,_,
working in some cabling that area is like finding a watch in an open chest cavity afterwards
at that point I remembered the Corsair Commander Pro. initially went with 3M command to tape it down, but plugging stuff after the fact is pretty tight, and would be near impossible to do after the GPU goes in.
then the 3M tape gave way. might be because I used an old strip, but left it untaped in that tight spot in the end. adding more stuff is much easier anyway
PCIe time. GPU went in first. Power cable-- I clearly have not thought this through. it gets thrown into the empty cavity under the PSU.
The 12V+5V outward adapter goes in. I seriously need to rethink cabling.
PCIe SSD is trivial at this point
The final piece. One more fan in the hinge bracket.
Had to use screws because the wire clips actually interfered with the bracket and it wouldn't close completely.
That goes to the commander pro by the way.
sat back a bit to contemplate the cable mess. threw in the towel at that point, but now while writing this I might unpack and redo this without an elaborate recording setup this time.
Open panel power test to check for things I forgot or oversaw. None!
Done with this iteration of the build. I mentioned having a day for profiling the intended internal layout of the case (or at the very best the set I have ._.) I might have to find a place to word it down somewhere/somehow, but it'll be in the video.
should be it for now... well, system #2 I guess?
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Afterthoughts:
Squeezing cables in this thing isn't fun after the big parts go in! Previsualisation and planning is a good exercise early on, otherwise some compromises have to be made in terms of cable or mess management. Was lucky with the SATA cables, but I should have put more thought for the power cables to be honest.
(personally I didn't mind rebuilding it again. the second time's fun when I know what to adjust)
I was hoping the case were still held together by screws instead of rivets (like the C10U and C10X before it) for easier assembly by groups at the final step, but I guess it's stronger and more efficient to produce using rivets instead.
Boy is it heavy! the case was light with nothing inside (if it didn't cost money I'd try tossing and catching it) but after adding the PSU and the heatsink the system shows its weight afterwards. I kinda worry about it being flight carry-on friendly now ,_,
I wonder if having the 2.5" SSD mounts on the motherboard tray itself be installed on the back (not under the motherboard but under the blank space beside it) would help in terms of ease of access and maybe having a tiny bit of agency for cable management (like most recent mainstream cases). only thing off the top of my head is interference with 140mm fans and maybe the SFX PSU mounting
I realised it technically qualifies for the space inefficiency thread now since the lower half is somewhat empty. just like the HAF XB I had before it ,_,
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Afterparty changes:
+1: yeah i've managed to hide most of the cables.
+2: I got the Sterrox fan.
'nuff said
+3: I took so long to edit the video that Sliger released a vent pattern top plate for the case.
immediately turned it into a wind tunnel when I got it
Fans are interfering with the power cable extender shell, but I reckon if I'm able to move it back it won't be a problem anymore (but I need the fans there because the frame is holding the EPS power plug tab back to prevent it from blocking the fan blades)
+4: decided to redo the underboard cabling on the way, since the SSD cables were blocking the fan blades. Removed the makeshift pull tabs on the cables (that didn't work out in the end)
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Future Plans
I don't really want to promise that this would be done (less of a problem to myself but more when I actually type it out to the ether), but I went crazy with the nonstandard mounting nonsense:
those include:
- the ASRock X399M and the 2019 Threadripper. Not sure if there would be motherboard refreshes though
- a 280mm Nemesis GTR. in this plan it'll have a bit of its fan mounting tab dremelled away so that 120mm fans can rest on it (and afford an extra 3.4mm-ish of space)
- I might look into 3D printing shelves for resting the radiator on. that thing is heavy O_O
(and I'll see if I can integrate a 2.5" SSD rack on it) - a proper threadripper AIO with its radiator switched out with the above. keeping tabs on the Alphacool Flatboy though
- actually following through with a deshrouded GPU at the bottom against two NF-A12x25 fans.
(maybe 2 GPUs? making plans for a multi monitor setup when I'm in a little for fortunate position next time)
Might just start with the current 1060 I have.
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