The Long Game: A build (mATX Chimera Cerberus)

VegetableStu

Shrink Ray Wielder
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Aug 18, 2016
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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?

===============

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 ,_,

=============

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)




============

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.
so yeah. love the case
 
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VegetableStu

Shrink Ray Wielder
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Aug 18, 2016
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BTW: Hi Eugene from Dreamcore! I'm that guy with that shirt at the PC show. Sorry I don't have an insta account right now, so hope this shoutout gets to you ,_,

Specs:
  • Kimera Cerberus C11U
    • White
    • Window Panel + Vented Panel
    • SFX Front Mount Set
    • Fan Bracket (for handle)
  • i7-6800K 6c12T (at the time before 6 core i7 on mainstream.... ,_,)
  • Noctua NH-C14S
  • Corsair Vengeance 4x8GB 3000MHz CL16 Hynix (not running overclocked at the moment, certain programs unhappy)
  • Palit GTX 1060 Dual (fan) 6GB (Gen 1, if the rumors of it having a gen 2 fruitions)
  • Silverstone SX-700LPT
  • Samsung EVO 960 500GB
  • Crucial MX300 525GB (and 2 others, RAID)
 
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Kooki

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Mar 30, 2016
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You screwed the psu to the front grill using the psu's fan holes? Was the default sfx psu placement interfering with something?

And did your re-build really failed to boot in the end? ;c
 

VegetableStu

Shrink Ray Wielder
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Aug 18, 2016
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no it worked fine. I just turned it off, LOL (didn't want it booting into windows with nothing connected ,_,)

You screwed the psu to the front grill using the psu's fan holes? Was the default sfx psu placement interfering with something?
it wasn't interfering with anything, I'm just trying it out to find long-term issues

as of now, one of the threads of the fan stripped after the recent remounting (I should get non-tapping screws for those ,_,) otherwise the vents seem to be keeping their shape. haven't tested if the 2x 140mm slim fans on the top would interfere with the PSU bracket though

(the upgrade will need the PSU mounted by the fans elsewhere, so... ,_,)
 
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VegetableStu

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So I completely missed the Skylake-X Refresh announcement ,_, and I'm looking back into Intel vs AMD for planning the next upgrade

looking into:
  • Threadripper 3 16c32T CPU + ASRock X399M (or whatever subject to refresh)
    • Thread count (waiting for performance reviews)
    • PCIe Lane Count (I get the x16 at slot 4)
    • 3x m.2 sockets (I'm planning to get one more NVMe m.2. system doesn't like it when media encoder is encoding something in OS drive)
    • Current 2950X is roughly $200 less
  • i9 9920X 12c24T + EVGA MICRO 2
    • Better IPC? (waiting for performance reviews)
    • Between the two I'd say this is more backwards-compatibility-stable for programs?
    • I get to reuse the C14S (which allows space for long GPUs), or just get a normal AIO (which means more options) and swap rads.
    • Less power hungry? (waiting for performance reviews)
    • issue: there's only one m.2 socket. I currently have an NVMe and a SATA m.2 stick. getting a 2.5" adapter for the SATA stick would be inevitable and clunky ,_,
 
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loader963

King of Cable Management
Jan 21, 2017
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Have you thought about the pci to m.2 adapters since you have the space for one? And that video was awesome. Bet that took three times as long as the build!
 
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VegetableStu

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(we're talking about the EVGA Micro 2 right? o_o)
Slot 4 has a x4 socket (it's what my Asus X99M setup is doing now actually with a PCIe to M.2 adapter), but I want to be able to use a GPU in Slot 3 next time ,_, (also that x4 goes to the PCH)

or I could consider a single-slot lesser-GPU for the extra monitors that don't need the horsepower ._. not sure what are the program ramifications about this (I highly doubt maya viewport would like that)

Bet that took three times as long as the build!
if we don't count time not spent working on the video, yeah sure ¡-¡
 
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Verrachi

Minimal Tinkerer
Oct 14, 2018
4
1
Hello, Nice build !! I'm currently planning out a pc build using Cerberus case too.

Just one question.. have you tried using vertical gpu mount ? did you encounter any problem?
 
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VegetableStu

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Thanks! I don't think Sliger makes vertical/upright GPU mounting frames for the Cerberus o_o
are you referring to the mnpctech adapters? I don't own one of those, so it'd be pretty hard to gauge for sure

(although going by mnpc's pics it should be the same modding instructions and caveats as the Ncase M1 on the 92mm rear panel (those and you'd have to use a reference-length card (roughly the width of a square mATX board) and a front PSU mounting strategy (might be extremely tight here))

(mounting it like a monolith from the bottom up.... would be interesting but also limited to reference length cards (the 20-series Strix card is longer than the case vertically o_o), and the front PSU or radiator would definitely go elsewhere)

(and that's not considering if the CPU area doesn't want to be covered by anything yet (especially for those going full-window panel))

... this one looks interesting though o_o but no official dimensions though

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/phan...0mm-pci-e-x-16-riser-cable-kit-cm-02k-pt.html
(either that or Lian Li's 5-slot (EDIT: 6 slot. sorry) vertical 4-slot-GPU adapter for their O11 Dynamic. don't think their bottom PCIe riser tray would align with the Cerberus's bottom infinivent pattern)
 
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Verrachi

Minimal Tinkerer
Oct 14, 2018
4
1
Thanks for replying :)

Because I'm considering building a Air Cooled build with NH-C14S with front SFX PSU, so I won't be needing any room for AIOs.

However, The main problem I think i will run into is because my current GPU is 325mm long (MSI 1080ti TRIO),which might or might not fit in the case regardless of the position. (Slinger website says it support up to 330mm gpu length)

AND... if it does fit it will be an extremely tight fit like you mentioned. [319mm Case Height-20mm PSU cable -125mm PSU - 140mm GPU - 20mm GPU Power Cable] = 14mm error space...
Reason why I'm thinking about making it vertical is because I think having air blowing from front to back (40-60mm fans) will be better for cooling.

As for the bottom PCIE riser tray im not to worry about it since im not going to move my case that much and it should be secure enough on the vertical mount.


what do you think :eek:... or should i just get a different GPU lol~
 

VegetableStu

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Aug 18, 2016
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However, The main problem I think i will run into is because my current GPU is 325mm long (MSI 1080ti TRIO),which might or might not fit in the case regardless of the position. (Slinger website says it support up to 330mm gpu length)
that might usually fit, barring all measurement anomalies from MSI ._. (darn you GPU folk)

I can't say this for sure (if it were me I'd pay for my chance, but I don't recommend others doing this for me unless they take that responsibility), but Lian Li's bracket might be the one that might actually give the breathing room space, of course after cutting away the thin strips for the IO cutout on the cerberus


it's an O11D-1 if you want to look it up (letter-O)
the bend for the tabs of both the case fold and the GPU IO fold seems to be pretty close, (maybe the thickness of steel. definitely can't be 5mm).


of course, that's if you have 5mm of space to spare with the GPU difference (I'll check around to see if anyone has that answer). now I'm looking to see if you can still keep the card. (you definitely can't mount it monolithically though)

(note that the PCIe tabs on the cerberus is actually outside the case. just a visual differentiator between the case and the O11 Dynamic)
 
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VegetableStu

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okay I'm stopping myself, that's actually 6-slots wide. the O11D-1 definitely won't fit


even if we move one slot down, I don't think there's buffer space for one entire slot. if I were to force that to happen, I might need to cut out quite a lot of the bottom of the case
(EDIT: that being said, I don't mind looking for one secondhand though. to bring a saw to it for experiments)

(if you're looking at the full ATX Cerberus-X, then those won't be problems, LOL. keep in mind the Cerberus-X can't mount mATX boards by default due to permanent motherboard standoffs)

I don't think Phantek's one would be ideal, because it'll put the GPU pretty close to the side panel, and there's a much longer offset from the case slots to the right-angle GPU bend
 
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kageiit

Trash Compacter
Oct 5, 2018
40
24
@VegetableStu what screws did you use/recommend for front mounting an sfx-l psu to Cerberus case like you did without a bracket. I have a configuration which allows me to fit 2 120x25mm fans on the top bracket if I can mount the PSU a bit lower i.e the sfx bracket won't interfere with fan clearance
 

VegetableStu

Shrink Ray Wielder
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Aug 18, 2016
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what screws did you use/recommend for front mounting an sfx-l psu to Cerberus case like you did without a bracket.

i reused the screws that's mounting the fan to the PSU itself. they're regular flat-top fan screws, so if you need new ones those are what they are

also I removed the fan grille from the PSU to make it thinner and let the screws grip onto the fans through the case

(the video showed the dome ones that came with the case, but the pointed-tip didn't grab as much of the fan as needed ,_,)