The Thunderbox - Backpack-able 5L MC600 workstation

[Hippopeteamus]

The brief: I’m a research scientist / engineer/ lecturer at a large university. I needed a compact, powerful workstation that I could stick in a backpack (i.e. brickless) and take between home and the office every day. It was intended for private as well as work tasks. Work tasks included numerical modelling (i.e. finite element modelling with COMSOL, Fluent etc.), number-crunching with BIG spreadsheets and datafiles, 3D design, lots of image processing, some video rendering, and standard office tasks. Private tasks included music composition and production (Sibelius, Cubase, Kontakt, Audition etc.) and 2D art-making, but not a great deal of gaming.
Specific requirements:

• Easily portable in a small backpack – small, light and robust
• Brickless
• Powerful workstation or high-end desktop processor (no overclocking), optimised for multi-threading
• Solid workstation GPU
• SSD system drive, SSD for music production, large HDDs for work and private data storage (I’m paranoid about our institution’s increasingly intrusive and authoritarian IT department, and wanted to keep work and private data completely separate!)
• Given the above, as quiet and cool as possible (I probably didn’t need to add this!)

Case: Logic Supply (now OnLogic) MC600 (substantially modded)
Motherboard: MSI B450I Gaming Plus AC
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 2700
Cooler: Noctua NH-L9a
Memory: 32 GB (2x16GB)
GPU: Nvidia Quadro P1000
PSU: HdPlex 200W DC-ATX + AC/DC adapter bundle (replacing InWin 315W Flex-ATX)
1x Intel 660p NVMe PCIe M.2 – 1TB
1x Samsung SSD 860 EVO – 500GB
2x Seagate Barracuda HDD 2.5’ – 2TB each
Case fans: 2x Noctua NF-A6x25 PWM (replacing 2x Sunon 60mm x 10 mm Vapo-bearing)

This was my very first SFF build, and given that, possibly a bit ambitious – but the exercise appealed to my engineering brain, and turned out very nicely indeed! I built the first iteration of this machine in early 2019, using a 315W Flex-ATX PSU - a rackmount PSU, really. It was overkill (the system drew ~165W max from the wall when torture-tested with all peripherals attached), it wasn't modular (urgh) and its little fan made more noise than the rest of the system combined. The ‘Thunderbox’, as I dubbed it, was otherwise quite satisfactory, but when HdPlex released their 200W DC-ATX unit I leapt at the opportunity to do a substantial re-design, which resulted in the definitive version shown here.

I was initially attracted to the S4 Mini (and I still am), but it was unavailable during the initial build. I therefore chose the LogicSupply (now OnLogic) mc600, which has a very similar form factor to the S4 Mini, albeit rather more spartan and functional. It was also a lot cheaper, which was a great advantage, considering how much abuse I was planning to inflict on it with a Dremel.

 

[Hippopeteamus]

Here's the case with not much in it (I actually removed some things). Front view:

When stood on its end tower-style, the HdPlex AC-DC adapter (left) is in the very bottom of the case. The SSD you can see sits under the GPU. Since it requires little babying, it is simply stuck to the floor of the case with adhesive pads. I cut out the entire GPU/PCI-e I/O panel (rear, left) which was full of inappropriate punch-outs, and replaced it with a custom aluminium panel with windows for the GPU and power plug, and ventilation holes. The original Flex-ATX PSU sat where the AC-DC adapter is, but was shorter and much wider (it took up the whole space to the left of the SSD). Replacing the PSU also meant there was room for two 60mmx25mm Noctua case fans instead of the noisy 60mmx10mm fans I was using.

Here it is with the motherboard in place:

 

[Hippopeteamus]

With the HdPlex DC-ATX converter in place on the motherboard, case fans installed, and most of the cable management done. I had to move the front-panel power button and USB ports, since the HdPlex sat where they were initially. This meant making a new front-plate (we’ll get to that). In the first iteration, I had merely cut two 60mm diameter circular holes in the original front-plate with a hole saw, and guarded them with mesh and semi-ornamental finger guards.

 

[Hippopeteamus]

Now looking from the rear, with the graphics card installed. Life is made a lot easier by the fact that the GPU is a low-profile, one-slot unit. The PCI-e ribbon riser is a rather unsatisfactory 20cm one, which is seen here rolled up, but which I ultimately folded in half and slipped between the GPU and HDD tray (coming up). I’ll get a proper riser card eventually, if I can be bothered.

A key advantage of the single-slot GPU is that there is *tons* of space under it containing nothing but a few cables and an SSD. That means we essentially have a wind tunnel where the two case fans blast air under the GPU fan/heatsink and around the AC-DC converter, and straight out the back of the case. Elegant and foolproof. See? Lots of daylight through there!

 

[Hippopeteamus]

Simple bespoke HDD tray – the cantilevered ‘legs’ fit around the upper case fan, and bend so the whole thing just clicks into place. Please ignore the thermal tape detritus on the HDDs……

 

[Hippopeteamus]

HDD tray installed:

Mesh in place in front of the case fans, which I’ve set back a bit with rubber washers:

 

[Hippopeteamus]

And here we are, with new front-plate installed – I just used a bit of aluminium propeller plate I had lying around. I like the gleaming faux-industrial vibe. The cooler fan sucks air straight in through a 90mm hole in the cover plate and vents it out the top of the case. You can’t see it in these photos, but there is an aluminium block which communicates thermally between the HdPlex heatsink and the front-plate, providing extra cooling for the HdPlex (not that it gets very hot, even under load).

Fedora for scale:

 

[Hippopeteamus]

Backpackable? Tick.

Cool and quiet? I’m very happy with the revised version. Idles well under 30 dB 1m away, sitting on my desktop next to my monitor. The Noctua fans also make a silky-smooth sound, without a hint of whine. Lovely.

Both the CPU and GPU idle at about 35 degrees C, with three hefty monitors. Torture-tested, the CPU hits a steady state temperature of about 65, and the GPU about 75-80. Heavy video rendering takes the GPU up to 62. All other components sit at very healthy temperatures. Pretty good for such a compact build!

When I have the chance / funds, I’ll probably upgrade the CPU to a Ryzen 9 Pro 3900 and the MOBO to an ASUS ROG Strix X470-I, out of perfectionism more than anything else – I have gone down the rabbit-hole, my friends, and there is no escape.

 

[DarekLogic]

Just happened to come across this today, very cool project! We really love seeing how folks mod this case. I passed it along to the designer of the MC600 to have a look.

Side note, thanks for noting our name change, that warms our hearts.