Totally custom one off 4.9l brickless i5, gtx 1070

davegus91

Cable Smoosher
Original poster
Jun 24, 2018
11
22
So first time actually posting something here, hadn't really had anything original to contribute but my latest project is completed and i thought it was worth sharing.

Here's are my build criteria:

-No power brick! i despise them.
-Fits a full size reference design Nvidia card
-Fits standard ITX board
-Reasonable room for expansion/upgrade for storage, ram, gpu, cpu without case redesign
-As compact as possible in thickness- stretch goal of fitting in a tsa friendly 15in laptop bag, so it can stay protected when travelling. My previous build was based on an SG05 which while compact needed to come completely out for carry on inspection. (it does fit!)
-Purpose built design aesthetic, no frills, strong and functional vibe. No unnecessary protrusions.

The hardware i crammed:

-MSI b360i gaming pro ac
-i5 8400, delidded and liquid metal applied (could upgrade later)
-Noctua NH-L9i
-Ballistix 16gb ddr4, single module (could add second module)
-EVGA GTX 1070 OC, with liquid metal and gtx 1080ti vapor chamber cooler installed (could upgrade later)
-FSP flex atx psu, 500w Platinum (FSP500-50FSPT)
-WD black 3d nand 500gb nvme drive (second m.2 slot wide open)
-2tb 2.5in hdd, 7mm height.

Case materials:

Aluminum from onlinemetals.com
-0.08in sheet
-0.5x0.5x0.062in angle
-1.5x0.125in bar (feet)
Everything else:
-like 75 m3 x 4mm flat screws
-1/4in20 stainless screws for feet
-nylon fender washers for feet
-4mm m3 standoffs
-appropriate chrome fan grills
-screenmend mesh
-foam window insulation
-iec c6 power socket
-pcie 16x riser
-usb3.0 header
-illuminated vandal button
-3m cabinet bumpers for foot grips

The lengths i went through...

Smallest possible standoffs meant dremmeling down one of the cpu backplate screws, cpu cooler holding screws, and m.2 standoff on back of mobo. backside of case covered in Kapton tape just in case something flexes and tries to short.

GPU pci bracket removed

Power supply opened and power input pigtail added- no room for internal plug. PSU was not equipped with a pcie connector but two eps 8-pin, so i converted one. Cut all unnecessary cables, leaving only atx, eps, and pcie. Cut to length, sleeved, and crimped.

usb3.0 header disassembled and shortened to length, also added a sata power plug fed from same mobo header

Sata cable cut to length and re-crimped

Construction Techniques:

Aluminum cut to size with an aluminum cutting table saw blade
After rough assembly a 1/8in round over bit in a trim router. Standard woodworking variatey, taken slowly and with plenty of oil.
Fan grill cutouts made by using the outer shroud of discarded fans as a router template, again with a 1/8 roundover.
Screw holes drilled, countersunk and tapped into the angles
Wet sand and polish outside face of all panels (3m aluminum boat polish used)

Thermals (21c ambient):

During torture test of furmark and y-cruncher simultaniously, CPU hovers between 67-75c with all cores boosting to 3.8ghz. GPU overclocked +110 core +550 mem with stock fan curve sits at 79c at 69% fan.

Final Size

56mm thick x 274mm deep x 313mm tall, including feet. 4.8l total!

Photo Album


https://photos.app.******/V9eZmHB2vN6AedKa6

https://photos.app.******/2fWVdA5kwQUyRBSo7
 

BernardoZ

Founder of Z-CASES
z-cases.com
Feb 7, 2018
264
490
www.z-cases.com
Wow, impressive DIY case man, congrats! :eek:

How is the noise on the FSP psu under load? People say this unit gets really loud.
Also, I'm working on a custom silent 600w Flex psu for my case (very similar layout to yours, actually!). Keep an eye on my thread if you want to make a psu upgrade on the future ;)

Cheers!
 

davegus91

Cable Smoosher
Original poster
Jun 24, 2018
11
22
Fan noise on psu is only noticable under intense load. When loaded it's about equal to the blower on the gpu. At idle it's barely rotating and virtually silent.

I made special attention to try and isolate the intakes for it so it doesn't pull CPU air thru it.

But!
On bootup and resume from sleep it goes full bore for about 5 seconds... Self test or giving time for temp reading etc. It's hair dryer loud for those 5 seconds.
 

garyroks

Trash Compacter
Dec 2, 2016
51
23
nice work !!! Really impressive. I was wondering from where did you get the PCI X16 riser from ?
 

Thirumal Kumaran

Cable-Tie Ninja
Jan 22, 2018
146
67
Excellent work & I know the pain of working aluminium with woodworking tools.
Have you considered anodising as the raw finish wont stand for long?
only 1 nitpick is my OCD strikes seeing the power button not in center.
 

davegus91

Cable Smoosher
Original poster
Jun 24, 2018
11
22
Excellent work & I know the pain of working aluminium with woodworking tools.
Have you considered anodising as the raw finish wont stand for long?
only 1 nitpick is my OCD strikes seeing the power button not in center.

My original plan was to paint or anodize but i managed to pull off all my cuts and holes without any major errors and liked the look of bare aluminum. The polish i used was intended for aluminum pontoon boats and contains a durable wax to keep oxidation at bay (hopefully). The thing that made my pick that polish was that someone that reviewed it stated that they used it on bare aluminum truck parts and they stayed shiny for over a year on the highway.
 

Thirumal Kumaran

Cable-Tie Ninja
Jan 22, 2018
146
67
Check the link at bottom of first post, album of 34 photos showing assemby step by step. I'm on mobile right now else I would embedded some in this post but they are there.
Thanks a lot... I missed the link altogether.
BTW, how the exhaust for the GPU is working?
As the rear is blocked and the front is blocked as well?
 

davegus91

Cable Smoosher
Original poster
Jun 24, 2018
11
22
Rear (io end) is not blocked at all, it's an open hole. Less restriction than stock since no pcie vent bracket. It would be more open if EVGA would stop cramming dvi ports on their reference style boards but it still breathes easily.

The heatsink fins on the other end right next to the blower are actually mostly just for looks on the founders style coolers- they are part of the front plate and only connected to a few of the less important power management ICs, not the main mosfets or anything. The stock blower shroud completely prevents those fins from getting airflow by design so I didn't worry about it.
 

Tjo2012

Trash Compacter
Feb 6, 2018
34
11
What support does your gpu have in the case? Just curious since im making a similiar custom enclosure where i wont have to mod the flex atx and i can just route an extension cord. I also want to build a slightly more robust frame for future modding
 

davegus91

Cable Smoosher
Original poster
Jun 24, 2018
11
22
Gpu is supported by front and back panel, as well as locking rigid pci riser.

At the front there are two screws supporting the end of the card, using the mount points on the blower end of founders style coolers. Nvidia reference cards have had these mount points since the OG titan- presumably for custom server type supporting rails.

At the rear io I am using one of the screw points that was previously used to support the pci backet, near the bottom tabs.

As a note on supporting rails, I had originally planned on integrating some but since case panels are so small on a build this size they don't really flex at all, and decided they were not going to be necessary.
 

Tjo2012

Trash Compacter
Feb 6, 2018
34
11
Gpu is supported by front and back panel, as well as locking rigid pci riser.

At the front there are two screws supporting the end of the card, using the mount points on the blower end of founders style coolers. Nvidia reference cards have had these mount points since the OG titan- presumably for custom server type supporting rails.

At the rear io I am using one of the screw points that was previously used to support the pci backet, near the bottom tabs.

As a note on supporting rails, I had originally planned on integrating some but since case panels are so small on a build this size they don't really flex at all, and decided they were not going to be necessary.

ahhh shoot,

i was hoping that the pci riser and some front support was gonna be enough. now i know why you made your case dimensions as such. ill see if i can come up with another solution.

i have a msi 1070 mini so its gonna be fine for now but id like to build my comp for multiple potential combos.

i wanted a slightly deeper case than yours to route a power extension cord so it will have a dedicated ground.

in addition to your current design i plan to connect the botton and top frames with additional 60mm tall Lbars, have each face supported with only 8 screws.

i planned to have a 2mm thick plate inside the case with a cutout for m.2 and cpu cooler bracket and i need to find a sufficient place for memory. i plan to use step drill bits to make perforations. If you have any advice for working with 2mm aluminum im interested.

my internal dimensions are 61.8mm thick 319mm tall and 273mm deep when standing it similiar to yours and i hope to support 4mm standoffs for all mobos no modding, up 45mm in cpu cooling clearance, and 60mm fans wedged along the sides held down by double sided adhesive.
 

neyurt

Cable-Tie Ninja
Jul 26, 2018
158
164
Hey, awesome work! I was looking at that exact same PSU to hopefully convert the EPS 12V to pcie connectors. Do you think there's enough power per rail (24A 12V max, so that's 12x24 =~ 288W)? I know the gtx 1080 ti could run about ~250W tdp stock.

I might just order one and play around with my mini itx build.

My tinkering mind wants to keep the PSU open and maybe use 2x noctua A9x14 fans blasting on top of it and disconnect the loud stock fan. That will add about 14mm to the thickness but maybe that will can possibility solve the issue of noise. My only concern is maybe if there's potential for inteferences/etcs from the PSU that would've been kept under control with a cover. But base on what you're saying, it's not that bad to begin with.
 
Last edited: