Hi All!
I'm Michael and addicted to computers since the late 70ies. That was the time when home computers were truly small affairs like the Sinclair ZX Spectrum or Commodore’s breadboxes. Some years later IBM and other suspects started selling Intel based PC’s, and bang! Suddenly we had huge cases lurking below our desks, waiting for dust which they swallowed like vacuum cleaners. Ok, that was an accepted trade-off for growing performance since these days, but after spending so many years with such hypertrophic monsters I really can’t look at them anymore. My last case of that kind was a Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX, one of the most hilarious space-wasting builds I’ve ever made. For almost a year I supressed my anger with this metal and glass monstrosity but finally decided to go for something small.
Some research later, I wasn’t convinced. Practically all SFF cases available in retail didn’t convince me by design, build quality, venting or all together. I shortly had the Streacom DA-2 on my list, but what I read in this forum about it made me shy away. To make it more complicated, I wanted a tower-like case with small footprint rather than a long “shoebox” style thing.
That was the point when I started intense reading in this forum – very often with dropped jaw when I saw the fantastic builds some of you were and are presenting here. Your examples made me confident that I could plan and build a case by my own as well.
Hardware:
ASRock Fatal1ty Z370 Gaming ITX/ac
Intel Core i7-8700K (delidded and “conductonauted”)
Bequiet! Shadow Rock LP cooler
Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM
Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-2666 16GB
Samsung 970 EVO 1TB
MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Aero ITX
Lian-Li PCIE Gen.3 riser
Silverstone SST-SX700-LPT SFX-L - overkill, I know…
Noctua NF-A9x14 PWM case fans
My plans resulted in a concept placing GPU and PSU side by side, as this would allow for a slim case without limiting choice of CPU coolers too much.
The resulting size is 130x230x350 mm (10.5 liters). The case was made from 5mm powder-coated aluminium, I ordered the parts from Schaeffer AG who have an easy to use design software, are fast and deliver high quality. That comes at a cost, of course.
Here we go:
RAM heatspreaders were a bit too high and needed trimming to fit under heatsink.
^
Test fit of panels. The side panel’s tongues slide into groves in the top and bottom plates. The right-side panel was screwed to top and bottom with 2mm steel profiles. The front I/O panel and the 8mm front grill were glued to the resulting U-shape with 2k epoxy, the back plate was screwed on.
Test fit of mobo. Standoffs were screwed into nuts which I glued into 3mm holes in the panel.
The almost finished case fan mount plate (hand routed from 6mm Corian).
Everything in place and it’s running! To the right you see the fan mount. This slides into the two supports on top/bottom, thus allowing for fast fan swapping if necessary. And with Noctua’s ugly colour scheme that might happen sooner than later…
Cable management still is a mess – I have ordered custom made cables already. Fan colour is ugly, did I mention that?
Too much pics, so to be continued in next post.
I'm Michael and addicted to computers since the late 70ies. That was the time when home computers were truly small affairs like the Sinclair ZX Spectrum or Commodore’s breadboxes. Some years later IBM and other suspects started selling Intel based PC’s, and bang! Suddenly we had huge cases lurking below our desks, waiting for dust which they swallowed like vacuum cleaners. Ok, that was an accepted trade-off for growing performance since these days, but after spending so many years with such hypertrophic monsters I really can’t look at them anymore. My last case of that kind was a Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX, one of the most hilarious space-wasting builds I’ve ever made. For almost a year I supressed my anger with this metal and glass monstrosity but finally decided to go for something small.
Some research later, I wasn’t convinced. Practically all SFF cases available in retail didn’t convince me by design, build quality, venting or all together. I shortly had the Streacom DA-2 on my list, but what I read in this forum about it made me shy away. To make it more complicated, I wanted a tower-like case with small footprint rather than a long “shoebox” style thing.
That was the point when I started intense reading in this forum – very often with dropped jaw when I saw the fantastic builds some of you were and are presenting here. Your examples made me confident that I could plan and build a case by my own as well.
Hardware:
ASRock Fatal1ty Z370 Gaming ITX/ac
Intel Core i7-8700K (delidded and “conductonauted”)
Bequiet! Shadow Rock LP cooler
Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM
Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-2666 16GB
Samsung 970 EVO 1TB
MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Aero ITX
Lian-Li PCIE Gen.3 riser
Silverstone SST-SX700-LPT SFX-L - overkill, I know…
Noctua NF-A9x14 PWM case fans
My plans resulted in a concept placing GPU and PSU side by side, as this would allow for a slim case without limiting choice of CPU coolers too much.
The resulting size is 130x230x350 mm (10.5 liters). The case was made from 5mm powder-coated aluminium, I ordered the parts from Schaeffer AG who have an easy to use design software, are fast and deliver high quality. That comes at a cost, of course.
Here we go:
RAM heatspreaders were a bit too high and needed trimming to fit under heatsink.
Test fit of panels. The side panel’s tongues slide into groves in the top and bottom plates. The right-side panel was screwed to top and bottom with 2mm steel profiles. The front I/O panel and the 8mm front grill were glued to the resulting U-shape with 2k epoxy, the back plate was screwed on.
Test fit of mobo. Standoffs were screwed into nuts which I glued into 3mm holes in the panel.
The almost finished case fan mount plate (hand routed from 6mm Corian).
Everything in place and it’s running! To the right you see the fan mount. This slides into the two supports on top/bottom, thus allowing for fast fan swapping if necessary. And with Noctua’s ugly colour scheme that might happen sooner than later…
Cable management still is a mess – I have ordered custom made cables already. Fan colour is ugly, did I mention that?
Too much pics, so to be continued in next post.
