Stalled UniQ-1 :: 11.2L mini-ITX - Uniquely Air-Cooled - Truely Silent - High Performance Case

neyurt

Cable-Tie Ninja
Original poster
Jul 26, 2018
158
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is that power supply mounted backwards?

Nope, the flex psu is mounted normally. However, right now I'm actually using my SF600 instead. I find there's amble space left due to the long GPU and I didn't need to use a flex psu to save space. That and I want to keep using my flex psu for another 5.5L project :)
 

neyurt

Cable-Tie Ninja
Original poster
Jul 26, 2018
158
164
Lol! Nice man! Excited to see what you come up with!

I've used the extrusion beams before and found it to be quite expensive with everything ordered.and it does add a bit of volumes depending on how thick they are . But interesting to see how you can optimise it.
 

neyurt

Cable-Tie Ninja
Original poster
Jul 26, 2018
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I have changed the status of this thread to STALLED, since I'm not actively working on any prototyping. And with the new HEO1 concepts being tested, everything might change at this point. I will evaluate soon in what directions this project will take.

For those that have been following this thread for awhile and was looking forward to progress on the previous design, I apologize as I quickly realized that the amount of work needed to see something like this through is way more than what I can handle (unless I quit my day job - which I can't afford to at the moment).

Further more, I come to the realization that I'm more or less a tinkerer and a hobby-ist. Business and product development is probably not my forte. I enjoyed immensely everything I have done/experimented on thus far. I appreciate all the feedbacks and encouragement a long the way. I have had a blast so far (and will continue to do so) experimenting with a project that's truly unique and unorthodox.

I will always welcome any questions or injuries for anyone that want to re-produce or improve on what I have done so far. Don't hesitate to ask here or pm me!

I will continue to update this thread as the project progress along as I continue to experiment with the He01's.
 

Demon Boy Jr

Average Stuffer
Sep 1, 2017
86
117
I'm glad you keep experimenting. When this project first started all I wanted to see was a dual D15 build, but now it's evolved to some crazy He01 build. I look forward to see how this continues to evolve. Perhaps I don't need to wait for a retail case to do this, I already do a lot of tinkering myself. This thread will serve to provide others and myself insight on how we could possibly proceed with this ourselves. A haven to provide each other with feedback and results.
 

neyurt

Cable-Tie Ninja
Original poster
Jul 26, 2018
158
164
I'm glad you keep experimenting. When this project first started all I wanted to see was a dual D15 build, but now it's evolved to some crazy He01 build. I look forward to see how this continues to evolve. Perhaps I don't need to wait for a retail case to do this, I already do a lot of tinkering myself. This thread will serve to provide others and myself insight on how we could possibly proceed with this ourselves. A haven to provide each other with feedback and results.

Yep, I do think that people who can and are comfortable with modding their expensive GPU at this level are more or less capable of crafting their own enclosure to fit their needs. The market for these cases is quite small if I'm to be honest.

I really do hope more people can use this thread as an inspiration to try these builds! These type of testing can be very time intensive and expensive so it's definitely a good thing if more people experiment on their own and share knowledge when they can!
 
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mcheddadi

Cable Smoosher
Mar 13, 2019
12
8
didn't realise that the thread was started with a production model intent at first. thought it was more like a build log kind of deal. neyurt, you don good and inspired me with your great ideas and renders. ...i'll make a new thread when I receive more than what i have now. btw just got two Noctua NF-A14 fans and ordered some more things. here's a hint: REAL carbon fiber baby! anyhoo, enjoy! and remember, it's all for the lulz! don't stress :)
 
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chyll2

Master of Cramming
Jun 27, 2018
431
362
No Apologies needed. I am not even interested in buying this even if it went production but I kept on coming here to see progress cause it is VERY UNIQ.
 
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neyurt

Cable-Tie Ninja
Original poster
Jul 26, 2018
158
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didn't realise that the thread was started with a production model intent at first. thought it was more like a build log kind of deal. neyurt, you don good and inspired me with your great ideas and renders. ...i'll make a new thread when I receive more than what i have now. btw just got two Noctua NF-A14 fans and ordered some more things. here's a hint: REAL carbon fiber baby! anyhoo, enjoy! and remember, it's all for the lulz! don't stress :)

Yep, believe it or not I wanted to make a production case for my previous built. There seem to be good genuine hype when I first debuted a working concept. But realistically the hype was mostly from a handful of people and it probably doesn't make sense for a mass production project. That didn't stop me from drafting ideas for the case and I had a blast rendering them and built limited frames. : )
 

neyurt

Cable-Tie Ninja
Original poster
Jul 26, 2018
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I have been testing this build more. While I'm very happy with how well it's working and how efficient it is, and as it's currently oriented ( horizontal to the ground), I'm not entirely sold on how much footprint it's occupying comparing to the previous built (Dark Tower build). (11"x7.5") vs "7*7*13" for the previous Dark Tower built.

I'm brainstorming some ideas to make this a vertical case, but that probably means having a 1.5-2 inches "legs" buffer to connect the IO from underneath. I'm not a big fan of wires coming out the top (think DSE Breathe).
 

neyurt

Cable-Tie Ninja
Original poster
Jul 26, 2018
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My current analysis between Dark Tower vs 2xHeligon build:

Dark Tower:
7x7x13" = 10.4L (internal volume)
7x7 footprint
- Better thermals for Graphic Card
- Less CPU cooling (smaller heatsink - iffy for 9900k)
- Uses 3 large fan (1 for Dark Rock LP and 2x for Dark Rock Pro)

2xHeligon build:
7x8x11 = 10L (internal volume)
7x11 footprint
- Better CPU cooling
- Less GPU cooling
- Better for i9-9900k
- Uses only 2x140mm fan

The minimum internal volume here for both are very similar and the final enclosure is dependent on what style/material to be chosen. The Heligon build do use 1 less fan, so that's small advantage. The main concern here is CPU cooling for the Dark Tower, I'm not confident that the DarkRock LP can handle an overclocked 5Ghz 9900k (the 300w rated Heligon can barely do this!)

A vertical oriented 2xHeligon might be a good compromise to get this done. I have yet tested this, as even the test rig would need proper support to prop up that much weight from the two massive heatsinks!
 
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1s44c

Caliper Novice
Mar 30, 2019
31
13
I am also a long time lurker, and this is very intersesting. How about using the 2 heligons vertically and a single 180mm air penetrator blowing air up through the fin stack. That should reduce noise considerably. The only thing is that there isnt really a good place to put a psu, but I would think that most on desk users would worry about width as compared to length.
 

neyurt

Cable-Tie Ninja
Original poster
Jul 26, 2018
158
164
Got some time last night so I worked on this a bit. Temporarily using 2 plank of wood for a make-shfit frame for the rig.

Just another in-between-step to finalize callings, and fits.

But this rig looks pretty damn compact:

For size reference, the bottom piece of wood is roughly 8.5"x12". The height is also roughly around ~8". So if we can shortened the distance a bit (about ~1"), the internal volume could be 8.5 x 8.5 x 11".

I'm actually quite please of how cool it looks in its "open form", lol. And this rig will probably stay this way for a bit until I find some more time to work on a case (not sure if that's even coming at this point as I've been consistently been taking builds apart every time I come up with an idea).

I have also tested this rig as a standing up orientation. From my experience, the numbers aren't better. I thought it should if it just one flow of air from bottom and exist top. But that wasn't the case, I still have been getting consistently better results when it's lay horizontally with the two fan blowing opposite direction (where the two air flow meets in the middle and exist from top). I think this has to do with the fan blowing air directly into the bigger of the two heatsink and this cools the CPU and GPU separately at the same time. Whereas a single direction airflow would means that either the CPU or GPU gets priority and the one sitting at the end of the air flow gets the hotter air blown through the heatsink.

With the two air flow meeting in the middle, both the GPU and CPU are being cooled equally. I think this is important as the 9900k runs VERY hot and needs just as much attention as a full load GPU. When testing the single-flow standing orientation, I remember there were a few instances where my 5Ghz OC on the 9900k won't hold up as there were spikes in temp under heavy gaming load.

Current spec testing: 122% Power limit 2080 ti (hitting 350W in-game). OC 5Ghz all-core 5Ghz i9-9900K. Temps for the CPU jumps around so it's hard to quanitfy a number, but somewhere between 60-70+ under various gaming load. The GPU under 350W runs around ~65 and can spike a bit above 70+ (I think happens when the CPU hits a heavier load and the heat itself gets applied to the nearby GPU's heat-sink).

Pretty happy with this so far. Sorry for the long and perhaps incoherent stream of thoughts :p

Just figure those who are interested find the info interesting.
 
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MukeMukem

Case Bender
New User
Sep 19, 2019
2
0
Hey all,

I'm new here. After lurking around for a while i found this thread. Are there any finished builds?
 

neyurt

Cable-Tie Ninja
Original poster
Jul 26, 2018
158
164
Hey all,

I'm new here. After lurking around for a while i found this thread. Are there any finished builds?
Hello! To be completely honest, I've gotten quite busy catching up with other things in life so I haven't touched any project since my last custom-loop. It's been a few months.

The furthest progress I've made with this project are the pics I posted in #94.

If you ever decided to replicate this build and add your own touches, I would love so see the final product! Hopefully there's enough data and notes here from this thread to help you finalize your build.
 

Windfall

Shrink Ray Wielder
SFFn Staff
Nov 14, 2017
2,117
1,582

Triple GPU graphics card?
 
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