My goal is to simply make this as small as possible. Planning on making a new rig for college, that's probably going to end up being a 4770K/Z87 mATX build, single GPU, and so I figured I should design the case around that. Seems like most gamers (including myself) never really need the ridiculous amount of drive bays that most cases on the market have, so I figured a lot of space could be saved there (rev 1 holds 2 x 3.5" and 2 x 2.25", rev 2 holds 2 x 3.5" and 1 x 2.5"). Also, the cube style cases seem to be more of a rarity, so why not? d
I actually finished Rev 1 of the case, which was designed to use a Noctua NH-C14 to cool the CPU (might make a post later on in this thread about it), but decided that I wanted to go with an AIO liquid cooler.
Here's the beginnings of the design of the second iteration. Both Rev 1 and Rev 2 are about a 12x12 footprint.
Single GPU + sound card + wireless card is what I'm going for. Could go ITX and find USB solutions from the other two but I'm just sort of put off by the rather minimal choice of good ITX boards out there (the only one I can think of for Z77 off the top of my head is the one ASUS one).
Chances that the board going into this will end up being the Maximus VI Gene isn't too bad. Might get into benching with the extra free time I have.
ASUS ITX boards usually have integrated Wi-Fi. As you want a single GPU, you are good to go with only one PCIe slot. Then, for the sound, there are amazing USB solutions (NwAvGuy's Objective DAC and Objective2 amplifier, for example) that could do wonders for any stereo audio needs you could have.
There are asrock and gigabyte Z77 itx boards. As well as the evga stinger z77. I'm a huge fan of small form factor builds. I'm currently in a tj08-E but when it arrives swapping to the campaign funded lian Li m1 itx case.
There are so many external audio solutions that an internal sound card isn't really needed. And as said all those itx boards generally have Wi Fi built in. (I know the gigabyte and asrock do, not sure about the stinger. On my phone. Being lazy )
ASUS ITX boards usually have integrated Wi-Fi. As you want a single GPU, you are good to go with only one PCIe slot. Then, for the sound, there are amazing USB solutions (NwAvGuy's Objective DAC and Objective2 amplifier, for example) that could do wonders for any stereo audio needs you could have.
The main reason I use a sound card is actually for Dolby Surround. There are USB solutions available for this such as the mixamps that comes with the Tritton AX720 and Astro A40. Most of my music listening is done on-the-go anyway.
There are asrock and gigabyte Z77 itx boards. As well as the evga stinger z77. I'm a huge fan of small form factor builds. I'm currently in a tj08-E but when it arrives swapping to the campaign funded lian Li m1 itx case.
There are so many external audio solutions that an internal sound card isn't really needed. And as said all those itx boards generally have Wi Fi built in. (I know the gigabyte and asrock do, not sure about the stinger. On my phone. Being lazy )
Just looked at ITX boards (aka filter search on Newegg + Stinger ). Out of everything I found, the only ones that were reasonably priced and had more than a 4 phase were the ASRock and MSI boards, which isn't a bad selection. I got a model of an ITX board online and played around a bit...instead of being 12x12x8 (LxWxH) of the current case, it ended up being around 14x8x8. IMO, the size gains weren't worth the decrease in flexibility, since with mATX I do have the option of going USB for the Wifi/Audio and going CFX/SLI.
What I'm building seems to be a combination of the two. A little bit smaller and lighter than both, the tradeoff being no place to mount a real pump/res and less drive bays. Part of the reason that I'm building this is that I can probably get it machined for free, which makes it rather cheap for me.
Fair enough. Ya I personally have zero desire for multi card configuration despite my 2560*1440 res. I also don't need wi fi for my main comp as it's always hooked to a cable, and I run an audioengine d1 for sound. Stereo set up with sub. No need for surround anything Lol.
Either way I look forward to seeing this built. Custom cases on oc forums are always awesome ^^
Anyway, the revision with the H220 went out the window since there was serious airflow/space issues in the bottom chamber, and so I'm going back to the air-cooled version.
Here it is! (Not quite yet done).
Specs:
11.126"x 12.126x10.4" (LxWxD)
mATX and miniITX compatible
3 x 3.5" internal bays, 2 x 2.5"HDD/SSD mount
Cooler height of approx. 130mm
Video card length of about 275mm
The main design purpose of this case was to be sleek, light, portable, and as compact as possible. The entire thing is made out of 0.063" thick aluminum sheet metal, making it extremely light. In order to make sure it was structurally sound, the main structure of the case is made from six pieces of metal.
The bottom and side of the case is one piece, bent.
The motherboard tray then acts as the main support member of the case, riveted to the two sides. The back panel is also riveted on using angle brackets.
Since the aluminum is so thin, tapping holes for the motherboard standoffs would work quite well, as there simply wouldn't be enough threads engaged and it would probably sheer. As an alternative, I'm using PEM standoffs that actually are pressfit into the sheet.
The top and front panels are meant to be toolessly removable for quick access and maintenance. The two are bolted together by aluminum blocks in the corners (front panel is made transparent in this picture) with another PEM screw screwing into the block from the side. This screw is spring loaded to a base, which is pressed into the sheet metal. When you turn the screw, it will unscrew from the aluminum block, but not fall out from the side panel. All you have to do is unscrew these on either side of the case, and the front and top panel just pop off together.
Next come the components. The case is essentially split up into two compartments, inspiration taken from high end cases such as the Corsair 900D in this regard. The bottom compartment holds all of the HDDs and SSDs, as well as the PSU. A single 92mm intake blows over the HDDs cooling wise. The HDDs mount to the bottom panel of the case on one side and to the motherboard tray on the other, so they actually act like another support. PSU intakes from the bottom of the case and exhausts through the grill in the back.
Next comes the top compartment, housing the motherboard and everything connected to it. Two 120mm fans serve as the intake, while all the exahust is done by the top-down CPU cooler. Doesn't seem like much airflow, but the intent was that it was directed towards the area that needed it to be (120mms to the GPUs and the top-down cooler cools the VRM section and exhausts straight out of the case. The top and right side of the case are windowed.
Front panel has the initials of my college robotics team cut in, with a piece of red acyrlic behind it to simulate the logo. Drilled for a single LED momentary switch as power, never really paid any attention to HDD lights.
There are some minor things left to do, probably going to secure the removable panels in some other way. Thinking about figuring out a more convenient way of wiring the power switch and fan on the top panel with contacts or a more convenient plug for easier removal. PCIe retention also might need some reworking.
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Possible specs for build:
CPU: 4770K
Cooler: Noctua NH-C14
Motherboard: MVIG
RAM: Crucial Ballstix 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3-1600 CL8 1.35V
GPU: TBD
PSU: 650W XFX Core Pro
HDD: 3 x 1TB in a R5 array
SSD: 240-256GB something
Whether I go the sponsored route for this is something still TBD.
Stands for North American Robotics, it's my college robotics team. If I get it machined, it'll probably be by one of the team's sponsors, and probably be used as a display computer/showcase material as well.
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