SlimITX Gaming Enclosure (Case Design from Scratch)

Hi everyone! I've got this worklog going on a couple other forums but so far have received pretty lackluster response. Hopefully you all have some input Here goes:



What is it: A slim miniITX case that can accept dual-slot graphics cards

Why?: I wanted a small ITX gaming case, and hate cubes!
This is also satisfying an Engineering Design project at my college for a friend and I, so we get school credit for playing. I feel like there maybe a niche in the market for a case like this.

We went through a couple design concepts before settling on the one pictured above. Part of this is because of the components I have- everything being used is being donated from my gaming PC. You can see it will accommodate up to a 10.5" graphics card in theory.

So far as I know there aren't many (if any) cases like this. From the beginning the idea was to use a 90 deg PCI express riser to mount the graphics card horizontally. One thing we had to do was verify this would work with a high-performance graphics card, so we tested that very early on with a very low budget testbed:


We decided we wanted the case to accept standard components with minimal or no modification. It will need a low profile heatsink, but that's about it. It would be possible to reduce dimensions further by making a proprietary case, but that kind of defeats the purpose of DESIGNING a case, eh?

Of course tackling the noise and thermals will be the biggest challenge with this project, and that's what we are prepared to devote the most time to. So far we've got everything running at acceptable levels of both noise and temp in open air, but we've yet to simulate our case environment.

Here's our most recent mockups:



Size comparison to Dell Studio 15 laptop:


Size comparison to Sony Upscale DVD Player:


Interestingly, it looks like a case of these dimensions would also easily accomodate an mATX or even ATX motherboard without a discrete graphics card, if one could get away with using 2.5" hard drives.


Pretty cool that we can get his much diversity out of this design. It could possibly accommodate a single slot GFX with an mATX or ATX motherboard using a flexible riser card, but I'm not going to worry about designing that in just yet (unless there is overwhelming interest!)

Now I know what you're thinking, holy geesh this thing is going to be loud and it's going to overheat terribly. That was our initial fear, but so far the thermal testing is going very well. I won't consider the project a success if it's unbearably loud. The graphics card will definitely be the loudest component running at full load, and that's more or less unavoidable.

Case materials are actually up in the air but most likely Aluminum. We have some ideas already on how to mount and route everything that are present in our hand sketches and not yet in the Solid models.

So you probably want to know the components I'm using:
DFI Lanparty P55 T36 Motherboard
Core i5 750 Quad Core w/ TurboBoost enabled
OCZ 2x2 GB DDR3 RAM
HIS Radeon 5770 1 GB
2x 1 TB WD Caviar Blue

Not top end components, but this case is really intended for more midrange parts anyway, although we'd like to accommodate as much as we can.

Let me know your input and if anyone has any questions! Look for rapid updates on this project becuase we need to have it completed in only a couple months. Thanks!

So far im kinda digging it. But honestly Most of my anticipation is on the case If you can make it a classy case to go with AV equipment then ill love it, And if its decently quiet? thats just icing on the top!

Also... if its light enough(keep in mind, this is just a stupid thought that has nothing to do with your intentions for the case) and it spaces out well, put some holes around the video card so the little case can be bolted onto a vesa mount monitor and bam, perfect little lan rig!

Going to watch this one play out!

I spent a couple days playing around with similar flat component layouts in sketchup but I ended up wanting to overclock and so I scrapped those designs.

Thanks for the feedback guys! My intent is to design it as something professional looking that will look at home in a home theater or under a monitor. It probably will be far too heavy to VESA mount it, at least with the 3.5" hard drives.

I think it will have some overclocking potential on the CPU. Basically whatever you can do without much overvolting. It obviously won't compete with the big tower systems in that regard though.

I suppose I'll combine this with a minor update:

Here's the silverstone low profile cooler I plan on using. It's basically a good knockoff of the Intel stock design, and is much closer to the height I need:




Open air testing Prime95 torture I got it to plateau at ~70 deg C at 40% fan speed... basically inaudible. I'm quite happy with that, the stock Intel HSF would hit 80+ deg C at similar noise levels.

I got a new PCI riser card in today that will raise the graphics card up a little more to give better clearance for a dual slot. It took a while to come in becomes I ordered it on Chinese new year

Also got in some wire extensions yesterday so I could wire it up in the proper orientation:


It's definitely time for a new testbed. It's hard to picture a beautiful case around a bunch of plywood and duct tape! The reason for the test bed is so we can do some extensive thermal testing. i.e. simulate the rest of the case with some cardboard and the fans we want and then stress test the crap out of it. We have the built in sensors, along with some digital thermistors and a dBa meter so we should be able to do some actual scientific testing.

Here's the current desk/testbed setup:

I actually take it apart everytime I leave the house because I don't want my cat tearing up the exposed wires.

You may note my new present to myself:


Thankfully the girlfriend doesn't find it too loud. People saying the Cherry Brown switches are too loud are kind of crazy... typing softly on the mechanical is really not much louder than if you are a hard typer on a regular keyboard. I kind of regret not getting a keyboard with Cherry Blacks...

Looks interesting, have you had any ideas on an actual case for it, or are you going with the DVD player casing?

We are floating some concepts for the actual case, but being engineers we're letting function dictate the form

It's definitely going to be a custom enclosure, thinking mostly anodized or powdercoated aluminum with some nice mesh openings where need intake/exhaust. Also toying around with the idea of a smoked lexan top panel.

By the end of next week we should be done with our thermal testing and be able to start with the actual case design

This looks interesting... I'm definitely keeping an eye on this one.

I like projects like this. You often need some real ingenuity to get thinks functioning properly.

Cool idea for a design project. What concentration of engineering are you studying? I've got a BSE in Mechanical Engineering, but I can tell you we never got to do cool projects like this... only designing theoretical windshield wiper systems (I can still dream about those things going back and forth and back and forth.....) Ok, so we did do some cool stuff, but not anything as cool as this.

Interested to see how it turns out.

Thanks for all the inspiration guys I'm a junior in the ME program at my college. One thing that's great about the engineering department here (Daniel Webster College) is as it's a very small program they let us work on basically whatever we want as long as it satisfies the requirements. For this project we'll be doing some CFD and thermal calculations in addition to the obvious physical design. I've been tied up with lots of other school work lately, but came up with some teaser preliminary sketches for the case design:



I'm digging the full front grill personally, esp. as I have no need for an optical drive. Also not sure if I want the top panel to be aluminum like the rest of the case or tinted lexan.

Gotta get back to work! Hopefully I'll have some pretty photoworks renderings soon

Roughly how tall are you trying to keep this? This is going to be interesting to see take shape.

Targer thickness is less than 2.5" for the body of the case. The little feet on the bottom may add more. Thanks for all the interest!

cool case! any chance theres room for an H70 block on the mobo, and a rad where the HDDs are if using a 2.5" drive?

ekuest said:

cool case! any chance theres room for an H70 block on the mobo, and a rad where the HDDs are if using a 2.5" drive?

Click to expand...

I think an H50/70 WC block is over 2.5" alone w/ hose protrusion. Add a radiator (which the H70 has a thicker radiator) and a fan.... Fit that in a 2.5" tall case? Yeah, I don't think so chief...

cmadki4 said:

I think an H50/70 WC block is over 2.5" alone w/ hose protrusion. Add a radiator (which the H70 has a thicker radiator) and a fan.... Fit that in a 2.5" tall case? Yeah, I don't think so chief...

Click to expand...

actually the H70 block/pump is about 1.2in tall (well under 2.5" with tubes). the rad is just under 2" thick, so coupled with a .5" scythe slim fan it just might work. it would be really close.

ekuest said:

actually the H70 block/pump is about 1.2in tall (well under 2.5" with tubes). the rad is just under 2" thick, so coupled with a .5" scythe slim fan it just might work. it would be really close.

Click to expand...

Dang, really? I asked H50 owners if I could fit the block/pump in an space with only 2.75" overhead clearance (before interfering with the PSU), they responded with a resounding "no"... Specs found online back them up, but I wish they're wrong. I want an H50 in my PC2 (see sig).

cmadki4 said:

Dang, really? I asked H50 owners if I could fit the block/pump in an space with only 2.75" overhead clearance (before interfering with the PSU), they responded with a resounding "no"... Specs found online back them up, but I wish they're wrong. I want an H50 in my PC2 (see sig).

Click to expand...

Corsair h60?

cmadki4 said:

Dang, really? I asked H50 owners if I could fit the block/pump in an space with only 2.75" overhead clearance (before interfering with the PSU), they responded with a resounding "no"... Specs found online back them up, but I wish they're wrong. I want an H50 in my PC2 (see sig).

Click to expand...

NOT H50. H60 (thin rad) and H70 (thick rad) will both fit with a low-profile block, but the H50 has a very tall block.

B-Sal said:

Corsair h60?

Click to expand...

good call! i just checked like a week ago and it wasnt for sale anywhere yet, but yeah i think an H60 would definitely fit.

To reiterate, an H50 won't fit because of the block; the H70's block will fit in 1U but the problem there is the rad - specifically the barbs. The rad is 2" thick, so while you might be able to use a 12mm fan (and get poor performance) to make it just about 2.5", the barbs come straight out and I doubt you could bend them enough to fit.

The H60 or the Antec Kuhler would probably fit though.

Necere said:

The H60 or the Antec Kuhler would probably fit though.

Click to expand...

Are either of those available yet? I haven't seen them... Might just end up going w/ the Big Shuriken low pro cooler. That would fit in this build as well, right? 58mm tall??

cmadki4 said:

Are either of those available yet? I haven't seen them... Might just end up going w/ the Big Shuriken low pro cooler. That would fit in this build as well, right? 58mm tall??

Click to expand...

Both are showing up on shopping sites, though the Antec may be more available at the moment.

As for the Big Shuriken - you have to take into consideration the height of the standoffs, motherboard, and CPU, all of which add up to 12-20mm... so no, a 58mm tall HSF isn't going to fit in 63mm. I would guess the stock low profile Intel heatsink (~45mm) is about as tall as you can go.

Interesting idea with the water cooling. I had ruled out the H50 because of it's tall block but didn't realize the H60 and H70 had shorter ones! The blocks would fit, but currently the space that is allocated for the 3.5" hard drives wouldn't be quite enough to fit the radiator. I could add an inch or so to the length of the case and that would accommodate it. Big update coming later tonight!

Alright guys pretty big update today. My friend and I finally got the tools and the time to do some (very preliminary) thermal testing to validate our design concept.

Here goes:






If a picture is worth a thousand words, then an HD video is worth... a million?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0AUEpR4RyE

Cliffnotes: Prelim thermal testing went very well, meets our noise levels. Video card portion definitely needs some work but seeing as how we didn't even have an intake path for it in this incarnation I'm not too worried about it.

Those temps and sound levels are surprisingly good, nicely done.

This looks interesting. Keep up the good work!

Thanks again for the feedback everyone

We've got a big presentation tomorrow. Here are some renders to keep you all interested:






The mesh grills are on all the intakes

Sweet! Which CAD program are you using?

Thanks! Solidworks 2010 and the renders are in Photoview

looks sexy. i love solidworks. how do you plan to fasten it all together? and what are you using to cut the panels, water jet?

We're going to be doing everything we can with our CNC unless we find a sheet metal place willing to do the work for free. That and hand tools... I'd like to not have any exposed fasteners. If there are any, they'll be rivets.

yottabit said:

We're going to be doing everything we can with our CNC unless we find a sheet metal place willing to do the work for free. That and hand tools... I'd like to not have any exposed fasteners. If there are any, they'll be rivets.

Click to expand...

Where are you located? I have 8 lasers, 1 of which is offline for odd-jobs. If you're not terribly far and were willing to A) release the drawings and B) have the parts made from 2.3mm SPHC, I might be able to cut/bend them up for you and ship them to you. But only if this is for a school project. My little contribution.

cmadki4 said:

Where are you located? I have 8 lasers, 1 of which is offline for odd-jobs. If you're not terribly far and were willing to A) release the drawings and B) have the parts made from 2.3mm SPHC, I might be able to cut/bend them up for you and ship them to you. But only if this is for a school project. My little contribution.

Click to expand...

Thank you so much for the offer! PM'd

cmadki4 said:

I might be able to cut/bend them up for you and ship them to you. But only if this is for a school project. My little contribution.

Click to expand...

Good karma!!!

looks like an awesome project -- I too really like the full mesh front

Just got some cold rolled 1.6mm (16ga) sheets in. That's probably better for a case than 2.3mm. Pm returned.

cmadki4 said:

Just got some cold rolled 1.6mm (16ga) sheets in. That's probably better for a case than 2.3mm. Pm returned.

Click to expand...

if youre going to have that large of a span across the top, unsupported, with possibly other units on top, then id say 2.3mm would be better. 1.6 might start to sag after a while if theres any weight in the middle. if its the top unit, or the unit on top has its feet placed near the edges of this case, then you'd probably be ok. or you could add a little support bar somewhere in the middle.

ekuest said:

if youre going to have that large of a span across the top, unsupported, with possibly other units on top, then id say 2.3mm would be better. 1.6 might start to sag after a while if theres any weight in the middle. if its the top unit, or the unit on top has its feet placed near the edges of this case, then you'd probably be ok. or you could add a little support bar somewhere in the middle.

Click to expand...

You're right we actually have supports that run across the length of the case for that reason!

You'd be surprised how little difference there is between the two thicknesses. Weight being the only noticeable within a certain margin. And as far as strength, they practically identical. And with the aforementioned support you'll be just fine.

1.6mm SPHC at 25 lbs even load:

2.3mm SPHC at 25 lbs even load:

cmadki4 said:

You'd be surprised how little difference there is between the two thicknesses. Weight being the only noticeable within a certain margin. And as far as strength, they practically identical. And with the aforementioned support you'll be just fine.

1.6mm SPHC at 25 lbs even load:

2.3mm SPHC at 25 lbs even load:

Click to expand...

nice. how does it react to a 5 or 10lb point load in the middle?

i didnt know you guys had supports, really shouldnt be a problem then.

Many thanks to ekuest, everyone, and especially cmadki4 for his tremendous help so far!

Also worth nothing that 1.6 mm is approx 1/16" and 2.3mm 1/8"... very few cases are made of even 1/16" steel, 1/8" would be definite overkill

Here's some pics of the interior design of the case... I was hesitant to show them because the detail isn't finished yet, and some dimensions need refinement, but it will give you all a general idea of the layout (please treat them as conceptual for the time being):




The only downside with this configuration is changing the video card requires removal of the power supply. I was originally planning on having a vertical carriage that would allow you to swap out the video card leaving everything else in place but it was just adding too much complexity. We'll be making it easy to remove the power supply however