SENTRY: Console-sized gaming PC case project

[Sam-I-Am]

Hi everyone,

I have been lurking on this forum since January when I placed my order for a 1st batch BLACK sentry. (order #437).

I've been watching Sam-I-Am's posts with great interest since I am also in Japan:





My 1st batch / 3rd transport SENTRY was shipped out on June 9th, and it has finally arrived in Japan as of today!
So hopefully it will get through customs in a day or two and then I can report on the package condition.

Posted              2017-06-09 14:52    UP Nowy Sącz 2
Package sent        2017-06-09 16:25    UP Nowy Sącz 2
Item arrived        2017-06-09 18:31    WER Kraków
Package sent        2017-06-09 20:39    WER Kraków
Item arrived        2017-06-10 05:01    WER Warszawa
Sent from Poland    2017-06-12 15:34    WER Warszawa
Accepted in the
destination country 2017-06-18 13:50    KAWASAKI PORT

To be honest I wasn't expecting it to arrive so soon -- I have only purchased a SFX power supply and a intel CPU cooler (LP53) but have been going back and forth on Kaby Lake vs Ryzen and also trying to restrain myself from going crazy with the GPU. My current GPU is a 660 TI which I paid about $280 for ... and yet I keep putting a 1080ti in and out of my shopping cart.

Ah well. The case will be here soon. Very excited!

I'm glad your case is arriving as fast as mine did (if I'd been here to accept it that is)! You can actually plug your tracking number into Japan Post's website, it gives more info since it's in Japan now. I think if I had done it all over again I would have only changed one or two things about my build. My SFX-L PSU didn't bug me as much as it has bugged others, so I'd actually keep that the same (I like the larger fan). I might have waited out and bought the i7 7700T instead of the just lower i5 (got impatient as those things are never in stock). Only other thing is if I'd saved just a little more money I'd have gotten a 1070, but then I'd be worrying about the extra heat. Overall I'm quite pleased with my whole setup.

Now that I think about it, I may try to find me a 7700T someday in the future...

 

[ZombiPL]

Sentry manufacturing process - weekly update​

This week was a bit short mostly because it ended with long weekend in Poland (from Thursday to Sunday). Despite this, we managed to move things forward according to the plan:

- last transport of unpainted Sentry bodies (white cases) was sent to our 2nd paintshop,

- we finished preparing accessory boxes,

- 4th transport Sentry units are almost assembled and this week we will be packing them into transport boxes.

It looks like someone is reading our updates It makes us really happy. Thanks to that we are getting feedback which we need, and also as a bonus we are receiving more and more photos of builds/desk surface arrangements with Sentry. Just like 2 weeks ago, below you can find some of new photos shared by our backers (as usual, you will find more in our forums topics) :

 

[Veritas187]

Yay sold i7700k for 300 now that gives me more money for this build I'm thinking r5 1600x and vega nano if it gets released in time

 

[Rysen]

Sentry manufacturing process - weekly update​

This week was a bit short mostly because it ended with long weekend in Poland (from Thursday to Sunday). Despite this, we managed to move things forward according to the plan:

- last transport of unpainted Sentry bodies (white cases) was sent to our 2nd paintshop,

- we finished preparing accessory boxes,

- 4th transport Sentry units are almost assembled and this week we will be packing them into transport boxes.

It looks like someone is reading our updates It makes us really happy. Thanks to that we are getting feedback which we need, and also as a bonus we are receiving more and more photos of builds/desk surface arrangements with Sentry. Just like 2 weeks ago, below you can find some of new photos shared by our backers (as usual, you will find more in our forums topics) :

Wait does this mean you are going to do the next batch of black this upcoming week?

 

[Ej24]

Yay sold i7700k for 300 now that gives me more money for this build I'm thinking r5 1600x and vega nano if it gets released in time

You seem pretty confident there will even be a Vega Nano

 

[Veritas187]

You seem pretty confident there will even be a Vega Nano

There had better be!

 

[Ej24]

There had better be!

I would hope so too. The R9 Nano was perpetually sold out. I think they underestimated the demand and couldn't supply enough. Hopefully they realize what an untapped market the sff community is and they do indeed release a Vega Nano. Then you could have (presumably) gtx 1080 performance in a tiny gpu with room to spare in sentry for an AIO or a drive cage.

 

[SaperPL]

I just checked the status of first shipment because some people noted that their tracking still didn't move while others are getting their cases. Tracking those from our perspective is quite a pain since we get the update in our system only when your post updates it in the international system, so we have to go through every single tracking number separately until that happens...

It looks like 50% of the US packages from first shipment are delivered, around 10% are either in transport right now in the US already to be delivered or failed delivery because there was noone home and there's like 40% not yet updated.

Those 40% don't look to be precisely matching any pattern like specific states or areas, and I think that USPS might just suck at tracking and not update the packages status until they are delivered. There are states where for example 3 out of 4 packages were already delivered and the 4th one still wasn't updated in the tracking.

I hope those remaining packages from this first shipment will be delivered sometime this week.

 

[jisaku_taro]

Good news! My SENTRY is somewhere in KAWASAKI JP in Customs. Hopefully I get a notice to pay the custom fee soon so I can get it delivered....

I'm glad your case is arriving as fast as mine did (if I'd been here to accept it that is)! You can actually plug your tracking number into Japan Post's website, it gives more info since it's in Japan now. I think if I had done it all over again I would have only changed one or two things about my build. My SFX-L PSU didn't bug me as much as it has bugged others, so I'd actually keep that the same (I like the larger fan). I might have waited out and bought the i7 7700T instead of the just lower i5 (got impatient as those things are never in stock). Only other thing is if I'd saved just a little more money I'd have gotten a 1070, but then I'd be worrying about the extra heat. Overall I'm quite pleased with my whole setup.

Now that I think about it, I may try to find me a 7700T someday in the future...

Hi Sam-I-Am, I was looking at your build and it seems to me that you were going for low-power / low-heat / low-noise. How is it going for you? I think low-noise is probably my top priority because I want to put this down by the 4K TV and it just needs to be as quiet as possible, even while playing a game, to keep the missus happy.

And on that note:

1080ti is overkill, unless you're gaming above 1080p. A 1070 would obliterate a 660ti. Even a 1050ti is better than a 660ti. It's a good time to be in pc gaming, gpu performance increases this generation are huge. I went from a Radeon 7700 series to a gtx 1080. The difference is insane.

For those of you who have a GTX 1060 in your Sentry, how happy are you with the noise, and can you recommend a quiet 1060 for the SENTRY? I'm thinking of getting the 1060 for now on my current system (3570K Ivy Bridge/660 Ti) and wait until later this year to build out a whole new system....

 

[Johnny Halfmoon]

As this photo shows, they also don't care about the stickers showing they shouldn't use hooks...

With regard to recurring damage to packages: A collegue of mine just gave me a tip I would like to share. How about putting the image of a tv on the side of the boxes? It may be a little late for that now, but maybe you can use the idea in the future, when ordering new boxes. Here's the article the idea came from:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...s-printing-giant-tv-side-of-box-a7328916.html

 

[Justice Ranger]

Virginia checking in: no Sentry yet, and no update to tracking info (first batch black, first shipment). Anyone else on the east coast still missing first-ship?

I just checked the status of first shipment because some people noted that their tracking still didn't move while others are getting their cases. Tracking those from our perspective is quite a pain since we get the update in our system only when your post updates it in the international system, so we have to go through every single tracking number separately until that happens...

It looks like 50% of the US packages from first shipment are delivered, around 10% are either in transport right now in the US already to be delivered or failed delivery because there was noone home and there's like 40% not yet updated.

Those 40% don't look to be precisely matching any pattern like specific states or areas, and I think that USPS might just suck at tracking and not update the packages status until they are delivered. There are states where for example 3 out of 4 packages were already delivered and the 4th one still wasn't updated in the tracking.

I hope those remaining packages from this first shipment will be delivered sometime this week.

I'm in Georgia and one of the cases with no updates since leaving Poland.

 

[Oryn]

I'm in Georgia and one of the cases with no updates since leaving Poland.

Same here. First batch black, first shipment. I'm in Quebec, Canada and I haven't had an update from tracking from either Poczta Polska or Canada Post since the case left Poland on May 10th.

 

[Gr8Scott]

34 mm won't obstruct those drives, I just split it into two dimensions as vendors were sometimes showing two dimensions as well.

It looks like this:

View attachment 27659

I've also checked that RipJaws that are technically slightly taller than this, they are cut on the sides and are fitting below the hdd bracket because of that.

SaperPL, thanks so much for this detailed response. Given a scenario where the 2.5 drive bracket was not an issue, what is the max height of DIMM you could put in the Sentry before case clearance (I was thinking 47mm like the CPU, but wanted to be sure there wasn't another limiting factor).

 

[SaperPL]

SaperPL, thanks so much for this detailed response. Given a scenario where the 2.5 drive bracket was not an issue, what is the max height of DIMM you could put in the Sentry before case clearance (I was thinking 47mm like the CPU, but wanted to be sure there wasn't another limiting factor).

I've checked that for someone before and If I remember correctly it was something like 51 mm and those very tall DIMMs are 54~55 mm (corsair dominator for example).

 

[Gr8Scott]

I've checked that for someone before and If I remember correctly it was something like 51 mm and those very tall DIMMs are 54~55 mm (corsair dominator for example).

Thanks so much! I tried doing forum searches, but I probably wasn't using the right search criteria. It's good to know that something like a G.Skill TridentZ or FlareX (44mm) would fit. Thanks again for faithfully answering questions!

 

[Norris0sirroN]

For those of you who have a GTX 1060 in your Sentry, how happy are you with the noise, and can you recommend a quiet 1060 for the SENTRY? I'm thinking of getting the 1060 for now on my current system (3570K Ivy Bridge/660 Ti) and wait until later this year to build out a whole new system....

I have a Asus 1060 turbo which is a blower. I wouldn't call it quiet but it is no louder than in my previous case. I went blower because I wasn't sure if I will have it horizontal or vertical. Be interesting to see if people with open cards find them quiet or not.

 

[kyjol]

What is the best solution to cool a Ryzen in the Sentry? IS-VC45, LP53, T318, something else? What's the mounting options for those anyway?

 

[Gr8Scott]

What is the best solution to cool a Ryzen in the Sentry? IS-VC45, LP53, T318, something else? What's the mounting options for those anyway?

I would recommend checking a few pages back, or doing a search. SaperPL has actually been working on some brackets for certain coolers, and others have posted builds with Ryzen CPUs in them and notated their cooling solutions(some of which you listed). I think Noctua is currently the frontrunner by majority vote (need to get the AM4 bracket) and Cryorig has gotten a bad rap due to sound issues with the height clearance.

If nothing else shows up in the near future, I will be looking at a custom solution, or Noctua.

 

[SaperPL]

What is the best solution to cool a Ryzen in the Sentry? IS-VC45, LP53, T318, something else? What's the mounting options for those anyway?

I've used briefly noctua NH-L9i with my custom bracket before getting the bracket from noctua (which I'm not really fond of because it orients the cooler to blow air at ram and IO instead of blowing out the air outside and on chipset).

With my custom bracket, the R7 1700 worked pretty okay although I didn't had too much time to play with it. Something went bad with one of my memory sticks and I'm waiting for them to get back from RMA.

Meanwhile I've got my T318 mounted without any special bracket on the AM4 and ziptied NH-L9i 92mm fan on top of it and I'm waiting for the memory sticks to test it out.

 

[RosaJ]

I've used briefly noctua NH-L9i with my custom bracket before getting the bracket from noctua (which I'm not really fond of because it orients the cooler to blow air at ram and IO instead of blowing out the air outside and on chipset).

With my custom bracket, the R7 1700 worked pretty okay although I didn't had too much time to play with it. Something went bad with one of my memory sticks and I'm waiting for them to get back from RMA.

Meanwhile I've got my T318 mounted without any special bracket on the AM4 and ziptied NH-L9i 92mm fan on top of it and I'm waiting for the memory sticks to test it out.

Any word on that RMA? Very interested in the T318 results

 

[SaperPL]

Any word on that RMA? Very interested in the T318 results

I'd like to know that as well. I have no idea what's happening with my RMA apart from the fact that it was finally sent to the manufacturer...

At the same time I'm getting more annoyed by biostar not releasing agesa 1.0.0.6 update for this specific board yet...

 

[Sam-I-Am]

Good news! My SENTRY is somewhere in KAWASAKI JP in Customs. Hopefully I get a notice to pay the custom fee soon so I can get it delivered....



Hi Sam-I-Am, I was looking at your build and it seems to me that you were going for low-power / low-heat / low-noise. How is it going for you? I think low-noise is probably my top priority because I want to put this down by the 4K TV and it just needs to be as quiet as possible, even while playing a game, to keep the missus happy.

And on that note:



For those of you who have a GTX 1060 in your Sentry, how happy are you with the noise, and can you recommend a quiet 1060 for the SENTRY? I'm thinking of getting the 1060 for now on my current system (3570K Ivy Bridge/660 Ti) and wait until later this year to build out a whole new system....

That is good news! If the status gets updated to "notice sent by import customs" you should receive a notice in the mail.

You're exactly right, I was going for low noise/low heat in my build. That's why I picked the components I did, and am quite happy with it. As I mentioned in my build post, the only noise I hear now is my PSU fan if I'm within a few feet or so, and just barely there (and that is when the fan is idling).

On to the last part of your post, I have a Gigabyte 1060 in my build, and love it! It even has a fan stop mode, so if the fans aren't needed they aren't spinning! Even under my highest gaming load, playing Fallout 4 with all settings maxed out (at 1080p) the fans don't make any noticeable noise. The model is GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1060 GV-N1060G1GAMING-6GD. Hope this helps your decision! (I think they even carry that card at Yodobashi!)

 

[kyjol]

I would recommend checking a few pages back, or doing a search. SaperPL has actually been working on some brackets for certain coolers, and others have posted builds with Ryzen CPUs in them and notated their cooling solutions(some of which you listed). I think Noctua is currently the frontrunner by majority vote (need to get the AM4 bracket) and Cryorig has gotten a bad rap due to sound issues with the height clearance.

If nothing else shows up in the near future, I will be looking at a custom solution, or Noctua.

I remember reading it but was not clear on the mounting. I know SaperPL did a bracket for the Noctua before the official one was released, but I'm not really interested in the Noctua nor the Cryorig as they don't seem to be the best choice thermal wise. I'm very interested in the less common alternatives, especially full copper ones.

 

[QUAKE006]

For my Sentry, I want a gaming rig that is able to play 4K games like Skyrim, Destiny 2, Assassin´s Creed Origins, etc. So my question is should I go for the GTX 1080 for the lower cost and lower TDP, or for the GTX 1080 Ti for current maximum performance in 4K games?

 

[Ej24]

For my Sentry, I want a gaming rig that is able to play 4K games like Skyrim, Destiny 2, Assassin´s Creed Origins, etc. So my question is should I go for the GTX 1080 for the lower cost and lower TDP, or for the GTX 1080 Ti for current maximum performance in 4K games?

I have a 1080 so I can't speak for the 1080ti. At 4k, max settings, you'll be pushing a 1080 to its limit. You will see 40-50fps in many games. Especially with games later this year and into 2018 which will probably be more and more demanding. If you're ok with medium to high settings you'll hit 60fps at 4k with a 1080 in most games. If you must have the best visuals at 4k60 then the Ti is really the only option. Maybe wait and see what the few Sentry owners with Ti's have observed.

I should add, I have a pretty aggressive fan curve on my founders edition and I rarely see temps above 75C. Usually maintains boost clock of 2000+mhz.

 

[Rysen]

For my Sentry, I want a gaming rig that is able to play 4K games like Skyrim, Destiny 2, Assassin´s Creed Origins, etc. So my question is should I go for the GTX 1080 for the lower cost and lower TDP, or for the GTX 1080 Ti for current maximum performance in 4K games?

Definately 1080ti. Event the 1080ti will not give you full 60fps. My 1080ti cannot maintain 60fps in ghost recon wild lands at ultra settings.

 

[Ej24]

Definately 1080ti. Event the 1080ti will not give you full 60fps. My 1080ti cannot maintain 60fps in ghost recon wild lands at ultra settings.

Realistically I think we won't see totally fluent 4k gaming until the next generation of gpu's. Volta and Navi.

 

[QUAKE006]

If anyone on this thread has a Gsync or Freesync monitor, is it worth it? Specifically for Gsync, is it worth the price premium?

 

[QUAKE006]

I have a 1080 so I can't speak for the 1080ti. At 4k, max settings, you'll be pushing a 1080 to its limit. You will see 40-50fps in many games. Especially with games later this year and into 2018 which will probably be more and more demanding. If you're ok with medium to high settings you'll hit 60fps at 4k with a 1080 in most games. If you must have the best visuals at 4k60 then the Ti is really the only option. Maybe wait and see what the few Sentry owners with Ti's have observed.

I should add, I have a pretty aggressive fan curve on my founders edition and I rarely see temps above 75C. Usually maintains boost clock of 2000+mhz.

Thanks. I'll take a look at more reviews.

 

[Rysen]

If anyone on this thread has a Gsync or Freesync monitor, is it worth it? Specifically for Gsync, is it worth the price premium?

I have a Gsynch monitor at work and a regular old monitor at home and while you can certainly tell the difference when running games, It is nothing fancy and eventually you will grow used it and it will feel like you never upgraded. It's just something you notice the first week after you switched to Gsync and after that never notice again. I often switched between the Gsynch and the non-gsync older monitor I own and while I have to admit I felt the difference the first few weeks, I no longer feel a relevant difference. I would buy a VR headset over a Gsync monitor, some of the Gsynch monitor have the same price and do not bring as many features as you will get from VR.

 

[Steve0Kinev0]

If anyone on this thread has a Gsync or Freesync monitor, is it worth it? Specifically for Gsync, is it worth the price premium?

I have a gsync monitor (acer xb270hu) and gsync is nice... But overall the upgrade from 60hz to 144hz was a huge improvement. G-sync is nice but not worth the massive price premium IMHO.

 

[darksable]

So... I have a somewhat bad problem.

I went to swap GPUs, and one of my case screws is stripped. Bear in mind, I've only ever used these screws... Twice?

Now, I was sent plenty of extra screws, which is awesome, however... I can't get this one off. I tried pliers, but it couldn't get a grip on the rounded head and actually scratched one side panel slightly. (Thankfully I noticed and stopped before it got beyond a minor issue.)

Problem is... How do I get the screw out so I can fix this?

 

[darksable]

I have a Gsynch monitor at work and a regular old monitor at home and while you can certainly tell the difference when running games, It is nothing fancy and eventually you will grow used it and it will feel like you never upgraded. It's just something you notice the first week after you switched to Gsync and after that never notice again. I often switched between the Gsynch and the non-gsync older monitor I own and while I have to admit I felt the difference the first few weeks, I no longer feel a relevant difference. I would buy a VR headset over a Gsync monitor, some of the Gsynch monitor have the same price and do not bring as many features as you will get from VR.

I strongly disagree. However, I'm curious what the difference in our scenarios is - what settings were you running the game at?

If you run the game so that it's almost always above 100Hz, then G-sync makes a small-ish difference over just a high refresh rate monitor...

But I'm currently using a 60-Hz monitor (and have a lot of experience on my friend's g-sync monitor running games at ~50ish fps) and firmly believe that selling my 120Hz monitor was the worst decision I ever made with my computer.

If you're running g-sync, you have a high refresh rate, and as long as you take advantage of that and keep fps high, it's like night and day compared to a normal monitor.

 

[Rysen]

I strongly disagree. However, I'm curious what the difference in our scenarios is - what settings were you running the game at?

If you run the game so that it's almost always above 100Hz, then G-sync makes a small-ish difference over just a high refresh rate monitor...

But I'm currently using a 60-Hz monitor (and have a lot of experience on my friend's g-sync monitor running games at ~50ish fps) and firmly believe that selling my 120Hz monitor was the worst decision I ever made with my computer.

If you're running g-sync, you have a high refresh rate, and as long as you take advantage of that and keep fps high, it's like night and day compared to a normal monitor.

It depends on the type of game you play. I'm sure it makes a big difference for FPS games but not for any of the games I played, MOBA RPG or RTS and Ghost Recon Wildlands where FPS never went past 60fps so refresh rate didn't make a difference.

At work we ended up getting a 4k monitor instead is a much better investment.

 

[Ej24]

So... I have a somewhat bad problem.

I went to swap GPUs, and one of my case screws is stripped. Bear in mind, I've only ever used these screws... Twice?

Now, I was sent plenty of extra screws, which is awesome, however... I can't get this one off. I tried pliers, but it couldn't get a grip on the rounded head and actually scratched one side panel slightly. (Thankfully I noticed and stopped before it got beyond a minor issue.)

Problem is... How do I get the screw out so I can fix this?

Try a larger or different bit? Maybe a Philips head or star shaped bit could get some friction with it? Worst case scenario get a screw tapping drill bit. We'll see if the Ząber guys have any other suggestions, they're the real engineers here after all.

 

[Bucwolfser]

I just finished building in my Sentry. This was my second build and it was significantly more challenging than building in the Carbide 240.

SFXL and modular cables made for very tight fitting.

Never upgraded to Ryzen since Mobos are lacking so repurposed existing Intel i5-4690k.

I picked up a Thermatltake Engine 27 cooler and it looks pretty legit... I don't know how to run a proper benchmark, yet, so I can only say it looks cool at this point.

This case is the tiny and solid as a rock!

 

[ZombiPL]

So... I have a somewhat bad problem.

I went to swap GPUs, and one of my case screws is stripped. Bear in mind, I've only ever used these screws... Twice?

Now, I was sent plenty of extra screws, which is awesome, however... I can't get this one off. I tried pliers, but it couldn't get a grip on the rounded head and actually scratched one side panel slightly. (Thankfully I noticed and stopped before it got beyond a minor issue.)

Problem is... How do I get the screw out so I can fix this?

This issue is usually a problem not with the type of the socket itself (hex) but with size of the screw. M3 is a really small screw. Even if we wanted to predict some of the issues by using almost highest class of screws (10.9 while in our application even 4.6 would be enough), this is still a very small screw. It means if you use too much force to fasten it, there is a possiblity you will damage the socket... just like with other types of screws. That is one of the reasons why we added hand wrench instead of hex driver bit.

There are several solutions to solve your problem. Everything depends on what level of damage you are (as i know your impatience, at this moment there is almost no screw head to work with ):

1. If the socket isn't "working" properly, but you didn't damage it too much, you can try to use the star wrench of the same size or one size higher.
2. If the socket is so damaged that it changed its dimension to the higher hex size, use bigger hex bit and add some pressure while unscrewing it. It is very possible you will need to use electric tool for this operation, and if you are lucky, thanks to the friction you will be able to unscrew your screw.
3. If there is still some socket, then you could go to your local tools shop and ask for "broken screw extractor tool set" for small size screws, and show them one of the screws. Such tool works like left-hand screw and it should help in such situation. Example, Example 2.
4. If the socket is damaged so badly that you don't have anything to work with, you can use a dremmel and make a narrow gap for flat screwdriver. You have to do it very gentle to not damage the surface around the screw.
5. If the socket is damaged in the way that you ask yourself "what socket", then your options are very limited. You can use an industrial glue used for fastening steel elements and waste some hex bit by fastening it to the screw.
6. If you are at this point, then probably welder is the only tool which would help you

Good luck!

 

[riba2233]

There are also some 12.9 m3 screws but they are probably overkill

 

[Gr8Scott]

I remember reading it but was not clear on the mounting. I know SaperPL did a bracket for the Noctua before the official one was released, but I'm not really interested in the Noctua nor the Cryorig as they don't seem to be the best choice thermal wise. I'm very interested in the less common alternatives, especially full copper ones.

Agreed, I've never pulled the trigger on Noctua b/c it just doesn't feel right. Really excited to hear about the Dynatron!

 

[forScience]

So... I have a somewhat bad problem.

I went to swap GPUs, and one of my case screws is stripped. Bear in mind, I've only ever used these screws... Twice?

Now, I was sent plenty of extra screws, which is awesome, however... I can't get this one off. I tried pliers, but it couldn't get a grip on the rounded head and actually scratched one side panel slightly. (Thankfully I noticed and stopped before it got beyond a minor issue.)

Problem is... How do I get the screw out so I can fix this?

You could fill the stripped socket completely with a strong epoxy like jb weld and make a new socket indentation/imprint using the screw driver/wrench before it dries. Then use the wrench to unscrew it as normal after the expoxy hardens.