SFF Portable Workstation

Nearly 2 years ago I set out to design a SFF Professional CGI Workstation and posted my designs on [H]ard|Forum.

Although I assembled those components (based on a Maximus IV Gene-Z) inside a bigger CMStacker case, I never realized the custom SFF enclosure. Working on that machine (as I'm doing right now) is a pleasure and it handles 3D modelling and rendering, high-end special effects and the kids' gaming rather well on a dual monitor setup.

Now I'm designing a SFF solution again; a workstation able to more easily fit into carry-on luggage than the previous designs...



I named it Arietta which roughly means "small air" (Italian - arietta is the diminutive of aria which means air)

Over the past few days I went from a 7.0L liquid cooled layout to the 4.7L air cooled box seen above just behind the Coke can. This render just shows the component volume (it is not the final designed box) in relation to some SilverStone case volumes.

The two larger luggage bags in the render are scaled to carry-on luggage size (55cm x 35cm x 23cm), while the shoulder bag is smaller (39cm x 30cm x 13cm) and the Arietta even more so (30cm x 17.5cm x 9cm).

here are the components:

• mini-ITX motherboard
• SFX power supply
• SSD system drive
• HDD data drive
• full height, half length GPU
• Intel i7 CPU (with heatsink and fan)
• 8GB RAM

My next posts will show renders of the component layout and other thoughts.

I'm once again hoping for advice in designing (and hopefully building) this machine.

I do applaud all the others (NCASE M1, etc) but all of them try to be everything to everyone in the smallest size. The Arietta tries to be small WITH making more sacrifices such as no liquid cooling or big graphics card support.

This I will look forward to.

Well, I'm intrigued anyway.

I don't have a personal use for a portable workstation, but I do love nice kit.

sounds like chieftec bt02b / raidmax ITX-0907-BP

fits all of those things in a nice small package you're just limited to single slot cards

that chieftec/raidmax would not work. single slot only, and right next to the power supply. and yet it wastes a bunch of space at the other end. pretty lame case from the "pack maximum power in minimum space" point of view.

you might want to look at this and this

I think the first one - M3A2 case is right up your alley. CMadki4 can even customize the case per your need.

This will be cool to see develop. I love the small form factor concept. And 4.7L is tiny. Looking forward to your next post with renders of the case!



Edit:

geostation said:

you might want to look at xxx and this

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx .

Click to expand...

Ooh, timing, nice ... But let's not jack his thread

Thank you for your positive comments!

The half-length ATI FirePro V4800 GPU which I use right now has served me very well. For a workstation not involved in loading massive 3D data sets, anything bigger is rarely required. I'd like to build several identical machines for my kids to get them into graphics and still be fine for entertainment. As far as gaming goes, games like Toy Story, Up, Lego, Portal 2, Final Fantasy, Anno 2070, etc. have been played on high settings on the V4800 with nothing to complain about. So half-length GPU is perfectly fine.

I currently enjoy liquid cooling with the Antec Kühler 620 even though I'm mild on overclocking. Unless there are more compact custom liquid cooling options available, it's just too bulky for a really small system.

The most compact layout based on the dimensions of the Antec Kühler was with the radiator and fan behind the mini-ITX motherboard. But that still resulted in a 7.0L case. To be honest, the 7.0L space also enclosed a full ATX PSU plus slim DVD drive, both of which are nice to have.

External optical drives are readily obtained, easily slip into a bag, and have the benefit of more easily upgrading to another drive should the need arise.

Opting for a SFX PSU, removing the optical drive, and changing to air cooling allows even more size reductions down to 4.7L case volume - a rather nice travelling size.

Hmmmm... thinking back on my layout design steps I may even fit the liquid cooler into the 4.7L space by making use of pipe elbow fittings.

But before I explore that, here are some renders of the layout without frame, cabling, or CPU cooling...

geostation said:

you might want to look at this and this

I think the first one - M3A2 case is right up your alley. CMadki4 can even customize the case per your need.

Click to expand...

The NFC S3mini is rather amazing and compact at 4.6L (probably less volume than that internally). I would have to profile my power requirements to see if my components could match that PSU.

EDIT: I would also have to consider additionally carrying the power brick.

Using the Thermaltake PSU Calculator it seems the Arietta will draw around 270 W overclocked under heavy load, and 320 W overclocked with 100% load.

For an SFX PSU the SIlverStone ST45SF-G modular PSU is top of my list.

Any other recommendations for a good SFX PSU?

Any other PSU form factors I should consider?

SaladDressing said:

Using the Thermaltake PSU Calculator it seems the Arietta will draw around 270 W overclocked under heavy load, and 320 W overclocked with 100% load.

Click to expand...

That is way off. A stock clocked socket 1155 Core i7 with your FirePro V4800 and two 2.5" drives would probably never go over 160W even if you were torture testing. For comparison sake, I have a system with a stock clocked Core i5-2500K, three SSDs and a Radeon 6670 that probably draws around 105W during gaming (not torture testing, which could draw much more). That is my estimate, based on a known 75% efficiency of the PSU and an observed 138W draw from the wall.

A PCIe graphics card without any power plug on it won't draw more than 75W.

Intel socket 1155 power draw is also double digits even when overclocked. Note that the published TDP includes the integrated graphics. (standard disclaimers apply on TDP /= Watts used)

2.5" drives typically use 2-4W peak, and can idle at 1W or less.

Good luck, I'll keep an eye on this thread.

M4rk said:

Good luck, I'll keep an eye on this thread.

Click to expand...

Thanks!

Zap said:

That is way off. A stock clocked socket 1155 Core i7 with your FirePro V4800 and two 2.5" drives would probably never go over 160W even if you were torture testing. For comparison sake, I have a system with a stock clocked Core i5-2500K, three SSDs and a Radeon 6670 that probably draws around 105W during gaming (not torture testing, which could draw much more). That is my estimate, based on a known 75% efficiency of the PSU and an observed 138W draw from the wall.

A PCIe graphics card without any power plug on it won't draw more than 75W.

Intel socket 1155 power draw is also double digits even when overclocked. Note that the published TDP includes the integrated graphics. (standard disclaimers apply on TDP /= Watts used)

2.5" drives typically use 2-4W peak, and can idle at 1W or less.

Click to expand...

I was wondering about the accuracy of a PSU maker's calculator based on warnings read on other forums. If I have to account for moderate overclocking, where would that realistically put me then?

And which power rating would then be recommended? Can a smaller than SFX form factor be considered?

SFX PSU: 12.5cm x 10cm x 6.35cm = 0.79L

TFX PSU: 17.5cm x 8.5cm x 6.52cm = 0.97L

Flex ATX: 15cm x 8.15cm x 4.05cm = 0.5L

Any thoughts about monitor and keyboard mouse pairings for portable workstations like this? It's all well and good if the computer itself can fit in a carry-on, but without a monitor it's a bit useless and flying with a 27" desktop monitor seems to defeat the purpose.

you could plug it in to a tv at most hotels. Or carry a USB display or 20inch LCD
Worrying about monitors or KB's is really silly, most suitcases will handle a 20 inch lcd, plus this, and a KB

USB-monitors have low enough performance that I wouldn't consider them worthwhile on a system with actual graphics hardware. Fine for a secondary monitor, but I wouldn't one as a main monitor.

Hotel TVs are an option, though a bit location specific. The entire system would be useless outside of a very specific set of usage parameters, and that seems a waste.

Have you traveled with a 20 inch monitor in a suitcase? Is it viable? I haven't done that, though up until recently I haven't had a system small enough that it would have been a possibility in the first place.

A lot of my questions/concerns come from not having used a portable workstation like this, though I would definitely like to.

Morac said:

Any thoughts about monitor and keyboard mouse pairings for portable workstations like this? It's all well and good if the computer itself can fit in a carry-on, but without a monitor it's a bit useless and flying with a 27" desktop monitor seems to defeat the purpose.

Click to expand...

I have a 23" IPS monitor that will fit into a carry bag. All it needs is a custom hard cover to protect the panel. A 20" monitor will transport even easier.

However, when I fly with it, it will be between places which already have monitors ready. If I must fly with a full system, I may opt to check in a well packaged monitor, but the workstation has to be carry-on. There's no way that's going to be tossed around or lost.

A more frequent type of travel is getting into a car and taking the machine to a friend or a client. Carry-on size doesn't matter then, but a portable size does; and then it's easy enough to just lay the monitor flat on the seat or floor.

The most frequent travel is moving my machine inside my own house. No bags are required but a portable size makes it convenient.

I currently use a Logitech K360 compact wireless keyboard - ideal. My Logitech wireless mouse gave in. Need to find something more reliable.

But these are the small things which you just choose and use, while the SFF workstation needs to be designed and built.

Cool - thanks for the input. I agree that they are comparatively small issues, but I thought I would take the opportunity for a small thread-jack and get some input from someone who has experience with portable workstations and has clearly put a lot of thought into the process.

SaladDressing said:

If I have to account for moderate overclocking, where would that realistically put me then?

And which power rating would then be recommended? Can a smaller than SFX form factor be considered?

SFX PSU: 12.5cm x 10cm x 6.35cm = 0.79L

TFX PSU: 17.5cm x 8.5cm x 6.52cm = 0.97L

Flex ATX: 15cm x 8.15cm x 4.05cm = 0.5L

Click to expand...

Depends on what voltages and how high a clock you go. This thread has some power draw information.

For my i7-2600k, a 95W TDP SKU, at 3.8GHz LinX loaded the chip uses 85W.

For my i7-3770k, a 77W TDP SKU, at 3.9GHz LinX loaded the chip uses 66W.

For my FX-8350, a 125W TDP SKU, at 4GHz LinX loaded the chip uses ~195W.

I know everyone says AMD TDP != Intel TDP, but they aren't even close in this regard.

I know folks will be saying "but the AMD chip is at 4GHz, what if you OC the Intel chips to 4GHz too?"

i7-2600k at 4.0GHz LinX loaded uses 95W.

i7-3770k at 4.0GHz LinX loaded uses 70W.

Click to expand...

Not sure if voltage was boosted, but looks as if it used 10W more for 200MHz gain. It probably is not a linear gain.

I have a Seasonic SS-250SU that is a 250W Flex ATX PSU. That should be more than enough power. I picked up mine for around $40 on sale from SuperBiiz. You may be able to find them at places that sell OEM Seasonic PSUs.

I'm considering a SilverStone NT06-PRO CPU cooler with one fan mounted below the fins.

Several reviews made me think this cooler is quite OK for some overclocking.





What I like about the NT06-PRO is aesthetically it presents a fin array instead of a fan. I would like to incorporate that feature into the case design.

Any thoughts?

Morac said:

Any thoughts about monitor and keyboard mouse pairings for portable workstations like this? It's all well and good if the computer itself can fit in a carry-on, but without a monitor it's a bit useless and flying with a 27" desktop monitor seems to defeat the purpose.

Click to expand...

AOC e2051f and AOC e2251swdn are among the lightest monitors and have a removable base such that the monitor becomes totally flat with no juts when the base is removed. I've taken the e2051f on the plane in a backpack before.

Ooh, neat! Thanks for the tip - I might just get one (or two).

I have a windows 7 mac mini in my car (I needed monitoring\flashing functions so android was out) and it works very very well with centrafuse.

That said, I would go the windows tablet route if I were you.(not a surface pro though, cost too much for nothing in this case). You won't have to deal with the shitty touch screens usually available standalone and the install will probably be much simpler if you can find a way to fit the bigger screen.

You still have more options right now with windows than android tablets as to the accessories you can add. Things like steering wheel controls, radios, gps, car monitoring\logging are much better on the windows platform and will probably only get better with all the windows 8 tablets coming out. Edit: looking around a bit, this doesn't seem that true anymore except for the monitoring\logging software...

Subbed for updates. Got my creative juices flowing, thanks OP!

janas19 said:

Subbed for updates. Got my creative juices flowing, thanks OP!

Click to expand...

Feel free to add your input

I built a scale model of the Silverstone NT06-PRO heatsink (minus the small details).

My updated case design with this component layout turns the unit flat instead of on edge like suggested in the previous renders. Although I have pencil sketches of the case design, it is crucial to first build it to scale in 3D to see that everything works.

Before I do that, here are renders showing the heatsink in place...





The exact positioning of the heatsink will depend on the motherboard. As I understand it, not all mini-ITX boards place the CPU in the same position. Some research is required.

la_poune said:

I have a windows 7 mac mini in my car (I needed monitoring\flashing functions so android was out) and it works very very well with centrafuse.

That said, I would go the windows tablet route if I were you.(not a surface pro though, cost too much for nothing in this case). You won't have to deal with the shitty touch screens usually available standalone and the install will probably be much simpler if you can find a way to fit the bigger screen.

You still have more options right now with windows than android tablets as to the accessories you can add. Things like steering wheel controls, radios, gps, car monitoring\logging are much better on the windows platform and will probably only get better with all the windows 8 tablets coming out. Edit: looking around a bit, this doesn't seem that true anymore except for the monitoring\logging software...

Click to expand...

Tablet *workstations* capable of heavy processing and large data sets are not commonplace yet, unfortunately, so I think you're off target here.