Any interest in PicoPSU based Mini-ITX case?

Stevo_,

I just measured my Noctua NH-L9i in my L1 (2014), and I've got 38 mm of clearance. The NH-L9i is 37 mm tall, so that gives 75 mm total clearance. Still, recommended height would still be around that 60 mm.

So AXP-100 (44 mm) plus Prolimatech Ultra Sleek fan (15 mm) = 59 mm.

75 - 59 = 16 mm.

Can you confirm that you've got about 16 mm of clearance to the outside of the case flange (inside of side panel)?
 
loneindustries said:
Stevo_,

I just measured my Noctua NH-L9i in my L1 (2014), and I've got 38 mm of clearance. The NH-L9i is 37 mm tall, so that gives 75 mm total clearance. Still, recommended height would still be around that 60 mm.

So AXP-100 (44 mm) plus Prolimatech Ultra Sleek fan (15 mm) = 59 mm.

75 - 59 = 16 mm.

Can you confirm that you've got about 16 mm of clearance to the outside of the case flange (inside of side panel)?
Click to expand...

I'll get an accurate measurement tonight, I eyeballed it at about 10mm but that can be deceiving.

Edit: The 120mm fan adapter plate I think also adds a few mm stack height also, probably doesn't show up in the calculation. You can see in back of the fan on this shot there's a good deal of relief for the mounting screws. It'll probably be 12-13mm gap.

WP_20140328_002_zpsac42f891.jpg
 
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Stevo_ said:
I'll get an accurate measurement tonight, I eyeballed it at about 10mm but that can be deceiving.

Edit: The 120mm fan adapter plate I think also adds a few mm stack height also, probably doesn't show up in the calculation. You can see in back of the fan on this shot there's a good deal of relief for the mounting screws. It'll probably be 12-13mm gap.
Click to expand...

Okay, that makes sense then, thanks!
 
ive been looking for a case like this but the lack of optical drive is preventing me in buying this.


@ loneindustries

any plans on making a revision with a slim optical drive? maybe mounted at the bottom?
 
cmge said:
@ loneindustries
any plans on making a revision with a slim optical drive? maybe mounted at the bottom?
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No plans at the moment. I'm sure it's possible with some trade-offs. Are you interested in modding a case? If so, I can include an extra main body part to mess with.
 
cmge said:
i was thinking of adding something like this

http://cdn.overclock.net/9/99/99d4a5c8_DSC_9125.jpeg

but for an optical drive... im still trying to wrap my head around how it would fit with the design..
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The optical drive would have to go over top the motherboard. Probably not an easy mod. I'd recommend using an external drive with the L1 if you need one, or see if there's another case that better meets your needs.
 
That's a nice little thing. I would gladly pay twice as much for something twice the size and twice the power.
 
Finally put mine together, as I'm downsizing to this little guy in the interim to get some extra funds. I looked at my games back log, and realized that I pretty much only play Quake Live and have a lot of older games I can chew through for awhile, so off goes the big machine.

4670k / Maximus VI Impact / 8 GB DDR3 / 500 GB SSD / 120 GB SSD (SSDs are from the old machine). I have a VisionTek 7750 SFF coming tomorrow that looks like it will fit in the case as well. The Sapphire one is hard to find nowadays.

Close up:



Big brother and little brother:

 
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This is definitely a quiet PC as well, this is on par with the larger one that I put a lot of soundproofing effort into! Granted there is no big honking 780 Ti in the smaller case... :)

The newer version with dual slots would be a gem as well, I'm sure.
 
Thanks, guys! I appreciate the feedback.

Although most people have probably moved on to interest in the L2, The Visiontek 7750 I bought fits fine. I had to take the screws out of the bottom panel and the doors off so I could flex the bottom a bit to get it to fit. There were some angle issues with the video card heatsink.

Now I can play Titanfall on low at 40-60 FPS ;).





 
Love the size comparison. Looks great, and happy you got it built! I'm sorry the GPU didn't go in easier. It's a little bit better in the current L1, but still not as good as I'd like.

I wasn't aware of the VisionTek Radeon HD 7750 SFF. It's good to know there's an alternative to the Sapphire HD 7750 LP available.

Note, the power switch wires can be routed behind the motherboard if you like. They're designed to reach. If not, it's a bug. :)
 
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Thanks! And yeah, it wasn't too bad after I thought about things for a minute. I was just happy that the whole computer went together in less than thirty minutes yesterday. That never happens on a bigger box for me.

As to 7750s there is the VisionTek 900549 (the one I bought) and 900574 which should also work. The 900549 has dual-link DVI on it, which was of more use to me.
 



i7 4770S
Asus H87i-Plus
Samsung 840 Pro 256GB
G.Skill 16GB RipJaws Z 1866
Scythe Big Shuriken 2 (140mm Prolimatech slim fan)
PicoPSU 160XT + 192W Brick
2x Noiseblocker M8-P

Initially I had tried out the HDPLEX PSUs but unfortunately after 2 that failed to boot the machine I had to return them for a refund. Ended up with the PicoPSU and no problems since.

Did some testing with the Noiseblockers as intake vs exhaust, temps essentially the same with the case in all test scenarios (upright, upside down, on it's side) except for when it's upright with intakes. Not enough clearance at the bottom so hot air ends up circulating back into the case instead of fully exiting.

Going to leave them as intakes to regulate dust. 80mm Demiciflex filters are actually larger than the vents (due to borders on the filters), need to either cut them down to size or just get some standard 80mm filters.
 
Looking good! Stiil need to get some filters but so far buildup pretty minimal.
 
It's a great little case. Sleek and non-intrusive, but still incredibly easy to build in due to the simplicity of design. You can't see it as it's off camera, but those cables trailing off are actually to a full size DVD drive - the machine serves as an HTPC and as such I use it to also rip my music collection to FLAC. Eventually I'll find a more suitable setup for that but this works fine for the time being :).

My only real suggestions for improvement would be a cutout for AC plugs for those who intend to use this in tandem with an HDPLEX PSU (once issues are sorted out), and blanks for the power inputs on the back not used.

I suspect these would add significant cost however, so they would likely prove counter-intuitive to implement :).
 
Vittra said:
It's a great little case. Sleek and non-intrusive, but still incredibly easy to build in due to the simplicity of design. You can't see it as it's off camera, but those cables trailing off are actually to a full size DVD drive - the machine serves as an HTPC and as such I use it to also rip my music collection to FLAC. Eventually I'll find a more suitable setup for that but this works fine for the time being :).

My only real suggestions for improvement would be a cutout for AC plugs for those who intend to use this in tandem with an HDPLEX PSU (once issues are sorted out), and blanks for the power inputs on the back not used.

I suspect these would add significant cost however, so they would likely prove counter-intuitive to implement :).
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback! I'll give it some consideration. Might be easier to just make an SFX version though. :)

Do you think you'll go to a portable USB optical drive, or something else entirely?
 
USB drive would likely be the best option. Just need to find one that doesn't cache data otherwise secure ripping is abysmally slow.

Enclosures that fit 5.25 drives are scarce now it seems, and the one sata/usb adapter I tried was awful.
 
Vittra, that is a very nice and expensive build. Why not splurge for a LP 7750 to finish it?
 
There would be no added benefit from such an addition for my uses - mostly negatives in fact.

The CPU, SSD, and RAM originate from previous builds that were changed/consolidated, so it wasn't an entirely brand new rig.
 
Trying to do a small server build in an L1.

EDIT: Argh, SuperMicro MBD-X10SLV-Q-O doesn't support ECC memory! :|

Lone Industries L1
Intel Xeon E3-1231
SuperMicro MBD-X10SLV-Q-O (EDIT: Replaced with ASRock E3C224D2I)
PicoPSU-160-XT
2x Kingston KVR16LSE11/8 (EDIT: Replaced with Crucial 16GB 2 x 8GB)
WD WD5000BPKX (EDIT: Replaced with Intel 320 GB SSD)
2x ENERMAX UC-8EB 80mm fans (EDIT: Replaced with 2x Noctua NF-R8 Redux 1800 PWM)



Size comparison between 60W and 192W power adapter from mini-box.com:

 
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Vittra said:
USB drive would likely be the best option. Just need to find one that doesn't cache data otherwise secure ripping is abysmally slow.

Enclosures that fit 5.25 drives are scarce now it seems, and the one sata/usb adapter I tried was awful.
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Let me know if you find something. It would be helpful to know what to recommend to people.
 
Interesting project.

What is the supposed advantage of this case over something like the much cheaper M350 miniITX case?
 
Shockwave818 said:
Aesthetics, airflow, build quality, uniqueness, build flexibility.
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Airflow? Seems to me you lose the ability to place the system horizontally, compared to the M350 chassis, which is better ventilated.

Is there a power button on this chassis?

It does look like it would accommodate a small video card better.

I've been looking for something similar to an M350 that would be capable of housing both a 2.5" SSD and a 3.5" HDD. The need for the 3.5" HDD is just to keep down the cost of a large storage drive compared to using 2.5" drives.
 
JJ Johnson said:
Airflow? Seems to me you lose the ability to place the system horizontally, compared to the M350 chassis, which is better ventilated.

Is there a power button on this chassis?

It does look like it wold accommodate a small video card better.

I've been looking for something similar to an M350 that would be capable of housing both a 2.5" SSD and a 3.5" HDD. The need for the 3.5" HDD is just to keep down the cost of a large storage drive compared to using 2.5" drives.
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You can place it horizontally. Ventilation does not equate airflow. 80mm fans are better than 40mm fans for many reasons. Yes, there is a power button.

Not sure if 3.5" will fit. The L2 case is 100mm wide, 3.5mm hard drives are ~ 95mm wide.
 
It accommodates single-slot GPUs though of course only low-profile. However, there's the L2 which provides space for a double-slot GPU, again low-profile.
I think 3.5" HDD won't fit, haven't seen that.

The power button is on the back side.
l1-2014-matte-black-3.jpg
 
loneindustries said:
This could be my next external power supply (I use a 60W power supply):

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/215201435/dart-the-worlds-smallest-laptop-adapter

More info:
http://finsix.com/dart/

http://www.eevblog.com/forum/crowd-funded-projects/vhf-laptop-power-supply/
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The FSP Twinkle also 19V 65W is perhaps not as small as the Dart promises to be, it's still very small and it has the distinct advantage of being an actual product you can buy today. http://www.fsplifestyle.com/product.php?LID=1&PSN=771

Oh and it's FSP. That's a known quality. What do you know of the quality of the Dart...?
 
That's a very nice case. I now regret buying a sg05.. I saw it on your website but it turned me off when I saw that the side panel had no holes in it for ventilation. But then I saw on the topic that you made a version with holes so I regained interest. I had a few questions for the L1 :

-Are ventilated side panels still available?

-Can you put a bigger vent surface and holes for 140mm fan installation on the side panel for better airflow? (some members said it had better cooling with the side panel off)

-Why don't you make the bottom vents exactly as the top ones so that we can install fans at the bottom too? (I don't use a graphic card so I could put two fans there)

-Would it be possible to have the same vents on the front so I could put two more 80mm fans?

-With the m.2 drives becoming more popular, have you tought about making a cut off version of the L1 (without ssd front zone)?

-Why haven't you put the power button in the front?

Thanks :)
 
Alxs said:
That's a very nice case. I now regret buying a sg05.. I saw it on your website but it turned me off when I saw that the side panel had no holes in it for ventilation. But then I saw on the topic that you made a version with holes so I regained interest. I had a few questions for the L1 :
Click to expand...

Thank you! One of the reasons there's no vented side panel on the L1, is because the bottom vent is so close to the CPU. Also, there is clearance for a CPU cooler less than 60 mm in height, like a Big Shuriken.

Alxs said:
-Are ventilated side panels still available?
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No, but maybe in the future. I have thought about making some along with the next batch of L2 cases. Vented side panels were actually never available for the L1. They were only available for the dual slot version of the L1 (the L2, which is perhaps a poor choice of name).

Alxs said:
-Can you put a bigger vent surface and holes for 140mm fan installation on the side panel for better airflow? (some members said it had better cooling with the side panel off)
Click to expand...

This is difficult due to warping. You could have a custom acrylic side panel made from numerous places (e.g. Pololu).

Alxs said:
-Why don't you make the bottom vents exactly as the top ones so that we can install fans at the bottom too? (I don't use a graphic card so I could put two fans there)
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There's only room in the bottom of the L1 for 10 mm thick fans, and the fan mounts would interfere with the case feet.

Alxs said:
-Would it be possible to have the same vents on the front so I could put two more 80mm fans?
Click to expand...

This isn't likely to happen. I've looked at this before, but I could look at it again.

Alxs said:
-With the m.2 drives becoming more popular, have you tought about making a cut off version of the L1 (without ssd front zone)?
Click to expand...

I have thought about shortening the case further. If you did this, then you'd have no room for fans at the front. ;) When you actually work on the L1, I think you'd realize that shortening it wouldn't be worth it, as it's quite small as it is. With the L1, one of my goals was to make something that was enjoyable to work in. That's one reason you won't see an L1 crammed full of components and wires.

Alxs said:
-Why haven't you put the power button in the front?
Click to expand...

I do see an issue with the lack of a power button (and USB port) on the front of the case when placed in a shelf, with no access to the back. So this may change in the future, or may come in the form of a new case.

If you decide you'd like to try an L1, send me an email and perhaps I can give you a bit of a discount.
 
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