Phinix Chimera

[phinix]

Hello again and welcome to my new scratch build project log!

Yep! This is my new scratch build - I had this idea lurking around my head for a while and couldn't wait any longer to share with you guys!

This is a project introduction - first I will explain the whole idea and hardware I'm going to use in this project. First cut will take place on 13th March (my birthday).

..::: PHINIX CHIMERA :::..​

The idea is to create smallest PC possible, again!
As you previously saw, all my projects were small, Cube and Nano Tower had same idea - to keep everything small. This will be even smaller than my Nano Tower
Smallest ITX cases have always more than 10L.
I decided to squeeze everything in less than that! 18x18x30 gives us 9,7L !!! Sounds insane, but don't worry, I thought it through, this will work

This time only CPU will be water cooled using closed-loop cooler. This will let me keep the size down. Vertical position of the motherboard and graphics card was great idea in Nano Tower, that is why I decided to do it again. This way depth of the case is not dictated by length of the card. Case height will cover that.

Installing the card in separate chamber will keep the heat off the rest of the components.

The whole exterior will have a "dramatic" look Colors like a Chimera virus, exterior panels split like a chimera organism


Main ideas :

• Color scheme: black, acid green and yellow!
• Shape and size: tower case, internal dimensions 18x18x30cm !!!
• satin black powder coating for main case parts
• acid green + yellow acrylic elements and lighting
• watercooled CPU (AIO cooler)
• motherboard and graphics card installed vertically
• graphics card mounted on separate wall in its own chamber, connected with PCIe extension
• SFX PSU



Hardware :

• i5 4670K OCed
• itx Z97I GAMING ACK motherboard
• 8GB of RAM
• Palit GTX780 Super Jetstream graphics card
• SFX PSU
• 500GB M.2 SSD for the OS and games + 1TB 2.5'' HDD for storage)



I've started gathering all hardware and items. First cut as I mentioned will start on 13th of March - it's my birthday, when I have a day off, so will have time to make a proper start

I hope you guys will stay with me on this one too.



My PHINIX CHIMERA project is sponsored by:



PALIT Microsystems kindly supported me with their incredible GTX 780 Super Jetstream graphics card.




PARVUM Systems kindly sent me loads of their fantastic little mounting cubes and will also provide their CNC and laser cutting services.




MSI kindly supported me with their latest most powerful mITX motherboard Z97I GAMING ACK





Silverstone kindly supported me with: most powerful small form factor PSU - SX600-G , liquid CPU cooler Tundra TD03-E ,
set of short PSU cables PP05-E and two slim 120mm fans FN123 .

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[phinix]

OK guys, it's time for first update!

I gathered some nice pile of aluminium bits
Can't believe but this is all basic pieces of the whole case!
Main rods, top, bottom and side panels. Bottom panel and two side ones are a bit bigger, not yet trimmed to the side.

Just to realise how small this case is going to be, I put my tv remote next to the front panel.

..and here is radiator from Aurora sitting on it!:eeek:

...and my hand on the panel! How small is that!
...panel, not my hand

First rod received some good drill treatment. First mounting hole done, 7 to go:eyebrow:

I'm going to use same mounting technique as in Nano Tower - small M5 90 degree screw inserts.

Tonight, when I come back from my birthday party, I will show you first sketchups of the Chimera! Specially internal layout of it!!!

So. till next time, stay tuned:thumb:

 

[shadowlord]

looks interesting
/subscribed

 

[shollz]

interesting

 

[phinix]

I almost finished Aurora project, so it's time to go back to Chimera

Here is a sketchup showing placement of each element.

So from the right you can see graphic card situated vertically. Middle plate holds motherboard, below there is 120mm fan pushing air inside to the top. Then left side has cpu cooler's radiator mounted at the bottom and PSU on top. Next to PSU there will be a slim frame with 2 mounted drives, SSD and HDD.

Here's a shot from the left side...

 

[phinix]

Well, that was a quite a long break from this project - I had to finish Phinix Aurora first before coming back to this one. Now, when Aurora is done, I can start working on Chimera again.
Today I did a lot of drilling, here are the results. Sorry for phone photos, but these are "action" photos from the shed

All 4 rods had to be drilled on their ends and on their sides for pushing in those threaded inserts.
First I made a wee point in the measured center of the rod and then drilled it with 5mm bit.

That was 8 holes in total, both ends on each rod.

Then I drilled another 8 5mm holes on their sides, to make drilling with 10mm bit easier.
First 5mm then 10mm...

This was pretty long process but done all of them!:thumb:

Next was a bottom panel, simple 4 holes for screws...

..and this is not even a half of those aluminum debris...

At the end a wee mockup - all rods with top and bottom panels. You can see 30cm ruler standing next to it.
This photo takes me back.. to 2009 when I started Nano Tower project and put those rods same way

So, till the next update - this time a lot sooner

 

[wfarid]

interesting design. looking forward to updates.

 

[phinix]

Ooft, that was a long break...
Unfortunately I couldn't get back earlier on this one. Had some ongoing health issues I had to start treating, so was absorbed in all sorts of things, no time for modding
Things started looking better now, also weather in Scotland got better lately, so I happily opened my modding shed and dusted my tools



I haven't showed you what I have received from MSI!



MSI kindly supported my project with this brand new mobo and...

... Christmas time all over again!!!:clap::clap::clap:

I think this is first time I have in my hand a top spec motherboard like this. It has so many upgrades compared to regular itx motherboards, that it really deserves to be part of MSI's Gaming Series hardware.

Please take a look at this little monster!

..and with that cool sticker

This mobo has everything that gamer could wish for. I'm so glad that MSI decided to pimp up their AC version to this.
It has the Killer series WIFI, Killer LAN, USB audio power for external DACs, Sound Blaster Cinema 2 with audio boost 2, headphones amp, dedicated gaming device port, OC Genie 4 and M.2 SSD socket!
Even the box itself shouts quality - it has "engraved" design, a very nice touch.

Fantastic piece of hardware, can't wait when I finally mount it in Chimera and play some serious games



So, during this break, when I couldn't do anything physically, I spent some time on designing.
I already showed how internal hardware will be positioned, but here's a bit better view of this.

My next design were the feet of the case. I wanted to make something very simple but different to regular case feet.
So design was simple

Went through different shapes, but this one looked the best.

20mm thick aluminium block went under the CNC and feet were shaped very quickly.
Of course I don't have CNC, this was made by one of our fellow members, which I'm very grateful for helping out:thumb:

..and here is under main frame.
You can see here top and bottom panels are cut out now.

I put some panels to see how the whole shape will look like.

Hopefully this weekend I will make internal walls - one for graphics card, second for motherboard.
GPU wall will be cut out of aluminium, mobo will be mounted on two L shaped rods to maximise air flow. I will be using Parvum little cubes to of those to main frame.

Stay tuned:thumb:

 

[phinix]

Time for another update.

I cut out a nice wee GPU wall, left a hole for power cables and attached small cubes, that Parvum kindly supplied me.

View from the top - drilled holes to mount this GPU wall.
Black line shows where the wall will be mounted below.

Here's a gpu wall pushed in. You can see the gap on the front of the case, between gpu wall edge and actual case edge. There is 7mm gap for front panel lighting. I will have to squeeze there some led strips to light up front panel.

Here are two L shape rods which will serve as motherboard mounting rods. To maximize air fow around motherboard I decided not to use full wall, just these two L shape rods.
I drilled holes and mounted those sweet little cubes.

Photo shoot outdoors
Some more photos of the whole thing I got so far.
Main frame, GPU wall and mobo rods, group shot

Fan hole...

I brought some spare fan to show how it's going to be mounted and how small the case actually is.
I haven't picked a fan I'm going to use there, probably Akasa Viper.

That is all for now.
Next steps would be:

• finish panel designs
• measure mobo position and mount those mobo rods

 

[phinix]

Time for new update.
This weekend I spent some time on motherboard mounting.
I got a dead ITX mobo from one of our fellow members and used it for aligning, fixing, mounting etc.
I simply didn't want to damage my sweet little MSI ACK mobo, so for manual handling during project I use a dead mobo

First had to align it with I/O in top panel...

Perfectly aligned hole... One from few I'm afraid.. it's really hard to align stuff in hands:duh:

Mobo on rails...

...aaaaand mounted.

You can see how much gap is left between mobo and GPU wall...

Here you can see I plugged in that PCIe flex extender.

I installed one more wee cube I got from Parvum.
Here you can see how this extender will be mounted - I will screw it down to these two cubes.

That would be all for now, stay tuned!

 

[jamsomito]

Any updates here? Been inspired by your previous work, looking forward to seeing this through.

 

[phinix]

Any updates here? Been inspired by your previous work, looking forward to seeing this through.

I'm waiting for side panels to be laser cut. Parvum is cutting them for me, should have them soon - update is coming

 

[D4rkn3ss]

this looks very interesting.

 

[Sherkhan]

Nice - going to have a lot of power tucked into a tiny amount of space there.

 

[phinix]

Back from the dead!

Yep! Chimera is alive and doing well It wasn't dying, it was just waiting for new bits to come over.

Parvum, one of my sponsors kindly cut out the following bits for me.

Most important is front panel - it has engraved name at the bottom and front window/hole with two acrylic elements, acid green and fluorescent yellow. Two different elements colliding - CHIMERA....

Here you can also see right and rear panel.
Left has huge hole for graphic card (will be covered with mesh), rear has small triangle holes on top, to let the hot air out passively.

Here are small aluminium bits - not glued yet, just to show the whole design.
I will first glue the clear acrylic sheet behind the front panel to the alu panel, then glue down those color acrylic bits, then at the end, will glue down those alu bits.

Obligatory artistic shots

Another update soon. "This weekend" soon, not "next 8 months" soon

 

[phinix]

I spent some time last weekend and did few updates I planned for a long time.

First, I needed to arrange more space for PSU. I found out that one of mobo's frame is interfering with PSU space. So instead of wee cube I had to fabricate small angle bracket and cut out a bit of mobo frame.

This is the wee bracket...

Here is the trimmed mobo frame.

Frame trimmed and bracket crewed in.

Also, had to make a top PSU hole a bit wider, where the power cable plug goes in, PSU has this thick "collar", so needed to make some space for it.

Next, was to mount PCIe flexible extender. I used Parvum threaded cubes for this.
You can see at the top there is about 3mm gap between top panel and PCIe bracket - that is where graphics card rear bracket goes under...

...and last shot on whole case skeleton...

 

[phinix]

Another update.

There was a really nice weather today, so went out and did some work on Chimera.

I bought some 2mm clear plexi for front hole. I trimmed it to fit in the front hole, it will be a background for front panel design.

Here's behind a front panel. I think I will use double sided tape to mount it, so won't need to add more screws to the front...

Then I drilled holes for 4 screws that will hold the panel.

I put it on main frame to mark where I'm going to drill hole and later on thread them all.

This is the side panel, right side to be precise. This is a hole for graphic card cooling intake.

I decided to ditch one of the frame's pole - the one that come in the rear of graphic card's chamber.
Reason for this is to save more space for more space-demanding cards, that have huge coolers/cooler covers.
Instead I will use this angle alu profile, which will hold right and rear panel together.

Both panels here, marked and drilled...

..and screwed together.

Big hole will be covered with mesh. Here, needed to draw a bit to be cut out...

..some dremel action...

..and bit cut out.

Here is how it will look like. I think I'm gonna use rivets to mount it...

Now, last thing was to mark all up and drill holes in 3 main poles.
During the week I will sit down at home and thread all those holes.
12 holes in total... I don't really look forward to do that.. tapping those holes is always a pain...:wallbash:

That is all for now:thumb:

 

[phinix]

UPDATE TIME!

I had my birthday this weekend and spent some "myself-time" working in my shed


After I got those rods threaded, I put it all together and installed panels on the frame.

To mount AIO cooler radiator with fan, I made those L shape mount frames for it.

Cut them out using dremel...

How they will be mounted on fan.

Holes drilled and mounted...

This is how its going to be mounted - it goes in between mobo frame L shaped rods.
Now, you can see the gaps between - I'm going to use rubber grommets to "slide" the whole fan+radiator into the frame, so it will kinda slide down on rubbers.

There were a bit too long, hitting mobo in the back, so had to trim them few mm...

Next was to actually cut out last, 4th panel. The one which will have vent holes for PSU and AIO cooler radiator.
Design, including holes...

Drilled support holes and started cutting it with jigsaw...

That looks rough!

Started filling it down.. this will be a long process... Will finish during a week...

Now, I got the spray paint, so wanted to try it out.
I brushed some alu bit and painted it, let to dry for 3 hours on the sun, then sanded the paint a bit.

Not ideal, but that bottom part looks exactly how I want it to look.
Problem was as soon as I started sanding paint, it stayed on the sanding paper and didn't sand anymore. So had to change paper each stroke,that is why I got "stains" instead of nice smooth even result... it can be uneven, but not that much, so I got stains without paint and then some nice bits of just scratched paint... Do you know what I mean?

I will have to find out how to do it on whole big panels. This small bit was easy to brush, but when it comes to full panels (18x30cm) it may be difficult...

Till next time:dremel:

 

[spugm1r3]

You might try steel wool instead of sandpaper, or a combination of the two. Though I don't have anything to back up the claim, my brain tells me that steel wool might be less likely to streak.

 

[phinix]

Steel wool? Alright, I will try it out, thanks.

 

[StatutoryApe]

Go with at least #000 steel wool.

 

[phinix]

I got steel wool and scotchbrite, this weekend is modding time

 

[phinix]

Huge update today

Why huge? Cause I was really busy in last few months (family stuff).
I did some work on the case last month but didn't have time to write an update, so now we get all in one

First of all, month ago I received a huge parcel from Silverstone!

Silverstone was so kind, they sent me these fantastic products:


Small Form Factor PSU - SX600-G SFX!

Spare short cables set for the PSU PP05-E - so I can cut it up to lengths I need inside the Chimera.

AIO CPU cooler - TD03-E

Two FN123 slim 120mm fans to mount in Chimera and AIO cooler

Thank you very much, Siverstone! :thumb:


I took this little bad boy and already drilled holes for it - look how small it is, mounted in the case!

Now, update work.

It was time to build a graphic card holder.
Here is a small aluminium rectangle that will hold GPUs I/O plate.

Two holes drilled and screws in place...
Nuts are in as a spacers.

Rectangle drilled and in place...

Dome nuts on... just for now, temporary solution.

Now, GPU I/O plate mounted in it.

Now, I need top bit for other end. Small L shape alu profile cut and drilled.

Small rectangle hole filed out

..and here I/O plate screwed in.
You can see how this top bracket works - gives a hole to screw GPU to the case.

Now, something else.
As you saw, I decided to get rid of 4th main rod.
Instead of that, I have made corner bits, so I could screw the panels to those.

Wee triangles...

..and thick L shape...

Had to drill holes, so I could trim it down a bit.. sooo thick...

I used JD-Weld glue to put those together. VERY strong stuff - and good for temps up to 300C!
So it's all good for me to take it to powder coating place:clap:

Now, when I got JD-Weld, I decided to make this little GPU holding bracket more like one-piece thing.
Took small nuts and glued them to the bracket, so it didn't need those lose dome nut anymore!

Then went back to corners.. looking good!

 

[phinix]

Next was to use those mounting brackets for AIO radiator fan I made before.
Added rubber gromets...

..and that was it!
Basically finished most of the hard work.
It was time to put all things together...

..including feet!

At the end I decided to go with powder coating.

I know I know... I bought some spray paints etc, tried them out and decided that I will achieve best result with powder coat. I'm not a good painter and playing around with effects never ended up ok, so went back to trusted powder..

I found a local shop that did that for me quickly. Very goo quality. I got it back in a week.

I flat packed it...

..and took it away to powder coating place.


After a week i got it back.

here it is!


Sparkle METALLIC TITANIUM !


...+ my new cat - Fargo

 

[phinix]

...and fully assembled.

Some inside photos

I took first slim 120mm fan and mounted it in.

Next will be mounting feet and this little bad boy

Stay tuned!

 

[Krenum]

A true modder! Nice work. Love the paintjob, any tips on painting? Did you use a can or paint gun?

 

[phinix]

Next step was to finally start glueing together all the bits for front panel.
I have also mounted those beautiful feet.

Started with gluing panels together, then all the small aluminium bits, painted matt black.

Looks good.

After waiting months and months for Tom from ChilledPC to get last acrylic parts cut out, I admitted it wasn't going anywhere and was tired of waiting. Tom never got back to me after months of waiting, so had to buy those acrylic bits again and find other place.

Laserhive done this for me in a week.

Quality is amazing, this has been laser cut, so you can imagine quality of all edges.. sweet.
Just a "few" photos of those bits. 10mm thick black acrylic panel as a top of the case. Nicely cut corners and lots of holes for top pointy bits.
44 of them

I mounted power button - simple push button I had for years in my modding box.

 

[phinix]

That was a last step in this project.

This is it. It is finished.

Ladies and gentlemen, here it is - The CHIMERA!

What's next?

Well... there is a new project on the horizon, so..

STAY TUNED!

 

[phinix]

Now, moment to mount all the hardware.

This huge graphics card will get it, it was a big moment, never tried it before the final build, so this was a moment of truth - did I measured all good?
Of course I tried it once before without panels etc, knew that it will fit in, but look at it... thi sis one HUGE cooler!
Palit did make a fantastic job on designing this Super Jeststream cooler.

I'm using this <a href="http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=499&area=en">slim Silverstone 120mm FN123 fan</a> for <a href="http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=547&area=en">Silverstone TD03-E Tundra cooler</a>.

These are frames I'm using to mount fan+rad on the case frame.

This radiator is work of art - quality is amazing.

<a href="https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/Z97I-GAMING-ACK.html#hero-overview">MSI Z97I GAMING ACK motherboard</a> - real beauty.

Motherboard and cooler mounted.

Middle plate mounted. I found this bit unnecessery - first idea was to make a plate to take some of the heat from the graphic card.
But then, if I take i tout, it make more spce for air circulation. Cooler tubing pushes itself against it, but without it, it pushes graphic card to the outer panel.
Not a bit deal to be honest.

PCIe extender mounted.

<a href="http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=524&area=en">Silverstone SX600-G power supply</a> mounted.I had to cut some of the cables to make them shorter, that where additional set of short cables was handy.

View from the top. All mounted, looks really nice.

 

[phinix]

...

Fargo, my little cat, wanted to join the final shoot...

He was amazed whith the final look

I hope you all liked this project.

I would like to thank all of my sponsors who made this project possible:
















This has been great fun, designing and building this little monster
Another one to my little collection.


What's next?

Well... there is a new project on the horizon, so..

STAY TUNED!