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S3 Mini - upcoming ITX case

NFC said:
Firstly, have you confirmed the power draw with meter? My i7 3960X with a 7970 pulls 350 watts wide open--at 4.2Ghz Your system might be more or less, but those parts would be hard to cool in such a small box anyways!

If you needed the massive 330w that the Alienware brick puts out, you can find them on ebay and various other sites around the net. You just need to swap out the power connection inside the chassis, which can be done usually with a RadioShack stop.

Again, my opinion is this kind of power draw defeats the purpose of a tiny system like this, which plays games on a TV great at 1080p with an i5 and a 7770--and does so quietly. :)
Click to expand...

Yep -- power draw confirmed at 303W at prime95 + furmark (3770k @ 4.3ghz and gtx 670 4gb). I've got the Alienware X51 330w brick, but it also requires a DC-DC power board (there's an x51 psu thread in this sub-forum detailing the twists of that adventure) which would be inside the case. It seems to cool just fine inside my modded Lian-Li PC-Q02.

Just trying to see how small a case I can fit this gaming (2560x1600) system in! :D
 
Machupo said:
I've got the Alienware X51 330w brick, but it also requires a DC-DC power board
Click to expand...

I have an X51, and I love it! Was kinda bummed to see it one month after showing the AW PM the S3 elite though... xD

Just so we are clear, the S3 mini's "internal psu" is a DC-DC board. The only thing stopping someone from using the brick is wiring it to the 4 Pin connector inside the unit that goes to the board. If you can't find a female plug for the brick you can always use one of these (which is what I do for Xbox bricks)

http://www.dhgate.com/product/100pcs-16mm-4-pin-aviation-plug-male-female/153693999.html


Alted4 said:
Nice looking case.

I'm a little confused though. Is the larger case completely nixed, or simply put by the side to get the Mini out?
Click to expand...

The (ever so slightly) larger S3 Elite is on hold for now. If someone approaches me and tells me they can manufacturer and distribute it, that would be awesome...but I have exhausted my recourses to producing this thing at a "computer chassis" price level. :(

Thanks for the comments and questions!
 
NFC said:
I have an X51, and I love it! Was kinda bummed to see it one month after showing the AW PM the S3 elite though... xD

Just so we are clear, the S3 mini's "internal psu" is a DC-DC board. The only thing stopping someone from using the brick is wiring it to the 4 Pin connector inside the unit that goes to the board. If you can't find a female plug for the brick you can always use one of these (which is what I do for Xbox bricks)
Click to expand...

Ahhh -- didn't see the DC/DC board in the pics, thought you were using a pico (which I guess is just a mobo-mounted DC/DC board :D). Do you think it can deal with the 19.5VDC in from the Dell 330W brick and push ~25A on the 12V line (ATX12V aux + 24-pin + dual 6-pin PCIe) without arc/melting?
 
Melting would be what I would worry about. 25 amps is pretty heavy for continuous use. The most power hungry system that I got stable was an i5 2500k with a Zotac 660 AMP. I had to use some extra copper heatsinks on the DC-DC board and even under some harder benchmarks the system could flake. This was using the powerbrick I use now which technically peaks at 180w... Of course Zotac says their 660 requires a 600 watt PSU soooo :D

Officially, I would not support that kind of use, but for funsies I could stick a 3770k and a 660ti in there and see at what point the board explodes at with the Dell brick...typically the bricks bite it way before the board does but it can hot enough to melt the rubber insulator on the wires. :)

Officially I support 180w of continuous use on my PSUs, which is enough for a 3770s and a 7770 with room to spare for peaking...the issue is heat. :)
 
Can you post a picture of the case where the board is located? I've been to your website and I have not seen one shot with the board. Thanks!
 
NFC said:
Melting would be what I would worry about. 25 amps is pretty heavy for continuous use. The most power hungry system that I got stable was an i5 2500k with a Zotac 660 AMP. I had to use some extra copper heatsinks on the DC-DC board and even under some harder benchmarks the system could flake. This was using the powerbrick I use now which technically peaks at 180w... Of course Zotac says their 660 requires a 600 watt PSU soooo :D

Officially, I would not support that kind of use, but for funsies I could stick a 3770k and a 660ti in there and see at what point the board explodes at with the Dell brick...typically the bricks bite it way before the board does but it can hot enough to melt the rubber insulator on the wires. :)

Officially I support 180w of continuous use on my PSUs, which is enough for a 3770s and a 7770 with room to spare for peaking...the issue is heat. :)
Click to expand...

I hear ya -- with the x51 powerboard, I haven't run into heat issues, but it is also significantly larger and I added copper heatsinks to the MOSFETs and swapped out the 40mm fan for something a bit better ;) That seems to run the 3770k and 670 just fine (well, the magic smoke hasn't escaped yet!)

As far as space constraints go, I imagine that I could swap out all of the perpendicular power plugs for 90-degree modes to reduce the height of the powerboard... and the Z77e-itx has a fair bit of open space at the end of the mobo away from the PCIe port, so stacking might be an option. Something to explore at least :D
 
NFC, if you get the chance, could you give me the interior height (or thickness - it's the smallest major dimension) of the S3? Just want to know what I'm working with :)
 
I will be sold if the internal DC-DC board on this thing has a 6pin pci-e as it looks like the Radeon R7 260x will fit as it's technically an OCed 7790 but it's faster than what I have now (560ti) and I'd like to have a mildly Oced 4770k :D
 
prava said:
IMO, that design is nothing compared to your first one, and I think other people would agree with me:

uIWcml.jpg


The one you are posting here seems too raw... and too racing. I simply don't like that hole pattern at all. The one I've posted? Simply ASTONISHING.
Click to expand...


Whew, that is one sexy case! I'd definitely be in for one.
 
Can you tell me where you get the solid models of the components. I design laser cutting and bending all day and it would be easy to come up with some designs for myself, only thing is i dont want to sit down and measure all my components with a vernea and then model them all. Do you get them from the manufacturers? Or do you actually model them out. I know for the M1 the guy had very detailed models of everything right down to capacators on the mb. Let me know thanks.
 
There are computer components for SketchUp available here: http://scc.jezmckean.com/.

Some of them are not completely accurate though so you end up having to measure yourself anyway.

Most components adhere to standards for their physical dimensions, you can find specs here: http://www.formfactors.org/. That will cover motherboard and PSU but I've yet to find a good download for the physical specs for PCIe cards though.
 
Aibohphobia said:
...but I've yet to find a good download for the physical specs for PCIe cards though.
Click to expand...

Took me some time to find that back then...

:cool:

http://bj.soulinfo.com/~hugang/fpga/bus/pciexpress_cem_10a.pdf

And yeah, it's 99% correct. I tested it :D :D :D

One hint though - the GPU I got here (EVGA GTX 650) had some mini Displayports outside the cutout that's in the spec up there.
Either it's not the most recent one, or the manufacturers don't adhere to it strictly.
I had to widen it by 5mm - see design thread of the mITX case of mine for some note on this..
 
Thanks!

That's exactly what I've been look for :D

I'll keep that in mind for the connectors, I know I've run into a few case and video card combinations where some of the ports were too close to the edge of the cutout and couldn't be plugged in.
 
NFC said:
Hey guys. My name is Josh and I am the guy responsible for the S3 Elite and S3 Mini.

Trying to launch the S3 Mini has been a stressful adventure, and not one I am quite ready to deem a failure although right now I am stuck on two roadblocks:

1. Cost to get an S3 from paper to a customer's door.

2. Proving the market actually wants the S3 (capabilities and tradeoffs).

For those of you who are interested, I can tell a story to elaborate. :)
Click to expand...




so.... what ever happened to this? :(
 
illli said:
so.... what ever happened to this? :(
Click to expand...

Look up his facebook; NFC systems. He's got a new design called the S4, which apparently takes the best of both designs. It is being released "soon", but then again, the S3 was at one point releasing "soon".

It was never released.
 
rawrr said:
Look up his facebook; NFC systems. He's got a new design called the S4, which apparently takes the best of both designs. It is being released "soon", but then again, the S3 was at one point releasing "soon".

It was never released.
Click to expand...

Dude really should change the names of stuff, I mean NFC systems and S4?
What's next? Fingerprint Locks and G4?
 
Black5Lion said:
Dude really should change the names of stuff, I mean NFC systems and S4?
What's next? Fingerprint Locks and G4?
Click to expand...

Hehehe :D

Fun Facts:

Ever since I was a little kid I wanted my own computer business and and a friend and I came up with name Not From Concentrate. We even had a logo drawn up with a farmer picking a computer off a fruit tree. In highschool I was building cheap PCs and removing malware and the company name was shortened to NFC Systems.

Of course that was years ago and long before Near-Field-Communication devices saturated the consumer market. :)

Same with the S3 Mini...S4 Mini...absolutely terrible names that are nigh-unsearchable but my first design was System One and it has kinda stuck. Since this is all for fun right now, I'm not too worried about it...but things are changing.

Regarding the S3 Mini being a failure, I actually had about 100 production S3 Minis made up! Not only that but I sold nearly all of them with all sorts of fun custom paint jobs. Many of them were full system builds to end users, but I did sell some chassis kits to people who emailed me and asked for them. They were just so tiny and the hardware options were limited, so I felt that I couldn't sell it as a chassis in a storefront. It was a special kind of project by a U-SFF enthusiast for U-SFF enthusiasts. I consider it a success and I wouldn't trade the experience for anything. :)

The S4 Minis are all finished, boxed up, and I will be shipping them soon. There are more to go around this time and I even have a website!

But yeah, my marketing and branding is beyond terrible, but that is where awesome enthusiasts like YOU guys come in! :D

Thanks again guys for your patience, comments, support, and all the good things you have done for me!

xMsktGi.jpg

uHohDVM.jpg

Zju9cPZ.jpg

Cdkazlb.jpg
 
This looks so amazing, I love it!!!

Just curious since I'd love something in this form factor... I really dig the "mini" GTX 970 cards. Is the reason they can't be used in this case (based on your GFX card recommendations) due to insufficient external power supplies? Or is it a heat issue?

I only just recently got interested in small form factors (threw together a build in a Silverstone ML08) so am still learning plenty, so sorry if this is a really basic question.
 
It's mostly the heat for this case - you'd fry your hard drives. Also getting a brick that would run the hd-plex with 970 doesn't look too easy/cheap.
 
SaperPL said:
It's mostly the heat for this case - you'd fry your hard drives. Also getting a brick that would run the hd-plex with 970 doesn't look too easy/cheap.
Click to expand...

Ah, interesting. Could this be worked around by using an M2 SSD instead? I know those have heat problems of their own but at least you'd get it away from the GPU.

I noticed in this awesome build here he ran a 970 with an HDPLEX 250W and Hp Voodoo Firebird 350w Power brick ($50ish).
 
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