SENTRY: Console-sized gaming PC case project

Okay, that's pretty bloody impressive.

I wish there were an ideal monitor for travel like that. The inflatable projector monitor is cool, but way too expensive for what it is.

I plan to use this pico projector I purchased on Amazon Prime Day with SENTRY for trips, and so far it's fantastic! A 2 inch cube packing a 122'' screen!! Literally can't get enough of this thing. Been mostly using it for watching TV in bed, but gave it to my partner to use on her trip and only hearing great things. Bought it purely for travel and got more use than I imagined out of it. Yes I know your supposed to use a projector screen and all, but honestly I don't care enough as it already looks great on a regular wall. (No I don't plan to always play on a 122'' screen, but I'll at least try it when I can).

Edit: Also forgot to mention, everything but the bendable stand fits inside this little 1.94L case with foam inside. Without the foam I could, but wanted the padding for rough flights.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Okay, that's pretty bloody impressive.

I wish there were an ideal monitor for travel like that. The inflatable projector monitor is cool, but way too expensive for what it is.

If you do get a portable monitor make sure you get one of the recent usb-c/usb 3.1 ones. I had the MB169B and the C version (with USB-C) is just a whole lot better on all fronts. Not surprising considering usb-c's bandwidth.
 
If you do get a portable monitor make sure you get one of the recent usb-c/usb 3.1 ones. I had the MB169B and the C version (with USB-C) is just a whole lot better on all fronts. Not surprising considering usb-c's bandwidth.

I'd imagine if you're using this case, you would be using a dedicated GPU, which means no USB-C video out.
 
I've seen several like this that are "portable USB powered monitors". So they're usb "powered" but does that also mean the display signal is carried over USB? Like in a USB to hdmi display-link converter (which have horrible lag). The screen is run by the display link driver on the cpu, not the gpu. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004AIJE9G/ref=mp_s_a_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1474323554&sr=8-10&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=usb+to+vga&th=1&psc=1

For example, this AOC monitor is using display link over USB
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B010...sb+monitor&dpPl=1&dpID=51rrq0CCQ3L&ref=plSrch

I would totally get a portable monitor if it was USB powered but connected via hdmi or display port. I'm amazed none are available, I guess they assume the average consumer can't deal with more than one cable to connect a screen.

As far as I know the only thing that comes close to this is a "field monitor" often used with DSLR cameras and video cameras. I imagine they have horrible contrast and input lag, also they are rarely larger than ~9 inches.

Edit: what you would need for a proper, gpu rendered, portable monitor is this:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B018...6_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=portable+monitor
Not cheap! But it's one of the few I've seen that connects via hdmi rather than USB.

I've been researching these portable monitors for the past few months because I work on big ships and travel a lot for work. The GeChic you posted last is pretty much the best way to go of you want usb powered, but HDMI driven. The only other way I'd do it is how ZombiePL did with a 19" monitor with removable stand that you can fit in a bag. Only real advantage of the GeChic or any of those other ones is the slim factor and that you can power it via USB (maybe via motherboard I/O so two cables coming from PC). I haven't found a great small monitor alternative to travel with, but if someone does please let me know.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Hello, as I follow the forum on June 6, now I have a problem I am leaving for a long trip on November 4.
Can you deploy it before?
I live in Italy
thank you and you are great;)
 
I just noticed on the installation video that CPU coolers positioned far from the PCI-E socket dont have complete access to ventilation holes. Could you add in another row of holes to improve airflow?
 

Attachments

  • sentry.jpg
    sentry.jpg
    315.7 KB · Views: 181
Fans like intel box and C7 can additionally get air from the sides and unless your fan is not pushing against the cover, it'll get the air it needs even if it's slightly obstructed since there's a lot of holes around.

If you install a fan that is almost touching the inlet it'll be quite loud at higher RPMs so it's not an optimal configuration anyway.

Finally adding another row would give the fan additional 4 or 5 holes which is negligible compared to whole fan area.
 
There was no bigger update for a while, so i think You all want to know what we are working on at this moment:


***LITTLE UPDATE***

Since this is a community project, we decided to reveal the costs of finalized design of SENTRY and its most probable price selling point (we never had anything to hide J).

PROTOTYPING COSTS

We’ve made 5 prototypes of SENTRY with 5 or 6 pre-prototypes. The average cost of each of those 5 big prototypes calculated by our accountant was over 4500 USD. If we would like to sum up everything, it would be nearly 30 000 USD per those 2 years of our „small hobby project”. Of course we didn’t pay all of those money from our pockets, because most of them are our development „working hours”, which we treat as spent for our hobby, but it also includes materials, production costs, checking quality of different manufacturing companies, our travelling between those companies, checking different types of manufacturing methods, ordering small batches of many SENTRY components (most of them just for check), etc.

SENTRY TARGET PRICE (indiegogo campaign)

During those 2 years we were working not only on the quality of our design, but also to make our production profitable with a small number of 100 units per batch. Average cost of 4500 USD per one prototype can be scary for some, but in mass production we want to lower this price over 20-times (at least). It means, our most probable target selling price for SENTRY should be:


$195 USD + transport costs


This price includes (at this moment):

- 31% - manufacturing costs of metal parts (galvanized steel, laser cutting, punching venting holes,bending,point welding, inserting threaded bushings, structural powder coating)
- 19% - components costs (shielded PCI-E riser, USB.3.0 cable, power extension cable, rubber feet, screws,foil bags, plastic plugs, rubbers, printed carton boxes, transport boxes, silica gels, etc.)
- 3,2% - internal transport and storage costs
- 4,2% - cost of renting the facility for assembling purposes
- 7,6% - cost of hiring staff for assembling purposes (probably 3-5 people)
- 5% - indiegogo campaign cost
- 3-5% - paypal cost
- 5% - reserve for future improvements,
- 10% - reserve for handling warranty,
- 10% - our profit

You all know that we are not a PC-case manufacturers, but we make wind turbines and other heavy-duty stuff, so we understand that, we won’t be doing SENTRY for ever… and we are OK with that. We wanted to make SENTRY as cheap as possible, so we set our profit on a such low level. In time it can rise up to 20% if there won’t be any quality issues in over 100pcs batches (this 10% reserve for handling warranty can change into our profit), plus another 5% if we will get better prices for SENTRY components (if our indiegogo campaign gather bigger number of orders). Some of you will say it’s still not as profitable as PC-cases made with molds in standard PC-cases factories (often over 100%), but for us it’s enought as for a small hobby project, which we’re not doing for living but mostly for fun and as our company’s promotion.

OUR NEXT MOVES

1. Final improvements of SENTRY (according to our external reviewers suggestions)
2. Waiting for our two more external benchmarks, to get better view if we made everything right
3. Finishing design of rubber-pads serial cutter for SENTRY vertical stand
4. Signing a contract for a bigger batch with our metal-parts manufacturer
5. Getting better prices of SENTRY components from our suppliers
6. Preparing a promotional intro-video for indiegogo campaign
7. Preparing an indiegogo campaign
8. Start of indiegogo campaign
9. Finish of indiegogo campaign
10. Renting facilities and hiring staff for assembling purposes
11. Ordering metal parts and SENTRY components
12. Production/assembling
13. Sending SENTRY to the indiegogo backers

All of those moves we are making simultaneously, so please do not look at them like this is a straight timeline made point-by-point. What is more, we are not giving any dates, because we are also waiting for answers from our subcontractors, and we still didn’t get them. Not everything depend on us in terms of time.

I hope this update satisfied your curiosity (at least for now :)).
 
I'm glad that things are moving along smoothly so far. The price is perfect in my mind. I'm more than ready to pay that for a case which isn't mass produced and fits such a niche market. I can't wait for the campaign!
 
I absolutely cannot wait! Very exciting news! Will there be a limit of one per customer? Hopefully not as I know I'd buy two asap.

I can't believe how much work you guys have put in to this and yet the logistics still keep getting more complex. I never thought of all the stuff you guys have to do to get sentry 'to market'.
 
Will there be a limit of one per customer?

Nope. Probably we will make an option to buy 1 or 2 pcs, and if You will want to buy more of SENTRY, then You will have to make a multiple order of those numbers. We will see what will be the cheaper option for clients. If for example the package with 4 SENTRYs will be cheaper than 2 packages with 2 SENTRYs, then we will think about this 1st option. We don't want You to pay more for transport if it isn't needed.
 
I can't believe how much work you guys have put in to this and yet the logistics still keep getting more complex. I never thought of all the stuff you guys have to do to get sentry 'to market'.
most people don't seem to realize how much work, time and money goes into something like this. that's why it pisses me off when people jump in and are all "change this, change that, add this, add that, I don't like this, do this instead" when the project is almost complete, after 2 years!
 
Nope. Probably we will make an option to buy 1 or 2 pcs, and if You will want to buy more of SENTRY, then You will have to make a multiple order of those numbers. We will see what will be the cheaper option for clients. If for example the package with 4 SENTRYs will be cheaper than 2 packages with 2 SENTRYs, then we will think about this 1st option. We don't want You to pay more for transport if it isn't needed.

Thanks. Well if it comes in multiples of 2 I may just get 4 ;) haha

most people don't seem to realize how much work, time and money goes into something like this. that's why it pisses me off when people jump in and are all "change this, change that, add this, add that, I don't like this, do this instead" when the project is almost complete, after 2 years!

Yeah, the people at the very end asking for things that are very clearly only relevant to themselves and would require a major redesign of the product or manufacturing drive me nuts. Screws and rubber feet? Whatever. Moving cnc milled holes? Changing bends? You're crazy.

It's mostly the final storefront, sales, assembly, packaging, and distribution that took me by surprise.
 
Last edited:
First post but been lurking for a long while. I already had a $200 price point in my head so $195 or so is good to see.

Quick question. I'm looking to get a new GPU and the one I'm looking at is 134 mm tall and looking at the Sentry website it looks like the max height is 130 mm. Is that correct? Would there be enough room to squeeze in 134 mm? Hard to tell from the pics. The GPU I have in mind is the Asus Strix 1070.
 
I wouldn't suggest a open-air cooler in this case as you'd benefit more with a blower style cooler exhausting the hot air out of the case. It'll be cheaper too.

I'm currently running the ASUS Turbo blower style with a conservative +112 core and +400 mem and it's great.

Edit: Gaming temps are anywhere from 48-62 deg.
 
Last edited:
First post but been lurking for a long while. I already had a $200 price point in my head so $195 or so is good to see.

Quick question. I'm looking to get a new GPU and the one I'm looking at is 134 mm tall and looking at the Sentry website it looks like the max height is 130 mm. Is that correct? Would there be enough room to squeeze in 134 mm? Hard to tell from the pics. The GPU I have in mind is the Asus Strix 1070.
There is a good chance that the Strix 1070 will fit, but no guarantee. The reason for the width limitation is from the peg connectors sticking too far out once connected to the card. However, connectors are recessed on the strix which should allow for enough space. Until someone actually puts that card in the case there won't be any promise on it fitting though.
 
Hi, long time lurker here,

Can I mount 2x3.5" HDD on the M3 mount position when using a 170mm GPU and SFX PSU?

You have space for 4x 2.5" HDD which is almost the same thickness as 2x3.5" HDD, but I don't know if there is enough space lengthwise.

The total width for the case is 340mm, while the PSU mount seems to be around 40mm from from the side, leaving 300mm which should be enough for a 3.5" HDD and SFX PSU theoretically

Thanks
 
There is a good chance that the Strix 1070 will fit, but no guarantee. The reason for the width limitation is from the peg connectors sticking too far out once connected to the card. However, connectors are recessed on the strix which should allow for enough space. Until someone actually puts that card in the case there won't be any promise on it fitting though.

Thanks. That's kind of what I was thinking but didn't know if the 130 mm was a set limit. The recessed connectors on the Strix is part of what made me consider it. That and I'm a sucker for the aesthetics of that card. ;)
 
Hi, long time lurker here,

Can I mount 2x3.5" HDD on the M3 mount position when using a 170mm GPU and SFX PSU?

You have space for 4x 2.5" HDD which is almost the same thickness as 2x3.5" HDD, but I don't know if there is enough space lengthwise.

The total width for the case is 340mm, while the PSU mount seems to be around 40mm from from the side, leaving 300mm which should be enough for a 3.5" HDD and SFX PSU theoretically

Thanks
Unfortunately no, standard 3.5" HDDs are 147mm x 106 mm x 26 mm, so even with a short 170 mm GPU your left with 140 mm. That's not counting the sata cable connectors which will add a few more mm. You can't place them with the HDD sata connection side facing the PSU because there is a divider with a small cutout between the GPU section and the mobo/PSU section. Even if you cut the divider you'll be running into the PSU cables and connections, maybe even the PSU as well. Sorry señor, 3.5" is just to big.

While yes, 3.5" is super cheap, you're better off spending the extra money on 2.5" in SFF. I have a 20TB NAS planned out for either this case or another with 2.5" HDDs. They're just so much smaller and efficient! Also I haven't owned a 3.5" since my first computer which had a single 32GB 3.5" HDD, man I do not miss those days.
 
While yes, 3.5" is super cheap, you're better off spending the extra money on 2.5" in SFF. I have a 20TB NAS planned out for either this case or another with 2.5" HDDs. They're just so much smaller and efficient! Also I haven't owned a 3.5" since my first computer which had a single 32GB 3.5" HDD, man I do not miss those days.

Holy cow. What drives are you using?

I just built myself a 12TB NAS because I knew I'd have a lot less room in my main computer when I build into this case, but that was using 3.5" WD reds.

I've researched 2.5" drives to use as my storage for games in this case, and there aren't great options out there that are trustworthy when it comes to reliability. (Not to mention they're all either small capacity or insanely expensive.)

I had basically resigned myself to dropping $200 for a 1TB OCZ Trion 150. It sounds like you've found a better option, though?
 
  • Like
Reactions: RosaJ
like this
Holy cow. What drives are you using?

I just built myself a 12TB NAS because I knew I'd have a lot less room in my main computer when I build into this case, but that was using 3.5" WD reds.

I've researched 2.5" drives to use as my storage for games in this case, and there aren't great options out there that are trustworthy when it comes to reliability. (Not to mention they're all either small capacity or insanely expensive.)

I had basically resigned myself to dropping $200 for a 1TB OCZ Trion 150. It sounds like you've found a better option, though?

I'd love it if HGST made a 2TB 2.5", but sadly I've had to fall on the 2TB seagates. I've currently had mine(2 of them) for the past year and a half and starting to near full capacity. No issues with them and are fairly reviewed. I planed and budgeted 2 batches, 5 drives a year for 2 years. I won't be using my current drives I have for the nas, other than an old mushkin SSD for boot.
 
I'd love it if HGST made a 2TB 2.5", but sadly I've had to fall on the 2TB seagates. I've currently had mine(2 of them) for the past year and a half and starting to near full capacity. No issues with them and are fairly reviewed. I planed and budgeted 2 batches, 5 drives a year for 2 years. I won't be using my current drives I have for the nas, other than an old mushkin SSD for boot.

Hmm, fair enough. I was kind of wary of those seagates - since you have experience with them, how noisy do they get under load?

Previous seagates I've had, from almost any era, have been chattery to the point of distraction.
 
I'd love it if HGST made a 2TB 2.5", but sadly I've had to fall on the 2TB seagates. I've currently had mine(2 of them) for the past year and a half and starting to near full capacity. No issues with them and are fairly reviewed. I planed and budgeted 2 batches, 5 drives a year for 2 years. I won't be using my current drives I have for the nas, other than an old mushkin SSD for boot.

Doesn't hgst make 2.5in 1.5tb drives? I have several of their 7k1000 1tb drives for cold storage, they're bulletproof. Maybe they stopped making the 1.5tb drives when they got absorbed by WD?

I definitely don't understand why people insist on using 3.5in drives in pc's anymore. They're huge. They use a metric shit ton of power, usually require a case fan dedicated to keeping them cool and did I mention they're huge? They hold more but will almost certainly fail before an ssd due to moving parts.

Get a 1tb ssd and keep the 3.5in behemoths for a Nas or server. In 3 years time the 4tb ssd's will cost what 1tb ssd's cost today and nobody will ever look back to using the spinning rust drives known as hdd's.
 
...

I definitely don't understand why people insist on using 3.5in drives in pc's anymore. They're huge. They use a metric shit ton of power, usually require a case fan dedicated to keeping them cool and did I mention they're huge? They hold more but will almost certainly fail before an ssd due to moving parts.

Get a 1tb ssd and keep the 3.5in behemoths for a Nas or server. In 3 years time the 4tb ssd's will cost what 1tb ssd's cost today and nobody will ever look back to using the spinning rust drives known as hdd's.

NAS is too expensive (it starts at around $200 for a diskless single bay) and 1 TB SSD cost more than my monthly salary.

Generally, computer parts are 30-100% more expensive than in the US, and with average monthly salary at around $250, computers are considered luxury item.

Ah the joys of living in a developing third world country...

Unfortunately no, standard 3.5" HDDs are 147mm x 106 mm x 26 mm, so even with a short 170 mm GPU your left with 140 mm. That's not counting the sata cable connectors which will add a few more mm. You can't place them with the HDD sata connection side facing the PSU because there is a divider with a small cutout between the GPU section and the mobo/PSU section. Even if you cut the divider you'll be running into the PSU cables and connections, maybe even the PSU as well. Sorry señor, 3.5" is just to big.

While yes, 3.5" is super cheap, you're better off spending the extra money on 2.5" in SFF. I have a 20TB NAS planned out for either this case or another with 2.5" HDDs. They're just so much smaller and efficient! Also I haven't owned a 3.5" since my first computer which had a single 32GB 3.5" HDD, man I do not miss those days.

Thank you for your explanation. Both my 3.5" HDDs are 3TB, not to mention 2TB 2.5" drives aren't available unless I buy external HDD and crack it open.
 
Thank you for your explanation. Both my 3.5" HDDs are 3TB, not to mention 2TB 2.5" drives aren't available unless I buy external HDD and crack it open.

Be careful with opening external hdds for the drive; many of them nowadays have the circuit board fused with the drive for the sake of cost, so there isn't any way to use them internally.

As for your predicament and the drives you have, I'm sorry to hear about that. I think your best option might be a slightly larger case, such as the silverstone raven, or a five-syle case.
 
NAS is too expensive (it starts at around $200 for a diskless single bay) and 1 TB SSD cost more than my monthly salary.

Generally, computer parts are 30-100% more expensive than in the US, and with average monthly salary at around $250, computers are considered luxury item.

Ah the joys of living in a developing third world country...

Ah that's true. I assumed anyone who is willing to pay ~$200US for a case would be willing to pay $250US for a 1tb ssd. It's strange how things are so cheap in the US. My coworker is from Brazil and she says her family asks her to buy all the Christmas gifts here in the US so she can bring them back to Brazil. Apparently it's like 6x more expensive for everything there.
 
Thank you for your explanation. Both my 3.5" HDDs are 3TB, not to mention 2TB 2.5" drives aren't available unless I buy external HDD and crack it open.
The Seagate Expansion Portable drives are just Samsung M9t's with a SATA to USB 3.0 adapter plugged in. They are an excellent place to start and yes, I am speaking from experience.
 
Be careful with opening external hdds for the drive; many of them nowadays have the circuit board fused with the drive for the sake of cost, so there isn't any way to use them internally.

As for your predicament and the drives you have, I'm sorry to hear about that. I think your best option might be a slightly larger case, such as the silverstone raven, or a five-syle case.

What's a five-syle case?

The Seagate Expansion Portable drives are just Samsung M9t's with a SATA to USB 3.0 adapter plugged in. They are an excellent place to start and yes, I am speaking from experience.

Thanks for the info. Had a samsung 80GB desktop drive a few years back and they're quite reliable.

Unfortunately, I just used my savings for something higher in my priority list and gave my old PC to my mother because she needs it for work.

I'll buy something used which hopefully is at least Sandy Bridge, but it won't be ITX though
 
Just wanted to point a couple things out that I came across today, both of which are kinda awesome for this case.

The first is that it looks like a company has finally done something with their licence of the Sandia Cooler. Thermaltake is releasing a 29mm z-height kinetic cooler!

https://hardforum.com/threads/so-we...heatsink-impeller-design-tt-engine-27.191287/

I'm really hoping for a 1.5U spec 120W version.



The second awesome piece of news is that our hard drive questions might just have been answered. Seagate just announced a new 5TB 2.5" hard drive with a 15mm z-height.

Seagate Expands Barracuda Series With 5TB 2.5

Sadly, it does not use helium technology yet, so I have no idea how noisy it might end up being, or if the 5800rpm is going to make it too slow to store games on, but it's at least a start in the right direction, eh?
 
  • Like
Reactions: RosaJ
like this
...I have no idea how noisy it might end up being, or if the 5800rpm is going to make it too slow to store games on, but it's at least a start in the right direction, eh?

I installed my game to the 5400 rpm drive on my old PC, the game take some time to load, but I don't think it has much impact on the frame rate unless the game constantly loads things from the drive.

Then again, the PC was a Core 2 Duo E7400 with HD4670 and I played on 1366x768 resolution with lowest setting.
 
Just wanted to point a couple things out that I came across today, both of which are kinda awesome for this case.

The first is that it looks like a company has finally done something with their licence of the Sandia Cooler. Thermaltake is releasing a 29mm z-height kinetic cooler!

https://hardforum.com/threads/so-we...heatsink-impeller-design-tt-engine-27.191287/

I'm really hoping for a 1.5U spec 120W version.



The second awesome piece of news is that our hard drive questions might just have been answered. Seagate just announced a new 5TB 2.5" hard drive with a 15mm z-height.

Seagate Expands Barracuda Series With 5TB 2.5

Sadly, it does not use helium technology yet, so I have no idea how noisy it might end up being, or if the 5800rpm is going to make it too slow to store games on, but it's at least a start in the right direction, eh?

Whoa that Thermaltake cooler has my attention. I have a i7-4770T in a Silverstone PT13 used in more or less an industrial application. I'm using Silverstone's nt-07-115x cooler its not bad for cooling but damn is it loud when I use the mini pc outside an industrial setting like at home. It always sits around 2300rpm. So I'd be curious to see if this, essentially radial "blower" style, cooler is as good while being quiter.
 
Hi,

Ihink I have asked this before, but just to be exactly sure, would there be any chance for the case to fit in a 3.5 harddisk if I use a short display card?

I have got the exact product and dimensons here:
  • Length:
  • 172mm
  • Height:
  • 98mm
Inno3D GeForce GTX 1060 3GB

Thank you. This would help me directly decide if I would purchase your product, as it looks wonderful.

Regards,
Johnny
 
Hi,

Ihink I have asked this before, but just to be exactly sure, would there be any chance for the case to fit in a 3.5 harddisk if I use a short display card?

I have got the exact product and dimensons here:
  • Length:
  • 172mm
  • Height:
  • 98mm
Inno3D GeForce GTX 1060 3GB

Thank you. This would help me directly decide if I would purchase your product, as it looks wonderful.

Regards,
Johnny

Unfortunately for 3.5" owners no, a 3.5" HDD will not fit with a short GPU.

This was discussed before on this page above and it seems you have asked about this and received a similar answer to what was discussed above. Posted below is the original answer and is relevant.

Sadly no, unless you want to use single slot gpu which actually doesn't really make too much sense for this case. The gpu compartment is 306mm long and the itx gpu would take 170mm and the 3.5" drive is 146mm long so it would be 316mm - 10mm over the space we have.

We thought about supporting two 3.5" drives + four stacked 2.5" instead of gpu to work as a NAS server but it doesn't look like people are interested in this config at all and it only made things more complicated for the gpu inlet layout.

I get the problem with 3.5" but the current layout doesn't favour this type of drives really. I hope that we can get more proper 2TB and bigger 2.5" hdd's soon because at this moment the options are quite limited.

However, on the bright side this case can as well as your desire to move to SFF gives you an opportunity to upgrade to a much much smaller 2.5" HDD or SDD or even a SSHD. All of which can fit multiples of over a 3.5" HDD. Yes the price for a 3.5" is very low, but it's so big in size!

I'm sorry if this is the determining factor for purchasing this case because 3.5" doesn't have a real place in SFF. Especially as time goes on with the need and desire to get smaller and smaller for factors.

Hopefully this helps
 
how about an updated version of the checklist? ;)

*Christmas seems viable this time :D
 
Last edited:
Back
Top