SENTRY: Console-sized gaming PC case project

need an update for on the GPU compatibility, for 1080ti custom cards...

That will not happen. Only blower style FE units if at all. We're not going to clear open-air 250W+ cards for Sentry in recommended cards list. You can check dimensions for fitting, but you're on your own in area of thermals.
 
need an update for on the GPU compatibility, for 1080ti custom cards...

I can confirm that SaperPL is right. Even in a larger case that I have now (NZXT Vulcan), my 7700k goes from 80C in stressful gaming (crysis 3) with a blower GPU to 95C (system freezes) with an open air aftermarket GTX 1080 (Zotac amp extreme). Which should be indicative of the performance of a 1080Ti open air in sentry. The TDP is simply too great and you should opt for a founders edition card.

If you're running a low low TDP CPU maybe you could get away with it... But you'll be running into CPU bottlenecks at that point.
 
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need an update for on the GPU compatibility, for 1080ti custom cards...
Yeah it doesn't really need an update when only blower style cards will fit. Trust me, I own the 1080ti FE and its pretty good. You will not be disappointed.The card doesn't get very hot inside the case (also an ITX case) but in the outside its a freaking heater. I feel like removing the DVI for more airflow space was a great improvement for itx cases like Sentry.
 
I'm not against the 1080TI itself - some of the units might be working properly in Sentry on vertical stand and others won't. It's just that we won't be green-lighting the cards simply because they fit since people often come checking the list without reading pinned info and they even can't/won't check the card they have for dimensions specified on their own.

If we were to clear one of the 1080TI's solely on physically fitting, then I'm sure we'd have like 50-100 people who bought that single card because it was fastest on the list regardless of warnings next to it and they would then use it in horizontal position overheating the whole system.

You have dimensions. If you're tech savvy enough, you'll figure it out for yourself if precise model of 1080TI will fit by the specified dimensions and whether it'll run properly with your tasks. If you're not, stick to the cards on the list.
 
I feel like removing the DVI for more airflow space was a great improvement for itx cases like Sentry.

I wish that we will have enough momentum at some point to influence stuff like this. I'd like for the cards to have no video output at all and for pci-e spec to handle the video being outputted through the lanes back to motherboard connectors or dedicated output card (in case you're on extreme platform without IGP for example).

At this point we have like 80% of desktop PC's with display output on the motherboard and that will increase after Ryzen gaining more market share. I see no reason why we couldn't use the pci bus to transfer the frames back to the chipset. This way we could have unified bracket for all GPU's, more blower airflow and simplify mounting in SFF cases where the GPU is the only thing mounted in a slot.
 
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That will not happen. Only blower style FE units if at all. We're not going to clear open-air 250W+ cards for Sentry in recommended cards list. You can check dimensions for fitting, but you're on your own in area of thermals.

Hi Saper, I was actually planning on migrating to the sentry case with my existing 280x or 390. Both being a 250w + cards, what's the downside on the thermals assuming they fit?

Have you or anyone from this group tried fitting a 250w open air card on the sentry case?
 
Open Air cards might work 'kind of' like on an open bench when mounted in vertical stand. 'Kind of' because the vents are still reducing the airflow a bit. Those cards are made for the cases with multiple fans pushing the air in and out of the case.

YetAnotherTechChannel did a proper review with multiple types of cards in both configs so you might want to extrapolate this up to 250W :)
 
Open Air cards might work 'kind of' like on an open bench when mounted in vertical stand. 'Kind of' because the vents are still reducing the airflow a bit. Those cards are made for the cases with multiple fans pushing the air in and out of the case.

YetAnotherTechChannel did a proper review with multiple types of cards in both configs so you might want to extrapolate this up to 250W :)

The reality is the only test we have is Linus Titan X test with founders edition, and to be realistic, it wasn't that bad. I guess for the sentry case we will be the ones to judge which cards will fit best and how they will do in terms of temperatures. That's why I was thinking that we should have a copy of the GPU sheet that is open to sentry owners here:






In this one we can put Owners configuration and all possibilities including those that might not be supported (or not recommended) with proper temperature/tests results. Like dan's case owner spreadsheet.
 
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I would like to see this as well... And we could also post GPU and CPU setups and cooling solutions. Along with any mods to get certain components to fit.
 
Just wondering.. I saw the new EVGA 1080TI FTW3 and it looks sexy AF... will that card fit our SENTRYs? if not, how abt the new SC2?
 
Just wondering.. I saw the new EVGA 1080TI FTW3 and it looks sexy AF... will that card fit our SENTRYs? if not, how abt the new SC2?

Ftw3 no, sc2 yes.

The TDP is too high on these cards anyway and it's recommended that you get the founders edition instead. Though do whatever you wish!
 
I report.

Over the past few years, I have changed 970-980-1070-1080, all were red MSI GAMING X, so ordering this time FE (also from msi), the imagination painted the saddest pictures, and in memory are still fresh memories The FE roared.

i have RVZ02 with window, as a temporary solution

Received today this card - the first impression, after unpacking: wow! Very beautiful, very heavy, and unusually compact.
Install, turn on the computer turns, but the silence is uttermost (from the word at all), even by the standards of my tenderest ears (of the coolers - only 92mm noctua at the 7700K). I launch Battlefield 1 in 4K. Picture - juicy, fps - iron 60 (vsinc +), noise - exactly the same as my last MSI Gaming X 1080. I was shocked, to be honest, now I do not see the point in non-reefs (even in such beautiful as in msi ) In general, well, except that the temperature is lower (I kept 83-84 for an hour while I was playing).

Therefore, if someone buys someone from buying refa only noise - away from doubt, everything is just fine.

Frequency all the way around 1700-1800+ in default mode, without OC. Complete silence, the cooler turns to 46-48%.

For the sake of interest, I tried in the afterburner to unscrew the cooler with my hands by 80-100%, and there, of course, yes, the road cleaning machine starts to go under the windows. .

And now for dessert: my configuration of the 7700K + 1080TI + 2*8 DDR4 + SSD M.2 960 PRO 512GB in the game load pulled absolutely without straining the tiny SFX power supply Corsair SF450 Gold. At the same time 50% of the time its cooler remained passive, i.e. Talk about some of its critical or near-critical loads - absolutely inappropriate. In general, if you PSU not from lao jing, but honest, with a standard gold or platinum - then 450 watts cuts this bundle easily and naturally. Of course, if we do not talk about overclocking (I'm more than satisfied with the runoff).

If someone has questions, I will be happy to answer. And sorry for my beautiful english ).
 
I report.

Over the past few years, I have changed 970-980-1070-1080, all were red MSI GAMING X, so ordering this time FE (also from msi), the imagination painted the saddest pictures, and in memory are still fresh memories The FE roared.

i have RVZ02 with window, as a temporary solution

Received today this card - the first impression, after unpacking: wow! Very beautiful, very heavy, and unusually compact.
Install, turn on the computer turns, but the silence is uttermost (from the word at all), even by the standards of my tenderest ears (of the coolers - only 92mm noctua at the 7700K). I launch Battlefield 1 in 4K. Picture - juicy, fps - iron 60 (vsinc +), noise - exactly the same as my last MSI Gaming X 1080. I was shocked, to be honest, now I do not see the point in non-reefs (even in such beautiful as in msi ) In general, well, except that the temperature is lower (I kept 83-84 for an hour while I was playing).

Therefore, if someone buys someone from buying refa only noise - away from doubt, everything is just fine.

Frequency all the way around 1700-1800+ in default mode, without OC. Complete silence, the cooler turns to 46-48%.

So many people refuse to buy Founders Edition cards because they think they're too loud or too hot but Nvidia did a very good job this time with the reference design. My 1080 rarely hits 75C. And the fan noise is never that bad unless the pc is right next to you and you have no speakers or headphones. The fan rarely spins above 50% and the card usually maintains a boost around 2ghz. I never understood the big expensive, flashy cards. ~5% better performance but they're huge, heavy, cost more, and exhaust all that heat back in to the case so in something like sentry their extra cooling capacity is actually diminished. Good choice on the founders edition!
 
Whenever you guys at DR ZĄBER are ready it would be nice if you created another scheme like this one with the actual dates(or just update this one):

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Whenever you guys at DR ZĄBER are ready it would be nice if you created another scheme like this one with the actual dates(or just update this one):

nqR34P8.png%20

We will think about it, but for sure we won't set exact dates, mostly because in this period of time we have some global holidays like Easter and some national holidays in which law does not allow us to work. It means, we can only predict how the production will look like, if everything goes well. You know we faced delays with payment from indiegogo and now with stuff being kept by customs services. Who knows what else will happen. What is more, we told everybody that white cases may be "more" limited than others. We explained, it is because we have to paint them in an external paint shop which is a very busy place. Now (when we will get all of those steel elements) we will see if there won't be any delays with this subcontractor. We are doing our best to keep the declared timeline, and at this moment we think everything is still OK (even with those external delays, which didn't depend on us).

I think we showed everyone, that we are very serious with this project, so you shouldn't worry about your cases. We want to start sending packages in the next 2 weeks, but we are still waiting for some parts to arrive, which are mostly kept by customs services. As soon as we will get all elements of this puzzle, we will let you know about the start of the assembling process and we will try to keep things according to the production scheme you (Rysen) mentioned.

If someone feels we are giving not enough information in some fields, just let us know. We are making bigger updates every weekend, so if you think something is unclear, or you want some additional information, just write, so we will try to include the answer in our update-message to make it clear to everyone.
 
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Sorry if it has been asked before, but any idea what the retail price will be?
 
Hi guys not sure if this has been covered but what are the results from the CPU temps with the following config for this sentry case, are they fine or too hot
1. i7 7700K ( non OC)
2. 1080TI founders
3. on a C7/Noctua l9i
 
Hi guys not sure if this has been covered but what are the results from the CPU temps with the following config for this sentry case, are they fine or too hot
1. i7 7700K ( non OC)
2. 1080TI founders
3. on a C7/Noctua l9i

There are no such results because we haven't tested this specific configuration and we will not do this. We already know the limits of our chassis and we recommend going with 65W TDP CPU like i7-7700 or Ryzen 7 1700 and 150W GPU like GTX1070 or RX480. Going above those recommendations with TDP means your PC will be hotter and louder and you're on your own with figuring out how to tweak your system for optimal performance.

Cryorig C7 is not recommended as it is not really a cooler built for 48mm clearance and it requires additional space above for optimal performance.

Noctua NH-L9i is not targeting 95W TDP CPUs unless the system has greatly induced airflow around it and Sentry simply doesn't do that. We've got good experience with copper core intel cooler so far and we believe it might be worth trying with unlocked-K SKUs.

It's not magic here - going smaller means less space for airflow and the components still have to dissipate heat. We were clear for a long time that this is not a chassis for extreme ultra-high-end build, but for reasonable one that can be consequentially upgraded in the future and is still a console-killer even if it doesn't burn acres of rain forest worth electricity. And we don't want to fool you by telling you that it'll fit anything.

Also be reasonable with your component shopping. Life shows that nvidia within a year from Titan X Pascal launched significantly cheaper 1080TI that is cheaper and slightly faster and now is re-launching Titan as Titan Xp making the initial Titan X Pascal worth even less now. Unless you really know how to tackle and use the power of any of those cards inside Sentry, we recommend saving money and going mainstream 1070/1080 and upgrading in the future to next generation 150W unit if performance boost is satisfying.
 
Two ideas that came to playing with my new ITX-Hardware;

- Does the case have place near the MoBo for an additional 40mm (Noctua) Fan for "slightly" better airflow ?
- Do you thing it makes (thermal) sense to connect the metal backplate from the GPU (in case you have one) to the case via thermal pad´s ?

Of course i could test both if i had the case ;-)
 
There are no such results because we haven't tested this specific configuration and we will not do this. We already know the limits of our chassis and we recommend going with 65W TDP CPU like i7-7700 or Ryzen 7 1700 and 150W GPU like GTX1070 or RX480. Going above those recommendations with TDP means your PC will be hotter and louder and you're on your own with figuring out how to tweak your system for optimal performance.

Cryorig C7 is not recommended as it is not really a cooler built for 48mm clearance and it requires additional space above for optimal performance.

Noctua NH-L9i is not targeting 95W TDP CPUs unless the system has greatly induced airflow around it and Sentry simply doesn't do that. We've got good experience with copper core intel cooler so far and we believe it might be worth trying with unlocked-K SKUs.

It's not magic here - going smaller means less space for airflow and the components still have to dissipate heat. We were clear for a long time that this is not a chassis for extreme ultra-high-end build, but for reasonable one that can be consequentially upgraded in the future and is still a console-killer even if it doesn't burn acres of rain forest worth electricity. And we don't want to fool you by telling you that it'll fit anything.

Also be reasonable with your component shopping. Life shows that nvidia within a year from Titan X Pascal launched significantly cheaper 1080TI that is cheaper and slightly faster and now is re-launching Titan as Titan Xp making the initial Titan X Pascal worth even less now. Unless you really know how to tackle and use the power of any of those cards inside Sentry, we recommend saving money and going mainstream 1070/1080 and upgrading in the future to next generation 150W unit if performance boost is satisfying.

That is too bad, as most people when considering a new rig will always opt out for the highest end components. Now im doubting the whole purchase of the case in the first place. Already got the processor, why would i opt out for lower performing one and a lower performing card. Not happening.
 
That is too bad, as most people when considering a new rig will always opt out for the highest end components. Now im doubting the whole purchase of the case in the first place. Already got the processor, why would i opt out for lower performing one and a lower performing card. Not happening.

Geez, just give it a try. I'm very positive that it will work just fine (standing vertically atleast), but why would you expect them to directly recommend something that *might/might not* work. Marketing a case like this directly for hardware that wasn't even released when the indiegogo kicked off makes no sense at all.
 
That is too bad, as most people when considering a new rig will always opt out for the highest end components. Now im doubting the whole purchase of the case in the first place. Already got the processor, why would i opt out for lower performing one and a lower performing card. Not happening.
you obviously didn't do your home work then. that has been the case with this case since the beginning. if you want the most powerful gaming system get an appropriate case. supper small sff cases are NOT built for the highest end parts, there HAS to be a compromise between power, size and heat.
 
You think no GPU-Boost becorse of high temperatures is "fine" ???

I think you want to re-watch the results section again. Linus is using synthetic tests on both the CPU and GPU to test and admits that ambient temps were high. In a gaming scenario and with a custom fan curve, he shows the Titan X is boosting to 1750 MHz. Compared to Techpowerup's Titan X sample, 1750 MHz is fine. If you're worried about temperatures, don't pair a Titan X or 1080Ti with a 140w CPU, and keep the Sentry in a vertical position.
 
As long as you get the thermolab LP53 with a Noctua 92x14mm fan and a reference (founders edition) 1080Ti it will work fine. You will see boosts and noise will be fine, just not as good as a huge case with massive airflow, but usable nonetheless.
 
You think no GPU-Boost becorse of high temperatures is "fine" ???
He was using a 140w cpu and yes they were fine. In fact much better performance than you will get with a 1080, so getting a 1080ti on the case will be an improvement over the case with a 1080. Also he was using Noctua's cooler. I am expecting to eventually buy a much better cooler. In fact the LP53 has much better results than the noctua. not only that but as mentioned by other people here he was running synthetic tests on both CPU and GPU in a real extreme gaming application it would never have both at full load for 4 hours straight. Also like sonicd00012 said Linus doesn't even delid.
 
He was using a 140w cpu and yes they were fine. In fact much better performance than you will get with a 1080, so getting a 1080ti on the case will be an improvement over the case with a 1080. Also he was using Noctua's cooler. I am expecting to eventually buy a much better cooler. In fact the LP53 has much better results than the noctua. not only that but as mentioned by other people here he was running synthetic tests on both CPU and GPU in a real extreme gaming application it would never have both at full load for 4 hours straight. Also like sonicd00012 said Linus doesn't even delid.
So technically if your doing just gaming, on an i7 7700k non OC /1080ti (c7 should be okay, especially with delid) we shoulldn't really worry
 
So technically if your doing just gaming, on an i7 7700k non OC /1080ti (c7 should be okay, especially with delid) we shoulldn't really worry

Pretty much. The C7 is going to be awfully noisy, though. I've really got my fingers crossed for Dondan's cooler to make it.
 
So technically if your doing just gaming, on an i7 7700k non OC /1080ti (c7 should be okay, especially with delid) we shoulldn't really worry
No! Cryorig C7 will not be okay at all. It will perform badly. SaperPL has said it before. Your best bet is the NH-L9i or the LP53 (which has not been tested yet). However, hopefully the absolute best will be Dondan's cooler. Also if you don't care about high temps and noise then I do not think you should worry at all. But if you are planning on having something quiet and nice temperatures I highly doubt Sentry is the case for a 1080ti build. I personally don't care. Given that the case is so small it can be placed behind my monitors at a decent distance from me so noise will not reach me.

Today I had to prepare to go to a technology fair where I am presenting some of the work I have done with my team. It was painful, Sentry was in my mind throughout the entire process. Loading the huge work computer case with monitor and the HTC vive into the car took pretty much the entire trunk. I asked my friend to take the other stuff for me.
 
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So technically if your doing just gaming, on an i7 7700k non OC /1080ti (c7 should be okay, especially with delid) we shoulldn't really worry
how aboot you build it and find out then let us know what happens. just don't be pissed if it doesn't work how you want, you were advised against it.
 
No! Cryorig C7 will not be okay at all. It will perform badly. SaperPL has said it before. Your best bet is the NH-L9i or the LP53 (which has not been tested yet). However, hopefully the absolute best will be Dondan's cooler. Also if you don't care about high temps and noise then I do not think you should worry at all. But if you are planning on having something quiet and nice temperatures I highly doubt Sentry is the case for a 1080ti build. I personally don't care. Given that the case is so small it can be placed behind my monitors at a decent distance from me so noise will not reach me.

Today I had to prepare to go to a technology fair where I am presenting some of the work I have done with my team. It was painful, Sentry was in my mind throughout the entire process. Loading the huge work computer case with monitor and the HTC vive into the car took pretty much the entire trunk. I asked my friend to take the other stuff for me.
Where can i see Dondans cooler posts?
 
I won't quote everyone while addressing the issue since it'd make hell of a wall of text, but:

1) Like I've been saying over and over again - If you haven't done shopping yet, wait for AM4 mITX boards and go with Ryzen 1700 which is 65W. IMO this CPU will be the most fitting high-end unit for Sentry while still being future proof. It will get better as DX12, vulcan and nvidia drivers get optimised and you will get more stable framerates on this than quad core i7. You just have to remember the thing with infinite fabric being affected by ram frequency and optimise your shopping between high clock and capacity of ram.

Research what gives a smoother framerates rather than more of them benchmarked. Reviewers like the latter because it's easy to represent them with charts, but it doesn't represent overall quality of your experience. Compare those 60FPS gifs and videos to what you have with framerates jumping between 120 and 200 fps on high-end system. Brain doesn't believe in variable frequency visual signals, the same as it doesn't believe in low frequency ones. Obviously there's G-Sync and FreeSync, but does it get tested for smoothness in hardware reviews? No, because framerates are capped this way.

2) Linus' review showed that 250W Titan X Pascal can work inside but the test results were chaotic. The whole video was kind of like that since whole LTT was stacking videos for Linus' vacation when his wife was in labour. The problem with those tests is that Linus is reasonable with understanding the limits of such powerful card squeezed in such small case, and his OKAY when he got such expensive card as freebie might not be the same for you when you spend $1200 on it, and it doesn't boost that high as you expect it to.

3) Horizontal position is slightly better for CPU cooling while vertical position is significantly better for GPU cooling. Pick the one suiting better your tasks :)

4) DAN A4-SFX is kind-of similar to Sentry in vertical position in context of cooling with significant difference - while back of the GPU and motherboard can radiate it heat through the case outward in Sentry, A4-SFX makes those two heat up each other with the delicate riser in between. It's results may not be representative for Sentry as some of the CPU heat can be radiated through the socket pins etc. Also GPU results on A4-SFX may be affected by the long riser heating up without a crash since pci-e is highly error resistant, but at the same time faulty packet deliveries on the bus means re-sending them and that might lower the performance in effect, bottle-necking the card. GPU bottle-necked by CPU or PCI-E bus means lower GPU clocks and temps...

5) If we were to test the 1080TI we'd have to test both types - founders edition and non-reference open-air cooler version, since the latter might take advantage of more airflow in vertical position, except those are most likely monster cards that won't fit inside Sentry. Also spending $700 or twice of it just to prove you we're right and you're wrong doesn't look that fun to us :p
 
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