SENTRY: Console-sized gaming PC case project

On the USPS tracking site says Your item has been processed through a facility in PRUSZCZ GDANSKI WER, POLAND on May 8, 2017 at 10:56 am. But the Polish courier website does not list the package as having left the facility. Should I be worried?

Interesting. It says the exact same thing for mine. Bulk shipment maybe?
 
.....so I have a case coming in got the tracking but I cannot build it :cry:. Anyone interested on buying this black case from me. After all the wait I just cant build it..kids.., I may put it up on ebay if nobody has any offers

I'll be glad to buy it from you :)
 
That's a relief. I can't wait to build in the Sentry! Now, all I have to wait for is VEGA and ASRock or Gigabyte's ITX motherboards. I need WiFi for mine and Biostar does not have onboard WiFi.
 
.....so I have a case coming in got the tracking but I cannot build it :cry:. Anyone interested on buying this black case from me. After all the wait I just cant build it..kids.., I may put it up on ebay if nobody has any offers

Country? If it's the US, and riba doesn't want it, I'll gladly buy it.
 
Ok boys and girls (hah, please surprise me!), After two hours of drinking beers and working on the Sentry, I can gladly announce to be a lucky owner of a complete build.

First about the components and why they were chosen. I wanted a balance between power and performance and since the sentry would be on my desk right next me, it needed to be silent as much as possible as well.

Processor - i5-7500
Since I wanted to have something silent, it would mean no overclocking. So I went looking for a nice 65W processor that would run cool by itself. I actually wanted an i5-7600 but I got a very nice price for a 7500 which would yield nearly identical results in benchmarks (with a few fps lost).

Mobo - MSI H110i
Now I know that many people will frown upon this mobo as being as basic as it gets. And you will be right. But do you really need more in a mini-ITX build?
It has USB ports and most importantly an M.2 slot. Again we won't be doing any OC so I kept it simple.
Maybe the only thing missing might be a 2nd M.2 slot.

Cooling - Noctua LH9i
Low profile, quiet and cool for its size. Need anything else?
Ah yes, it's not black...

Graphics - Palit GTX 1070
It's a 1070 which is what I had budget for. It will max out any game in 1440p and keep it reasonable in terms of power consumption.
I chose this model just because it was cheap and it fit the dimensions specified by Zaber.
Since I wanted to have the case in vertical orientation, blower style cards wouldn't make much difference and this one would be slightly quieter.

PSU - Silverstone SFX-L 500
Now this one I actually regret. I have it as a legacy from some other mini-ITX build I've done. It's a nice, compact PSU but the fact that SFX-L is slightly Larger than an SFX PSU, it proved challenging when assembling everything together.
Other than that, it's very quiet and efficient and has certainly enough power to handle my components.

RAM - Corsair Vengence 16GB
It was on sale ok :) It's just RAM!

SSD - Samsung something something
Again, legacy component.

So let's start talking about the sentry shall we?
First and foremost - READ THE FUCKIN INSTRUCTION CAREFULLY WITH EACH STEP :) I'm not going to admit some of the dumb shit I did when it was actually laid out nicely by the Zaber team. Great job on those instructions. A lot of though was put in there.
Take your time and read carefully.

Now then, when you unwrap your box and get this:
Sl4s6nn.jpg


After you open up that box you get this:
ypjF8qO.jpg


Then this:
hGELWqp.jpg


The box on the right contains the vertical feet and all the screws. If anyone has ever been to IKEA you will feel like home.

IIV5SmR.jpg


VEiaTlq.jpg


Here's the case in all its out of the box glory:
mObkRv0.jpg


And when you open it up you get this:
0DaelCH.jpg

It actually feels so empty :D I started asking myself why I paid so much money for so much emptiness. I was wrong don't worry! :)
Oh and I had actually one bad screw where the tip was too tight to put my screwdriver in. I still managed to remove it somehow and swap it with a spare.

I proceeded with installing the mobo:
pUjh3I6.jpg


Then the PSU:
1NmR89S.jpg

It actually barely fit into the case and I had to use some force to slide it in.

Reading the instruction I knew that my PSU grill was probably too high so I decided to turn it upside down.
zFBthwB.jpg

As it turned out much later on, this was actually a mistake because the inverted grill was touching the fan and generated a lot of noise when it spinned. Obviously since this PSU's fan runs only from time to time I actually had to stop writing this post to unscrew the case, remove the grill all together and put everything back together :)
If you use this Silverstone PSU or plan on using it, I hope you read this so I can save you the trouble.

Next was the PCI riser. The instruction are a bit unclear on how to insert it into position. Sliding it from the graphic card compartment does the trick (left to right)
uUtqiGq.jpg

Then I came to tightening the screws that holds it in place. I was actually pretty confused for a while, as I thought the screw had to actually go through the PCI riser PCB (please read the instructions:) ). It turns out you put both of them in front of the riser and by screwing them, you tighten the body of the case to lock it in place.
Thing is I was a little scared as I didn't know how much force I should apply. As soon as the riser stopped moving, I did not tighten further. Hopefully that was enough.

Next came the SSD bracket
aSrJmBq.jpg

I didn't like the fact that it touches the PCI riser and I actually had to push it against it to put it in place correctly, otherwise my SSD would not fit.

Then came the cable management. Oh my god, that was such a pain. The silverstone PSU's cable are extremely rigid and I struggled a lot. The 4 pin for the mobo is also quite far away so I couldn't route it as nicely as I'd like to.
Make sure you are using a straight SATA connectors (90 degrees wont work here)
A lot of cabling is concetrated between the mobo and the PSU so make sure you plan ahead the order in which you will connect all the cables (power button, USB, 16 pin PSU, 4 pin PSU, ...).
The final result for me looks as follows:
o2Zy5bE.jpg


Not bad after all as I managed to keep my cooling uncovered.
As a side note, I wonder if the USB3.0 extension really had to have such thick cables. It just wastes so much space.

Then installing the GPU is extremely easy and I still had plenty of space for routing the PCI-E power cable, even though I used a full sized card.
zuLm5KG.jpg


Here's the final result, OBEY!
n09tLQv.jpg


(I need a keyboard with red LEDs...)

Further enhacements for me
- Find the mobo backplate, install the backplate
- Go for an M.2 drive
- Go for an SFX PSU - SFX-L makes things very tight.
- Make/Buy custom PSU cables to clean up the interior
- Read instructions more carefully from now on

Hope you will be as happy as I am with the sentry.

I'll try to update with some benchmarks and temperatures later on but right now I'm falling asleep. Goodnight mini-ITX lovers.
 
Ok boys and girls (hah, please surprise me!), After two hours of drinking beers and working on the Sentry, I can gladly announce to be a lucky owner of a complete build.

First about the components and why they were chosen. I wanted a balance between power and performance and since the sentry would be on my desk right next me, it needed to be silent as much as possible as well.

Processor - i5-7500
Since I wanted to have something silent, it would mean no overclocking. So I went looking for a nice 65W processor that would run cool by itself. I actually wanted an i5-7600 but I got a very nice price for a 7500 which would yield nearly identical results in benchmarks (with a few fps lost).

Mobo - MSI H110i
Now I know that many people will frown upon this mobo as being as basic as it gets. And you will be right. But do you really need more in a mini-ITX build?
It has USB ports and most importantly an M.2 slot. Again we won't be doing any OC so I kept it simple.
Maybe the only thing missing might be a 2nd M.2 slot.

Cooling - Noctua LH9i
Low profile, quiet and cool for its size. Need anything else?
Ah yes, it's not black...

Graphics - Palit GTX 1070
It's a 1070 which is what I had budget for. It will max out any game in 1440p and keep it reasonable in terms of power consumption.
I chose this model just because it was cheap and it fit the dimensions specified by Zaber.
Since I wanted to have the case in vertical orientation, blower style cards wouldn't make much difference and this one would be slightly quieter.

PSU - Silverstone SFX-L 500
Now this one I actually regret. I have it as a legacy from some other mini-ITX build I've done. It's a nice, compact PSU but the fact that SFX-L is slightly Larger than an SFX PSU, it proved challenging when assembling everything together.
Other than that, it's very quiet and efficient and has certainly enough power to handle my components.

RAM - Corsair Vengence 16GB
It was on sale ok :) It's just RAM!

SSD - Samsung something something
Again, legacy component.

So let's start talking about the sentry shall we?
First and foremost - READ THE FUCKIN INSTRUCTION CAREFULLY WITH EACH STEP :) I'm not going to admit some of the dumb shit I did when it was actually laid out nicely by the Zaber team. Great job on those instructions. A lot of though was put in there.
Take your time and read carefully.

Now then, when you unwrap your box and get this:
Sl4s6nn.jpg


After you open up that box you get this:
ypjF8qO.jpg


Then this:
hGELWqp.jpg


The box on the right contains the vertical feet and all the screws. If anyone has ever been to IKEA you will feel like home.

IIV5SmR.jpg


VEiaTlq.jpg


Here's the case in all its out of the box glory:
mObkRv0.jpg


And when you open it up you get this:
0DaelCH.jpg

It actually feels so empty :D I started asking myself why I paid so much money for so much emptiness. I was wrong don't worry! :)
Oh and I had actually one bad screw where the tip was too tight to put my screwdriver in. I still managed to remove it somehow and swap it with a spare.

I proceeded with installing the mobo:
pUjh3I6.jpg


Then the PSU:
1NmR89S.jpg

It actually barely fit into the case and I had to use some force to slide it in.

Reading the instruction I knew that my PSU grill was probably too high so I decided to turn it upside down.
zFBthwB.jpg

As it turned out much later on, this was actually a mistake because the inverted grill was touching the fan and generated a lot of noise when it spinned. Obviously since this PSU's fan runs only from time to time I actually had to stop writing this post to unscrew the case, remove the grill all together and put everything back together :)
If you use this Silverstone PSU or plan on using it, I hope you read this so I can save you the trouble.

Next was the PCI riser. The instruction are a bit unclear on how to insert it into position. Sliding it from the graphic card compartment does the trick (left to right)
uUtqiGq.jpg

Then I came to tightening the screws that holds it in place. I was actually pretty confused for a while, as I thought the screw had to actually go through the PCI riser PCB (please read the instructions:) ). It turns out you put both of them in front of the riser and by screwing them, you tighten the body of the case to lock it in place.
Thing is I was a little scared as I didn't know how much force I should apply. As soon as the riser stopped moving, I did not tighten further. Hopefully that was enough.

Next came the SSD bracket
aSrJmBq.jpg

I didn't like the fact that it touches the PCI riser and I actually had to push it against it to put it in place correctly, otherwise my SSD would not fit.

Then came the cable management. Oh my god, that was such a pain. The silverstone PSU's cable are extremely rigid and I struggled a lot. The 4 pin for the mobo is also quite far away so I couldn't route it as nicely as I'd like to.
Make sure you are using a straight SATA connectors (90 degrees wont work here)
A lot of cabling is concetrated between the mobo and the PSU so make sure you plan ahead the order in which you will connect all the cables (power button, USB, 16 pin PSU, 4 pin PSU, ...).
The final result for me looks as follows:
o2Zy5bE.jpg


Not bad after all as I managed to keep my cooling uncovered.
As a side note, I wonder if the USB3.0 extension really had to have such thick cables. It just wastes so much space.

Then installing the GPU is extremely easy and I still had plenty of space for routing the PCI-E power cable, even though I used a full sized card.
zuLm5KG.jpg


Here's the final result, OBEY!
n09tLQv.jpg


(I need a keyboard with red LEDs...)

Further enhacements for me
- Find the mobo backplate, install the backplate
- Go for an M.2 drive
- Go for an SFX PSU - SFX-L makes things very tight.
- Make/Buy custom PSU cables to clean up the interior
- Read instructions more carefully from now on

Hope you will be as happy as I am with the sentry.

I'll try to update with some benchmarks and temperatures later on but right now I'm falling asleep. Goodnight mini-ITX lovers.

Nice job on this build log, thanks for coming here to share it with others. Awesome!

Some notes from me to you and others on your build:

1) Rotating the PSU grill works for standard type of fan that we had on chieftec sfx-l when prototyping. silverstone has taller components inside and slimmer fan so it seems like it doesn't work. Linus and Zombi had the same problem with those.

2) Grasp on the PSU is tight because it's how the case is holding it so the precision on paint thickness will make a difference on how much force you need to install it. If it were made loose, then the PSU would be kind of hanging on those three screws. It's also dependant on how precisely the PSU is following the SFX dimensions - other cases don't require such precision so manufacturers may make it pretty loosely to the spec.

3) We know that cable management with silverstone SFX-L is such a pain. It's actually not a problem with it having modular cables, nor the psu size itself. The problem is with the ribbon cables that are pretty stiff. Standard braided cables are quite easy to route and the only thing with SFX-L is the fact, as Linus noted, that the cables should be attached before mounting the PSU.

If you haven't bought the PSU yet, I recommend silverstone ST45SF-V3: http://a.co/c3AVQR8
- the 450W unit with 92mm fan. It's semi-passive, has big-enough fan and proper cables + space for easy routing and leaves space for second 2.5" drive. I'm running this one with GTX1070FE currently on my Xeon build without problems.


4) The screws keeping the riser in place are supposed to be behind the pcb and just tighten the grip on the plastic body of pci-e slot. We made it this way, so if you want to change a riser in the future for anything else you'll be able to mount anything of this type. Those risers have similar shape but each has different layout for screws which isn't nice.

There are arrows that are numbered in the manual showing the order of mounting the riser. First arrow shows to slide it in from the GPU compartment side.

5) Actually you have mounted the 2.5" drive NOT as intended and therefore you've had to use the flat/straight sata cables. The drive bracket/arm is intended to handle two drives if you have SFX so you should move the drive a bit backward to the next holes. Then you could use the angled connectors and hide the cables behind/below the riser. Look at page 16 of the manual for reference. Linus did the same mistake btw :p

6) YES, USB3.0 cables are so stupidly thick and the connector is ridiculously big and poorly designed to the point you do not know if you plugged it in or not. That's one of the reason that ASUS is trying to push a new type of front panel connector based on 3.1, but until those are standard in motherboards and widely available, we'll stick to the 3.0.

Initially we wanted to go with 2.0 since at that point in time 3.0 front panel header wasn't standard as well. USB2.0 cables were awesome for connecting and routing...
 
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I think that tracking will pop up on USPS when the package will cross US boarder. Until that happens you can track it in Polish tracking system we have provided.
Are you able to confirm which courier will be shipping within the UK?
 
My shipping is with allekurier.pl and im getting a lot of status updates on stuff being scanned and so on, but the field that says location is always empty. It makes it hard to figure out what day it will arrive.

9 NIF-wejscie 09-05-2017 01:05
8 Przejscie HUB NORMAL 09-05-2017 01:05
7 Odebrana (skaner) 08-05-2017 12:42
6 P&R/P&S: Wejscie APL 08-05-2017 12:40
5 Druk naklejki adresowej 08-05-2017 07:39
4 Kurier przywiezie dokumenty 07-05-2017 19:08
3 Przetwarzanie zlecenia 07-05-2017 19:08
2 Oczekuje na wpłatę 06-05-2017 12:38
1 Zlecenie utworzone 06-05-2017 12:38
 
My shipping is with allekurier.pl and im getting a lot of status updates on stuff being scanned and so on, but the field that says location is always empty. It makes it hard to figure out what day it will arrive.

Don't worry. According to info on AlleKurier, those EU courier packages should arrive in 3~5 days from the moment when they are picked up, and couriers picked them up around noon on Monday. Hopefully those should be at your place by Friday.

I think that "NIF-wejscie" means it was packed into the delivery truck and you won't see any updates until it arrives in the hub in your country or in some middle hub on the road.
 
Nice job on this build log, thanks for coming here to share it with others. Awesome!

Some notes from me to you and others on your build:

1) Rotating the PSU grill works for standard type of fan that we had on chieftec sfx-l when prototyping. silverstone has taller components inside and slimmer fan so it seems like it doesn't work. Linus and Zombi had the same problem with those.

2) Grasp on the PSU is tight because it's how the case is holding it so the precision on paint thickness will make a difference on how much force you need to install it. If it were made loose, then the PSU would be kind of hanging on those three screws. It's also dependant on how precisely the PSU is following the SFX dimensions - other cases don't require such precision so manufacturers may make it pretty loosely to the spec.

3) We know that cable management with silverstone SFX-L is such a pain. It's actually not a problem with it having modular cables, nor the psu size itself. The problem is with the ribbon cables that are pretty stiff. Standard braided cables are quite easy to route and the only thing with SFX-L is the fact, as Linus noted, that the cables should be attached before mounting the PSU.

If you haven't bought the PSU yet, I recommend silverstone ST45SF-V3: http://a.co/c3AVQR8
- the 450W unit with 92mm fan. It's semi-passive, has big-enough fan and proper cables + space for easy routing and leaves space for second 2.5" drive. I'm running this one with GTX1070FE currently on my Xeon build without problems.


4) The screws keeping the riser in place are supposed to be behind the pcb and just tighten the grip on the plastic body of pci-e slot. We made it this way, so if you want to change a riser in the future for anything else you'll be able to mount anything of this type. Those risers have similar shape but each has different layout for screws which isn't nice.

There are arrows that are numbered in the manual showing the order of mounting the riser. First arrow shows to slide it in from the GPU compartment side.

5) Actually you have mounted the 2.5" drive NOT as intended and therefore you've had to use the flat/straight sata cables. The drive bracket/arm is intended to handle two drives if you have SFX so you should move the drive a bit backward to the next holes. Then you could use the angled connectors and hide the cables behind/below the riser. Look at page 16 of the manual for reference. Linus did the same mistake btw :p

6) YES, USB3.0 cables are so stupidly thick and the connector is ridiculously big and poorly designed to the point you do not know if you plugged it in or not. That's one of the reason that ASUS is trying to push a new type of front panel connector based on 3.1, but until those are standard in motherboards and widely available, we'll stick to the 3.0.

Initially we wanted to go with 2.0 since at that point in time 3.0 front panel header wasn't standard as well. USB2.0 cables were awesome for connecting and routing...

1/ Yes, this is a special use case. On paper it looks fine for the sentry, but I also would look for alternatives if you want a cleaner and easier build.
2/ This and the PCI riser assembly are just out of the ordinary ideas I've never seen before :)
3/ Agree, a good warning for others!
4/ I get the idea then. Thanks!
5/ I'll add it to my to do list :) I will go for an M.2 Drive anyway!
6/ It's a shame really. A lot of space wasted because of this. Hope this gets improved in the future.

In any case, I absolutely love what you did and it truly shows the amount of work and thought you have put into the product. Great Job! I wish you all the success in the world and look forward to your next projects!
 
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Don't worry. According to info on AlleKurier, those EU courier packages should arrive in 3~5 days from the moment when they are picked up, and couriers picked them up around noon on Monday. Hopefully those should be at your place by Friday.

I think that "NIF-wejscie" means it was packed into the delivery truck and you won't see any updates until it arrives in the hub in your country or in some middle hub on the road.

Ok thanks a lot so I can probably do other stuff today and tomorrow :)
 
In any case, I absolutely love what you did and it truly shows the amount of work and thought you have put into the product. Great Job! I wish you all the success in the world and look forward to your next projects!
Thanks, glad to hear that :)

By the way, assuming you're in Poland, here's the bag for the case if you want the mobility feature:

http://cdrspeed.pl/product_info.php?products_id=1189 (it's also sold on allegro)

We've got few of them - pretty much everything you'd want from the bag to carry this case. The only shortcomings are the plastic brackets holding the strap, so I would recommend replacing them with metal ones if you want to carry it around on a shoulder by the strap, since the whole PC is quite heavy in comparison to a laptop.
 
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Thanks, glad to hear that :)

By the way, assuming you're in Poland, here's the bag for the case if you want the mobility feature:

http://cdrspeed.pl/product_info.php?products_id=1189 (it's also sold on allegro)

We've got few of them - pretty much everything you'd want from the bag to carry this case. The only shortcomings are the plastic brackets holding the strap, so I would recommend replacing them with metal ones if you want to carry it around on a shoulder by the strap, since the whole PC is quite heavy in comparison to a laptop.

Cool, it is so cheap it would be a shame not to get it. Thanks.
At my age, LAN parties are a rare thing but it could be useful one day!
 
I think it's a 23.5~24" screen. It looks similar in proportions vs Sentry to the one I have on my desk now
 
1/ Yes, this is a special use case. On paper it looks fine for the sentry, but I also would look for alternatives if you want a cleaner and easier build.
2/ This and the PCI riser assembly are just out of the ordinary ideas I've never seen before :)
3/ Agree, a good warning for others!
4/ I get the idea then. Thanks!
5/ I'll add it to my to do list :) I will go for an M.2 Drive anyway!
6/ It's a shame really. A lot of space wasted because of this. Hope this gets improved in the future.

In any case, I absolutely love what you did and it truly shows the amount of work and thought you have put into the product. Great Job! I wish you all the success in the world and look forward to your next projects!

Nice build! Mine just left customs in Poland and I should hopefully have it late this week or early next week. I'm waiting for several parts to be released; mainly Vega and ASRock's IT'S Ryzen motherboard. And a cooler, since I can't find any that fit the Sentry that are Ryzen compatible. If anyone knows of any coolers, let me know. So I still need stuff, but I'll post pictures when it's done.
 
Last edited:
OK, mine´s her too.

I love it, BUT i just had a bit of an issue that disturbed my high quality experience a bit...

The PCIe riser cable makes a short circuit with the case, hindering my pc to boot at all !

I just crosschecked it with an other pc.

The only help ist to use a lot of electrical tape on the open contactsof the cable...

WhatsApp Image 2017-05-10 at 21.11.09.jpeg



Now i´m a little afraid that the contacts rub through the electrical tape (with time) and i will have future issues.
 
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Can you explain how are you installing the riser? The riser should be mounted by the slot which is plastic in the gap and the PCB part has no way to touch the metal body of the chassis.
Are you sure you are mounting it according to the manual? Can you post some photos of how you have mounted it?
 
I think so, becourse as i see it the GPU wouldn´t fit / work otherwise.

You can see the lightly glossy electrical tape on the photos.




WhatsApp Image 2017-05-10 at 21.18.37.jpeg
WhatsApp Image 2017-05-10 at 21.18.38(1).jpeg
WhatsApp Image 2017-05-10 at 21.18.38.jpeg
 
Ok, we need to find out why your riser is touching the case body with its PCB. IT should be right in the middle in parallel to the surfaces that are keeping the riser in place.

1) Did you insert the riser from the GPU side as it is shown in the manual?
2) Have you perhaps mounted the screws forcefully through the holes in the risers PCB? (you shouldn't)
 
1) Did you insert the riser from the GPU side as it is shown in the manual?
= Yes, at least 10 times now...

2) Have you perhaps mounted the screws forcefully through the holes in the risers PCB? (you shouldn't)
= Definetly NOT and since (as i see it) the riser than were to low the GPU wouldn´t stick or work.
 
Did you put the screws through the holes in the riser? That's the important question. If you did that, then the screws are pulling the riser's PCB upwards making it touch the body.
 
That looks to be properly installed...

Here's a cross section of this should look:

bVVync6.jpg


The green piece is the PCB and the screws are supposed to be in front of it tightening the grasp of the metal on the plastic body of pci-e slot.

The only thing that comes to mind is that the riser might be welded with an angle and not in parallel, but that is very unlikely since such welding requires tooling that holds both elements AND that the case is not properly painted above the riser.

Could you perhaps take a photo of the riser from the side such as in the above cross-section? I'd like to know if it's the fault of the riser itself or if there's some kind of other reason why it's getting shorted by the metal. Can you make a few photos of the riser without the tape as well?
 
Closest as possible
 

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Thanks. That actually looks quite normal, sorry for the trouble.

I've checked that and it looks like the rivet in the middle of the slot might actually be touching top surface over the riser. The question is, why is that a problem, since the painted surface shouldn't be conductive as powder coating is creating a plastic coating on the metal.

We'll have to investigate that further.

Thanks for the heads up.
 
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