SENTRY: Console-sized gaming PC case project

Will you work on a V2 in general? Do you have enough feedback and notes that it itches you to go back to the drawing board?

At this point we're thinking about fixing up production problems, so there would most likely be changes in packaging and some slight fixes for metal pieces, and finally printed manual should have better instructions for mounting the riser as well.
It would be good to have a successor for the USB 3.0 front panel connector as the reference 20 pin plug we use now is ridiculously big, and low profile connectors don't have proper shielding, which might cause problems in such tight fits like our case.

We are more thinking about the revision 1.2 based on what we know now, but depending on the feedback we'll see where we will want to go with that.
We still haven't shipped all cases and due to long shipping time, there's quite a lot of people waiting for their cases to be delivered, but so far we're getting mostly positive feedback.
 
I was looking at the 5TB versions, but I'm afraid they probably won't fit.

I'm fairly positive the 15mm variation won't fit in the Sentry either in near the MB in the brackets provided or behind the GPU.

However, if the brackets by the MB were taken out I do wonder if it would fit if you were to attach the drive to the side of the case with double sided tape.

I think if you really want to prioritize storage you should just get a GPU under 200mm and use the drive brackets provided for the GPU compartment.
 
I'm fairly positive the 15mm variation won't fit in the Sentry either in near the MB in the brackets provided or behind the GPU.

However, if the brackets by the MB were taken out I do wonder if it would fit if you were to attach the drive to the side of the case with double sided tape.

I think if you really want to prioritize storage you should just get a GPU under 200mm and use the drive brackets provided for the GPU compartment.

I would, except I'm putting my GTX1080 FE in there.
 
Anyone find some shorter 20-pin to USB3 cables that will fit the same cutout/screws? I'm having a difficult time searching through AliExpress, eBay, and the rest for some.
 
Anyone find some shorter 20-pin to USB3 cables that will fit the same cutout/screws? I'm having a difficult time searching through AliExpress, eBay, and the rest for some.

I got a flexible riser/adapter from FrozenCPU. At least I think it was them. I ordered it for a different project so long ago I don't remember. It doesn't work. When I used it in other cases it gave warnings in both Windows and Mac OS (a separate hackintosh build) that the USB ports were drawing too much current. Mac OS even disabled all the USB ports after using it. So it's not a good solution, probably because it's not shielded.
 
I got a flexible riser/adapter from FrozenCPU. At least I think it was them. I ordered it for a different project so long ago I don't remember. It doesn't work. When I used it in other cases it gave warnings in both Windows and Mac OS (a separate hackintosh build) that the USB ports were drawing too much current. Mac OS even disabled all the USB ports after using it. So it's not a good solution, probably because it's not shielded.

I haven't tried it myself with USB 3.0, but isn't it possible to add shielding yourself?
 
I haven't tried it myself with USB 3.0, but isn't it possible to add shielding yourself?

I did, using aluminum foil and heatshrink. Still didn't work. Maybe I got a dud. Maybe not. Idk. It worked briefly and I started getting over current errors so I just accepted that I'll live without front usb ports.
 
You probably did, but I still want to ask... did you ground the aluminum foil? As far as I know, shielding must be grounded.
 
FYI for those still waiting on their orders and gauging timing for their delivery, the US postal service delivered my case last night. I live on the west coast in the United States. My order was in the third shipment, I believe (black case, order 220ish), shipped from Poland on June 12.

Now the exciting (and challenging) part: getting all the components and putting this puppy together!
 
FYI for those still waiting on their orders and gauging timing for their delivery, the US postal service delivered my case last night. I live on the west coast in the United States. My order was in the third shipment, I believe (black case, order 220ish), shipped from Poland on June 12.

Now the exciting (and challenging) part: getting all the components and putting this puppy together!

My order was in the 550s and my case arrived in Houston a few days ago. Case took almost 4 weeks to get from Poland to Houston(no tracking updates after it left Euro port).
I live in Caribbean so it's on it's way to me now!
 
My order was in the 550s and my case arrived in Houston a few days ago. Case took almost 4 weeks to get from Poland to Houston(no tracking updates after it left Euro port).
I live in Caribbean so it's on it's way to me now!
Mine was order #303 and it arrived in Dallas last week, took about 7 1/2 weeks once it was shipped on June 9th
 
Has anybody been reading on the rumors of the 8th gen consumer i7s? Looks like they are going to be 6 core parts and there will be a 65w i7 that has 6 cores and reaches a turbo boost clock speed of 4.4-4.5. I think im going to wait and see what those are priced at and make my decision to go amd or intel.
 
I just got my case from someone who parted ways with theirs. It's hard to believe "most" of what's in its big brother will fit in such a small package.

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Man, those things really are floating around. Was just curious and spotted a Sentry and a4-SFX bidding for over $300.
 
Upon examining the fit of several different SSD's and HD's, it looks like the optimal height is, as the specs say, 9.5mm. I do have an old WD 1TB drive that measures around 12mm, but it seems that it would come in contact and possibly bulge out the side panel. So much for putting it two 5TB drives. I'll probably order a couple of 2TB Firecuda's from Amazon.
 
Man, those things really are floating around. Was just curious and spotted a Sentry and a4-SFX bidding for over $300.

They sure are. I backed out of the campaign at the last minute due to unforeseen circumstances. I probably overpaid for mine, but I didn't want to chance there not being white ones produced in the future. ;)

Now to shut down and begin the migration process!!
 
Has anybody been reading on the rumors of the 8th gen consumer i7s? Looks like they are going to be 6 core parts and there will be a 65w i7 that has 6 cores and reaches a turbo boost clock speed of 4.4-4.5. I think im going to wait and see what those are priced at and make my decision to go amd or intel.

I believe there will be a six core i7.

I believe there will be a 65w i7.

Do I believe there will be a 6 core, 65w core i7 that boosts up to 4.5 GHz? Oh helllllllll no.

If intel had technology like that (which, mind you, we're talking about something along the lines of a 40% increase in efficiency), they would have already been using it in the mobile market.

There will be i7s with high clockspeed and six cores, but they'll also be 91w parts, at the very minimum.
 
I was a little skeptical of the i7 specs, too. I wonder if they're triyng to make their products shine with everyone turned at AMD.

Really hope AMD does well with all of this. Watched a video detailing the history between AMD and Intel. Some shady crap Intel has done.
 
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I'm still waiting for a Ryzen refresh or R7 2000 series. I just don't want to sacrifice any single threaded performance, which Ryzen is still 15-20% behind my i7-4790k. If they can match that on a refresh or with the next generation I'll gladly switch.

I'm just so disillusioned with Intel. Rumors of coffee lake bringing real quad core to i3? I bet everyone who just bought a $250 i5-7600k will be pleased to know they can get similar performance 6 months later for $120. Same goes for the rumored 6 core i7-8700 versus the i7-7800x. Bringing x299 to mainstream just months after its released. Wow. It just validates the notion that Intel has been milking us for money for the past few years.
 
Yeahh that's what I was telling my little brother; how Intel CPUs are good for single core performance, making 4 core CPUs ideal for gaming. I'm hoping AMD gets better in this area, too, to be even more competitive.

I bought a I5-7600 which uh.. That could get me a R5-1600? Man.
 
Intel is going for more cores too. That means they'll have lower clocks as well and more games will be optimized for core count.
You should not worry about single threaded performance of Ryzen in games unless you plan to play on FullHD beyond 60 FPS
 
Does anyone have a recommendation for a backpack that will fit the Sentry?
I have a Incase backpack right now but it's made for 15" Macbook Pro's so the Sentry is a little big for it.
 
Does anyone have a recommendation for a backpack that will fit the Sentry?
I have a Incase backpack right now but it's made for 15" Macbook Pro's so the Sentry is a little big for it.
I don't have my Sentry yet (order 1199) but I do have a Samsonite Torus LP Backpack III and its laptop compartment is adjustable so I'm expecting it to fit.
 
For those who were wondering about new coolers coming down the line, I checked in with Noctua and here's their response:

Dear Gr8Scott,

thanks for contacting Noctua and for choosing our product.

There are currently no new SFF coolers in the works and a copper edition of the L9i wouldn't necessarily yield big performance gains.

The NH-L12 will see an upgrade in early October but it is not as small as the L9i/a.

Kind regards,
Andreas Karner
Noctua support team

No good there as NH-L12 w/o top fan is still 66mm and RAM clearance would be a problem anyway. Looks like L9i/a is still best for Sentry by Noctua.

I also checked in with Dynatron about the T-318 and AM4:

HI Gr8Scott,


We have vapor chamber version for AMD newest SP3 socket. Not for socket AM4.

It just released this week. Part number is A28. Leadtime is 8 weeks.



Thanks.


Best regards,

Karen Ko

Dynatron Corporation

Tel: 510.498.8888 Ext:111

Email: [email protected]

www.dynatron-corp.com

So if you are waiting for Threadripper (and probably >not< building in the Sentry by consequence) you will see a nice SP3 version of the T-318 coming to a NewEgg near you. If you want AM4, looks like custom brackets are the way to go.

Conclusion: I have a concern that it's going to take some time for anyone to come out with some SFF friendly coolers at the Sentry level for AM4 (or they might skip this gen completely) and so it seems best to either go with L9i/bracket, or custom bracket T-318. Does anyone have any other conclusions that they have found great success with? I know some are tinkering with LP53 and a lower fan as well.
 
For those who were wondering about new coolers coming down the line, I checked in with Noctua and here's their response:



No good there as NH-L12 w/o top fan is still 66mm and RAM clearance would be a problem anyway. Looks like L9i/a is still best for Sentry by Noctua.

I also checked in with Dynatron about the T-318 and AM4:



So if you are waiting for Threadripper (and probably >not< building in the Sentry by consequence) you will see a nice SP3 version of the T-318 coming to a NewEgg near you. If you want AM4, looks like custom brackets are the way to go.

Conclusion: I have a concern that it's going to take some time for anyone to come out with some SFF friendly coolers at the Sentry level for AM4 (or they might skip this gen completely) and so it seems best to either go with L9i/bracket, or custom bracket T-318. Does anyone have any other conclusions that they have found great success with? I know some are tinkering with LP53 and a lower fan as well.

I'm running T318 on my R7 1700, it's not that outstanding as I'd like. I think that the problem with T318 in Sentry is that there's not so much airflow as in the server rack so it isn't so great as it's rated TDP would let us assume. Also you don't really need a custom bracket for T318, just few M4 screws, nuts and some pads or a backplate.

I didn't have time to check it out, but I think there might be a chance that Wraith Stealth will work for Sentry with a low profile 92 mm fan like the one from NH-L9i.
 
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I don't have my Sentry yet (order 1199) but I do have a Samsonite Torus LP Backpack III and its laptop compartment is adjustable so I'm expecting it to fit.

Seems like it'll be tight if it can fit. I'm looking at a 18.4 inch laptop backpack on Amazon: http://a.co/fSiQFuF
 
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For those who were wondering about new coolers coming down the line, I checked in with Noctua and here's their response:



No good there as NH-L12 w/o top fan is still 66mm and RAM clearance would be a problem anyway. Looks like L9i/a is still best for Sentry by Noctua.

I also checked in with Dynatron about the T-318 and AM4:



So if you are waiting for Threadripper (and probably >not< building in the Sentry by consequence) you will see a nice SP3 version of the T-318 coming to a NewEgg near you. If you want AM4, looks like custom brackets are the way to go.

Conclusion: I have a concern that it's going to take some time for anyone to come out with some SFF friendly coolers at the Sentry level for AM4 (or they might skip this gen completely) and so it seems best to either go with L9i/bracket, or custom bracket T-318. Does anyone have any other conclusions that they have found great success with? I know some are tinkering with LP53 and a lower fan as well.

They can't "skip" this generation. AM4 is going to be a round for a long time compared to most platforms.
I ordered a Cryorig C7. It might fit by default but I contacted Cryorig and they're sending AM4 bracket/kit.
 
They can't "skip" this generation. AM4 is going to be a round for a long time compared to most platforms.
I ordered a Cryorig C7. It might fit by default but I contacted Cryorig and they're sending AM4 bracket/kit.

Sure, "generation" may have not been the best choice of words. "Cycle" may have been better, basically that we're not going to see any AM4 SFF coolers anytime soon and they may have the next Ryzen series out by the time we see that. Definitely get your point.

Also, I don't know if you have heard the cautions yet about the C7. Several have commented on previous posts about noise issues in the Sentry. I was going to get a C7 until I read all of those posts.
 
I am waiting for Cryorig to release the C7 copper version of it that they announced back in June. I will probably pick that one up to test with and see if it has any improvements over the non copper
 
That's the response I got from Cryorig regarding C7 Cu release:
The C7 Cu Edition we showcased in Computex is just a proof of concept for now and we're still working on it. So there is no time frame for its release but the C7 Cu should be able to hit the shelves by the end of the year.
Thank you.
 
Sure, "generation" may have not been the best choice of words. "Cycle" may have been better, basically that we're not going to see any AM4 SFF coolers anytime soon and they may have the next Ryzen series out by the time we see that. Definitely get your point.

Also, I don't know if you have heard the cautions yet about the C7. Several have commented on previous posts about noise issues in the Sentry. I was going to get a C7 until I read all of those posts.

I saw a few of them. I'm not too concerned about sound for now. I had planned on using the Wraith Stealth but I think it's 7mm too tall.
I plan on upgrading my CPU/Cooler early next year anyway.
 
Intel is going for more cores too. That means they'll have lower clocks as well and more games will be optimized for core count.
You should not worry about single threaded performance of Ryzen in games unless you plan to play on FullHD beyond 60 FPS


That entirely depends on what it is you're playing, mate. Personally, I bought an i3-7350k and couldn't be happier. Why? Because it's running at 4.7 GHz without any fine tuning, and is half the price and half the wattage of an i7.

Sure, a six core ryzen is an awesome chip, and I'd love to play around with one, but I predominantly play Cemu, Dolphin, and older games (plus games where specs hardly matter), meaning that having two cores and four threads that break 200 on cinebench's single core benchmark is pretty much ideal.
 
That's the response I got from Cryorig regarding C7 Cu release:
The C7 Cu Edition we showcased in Computex is just a proof of concept for now and we're still working on it. So there is no time frame for its release but the C7 Cu should be able to hit the shelves by the end of the year.
Thank you.
Yea they said at computex it wouldn't be until the end of the year before any new details. I'm not really in a rush to build so I will probably wait it out. Also waiting to see what dondan does with the HSLP-48.
 
It's here.. Finally!!.

nGea80z.jpg


Thanks to the saber folks. Packaging was brilliant. @ZaberPL

And here you go... with the Dan A4.

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Something is wrong with this 2nd photo. Maybe you've moved your camera while taking it?

You also shouldn't put your sentry on a stand like you did it, because screws from the stand might scratch the surface of the case (you put your case upside down).
 
Something is wrong with this 2nd photo. Maybe you've moved your camera while taking it?

You also shouldn't put your sentry on a stand like you did it, because screws from the stand might scratch the surface of the case (you put your case upside down).

Its not assembled. Not doing a build now. Just placed it gently to make it stand up to take a photo.

Yea. I was doing gymnastics to make em fill in the frame. My desk is full of stuff for my FreeNAS/Plex build.

If you want nice photos, I can try to take em again though.
 
Its not assembled. Not doing a build now. Just placed it gently to make it stand up to take a photo.

Yea. I was doing gymnastics to make em fill in the frame. My desk is full of stuff for my FreeNAS/Plex build.

If you want nice photos, I can try to take em again though.
If you don't mind sharing. What is your order number and time zone?
 
Just wanted to give a quick update on my new Ryzen build in Sentry. I have my ram OC to 3200MHz and 14-16-16-16-32-54 timings, which has been rock solid and loving the results. Not sure if I can do any tighter timings, however next step will be bumping up the frequency, we'll see how that goes. Only have done a slight under volt OC on the CPU @ 3.65 GHz/1.3V as I've not had enough time to find the optimal voltage settings. So far I haven't seen it get to my target of 80C (temp which fan will go 100%) with a pretty quiet fan curve, courtesy of ASRocks cool customizable fan curve profiles in the BIOS.
 
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Am I correct in stating that the last transport is this week and that all orders placed have been locked?
 
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