Thoughts on this Design

[sparx-]

I have been on a never ending search for the "perfect" case. But I just never seemed to be able to find it. I want something small and quiet. My OCD kicks in when it comes to the "noise" created from computers. It bothers me so much that I am using my laptop hooked up to my 37" Westy because my current case is so loud. So I loaded up Sketchup and started the design process. Here is what I came up with.

First off System Specs

AMD X2 3800+ OC'ed to 2.4 ghz
2 gigs DDR
2 SATA HDDs
EVGA 8800 GTS 640meg
Audigy 2 ZS Sound Card

Here are some screenshots of my design.

The top fans are 120mm and the rest of the fans are 80mm. The arrows show my planned airflow directions. I am going to put all fans on a speed controller slow I can quiet them down as much as possible.

I will most likely build this out of MDF and put a nice glossy black finish on it. I wanted something small, simple and quiet. What do you think? Did I achieve it? Do you think my fan placement and directions will provide adequate cooling? Do you think it will be quiet.

Oh, and I know there is no optical drive figured. I use and external drive when I need it.

Comments


SPaRX

 

[sparx-]

Oh yeah. I dont like those UFO cases you can by for a couple of reasons.

1. Not into the clear thing.
2. Don't like how all your cable connections are on the side.

I seen the link for the one at newegg already


SPaRX

 

[Mansize_tissue]

There's a few things i would change:
- Remove the top intake fans; heat rises.
- Put fans on the opposite side of the existing side fans so air travels in one side and out the other.

D'ya know what else would be nice? It would involve a bit more work, bit it might yield some good results. On the first picture, put a grill on the right corner from the bottom of the upper compartment to roughly about the height of the graphics card and extending about 4" around either side. Then, you could position a 120mm fan at a 45 degree angle to push air over the graphics card and southbridge.

Actually, on second thoughts, forget that idea. It seems like too much work and air will get trapped around the expansion slots. Oh well.

That's a nice design, though!

 

[Mohonri]

IMHO, you've got way more fans than you need. And since silence is important, I think you'd be well-served by getting rid of them. First of all, you don't need the fan in the bottom of the case. Your hard drives will be fine even if they run a little warmer.* A little airflow wouldn't be bad, so you might consider moving your PSU so that it takes air in from the HD compartment and exhausts it.

Next, you don't need two 120mm fans in the top. One is plenty. In fact, since it appears that your video card will exhaust its own hot air out the back, I would postulate that you don't need any intake fans. Yes, that's tantamount to blasphemy around here, but it's true. As Mansize_tissue said, a "wind tunnel"-type setup would be a little better, but not by a huge margin.

That will take you down from four case fans to two (or one), plus the CPU, GPU, and PSU fans.

* Recently, Google released some results from their hard drive survey, and found that expending extra effort to cool hard drives created zero benefit.

 

[sparx-]

Ok, I took your guy's suggestions and updated my design as follows.

I kept the 120mm intake Fan to actively push air on the GFX card. Right now I have all this in a case with no sides on it. My card was running a little hotter then I liked, so I mounted a fan to blow onto the card. It resulted in lowering its temp by 10 degree C. So I am sure that once it is enclosed, it will need this air pushed on it as well.

The power supply fans will draw air in throught the grill in the lower compartment, then across the HDDs and finally out the back of the case. This will provide the airflow you suggested.

I did not want to put the 120mm Fan directly across from the 80mm fan as suggested because this is the front of the case. I really do not want a fan on the front of the case as it will be more likely to be "heard" there.

Comments?


Thanks

SPaRX

 

[Mansize_tissue]

The power supply fans will draw air in throught the grill in the lower compartment, then across the HDDs and finally out the back of the case. This will provide the airflow you suggested.

Won't it do the opposite? Air should be exhausted out the back of the grill not sucked in through it. Where is the fan on the PSU; on the side or the bottom?

 

[R3d]

are you planning on using an aftermarket cpu cooler at all? you could get something and have a wind tunnel effect. have the 120mm fans opposite the i/o panel so the air is moving across all components.. i think that might be a little better plus then you could use a lower rpm fan since its just a straight pass through you wouldnt have to push to much air then.. and that would make it quieter..

if that makes any sense then great.. i'm on 2 hrs of sleep for the past 48hrs.. i hate work lol

 

[Mansize_tissue]

I have a new idea. Get a cross-flow fan from Cooler Master, and place it to the right of the motherboard (on the third picture on the latest ones you posted). You will have to put a grill, or cut a hole in, the bit of wood seperating the compartments so it can intake air, but it would blow cool air across the whole motherboard.

 

[Mohonri]

Is there a reason you're opting for an 80mm exhaust fan above your I/O ports rather than a 120mm fan? It appears that the larger fan would fit. You might also consider creating some sort of duct to direct the air from the CPU HSF directly to the exhaust fan, so that the hot air doesn't recirculate.

 

[brasherman]

Yeah, ditch the 80 MM completely. You can move more air quietly with a low speed 120MM fan than any 80mm. I like the overall design though. You could even use this and incorporate a slimline laptop optical drive for fun. You wouldn't have to trash the whole thing to make a built in drive that way.

If you can't fit the 120 on the back, try a 92mm instead. The Vantec Stealth 92mm isn't bad at all.

On a side note, with your power supply and hard drives in the bottom, you will have holes between the layers for cabling and such, allowing heat to rise to the top of each compartment. If you enlarge the holes to a long oval (think stretching a rubber band between two fingers), you can actually help evacuate more hot air by putting the cross flow design in the top chamber, with single 120's pulling air in one side and out the other. Then your back 120mm would also be exhaust, creating a net negative pressure, I believe. To positively pressurize it, two 120's in the bottom pushing in. Big chimney effect removing the hot air from the bottom to the top.

Perhaps it would be beneficial to swap layers? Put the mobo in the bottom and vent all the hot CPU air out the top and into the other chamber with 120 exhausts.....

Now I'm just dreaming...... That's a lot of work to make it functional and easy to work on, but it could be done.

 

[MrPatate]

Larger the fan the more silent it can get. And you should do 80-92mm IN and 120mm OUT.... a bigger fan in output will create some kind of "suction" and the air intake should be in the front/sides, on the back the heat from the GPU will kill and cool air coming in..

All of that is IMO of course

p.s. good thing you remove the bottom fans, dust would be crawling in your case if you kept them there, unless you use good filters...

 

[gregnash]

I admire your sketchup skills. I have been playing with the things off and on for months and still cannot get anything half decent looking. I have never played with CAD or anything like that so it is all new to me.
Quick question though is that a full ATX board or a Micro ATX board as you did not list the board in your specs? Also, why two compartments like that? You have the PSU and HDDs in one and the rest of the stuff in another, why? I would try to condense everything to one single compartment to save for space as I am assuming this is going to be your HTPC like PC, and the dual compartments kinda defeats the purpose?! Granted you are talking about an enclosure that is less than a foot tall and little more than a foot wide but I believe you could shave some of the size off with a bit of modification.

 

[sparx-]

OK, here is another Revision.

Changes:

1. Added Duct to bring in outside air to the CPU Fan ( Blue Object )
2. Moved Lower Compartment Intake Hole to Center and moved HDDs in front of it to allow for better airflow over HDDs
3. Replaced rear 80mm exhaust with a 120mm Fan. This will hopefully equalize the pressure in the top compartment and create the "wind tunnel" effect mention.
4. Added 80mm Fan in Power Supply. My Power Supply has two fans, 120mm on the bottom drawing air into the PS and an 80mm Fan on the rear exhausting air from the PS. These fans will create a negative pressure in the bottom compartment and then air will be sucked in through the Intake hole.

Response to some comments:

On a side note, with your power supply and hard drives in the bottom, you will have holes between the layers for cabling and such, allowing heat to rise to the top of each compartment.

These holes will be pretty small as I will not be bringing all the cable through the same holes. I also plan on "sealing" these holes so the top and bottom compartment remain isolated.

You might also consider creating some sort of duct to direct the air from the CPU HSF directly to the exhaust fan, so that the hot air doesn't recirculate.

Thanks for the idea. As you can see I changed it up a little bit.

The power supply fans will draw air in throught the grill in the lower compartment, then across the HDDs and finally out the back of the case. This will provide the airflow you suggested

Won't it do the opposite? Air should be exhausted out the back of the grill not sucked in through it. Where is the fan on the PSU; on the side or the bottom?

I did not state that correctly. I meant that the 120mm fan will draw air in through the 120 Intake hole by the hdds, then go through the PS and then out the back of the PS. That make more sense?

I like the overall design though. You could even use this and incorporate a slimline laptop optical drive for fun. You wouldn't have to trash the whole thing to make a built in drive that way.

Thought of that too . Infact I added it in the model but you cannot really see it in the two pix i posted.

Quick question though is that a full ATX board or a Micro ATX board as you did not list the board in your specs?

It is a Full ATX board. That is why I started doing this. I could not find a case that was nice and small and would still fit a full ATX board. I have see people modding Microfly cases, but I did not like that all your cable hookups were on the side of the case. I dont want to see all those cables .

You have the PSU and HDDs in one and the rest of the stuff in another, why? I would try to condense everything to one single compartment to save for space as I am assuming this is going to be your HTPC like PC, and the dual compartments kinda defeats the purpose?! Granted you are talking about an enclosure that is less than a foot tall and little more than a foot wide but I believe you could shave some of the size off with a bit of modification.

I did two compartments for 2 reasons.
1. Cable Management will be alot easier.
2. Maximize Airflow.

With this design, all the cables slack willl be tucked away in the lower compartment. It will make a cleaner look and cable will not restrict airflow over motherboard componants. Also with no PS, HDDs or Optical drives in the upper compartments, there is LESS obstruction for the airflow. So I can cool the componants better with less fans.

This is not my HTPC. It is my dedicated Gaming PC. The final Dimesions are 14x14x14. I could shrink it down more, but after I thought about it, the "CUBE" would look better then something is not Equal Dimensions. A typical Mid ATX tower is 18.9 x 8 x 17.2. This will take up less space. Sure it is a little wider, but it is still not as wide as on old style desktop case . And all the "CUBE" style case I seen that would fit a full ATX board were 18x18x18. So I shaved 4 inches off that design .

I admire your sketchup skills. I have been playing with the things off and on for months and still cannot get anything half decent looking. I have never played with CAD or anything like that so it is all new to me.

Thanks, but I cannot take all the credit. I borrowed all of the componant models from here.... http://scc.jazzle.co.uk . Saved a considerable amount of time. No reason to "recreate the wheel" and make my own models .


I think this is going to be the final revision unless someone comments on something I may have missed. I really have high hopes that this case is going to be nice and quiet . Thank to all for the suggestions. Helped me alot.

SPaRX

 

[n00btard]

search "Crossflo" by markkleb, it has the same basic design, and is really well done.

 

[sparx-]

Oh yeah. I dont like those UFO cases you can by for a couple of reasons.

1. Not into the clear thing.
2. Don't like how all your cable connections are on the side.

I seen the link for the one at newegg already


SPaRX

His design fall under number 2. You set that on a Desktop and then you got all the cables laying on your desk. Do not care for that. But yes, his design is nice .

SPaRX

 

[Arcygenical]

I really like the case concept. I've done a few plexi cube cases myself (well, 2 of them). Get some nice connectors for your wires, it reallly pays off.

Also, I'd suggest some smoked plexiglass for the majority of the case sides. Helps cut down on case clutter, and looks damn nice with white LED lighting.

 

[Skott]

I like your concept. Its an interesting design. IMHO the best way to get quiet is to use 120mm fans. I know alot of people still swear by 80mm fans but frankly thats old school tech and obsolete compared to what good 120mm fans can do now. The only other option I can think of to quiet things more is to go watercooling but that adds its own set of problems like weight, cost, water + electricity, and such.

When you think about it 14"x14"x14" isnt that big really. The only real difference in that demension compared to existing cube cases is the height. Most cubes are about 8" high but wider or longer. As mentioned your design puts it more in a square form thats actually nicely portable. And considering it utilizes a ATX mobo and room for ATX powersupply and full length video cards its a great setup.

On a side note its the same squared outer demensions as Mountain Mods' Twice7 box. Although the inner component setup is different.

Edit: I'd also like to point out another reason why I like this design concept. The way the mobo lies down in typical SFF fashion. This is better for those using a big cpu hsf. No torque on the mobo since its lying down unlike setups that have the mobo in an upright fashion like normal ATX cases have them. Transporting a case where the hsf doesnt bounce around and cause undue torque is a vast improvement over traditional setups. You wouldnt need to detach the big hsf (imagine a Tuniq 120) for safe transport. As long as the box doesnt slide around in your vehicle which a person shouldnt allow to begin with.

 

[Mohonri]

Nice. Just make sure you flip around the CPU fan so it's blowing up instead of down...