I'm designing a mini ITX case from the ground up, what are your thoughts?

[Pornelius Hubert]

I'm currently designing a mini ITX case from the ground up, focused on watercooling. It should house a mini ITX Motherboard, a 240mm Radiator, video cards up to 220mm, two SSDs and a SFF PSU. Of course, the case will be closed off (by TG on the side, a mesh on the front and rear and a semi-open top). This case is very custom. You will need custom watercooling, a custom PCIe Slot adapter and probably more things I didn't think of.

My priorities are: airflow>design=user friendlieness

Just give me some thoughts on the basic layout and proportions of the case.

 

(It's actually 50mm longer as in the image)

 

Lenny

[kelvinhall05]

Looks pretty promising. Hopefully it won't cost $300 and be a total piece of shit like a lot of other individually-designed cases.

[Pornelius Hubert]

1 minute ago, kelvinhall05 said:

Looks pretty promising. Hopefully it won't cost $300 and be a total piece of shit like a lot of other individually-designed cases.

I think if I will build a prototype it's going to get expensive... Basically everything has to be CNC-milled or handmade.

 

Lenny

[kelvinhall05]

6 hours ago, DRK_fischele said:

I think if I will build a prototype it's going to get expensive... Basically everything has to be CNC-milled or handmade.

 

Lenny

Well, it's a prototype; of course it's going to be expensive. But if it ever goes into full production, I won't forgive you if you make it $300  

[Pornelius Hubert]

1 minute ago, kelvinhall05 said:

Well, it's a prototype; of course it's going to be expensive. But if it ever goes into full production, I won't forgive you if you make it $300  

hehe, currently no contact to any case manufacturer, lower your expectations a bit

[kelvinhall05]

6 hours ago, DRK_fischele said:

hehe, currently no contact to any case manufacturer, lower your expectations a bit

issa joke my guy, sorry

 

 

Anyway, looks very cool. I know I'm going to get flamed for this, but maybe make a mockup using a flexATX PSU?

[Pornelius Hubert]

Why a Flex ATX PSU?

 

[TVwazhere]

3 minutes ago, DRK_fischele said:

Why a Flex ATX PSU?

Space savings

[Pornelius Hubert]

2 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

Space savings

So just using the PSU as an outer shell, I'd thought there was something more about those PSUs I didn't know.

[TVwazhere]

So I'm guessing the idea is to have your GPU watercooled too? because there's no room for airflow in that configuration for the GPU. Which means custom watercooling since hybrid cards dont come shorter than 220mm

https://www.amazon.com/Cooling-Gigabyte-GTX1070IXOC-GTX1070mini-GTX1080mini/dp/B01LN0VGY4

[cluelessgenius]

19 minutes ago, DRK_fischele said:

I'm currently designing a mini ITX case from the ground up, focused on watercooling. It should house a mini ITX Motherboard, a 240mm Radiator, video cards up to 220mm, two SSDs and a SFF PSU. Of course, the case will be closed off (by TG on the side, a mesh on the front and rear and a semi-open top).

My priorities are: airflow>design=user friendlieness

Just give me some thoughts on the basic layout and proportions of the case.

 

(It's actually 50mm longer as in the image)

 

 

Lenny

id personally go for a slimer footprint by rotating the rad 90° so its flat with the mobo and then do the same orientation for the psu maybe even put the radiator at the botton and the psu up net to the mobo? i like having the rad at the bottom just because water. well and because once filled its usually pretty heavy dpending on the rad so its nice to make the case no too easy to tip over.

[Pornelius Hubert]

3 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

So I'm guessing the idea is to have your GPU watercooled too? because there's no room for airflow in that configuration for the GPU. Which means custom watercooling since hybrid cards dont come shorter than 220mm

https://www.amazon.com/Cooling-Gigabyte-GTX1070IXOC-GTX1070mini-GTX1080mini/dp/B01LN0VGY4

Yes, everything needs to be water cooled, anything else would be an airflow disaster.

 

[Pornelius Hubert]

5 minutes ago, cluelessgenius said:

id personally go for a slimer footprint by rotating the rad 90° so its flat with the mobo and then do the same orientation for the psu maybe even put the radiator at the botton and the psu up net to the mobo? i like having the rad at the bottom just because water. well and because once filled its usually pretty heavy dpending on the rad so its nice to make the case no too easy to tip over.

While the footprint gets smaller, the case gains in height. Putting the rad at the bottom would mean an additional 50mm. That's not really what I'm going for.

[TVwazhere]

6 minutes ago, DRK_fischele said:

Yes, everything needs to be water cooled, anything else would be an airflow disaster.

I dont know exactly how tall the GPU is with the block on it, but it will probably be about 25mm taller than the GPU without it, so thats something to keep in mind when designing this (its hard to tell how tall the GPU can be from this angle)

 

For example, the GTX 1080 mini is 164mm tall (Dunno if that included the barbed fittings sticking out the ends or not though)

https://www.zotac.com/gb/product/graphics_card/zotac-geforce-gtx-1080-ti-arcticstorm-mini#spec

 

So a card like that probably wouldnt be able to be used. It will be interesting to see what actually fits in this tight of a space

[Pornelius Hubert]

2 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

I dont know exactly how tall the GPU is with the block on it, but it will probably be about 25mm taller than the GPU without it, so thats something to keep in mind when designing this (its hard to tell how tall the GPU can be from this angle)

 

For example, the GTX 1080 mini is 164mm tall (Dunno if that included the barbed fittings sticking out the ends or not though)

https://www.zotac.com/gb/product/graphics_card/zotac-geforce-gtx-1080-ti-arcticstorm-mini#spec

 

So a card like that probably wouldnt be able to be used. It will be interesting to see what actually fits in this tight of a space

I'm currently working with a 3D model of a Zotac GTX 1060 AMP! with a custom waterblock. It's about 20-30mm shorter in every directioin, but even with the 1080Ti it should work.

[cluelessgenius]

29 minutes ago, DRK_fischele said:

While the footprint gets smaller, the case gains in height. Putting the rad at the bottom would mean an additional 50mm. That's not really what I'm going for.

not sur what you mean but just to be clear heres what i mean 

[Pornelius Hubert]

From my roughly mocked up layout that's not really more compact... (Didn't have a fitting reservoir on hand tho). It's thinner, but wider.

 

[TVwazhere]

2 hours ago, DRK_fischele said:

From my roughly mocked up layout that's not really more compact... (Didn't have a fitting reservoir on hand tho). It's thinner, but wider.

 

His configurations would allow for significantly more GPU length, Which would therefore increase the function of the case to more users who maybe want to use a reference PCB design. This is of course asssuming this would be a case thats being marketed, no one just for yourself. 

 

If this is just for yourself and you're not designing it with other users in mind, then Screw it. Build it to match your ideal build!