[In Progress] Tiny Case, Less Tiny Streaming Power!

[TheDuckMonger]

Hello there! This is my first post in these forums (or any PC tech forums for that matter...) and I thought I'd start it with a big one: a small, discrete PC for streaming in an old HP Pavillion Slimline s5000 case. I was inspired by the sleeper PCs Linus and the crew made and wanted to make a separate PC to handle all the framey encoding goodness for my twitch stream while taking up as little space as possible. The goal is to make a small, relatively quiet support PC so my main desktop can generate that lovely, lovely FPS I need for games.

In the photos attached is the front of the case, the inside of the case (3.5" drive for scale) and the power supply (dimensions below).

Main Goals for this Project:
 -    Be able to fit all the parts needed to stream in this tiny case, NOT including a GPU (price, space and power prohibited, also I don't think I'd really need a GPU for the application).

 -    Find a power supply that can fit in this forsaken case.
 -    Maintain a stable, high bitrate stream at 720p 60fps (internet speed is not an issue).

 -    Keep the volume of the PC as low as possible (this may prove problematic with the dimensions of the case and therefore is secondary).
 -    Keep thermals as low as possible on the CPU while maintaining parameters above (Custom liquid cooling?).

 -    Sprucing up the case a bit, maybe a paint job, maybe I'll go hard and remake the front panel.

 -    To not get cut on this cheap, bare metal case.

 

Already Planned Parts:

 -    Ryzen 5 2600X as a handmedown from my main PC.

 -    A mini ITX B450 (or whatever the 5xx equivalent is) motherboard, preferably with NVMe support.

 -    A 500GB NVMe drive to save space, otherwise probably a floating 2.5" to make me cringe every time I open the case.

 -    GSkill 3200MHz DDR4.

 

Things I May Need a Hand Finding/Need Suggestions:

 -    Power Supply: The case has virtually no room for a power supply, the one it came with is About 7"L x 3 1/4"W x 2 3/4"H (see pictures). The case is too shallow to hold even an SFX power supply, so this one is going to be tricky. I could move the power supply to the front of the case, but I'm not sure how I would wire it up, or I could mount the power supply long way up and create new mounting holes for it, but that may interfere with the motherboard.

 -    Cooling: Custom cooling is an option, but I don't know if I'll fit everything in here, especially the radiators. This case doesn't actually have any external fans, nor the space to put them. Probably going to have to cut holes to allow for ventilation and prepare myself for constant dusting.

 

I'll try and keep this post updates as best I can, a photo here, video there, we'll see how it goes. I can't promise completion of this specific project, but if it fails I'll turn it into something else. At the end of the day, there will be a compact PC sitting under my desk encoding my streams, in this case, or a newer case. 

[mariushm]

Looks like there's enough room for a mATX motherboard ...

An A320 based motherboard will be enough, if you're not gonna overclock. If you do plan some OC, a B350 based motherboard, or a B450 one would be plenty.

You already have the 2600x so I guess it makes sense to use it. If you didn't have it already, I would have suggested going for the 1600.

 

For video cards, you can probably get one from eBay for around 10$ ... look for  HD 6450 / HD 5450 / HD 4450 cards

 

Here's a HD 6450 low profile for ~8$ + shipping: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Ati-Radeon-HD6450-512MB-DDR3-DVI-DP-Graphics-Card-PCI-E-x16-Low-Profile/303233251404

 

 

Here's one for ~ 12$ + shipping: https://www.ebay.com/itm/AMD-Radeon-HD-6450-1GB-Graphics-Video-Card-PCI-e-DVI-Dell-0M0KV6-M0KV6/223308285149

 

Another option would be GT 210 ... most have big brackets but you can remove the VGA and convert the bracket to a low profile one.

 

Here's a guy that has 200 cards for 8$ each + shipping : https://www.ebay.com/itm/GEFORCE-GT-210-NVIDIA-IBM-LENOVO-53Y9294-256MB-GDDR2-64bit-PCIe-Express-2-0-X16/192987675315

 

 

You can shorten the bracket by unscrewing the VGA connector. Maybe you can find the right low profile bracket separately.. for example: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Low-Profile-Bracket-for-NVIDIA-GeForce-610-710-730-Video-Graphics-Card-Cards-set/372670497690

 

As for the psu, the one you have still has that voltage select switch, so it's a old outdated design, which will probably have lousy efficiency, maybe in the 80% ... so it will probably be quite warm.

 

What I would suggest is to fabricate a piece of metal to cover the area of the psu, and cut hole or holes for a 80..120mm fan, the power connector and optionally the power switch. Well, if I remember correctly the low profile video cards are up to 4.2" tall, which is around 100mm ... so probably at best you can squeeze a 92mm fan, if you leave barely any room for the standard power connector. So I guess a 80mm or 92mm fan would have to do.

 

You can then buy a 1U server power supply and mount it either flat (if there's enough width) or vertically (on it's narrower side). Optionally, open the case to remove the small 40mm fans and make those PSUs less noisy, and maybe make a case big enough to be around the larger fan you install on the case - basically have the psu in a tube, with the case fan pulling air through the tube.  I think you get the picture.

Here's some suggestions:

250w seasonic from 45$ : https://www.amazon.com/Seasonic-250SU-80Plus-Server-Supply/dp/B004VP6YGY/

250w fsp for ~ 70$ : https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0176DXSR0/

 

These have standard ATX connectors, just small lengths of wire. If needed, you can use extensions or just solder the wires from your other psu to these.

 

250w should be more than enough.. the cpu will probably average under 100w when encoding.

 

(click to zoom)

 

 

^ for the Seasonic model ... so it may even fit flat in that area, at 82mm width. picture from datasheet: http://seasonic.com/main/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Mini-1U.pdf

 

For cpu cooler, maybe Noctua NH-L9a AM4, 37mm Premium Low-profile CPU Cooler for AMD AM4 (Brown) : https://amzn.to/30Q06y6

 

maybe  ID-Cooling IS-40X would work ? : http://www.idcooling.com/Product/detail/id/136/name/IS-40X

Maybe even the IS-60 would : https://www.amazon.com/ID-COOLING-Profile-Heatpipes-Compatible-LGA1150/dp/B00Q8RZPHW/

 

If you're not gonna overclock  Raijintek Juno-X would probably be fine: https://www.newegg.com/raijintek-juno-x-0r100071/p/13C-001T-00023

It's a 70w TDP cooler, 2600x is a 95w TDP cpu but if you downclock it a bit or play with the cpu voltage, it's probably gonna be fine