SENTRY: Console-sized gaming PC case project

[SaperPL]

There were quite a lot questions about using 120mm AIOs over the project progress and I usually responded to them with CAD images, but at some point I thought that I should check it out IRL, since wires and hoses are not something that's easily figured out with CAD.

 

I've ordered silverstone tundra slim for the test because it was the only AIO that measurements did add up to what we can fit through the central wall.

 

Here's the result:

 

 

Note that while HDD slots are obstructed by tubes, 2.5" drive still fits above the pump/block. I also forgot to put the USB front panel back in place, it fits though.

 

 

I think this was one of the hardest builds I ever made, but still, it's doable.

What I had to do:
1) Remove the power switch  //EDIT: - currently it fits 165mm long GPU and power switch fits with pins bent to the side.
2) Install the motherboard with water block mounted
3) Put the radiator through the hole in central wall
4) Put fan on the radiator and attach it screw by screws to the rad
5) Ziptie radiator to the central wall and bottom air inlet - temporary solution, I'll try to figure out something better later

 

I'll make performance tests with EVGA GTX1060 SC 6GB when I get the card next week (I'll see if it fits with this AIO first).

 

Conclusion:
It's doable but will require different short switch instead of the one are be providing and possibly might require some modding to the central wall depending on the AIO radiator dimensions.

 

It might be better to pick some AIO with slimmer and softer tubing or make your own hard pipe water cooling.

 

Pros:
+ makes CPU ~10 degrees cooler both in idle and full load (~30/58 vs 40/68)
+ It's actually silent under full load, not inaudible, but neatly silent.
+ It might do good to the card cooling since it's blowing out the air from the back of the card

 

Cons:
- you have to figure out what to do with power switch
- you have to use short 170mm long GPU
- you have to use short SFX power supply
- you block the hard drive slots with the tubes and have to put the 2.5" drive above the pump
- it is not an elegant solution and closing the cover requires some amount of force
- It's extremely hard to build and figure out what to do with the hard hoses like the ones of tundra
- your power cable routing is blocked by the radiator

What do You guys think? Any ideas to improve this?

[Midnightblaze]

You stated in your last update that the next update would be that you are ready to ship...

I cant seem to find your campaign on indigogo please tell me i didnt miss it.

[SaperPL]

43 minutes ago, Midnightblaze said:

You stated in your last update that the next update would be that you are ready to ship...

I cant seem to find your campaign on indigogo please tell me i didnt miss it.

We meant the subscription mailing update

 

And no, You didn't miss it. I just thought I should test this one last thing before we launch so those interested in putting AIO inside will know how to tackle this.

 

And yeah, we're working on the campaign right now, over weekends as well...

[YourWaifuIsShit]

27 minutes ago, SaperPL said:

And yeah, we're working on the campaign right now, over weekends as well...

Any update on those papers? Do i need to send the bags of coffee?

[mach]

I apologize if this has been asked before, would the sentry comes with any graphics card supporting mechanism?

For a transportable case won't it be better to have something securing a long graphics card in place, instead of putting strain on the pci-e connector?

Simply can't wait for it to launch! It looks like the case perfect for me! 

[SaperPL]

15 hours ago, YourWaifuIsShit said:

Any update on those papers? Do i need to send the bags of coffee?

We have tracked down the official responsible for our case this week, but this official didn't respond to emails nor answered the phone. We will be trying to contact that person and their office again and again in hope to get what we need.

23 minutes ago, mach said:

I apologize if this has been asked before, would the sentry comes with any graphics card supporting mechanism?

For a transportable case won't it be better to have something securing a long graphics card in place, instead of putting strain on the pci-e connector?

Simply can't wait for it to launch! It looks like the case perfect for me! 

Sentry comes with the riser that is held by the gap in the central wall. The gap keeps the riser by the pci-e slot's plastic body and the grasp on it is tightened by two screws. This way we've got same or even better slot handling then in standard chassis without riser, because there's no force applied to the slot's welding points.

 

In comparison other cases with this layout have some kind of GPU support at the end of the card because they are attaching the riser by its PCB which puts the force of the card's weight on the riser's slot welding points and its PCB's mounting points and screws.

 

Sentry doesn't support GPUs with oversized PCBs because of their power draw, heat emission and weight, therefore we don't need to support the card's end. I have tested this while travelling every second weekend for the better half of this year with heavy gigabyte R9-270X windforce 3X installed inside and blower type GTX 970 for more than a year before changing to 270X.

[SaperPL]

I've updated photo of the AIO setup:

 

 

the GTX 1060 SC doesn't fit yet though.

 

At this point I can see that we could have some space to move the cooler up to the front since hoses have the length for that, but we'd have to figure out the switch and probably widen the hole in central wall (I don't think that's possible at this point though)

 

I kind of see that this could be possible if someone got a 16mm plug instead of power switch and used dremel to widen the hole so the radiator can leave 1cm more for the 175mm GPU. At the same time, small switch could be installed in one of the holes for the antennas, or one of the holes at the back of the case near the power connector.

[forScience]

How are the standoffs for the motherboard set up in this case? Are they removable screws or are they one piece with the case? I couldn't get a good view of that area based on the pictures.

[SaperPL]

They are pressed into the metal before painting and they are not removable. Why would You need to remove them in ITX case?

[forScience]

6 hours ago, SaperPL said:

They are pressed into the metal before painting and they are not removable. Why would You need to remove them in ITX case?

I have stripped the screw holes in standoffs before from swapping motherboards and thought it would be a good backup feature to be able to replace them if the threads gets chewed. Do you happen to have a detailed picture showing the standoff?

[SaperPL]

The problem of stripping stand-off threads, I think, comes from the fact that some cases use M3.5 standoffs while the other use M3 and if You're going to use those two types interchange'able then the thread is going to break.

 

From our perspective is close to impossible to make them detachable because that would require making a thread in the case floor and such thing would require additional space. You can't simply make a thread in 1mm metal sheet, the thread will extrude beyond the surface on the other side. Standard cases have space behind the motherboard tray so it's okay for them.

 

We're using something like this:

And I don't think you can strip it with normal use unless using mismatched thread type or size, OR putting a force on it with only few first threads used.

[Narnash]

17 hours ago, SaperPL said:

They are pressed into the metal before painting and they are not removable. Why would You need to remove them in ITX case?

 

1 hour ago, SaperPL said:

The problem of stripping stand-off threads, I think, comes from the fact that some cases use M3.5 standoffs while the other use M3 and if You're going to use those two types interchange'able then the thread is going to break.

 

From our perspective is close to impossible to make them detachable because that would require making a thread in the case floor and such thing would require additional space. You can't simply make a thread in 1mm metal sheet, the thread will extrude beyond the surface on the other side. Standard cases have space behind the motherboard tray so it's okay for them.

 

We're using something like this:

 

And I don't think you can strip it with normal use unless using mismatched thread type or size, OR putting a force on it with only few first threads used.

Making a removable standoffs with limited space isn't as easy, even with my own projects where I exactly know what I used and how much force is to use I come to the conclusion that such flexability always comes with a huge impact of overall quality/sturdiness or space.

A solution would be to weld (the metal would likely warp or twist caused by the heat) a maybe 4 mm tall (maybe 8x8 mm wide) piece of steel at the place where the standoffs usually sit than make a thread in that 4 mm steel and use 5 mm tall thread inserts instead off usual standoff to reduce the thread again to fit 3M screws in them. .... That would be replaceable ... a hell lot of work for four normaly simplistic and cheap parts of the case and repleacing damaged thread inserts isn't that easy, so most people would do it wrong and screw (that pun wasn't intended  ) the thread in the welded 4 mm steel piece.

So not worth it! ( You even had to check if all motherboards doesnt interferer with you welded 4x8x8 mm steel piece since it could kill the motherboard, I speak from experience)

 

 

 

[U474U]

@SaperPLvery cool to see you try even exotic AIO setups! I really like having a quiet pc, so I have a question concerning this solution: do think replacing a ~34mm cooler (socket close to pcie) with this kind of AIO would offset the potential increase in noise due to the smaller psu fan and a smaller gpu heatsink, assuming a 65w cpu?

[SaperPL]

9 hours ago, U474U said:

@SaperPLvery cool to see you try even exotic AIO setups! I really like having a quiet pc, so I have a question concerning this solution: do think replacing a ~34mm cooler (socket close to pcie) with this kind of AIO would offset the potential increase in noise due to the smaller psu fan and a smaller gpu heatsink, assuming a 65w cpu?

Zombi has i7-6700 65W (non-K) running in his Sentry with boxed cooler and somehow while CPU is fully loaded it's quite silent. In comparison the Cryorig C7 in my rig is quite loud on the same load, however I've got 84W Xeon E3-1231v3 and I've got a bit lower temps in that situation.

 

In general I would recommend sticking to the boxed cooler or even getting cpu without the box and picking up the 95W intel box with copper core online for something like $5 before deciding to go AIO, which is quite a stunt to do in Sentry at this point. I've covered cooling topic recently on [H]ardForum here:

https://hardforum.com/threads/sentry-console-sized-gaming-pc-case-project.1832126/page-42#post-1042680282

 

As for the GPU - I'm not yet sure, it might depend on the cooling solution provided by the card manufacturer, and at this point I haven't checked that config with proper GPU - the one in the photos is GTX 750. I'll check out GTX970 and GTX1060 sometime next week.

 

Apart from the GPU cooling itself, I have an idea that putting the AIO inside GPU chamber in such a way that it pulls air inside might improve overall cooling performance of the card because it'll push out the hot air above the GPU and might introduce some positive pressure there.

[SaperPL]

FYI: R9 Nano fits inside with AIO cooler AND power switch still mounted on the front. I'll grab some photos tomorrow.

[SaperPL]

Promissed R9 Nano + AIO photos:

 

[Beeeyeee]

Yo! Sentry got runner up in the case of the Year Awards from HardwareCanucks! It hasn't even been released yet! Nice! 

 

[SaperPL]

Yeah, and competition in ITX cases this year was kind of weird seeing that those shrunk tower cases took first and second place. All of the recent interesting itx cases were actually released by the end of 2015...

[YourWaifuIsShit]

Any update on the papers / indigogo / production? Really want to show it off at work.

 

[SaperPL]

20 hours ago, YourWaifuIsShit said:

Any update on the papers / indigogo / production? Really want to show it off at work.

 

We're still waiting for papers and this might be delayed a bit because of the holidays. While theoretically we could launch the campaign without some of them it would be better to be fully legally prepared when promising delivery times.

 

I think I've pretty much finished up the content and styling for the campaign, but we've got to do a few iterations over it to optimise and maybe simplify while also proofreading.

 

Production is almost ready, we've got some tiny details to tweak with packaging that won't delay anything.

 

While tying loose ends (like with the AIO Water Cooling) I went through ALL CURRENT GENERATION GPUs and made a COMPATIBILITY SPREAD SHEET to simplify checking whether something may fit.

 

Spreadsheet is linked in the OP. Please comment here if you find any errors or you are unsure if something will really fit.

[Kevinclon]

I am going to build in this case when it is released, although I'm upgrading my GPU atm. What's the best 1080 for this case in your opinion. something like EVGA ACX or more founders with the blower?

[eric5143]

When can I buy one of these? Are they availible in the U.S.?

[SaperPL]

4 hours ago, eric5143 said:

When can I buy one of these? Are they availible in the U.S.?

We're getting close to launching campaign on indiegogo. And yes, we're going to ship worldwide

[mach]

May I ask what will be the maximum thickness the 2.5" drive?

iirc there will be one insane seagate 2.5 HDD that is 15mm thick but with 5TB

We're getting close to launching campaign on indiegogo. And yes, we're going to ship worldwide

glad to hear that! I just hope the shipping cost would be reasonable for folks like myself living outside europe.

[SaperPL]

On the center mounts you'll be able to install standard 2.5" up to 12mm thick, but there are additional mounts inside the GPU chamber which you can use with short GPU.

 

We're trying to figure out best shipping options currently and those aren't looking too expensive for most countries.