Fork in the Road

[byalexandr]

I've been wanting to upgrade my GPU to a GTX 1070, but my current custom case is only designed to hold cards no longer than 7". Well I don't see any cards of that length coming anytime soon (especially the 1070), so I decided on designing a new case as usual. I'm just about finished with the design process, and it's an impressive 5.994L in size, much smaller than anything on the market by far, and it holds a full length GTX 1070. But the 1070 has to be a reference/blower style card, as any aftermarket ones that have different designs/cooling methods simply don't work in this case.

 

This is what the case looks like, just bare metal and plastic at this point (soda can for scale):

 

 

But like I said, it has to use one of these two cards (I don't think there are any other blower style 1070s atm):

 

THAT OR: I can screw all that, and just get a really nice aftermarket GTX 1070, and a nice pre-made case to go with it. In fact I was looking at getting the MSI Gaming X card:

 

 

Although I don't know which case I want to go with if I go this route, all I know is I want it to be small of course, and perhaps showcase my components a little, maybe like a Phanteks Enthoo Mini or something. But that's where you guys decide. Vote in the poll what you think I should do. Keep in mind if I build the chassis, I not only have to pay for raw materials, but ship it out to a laser cutting service, get parts 3D printed, wait for it to arrive back and bend it up and assemble it, paint it, etc. Could end up costing quite a bit, but that's aside the point, the point being that it will take a while to build the case. Though it would make an interesting build log I'd imagine?

 

Anyway, vote in the poll. Thanks!

[thekeemo]

If it were me aftermarket card ftw 

But im a teensy bit selfish and want to see the compact case

[pinksnowmanshandle]

1 hour ago, thekeemo said:

If it were me aftermarket card ftw 

But im a teensy bit selfish and want to see the compact case

I think the compact case is pretty cool too. Even though SFF isn't my thing, seeing this HTPC style of case is pretty interesting and I'd like to see it happen.

 

Also @byalexandr I think you should go for the blower style MSI card.

[byalexandr]

1 minute ago, thekeemo said:

If it were me aftermarket card ftw 

But im a teensy bit selfish and want to see the compact case

I would like to build it as well, but having my current case I know what it's like to have an extremely limited hardware choice. And although this new case would open up the hardware choice a bit, it's still quite limited.

 

If I were to buy a case, the company that designed it usually designs it to have a really wide range of hardware compatibility, at the expense of making it bigger.

[Guest]

side topic

that is a pretty badass case you made in Inventor 

[byalexandr]

1 minute ago, wcreek said:

I think the compact case is pretty cool too. Even though SFF isn't my thing, seeing this HTPC style of case is pretty interesting and I'd like to see it happen.

 

Also @byalexandr I think you should go for the blower style MSI card.

I will go for the MSI card if I do this case. I suppose another option would be to design yet another case that supports gigantic GPUs like the Gaming X card, but I'd need to find a very, very long PCI-E extension.

[byalexandr]

1 minute ago, Ronnie76 said:

side topic

that is a pretty badass case you made in Inventor 

Haha thanks. Everything is really tight fit but it works:

 

[pinksnowmanshandle]

1 hour ago, byalexandr said:

I will go for the MSI card if I do this case. I suppose another option would be to design yet another case that supports gigantic GPUs like the Gaming X card, but I'd need to find a very, very long PCI-E extension.

I wouldn't mind building a case from scratch but me not liking to work with metal and not having the tools or knowing a place to go to bend metal. I'm fine just going with some off the shelf case like an H440.

Well more specifically the matte black (with Window) H440.

[pinksnowmanshandle]

You sort of inspire me to maybe make a custom PC case one day.

I think I'd want it to look a little something like this.

 

Spoiler

I would do it similarly but at the same time a lot different. I think would make my own mechanical keyboard that the board would then be housed in that area where the keyboard and mouse is on that computer in the spoiler.

 

The case could be a conversion project for my planned build "Ursa" some time down the road after I had built it and wanted to do an upgrade for something like an "Ursa II", where I take some of the parts and transplant them into something like this. Though I might not want to build it with wood or maybe with a lightweight MDF or something that weighs less than like pine or cedar as I'd want it to be somewhat portable. 

 

Maybe sticking with the naming scheme of constellations the conversion project could be called "Aries".