Tiny GTX 660 i7 Gamer

2x Samsung 840 (not pro) 120G in RAID 0



i7-3770K on stable overclock @ 4.55 with stock hsf

 

I think it was you who converted me in this thread when you posted that screencap, lol.

 

umm yeah i guess

 

this looks like a mad little build

 

Thanks pipster



Now for some ghetto

Just going to use this $4 cardboard box to test the cooling theories. Its an inch or so longer than I had planned, but the other dimensions are spot on. This has however pointed out some things to me already.



Firstly, there is room for SSD's at the end of the GPU, next to the rad. They will stand upright, would have room for about 5 of them if I wanted to. This leaves room for a second 3.5" on the other side.



So I tried to do that, but unfortunately, its not quite true. The two full sized drives are too close together... in fact so close together I actually managed to break the sata connector on of the two large drives when I tried to install cables in there.. oh well its only money First time I have ever busted the actual HDD connector! I will have to see if I have a matching drive around somewhere and switch the boards over.

It has however prompted me to add yet another inch to the length. I would like room for the second 3.5" so now it will be 300mm deep, 240 wide and 150 high. I've stuck the other 2.5" back in for pix.

Which brings me to another point. The height of course was actually 120mm.. but the power plug for the GPU is on the top of it so I need some clearance above the GPU.. so now the case will become 150mm high to provide that, and some clearance for the newly planned mobo tray and 140mm fans..

So that leaves me with an extra option again now.. going with the H90. I've decided not to.. but I am going to use 140mm fans on the H70, with tapered spacers. Just for lower revs and less noise.. the H70 is running at the moment but although the computer is idling the fans are not.. and they are quite loud..

So, a couple of 140mm Noctua PWM's and a couple of tapered spacers are now on the agenda. I will certainly have the room for them

The 120's on it at the moment are blowing a veritable storm of air through the box though, cooling is not going to be an issue here. (yes, i did install it into the box with holes for fans and I/O etc lol but forgot to take pix. Its no longer in that box, too late. .)




Tried to replace the 2'5" drive here with a 3'5" drive, but they were too close together and I broke a SATA connector.
I will still be doing it though, just adding an inch to the depth of the box.



That will give me an additional inch to add to this space between fan and board.. so plenty of room for spacers and 140mm fans.



I have different plans now for the box design. Its now basically going to be a 5 sided wooden box with fan holes and grill/filters. The 6th side will be the IO end, and this will be a solid aluminium panel with laser cut holes for everything, including the PSU, and a motherboard/accessory tray will extend from that back panel. The whole computer, cooler, front power switch and all, will slide out of the box from the rear in one piece. I will get some drawings up to explain. No more lid.

It just needs to be an inch longer and an inch higher than is pictured.

This has to be the best specced G2020 around at the moment lol, it will be cool when I get it all finished and stick the i7 in there...

 

Awesome mate.

Looks good!

 

Oh yeah, that's lookin' good Kev. I've gotta see this case. How are you going to cut out the intricate faceplate?? Jigsaw and Dremel for the tight stuff?
Parts are all inplace but now the real hard work starts....hehe.

 

Nah going to avoid the hard work Craig Going to get the aluminium laser cut and welded, as soon as I get a drawing finished for him to go on. I'll be including stuff on the tray like mounting brackets for drives and such, so hopefully the only thing I will have to build is the wooden box it pushes into.

Mums boyfriend has a mate who will do the metalwork for me for next to nothing..

Your 660 and your PSU are so perfect for this build .

 

Mk III

So now its going to be a 5 sided box, with the entire computer mounted to a pull out tray for servicing. The tray will slide all the way into the case in slots on the inside of the box.

I'll get the tray made in thick aluminium. The base in this pic is 3mm masonite, I will probably use 3mm aluminium for this bit. All necessary brackets for HDD, coolers etc will be welded to this base plate, to allow everything (including the PSU and cooler) to come out as one piece.

The back plate is now 150mm high. Its actually 10mm thick balsa wood lol, easy to cut and work with for a template. It will probably be 6mm aluminium, laser cut where necessary. Base and back will be welded together, and I will have a couple thumbscrews on the back locking it into the case, and some kind of knob to pull on for removal

The interior measurements are now 300x300x150, for reasons which will become obvious later .... I am actually hoping to take it back to 300x270x140, but left myself some wriggle room till I get more advanced with plans.








The GPU is going to be pretty much flush with the inside of the case, and a vent/filter will be in the side of the case where the fan is. The 5mm gap you can see beside the GPU is how much the base plate will be slotting into the side of the wooden case.



Another issue I will have to deal with is cable management. Although its modular, the cables are messy as hell when its assembled and running. I can already see that I am probably have to remake every cable, using the Silverstone connectors of course, and resleeve, just to make them reach where I need them to go neatly.

 

The aluminium tray, with mounts for GPU, 2x HDD, 2x SSD, and watercooling.

I'll post the same tray tomorrow night with all the crap on it so you can see how it all comes together.

 

Still some things missing, like RAM, CPU block/pump, hoses and cables.. but this shows you how all the mounts are to be used. All of these parts are totally to scale and simply dropped into place on the metal plate pictured previously.

Drawings are ready, taking them to the metal guy tomorrow to get the plate made.

Note that I am using the H70, with its double thick 120mm rad, but using adapters from PCCG to attach 140mm Noctuas to either side. The fans and rad will all screw together to make a solid assembly, then be mounted on the posts.

The real PSU is modular of course, unlike the drawing, and the GTX is just a quicky to show you how it fits. The board is the P8Z77-I Deluxe which I plan on using, with the extra power circuits on a daughter board next to the HDDs..

 

I was originally concerned about too much heat in a small box, but after having the 120 push/pull in the cardboard mockup, I realised its a bloody hurricane in there. Thats with the 120s at full speed though, they are 3 pin and nothing changed their speed. With the 140s I will have quieter fans, speed control, but still have the ability to stir up an even bigger hurricane whenever desired.

I've tried to keep things well spaced without gaining too much in size, though the box (especially since it will have a wooden outer cover yet) has grown considerably as this concept has developed. Tight but with good airflow for all parts was the plan.

I would have accepted the 120mm fans, but the power plug being on top of the GPU gave me no choice but to make it taller unfortunately, so bonus, bigger fans. Still, its still smaller than most SFF boxes, at about 12.7 litres. Considering the features, and the prospective power of this cherry 3770K, Its going to have a lot of punch for a small package.


Obviously there is no burner either. This was a concious decision.. my entire library is digital and I use a burner maybe once every couple of months (unless I am installing an OS on a new machine of course) So the burner is a USB burner and will only come out when required.



I've been thinking about what to do with the front, where the 140mm intake is. I want to keep it all looking like a nice bit of furniture, fans and LEDs will not be evident. Even the switches will be concealed, and if there are front USB ports they will be on a hub down the back somewhere

So I think I have a solution. I am thinking something like a removable speaker cover.

A basic frame, covered in a loose weave washable cloth, which I can take off once a week and rinse in the shower.A nice black cloth with lots of breathing but not easy to see through. Just push pins into plugs, the same as they do with speakers, covering the entire front face of the machine.

I could maybe have the ON/OFF switch (no LEDs, just a plain black round momentary switch with as little travel as possible, mounted so it contacts the fitted cover from the inside. Just touch a corner of the front grill and presto it goes..
Wont be fitting a reset button, I cant remember ever having used one so cant see the point.

 

The final design.

The tray and front panel is being made, he isnt able to tell me when but says certainly within a week. All up, its costing me 100 bucks Mates rates, mums boyfriend is well into his 70s and has worked with tradies all his life. He has a contact for everything lol

The tray will slide into the 5 sided case, and form most of the back of it. Note that the plate will overlap a little to allow a flush fit, and to provide a little more grab for the retaining thumbscrews. The slot is 5mm deep but the overlap is an additonal 5mm.

The actual plan includes a bracket on the bottom right corner for an On/Off switch but for some reason its not in this pic.... it is certainly in the plan that has gone to the metal guy though so all good.

The aluminium is very rigid 2mm thick. Its actually crossing my mind that it would look good chrome plated..



Heres a rear view of the case. An overlap on either side of the back panel allows the plate to sit flush, and gives more wood to screw a couple of thumbscrews (not pictured) into to lock the whole thing together.

Simply undo a pair of thumbscrews, and pull the entire computer, still running, completely free of the box I'll also stick a handle on there somewhere. Chrome still looks like an option

You can see the air intake for the GPU on the side of the case. THis will have a filter on it too of course. You can also see the front cover as it sits on the case.



And another view.



A front view. The fan is a couple mm short of the end, I plan to glue a rubber surround on the inside of the fan hole to absorb some vibration and butt the fan up onto that.

The On/Off switch protrudes through a hole in the case, but is not actually attached to the case. Its attached to a bracket on the tray, and will pull out along with the rest when the tray is removed.



The switch protrudes 8mm from the case, which will have it touching the (speaker?) cloth cover which will be also be 8mm from the side of the case. If the travel is nice and short, it will work well as a hidden switch..

I would like to have the cover as opaque as possible to hide everything behind it, but still provide good airflow and act as a filter. To that end, it will also need to be washable.

The cover will look something like this., but with much more opaque cloth. I've left this one pretty light to demonstrate design, thats all.

You can see the 4 pins on the cover which will simply push into plastic plugs inserted in the case. The frame will be made of the same aluminium as the rest of the case, also laser cut, with the pins being aluminium as well, welded to the frame.





Getting quite excited about all this now

 

Looking forward to seeing the mobo tray.
Even more so the finished product!

 

Me too

Ordered the fans tonight. I was going to go Noctua but they are just so ugly... and their 140mm pwm isnt really 140mm lol..

Instead I have gone for Bitfenix Spectre Pro PWM 140mm fans. 500-1800 RPM, I should be able to find a happy compromise in there somewhere Chose them due to good reviews, no LEDs, and better looks than the Noctuas. Also I really wanted a black fan, to try and keep it concealed behind the front grill, and the Noctuas would be too visible IMO.

I am actually getting them from Umart but I cant get a real link there, it keeps logging me into my shopping cart.. but Umart isnt far from work so I can just go and pick them up anytime next week.

They'll be joined by the adapters I ordered the other day from PCCG 140mm to 120mm fan adapter which hopefully will arrive early next week.

Hopefully the tray will be finished during the week, but I wont be able to afford the mobo until Saturday. I can see the thing being built temporarily again with the trusty old G2020 aching to see what it all looks like properly put together.

I havent even started on the wooden case yet.. I want nice wood but it cost money and I dont have any

 

Testing some fans on the new adapters. Well, fan and adapter, I only have one 140mm fan at the moment.




I've also discovered that the adapter will not fit on the hose side until I chop some out of the side of both it and the housing of the fan which will sit on it. Nothing dramatic but unanticipated for some reason.

I've done a couple short videos to show what they sound like. Of course, they will sound different on every different pc, but this will work to compare them to each other.

First video is 120mm pull, with an adapter mounted on the other side for viewing.

Click the pix to watch the vids.

The ruler is there for consistency, I am the same distance for sound comparison in each video.
The ambient isnt changing, my breathing is the loudest thing in the room lol..




2nd video is a pair of them, push/pull. The 120mm fans are only 3 pin, so they only have 2 speeds, on or off.



3rd video is a 140mm in pull config on an adapter.

Notice the PSU fan on the little Silverstone isnt even kicking in. There is not a lot of load on though, umm it doesnt even seem to want to boot... so there is no other fan noise in the room.

This is a PWM fan, but on this setup there is no fan control, so its also going flat out, just like the 120s were. All of these fans are original Corsair fans, though the 140mm actually belongs to my H90. All crap fans IMO.



This is the same fan, also not in a case, but on the H90 it belongs to, on a mobo with the fan speed down. In this one, there is also an ATX PSU running in the background, since this PC is actually doing something



And just for the hell of it, one of each lol..



I'll pick up the 2 new Spectre Pros on my way home tomorrow and get them fitted. I'm expecting a big difference in volume.

 

Just bored and messing around.

The fans got picked up, and I wanted to play with them..

I've stuck a couple of 140mm Spectre Pro fans onto a H70 (thick 120mm cooler) with adapters. Unfortunately I didnt get a Y cable, and I only have one 4 pin socket on the board, so at the moment I am limited to actually using just one of those fans until a cable arrives from PCCG.

I wanted to give it a run and see how loud it got working hard. Of course I know what it sounds like at 100% but I doubted it would get that busy. So I hooked it up to a G2020 on a H61 ATX board and then added an EVGA GTX660 2GB OC just for the hell of it. This is pretty much the same setup as it will be when the i7 goes into it, just with a different board and a couple SSDs added.

I want to make an observation. My first personal computer was a Tandy TRS80.
While of course I will expect much more from my i7, I just want to say that fora $60 chip the 2020 is pretty bloody good value for money. While running prime95, I was still watching a video and surfing the web without issue.


Technology has come ahead so far from when ummmm I was a boy..


While running Furmark of course it takes over completely so I just had to wait it out. I have to say I like things like 3dmark better, with a much more interesting and constantly changing screen to watch Prime 95 was also still running in the background of course.

I hope you like my ghetto case






Immediately Furmark was finished, I took this screenshot





I just think its bloody awesome that we can have a chip 10 times better than a top shelf P4, working its arse off and barely hitting 40C, in virtual total silence, and still be able to do all you want it to do without any problems while all this is happening... and all for $60.



News on the motherboard tray. It isnt started yet lol... but he hopes to get to it this week? In a way its been good, the whole design has been refined after consultations wih him.

 

Ha, so was mine.
The tape drive shitted me to tears!!!!!!
Would save a file to it, then try and read it back - error - rewind - load - error - rewind - UUURRRRGGGGGHHHHH.
Still have it at my Dad's place.

 

impressive build, more impressive CAD skills, nicely done

 

Thanks


So still waiting for the motherboard tray. Grrr but hey it should be pretty cool and he is only charging 100 bucks I guess..

Have refined the design somewhat, to make construction easier and should look neat too. Minimalist Here are the final drawings he is working from.. The whole thing is 2mm aluminium, which I am now planning to have chromed as well. 2mm doesnt sound like much but its rigid as hell, and will be perfect for the job.





The smaller pieces will drop into the slots and notches on the base of the tray, and be welded and smoothed from underneath.





Then the various stuff goes into it. This demonstrates what it all is for.





The empty space is interesting. Part of me wants to stick something useful in there, but another part is thinking hey.. nice little chrome statue maybe? How about a miniature bronze.. Rodins 'The thinker' to 5" high scale lol

Of course you would only see it if the tray is removed from the case. I dont want any fancy lights while the case is closed, its supposed to be simple and classy. BUT if I have a chrome tray.. it would be a shame not to have a few strategically located LEDs sparking on the chrome!

I am thinking case open switch.. pull the tray out and the lights turn on. Then a little statue makes more sense too

Remember everything, including the on/off switch, fans etc is mounted to the tray. The only connection between the outer case and the tray will be two thumbscrews at the rear. Undo those, and they are two completely separate entities.

I can see the tray sitting on top of the box instead of inside it pretty regularly