'Kallax' computer build

[hawki]

So some quick background to my proposed build;

I am about to move out into my own flat for the very first time, and of course like any other technologist some of my first thoughts naturally orientate around Internet, TV, Computer and PlayStation (not necessarily in that order).

Something I am looking likely to get is a 'cube' shelving / storage unit from Ikea known as 'Kallax' (previously known as Expedit). As space will be at a premium I am looking at making maximum use of this unit for most of my storage, including, hopefully, my computer.

I did some quick googling and came across another similar project on a different forum but it looks like it had to come to a premature end. It is likely that I won't be moving out until December at the earliest, so currently I am only posting here to get some thoughts from the wealth of experience here so I have a better idea of how I will progress this after I move in.

Some initial scope / requirements:
- Each cube in KALLAX is 33cm square, so the entire PC has to fit within this space. The unit will be up against the wall but with probably an inch or two space so the length isn't too critical, but if I want to get a perfectly flush fit the depth needs to be under 37cm
- The unit will be in a light beech style wood, so I am tempted to build the computer case out of a similar wood to help it blend in
- The case should fit at least 4x hard drives (RAID 10) and an SSD (operating system)
- Will need room for a dual slot graphics card and a TV tuner (my PC will be my TV tuner / recorder as well)

My initial idea is to build something along the lines of (apologies, I am not an avid CAD user, so these are just some mock ups from Visio - but things should be relatively in proportion with each other):

From the front:

I reckon there should be enough room for four optical drives (I do some part time work in media editing / video production so being able to burn four discs simultaneously makes the process much easier), along with memory card reader and fan controller. The two 140mm fans should hopefully provide enough cool air intake.

From the back:

I would have the motherboard somewhere across the middle laying horizontally, providing some amount of segregation between the PSU (which I'm not sure if I should 'box' in more or not). I would mount the PSU as high as possible so that the underside fan has enough cool air to push through, along with another 140mm fan for exhaust. Above the motherboard there would only be room for a 120mm fan unless I get a bit more creative perhaps.

Finally from the side:

So I would have the four hard drives on the bottom of the case, probably with cables pointing inwards (between the two front fans so as to not block too much airflow). Not sure were to put the SSD though; either under the PSU, or slide the hard drives back and put the SSD at the front, or somehow mount it under one of the DVD drives?

Haven't given too much thought around components yet, but my starter for 10:

• Motherboard, CPU and RAM bundle from overclockers: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-022-OG&groupid=2833&catid=2512
• Akasa InterConnect Ex memory card reader and front IO
• Be Quiet SilentWings 2 for the fans
• Corsair HX750i for the modular PSU
• Nvidia 780 or 780Ti GPU
• TBS Dual DVB-S2 for TV tuner to get UK Freesat (and HD) channels

Any thoughts / comments / suggestions / tips are most welcome as I think I'm being pretty ambitious for my first ever custom build!

 

[hawki]

So despite having never done any CAD before, I found SketchUp and http://scc.jezmckean.com/ and thought I'd have a little play around with things:

My original plan was to end up with something like this:

however I quickly realised (as the angle hopefully shows) that I don't think there will be enough air flow over the top of the motherboard and CPU as the DVD drives restrict the flow through. The unit will also be slightly deeper than I was hoping for, not by much, but a little.

So I played around a bit and thought perhaps I could move the memory card reader and fan controller down to the lower left, allowing the graphics card to effectively slide underneath:

However of course the power adapter sits on the top side of the GPU which would foul against the top most optical drive, and I'm still not sure about getting enough air flow in the top half of the PC.

So instead, I'm thinking of moving the memory card and fan controller to the bottom; this should open up enough air flow and the cost of extending the case slightly. I reckoned the case would end up 47cm, 10cm over my maximum desire length of 37. That said however, the components used are slightly longer, according to Nvidia's website the 780Ti is half an inch shorter than the 690 used in the model and I reckon with some careful sourcing I might be able to find some optical drives slightly shallower than the model ones

Have also added in a megahalems cpu cooler with another 120mm fan - it's looking a bit snug but with the potential extra length the inside volume seems OK

Some more thoughts I had as was starting to put things together:

• Should I put in a vertical 'dividing wall' down the bottom half between the two fans, hard drives and PSU? This would potentially help with segregation of air flow and provide something to help manage cable routing along
• How will components actually 'fit' together, i'd like to get at least a motherboard tray to provide the stand-offs and I/O backplate but sourcing one exactly the right size is proving problematic.
• The hard drives could just sit on the base, either with a small 'wall' around each to hold in place or even on top of four 'pins' lined up with the hard drive screw mounts?
• Similarly for the 5 1/4" devices, haven't really had much thought at all about securing them into place - perhaps a thin piece of wood vertical through the middle with 'shelves' for each layer, but would this cause problems with vibrations?

 

[Akagi]

Why are the components hanging out of the back of the "cube"? Is that just to illustrate things better? Will everything be effectively moved over so it is all inside in reality?

Also why on earth do you need four optical drives?

 

[hawki]

The 'overhang' is more a result of my poor CAD skills. I started off with a box that was the exact size of the infill, so 33x33x37cm. This then allowed me to separately measure how much 'longer' I would be outside of this area. I think I can tolerate up to 10cm extra due to the positioning of the KALLAX unit in the room and without it looking odd.
The models used in the CAD program were slightly larger as I couldn't source the exact motherboard and GPU so the representation should show the 'worse case' scenario If I can't squash things up a bit.

Four optical drives means I can produce 4 copies of the same CD/DVD at a time which for some of my video productions is a massive time saver (There are no funds available to either buy a replicator or to outsource)

 

[Cerelia]

Somethings i'd be worried about. The airflow won't be hitting the mobo much.

A recommendation would be to put the mobo either on its side or on the floor.
Putting the PSU fan facing down at the back/top right of the unit and having the hds with rubber gromits attached in a drive cage type sense to the back/top left.
Filtered intakes on the bottom over the fans also.

Other than that it looks good. I've got the Kallax units in my pc room (Using the 2x2 as a stand for my pc so it doesn't sit on the floor.) and they're very modern and nice looking.

 

[hawki]

Cerelia, thanks for your comments and ideas!
Had a play moving the motherboard down to the bottom of the case and this is what I came up with:

As I can condense the components together (the GPU will no longer foul the DVD drives) I have trimmed 8cm off the length which is really good - I reckon I could even get the whole unit back into the 37cm depth if I was to mount the SSD under the 5.25" bays or mount it vertically against the side panel over the RAM or such.
The only downside is that I have had to swap the 120mm fan on the back for an 80mm as that's all that would fit in that place, but I have managed to keep the larger 140mm fan.

My main concerns about this design are:
- I think that it will be much harder to route the power supply cables even with a modular PSU (though at least a lot will all stay around the top of the case, so obstructing air flow much less than original design)
- Is mounting the PSU at the top of the case a 'better' idea; the trend at the moment seems to be keeping the PSU at the bottom and where possible 'isolated' from the rest of the case - this is where I was going with on my earlier designs.
- Is having the 80mm rear fan right under the PSU going to be detrimental to getting sufficient air flow up through the PSU? I could just remove this all together but then I would have 2x140mm intake fans with only 1x 140mm exhaust (and the PSU's fan)

Will be putting filters across the front fans as much from aesthetics as well as keeping dust out but for now I haven't put anything like that into the model to keep things simple.

As for the thought about mounting the motherboard against the side:

Things I like:
- Room for the rear 120mm fan to compliment the 140
- Having the GPU fan horizontal pointing down would help prevent dust build up
- I could put a vertical 'separator' between the motherboard and PSU to offer some isolation

Things I'm not so sure about:
- Not really sure what to do with the hard drives without blocking the GPU fan or front fans
- As the motherboard is only a few cm smaller than the cube, I can't overlap the motherboard and DVD drives so I'm back at the maximum length I can have the case
- If I stick with the Megahalems cooler I will need to make sure I can get a motherboard tray to properly support the weight of the cooler on its side - I am currently struggling to source a motherboard tray that is exactly ATX size for the motherboard / case.

 

[IceShock]

Tbh if your going to mount the motjerboard against the side, I'd make it with the motherboard in the centre like that corsair cubed shape case, can't remember off top of my head which one it is. But because then you can have just the motherboard and cpu cooler, graphics card etc all in one area and all things like psu and hdd out of the way and unseen, and also because from that last sketch there from the psu the cables would be a right mess!

 

[Cerelia]

Things I'm not so sure about:
- Not really sure what to do with the hard drives without blocking the GPU fan or front fans
- As the motherboard is only a few cm smaller than the cube, I can't overlap the motherboard and DVD drives so I'm back at the maximum length I can have the case
- If I stick with the Megahalems cooler I will need to make sure I can get a motherboard tray to properly support the weight of the cooler on its side - I am currently struggling to source a motherboard tray that is exactly ATX size for the motherboard / case.

1: For the HDs, you could stack them on the oposite side from the mobo.
2: Have you looked into slim rw-dvd/br drives? You could have 4 int he space of 2 regular. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-113-LO&groupid=701&catid=10 for an example.
3: The mobo is a multi-layered pcb, the only issue would be having the mountain being strong enough to hold the mobo against the case/unit.

On a side note: The PSU bottom fan pulls air in and exhausts it, the newer design with cases just want to seperate psu for athestic reasons. The direction of the airflow would usually go hand in hand with the cpu, the only downside is the airs pre-warmed. How pre-warmed? by 1c at max.

 

[hawki]

A quick render mixing in IceShock's ideas

I like that most of the PSU cabling can be 'hidden' behind the motherboard, but especially with the Megahalems cooler the width is going to be tight which means I may not have enough space for a sufficiently rigid motherboard tray.

Taking a few of these ideas and mixing them up a bit I did however come to another idea;

If I move the optical drives to the bottom and bring the 2x140mm fans to the top of the case, I can have the motherboard effectively mounted over the drives, allowing me to get back into the shorter version of the case and with improved airflow over the top of the motherboard. In this configuration from the back I can then fit in 2x 140mm fans on the rear, though the lower fan would be almost entirely blocked by the 4x hard drives and SSD:

Or I could split the hard drives up and put 2 at the back and the other 2 between the optical drives and fan controller / memory card reader:

I think I really like this format, but my final concern is about airflow through the PSU. I currently have a Corsair 750W at the bottom of my NZXT Beta Evo and the only airflow through the PSU is what it gets from under the PC on the case's rubber feet, so this seems like it should have enough space so as not to cause problems. Alternatively I could forgo the symmetry on the front and put 3 optical drives on the right hand side and have a third smaller intake fan on the left to push through air on the lower half of the case and to the PSU

As this design is now back down to minimum length I could always extend it a few extra cms to give a bit more room between the optical drives and the PSU for easier cable routing and such.

 

[hawki]

So despite not intending to start until I had moved in, I thought I'd make use of the relative space at my parent's to get a start on with the build and procure some of the components.

Brought a couple of sheets of 3mm wood from my local DIY store; initially I was a little apprehensive about the strength of it but it seems sufficiently malleable to get into shape but more than strong enough once its glued and dried together. Worse case scenario I have a nice mock-up and first attempt at things!

As I have absolutely zero DIY experience and am making do with the limited facilities - though as the case is to slide into the kallax ikea unit anyway the finish itself doesn't really bother me, and I quite like the 'personal' touch the imperfections offer.


In more space saving opportunities I came across the Kama Panel 3.1

This way I can use up a single 5.25" space and get a fan controller (though only 2 channel), power and reset buttons, HDD activity light, memory card reader, USB 3.0 hub and a bonus 2.5" drive slot which I may use for the SSD.

As the fan controller only has two channels I will use one channel each for the pair of 140mm fans on the front and back, so also got a couple of fan splitters (PWM although the controller is voltage regulated just in case I change my mind about things)

Have ordered 4 BeQuite SilentWings 2 140mm fans for the case but due to supplier issues these have still not arrived. Hooked up a solitary 120mm fan just to test the controller out. Had some issues with my computer detecting the USB hub and memory card reader when connecting over USB3 but it worked flawlessly over USB2 - as I don't have any other USB3 devices on my current computer I assumed it was a driver issue and will wait until my new setup to test more thoroughly.

One word of warning though: the Kama Panel comes with a standard USB3 A-B cable and the instructions suggest looping the cable out the back of the PC through an empty PCI slot to plug into your motherboard. This seems like pretty clunky idea so I also picked up a USB3 motherboard header / USB port adapter

I'm thinking I might use the second USB socket for a 'secure' memory stick (though absolutely no idea what I'd put on it), or maybe some USB controlled LEDs... or I could just leave it empty!

As for the actual build, it's probably on hold now until I buy more components and work out exact dimensions. Depending on the motherboard tray I am looking to purchase I may also do away without any 'roof' - the open plan design is partly due to the fact the shelving unit itself will provide most of the structure, but also it will make it easier to swap in / out components by simply sliding the computer out of the shelf and reaching in. This will also depend on how much the 'roof' is needed to provide structural support I guess!

 

[hawki]

Another week, another mini update.

The first delivery of Silent Wings 2 fans arrived; I ordered four but due to a stock issue with the supplier they are sending two deliveries with two fans each.

Hooked the two fans up to the Kama Panel to make sure they were working and the panel reads 990 RPM with them set to full power - and at which they really are super silent, almost too silent and I fear they may end up staying at 100% to ensure adequate airflow; they should shift just over 100 cubic metres / hour each but will see how things go

The main selling point to me on the fans (other than their near silent operation) is the option of mounting either with rubber 'pins' that snap into the fans or with the typical screw fixings. When testing the fan just stood upright on my desk there was a fair bit of vibration at some RPM so hopefully using the rubber fixings (and the fan has a circle of rubber around the outermost edge) it should keep things fairly quiet.

I started off sizing up for the lower rear fan and it's starting to feel like it's actually coming together now I have started getting components together.

In the meantime, I have ordered a DEMCiflex 280mm fan filter to go across the front two fans, all being well this will arrive along with the other two fans ready for next Monday.

I also have an acrylic motherboard tray on its way; I contemplated building my own tray using the same wood but thought it would be much easier to buy a tray that would definitely be the correct dimensions. Not entirely sure how I will fit the tray to the case; it will either rest inside supports or if there's room I might create a recess with a wooden base and raised border for the tray to sit into - will wait and see on the measurements.

Still have an ongoing mental battle for the rest of the components; currently thinking

• PSU: Corsair HX750i
• Motherboard bundle: Asus X99 Steamroller (w/ 5930K, 16GB RAM and Megahalems cooler)
• HDDs: Western Digital Red 1 or 2TB, four of in RAID 10
• SSD: Samsung 850 SSD (256GB unless I can get some overtime at work then the 512GB)
• GPU: Nvidia GTX 970 OC

The PSU and possibly the motherboard bundle could require me to make structural changes to ensure they fit so I will likely get them sooner rather than later, as for storage, optical drives and graphics cards they can probably wait until nearer the time when this is going to be getting used (and so components might be slightly cheaper)

 

[hawki]

And another update; a rather successful weekend.

The remaining two fans arrived, along with the DEMCiflex filter.

Hooked them up to the Kama Panel to give them a quick test and all seems good.

Started work on the mounting to hold two of the fans for intake at the front of the case.

As I'm still deciding on how many hard drives I will have and how they will fit into the case I started work on the mounting for the motherboard; this comprised of a number of 'stilts' that would support the weight above it.

The material is quite thin (3mm) so for the stilts I've been bonding them back to back for added strength.

Then just in time the motherboard tray arrived - an acrylic ATX board that includes full height stand-offs for the pci cards. Not too sure how I'll 'fill' the back to keep it relatively secure from any dust, but hoping inspiration will hit me somewhere along the line.

I put some brackets on a couple of the stilts to secure the motherboard tray, this way it shouldn't be too difficult to remove it again in the future if so required.

Added supports horizontal across the stilts both for stability but also hopefully will be able to use them for cable management - also why they are screwed down so that I can remove them, feed cables through then screw down over them holding them in place (or at the very least gives me something to cable tie to)

All looking a little wobbly but once the top gets on and the wood is painted / treated I can tighten things up a bit. The second 'shelf' above the optical drive is not yet secured, hence the gap as I might trim it down once I work out the hard drive alignment.

Hopefully I'll decide on the PSU, probably going to upgrade to the Corsair HX850i as it's only a few quid more than the 750 and gives me a bit more room for future expansion. If I can get this ready for next weekend I might be able to finish off the base level which is a tad exciting!

 

[implosiveturnip]

Subbed. I have the older expedit unit but as far as I'm aware the sqaure "holes" are the same size. I did manage to squish my bitfenix phenom m in there witht the feet off, but airflow wasn't the best.

So far things are looking good, keep it up pal I'm interested to see how this goes

 

[hawki]

Thank you very much!

That's good to know about the bitfenix fitting as the specs say that's 33cm high - I'm slightly nervous that getting so far into the build before actually buying the kallax unit could turn out to be a bit of a disaster if it doesn't fit!!! If that's the case there will either be a lot of sanding going on to try and trim a few mm if it's close or I'll just build a slightly larger cube to house this is and sit it on top of the kallax unit.

My last resort would be a case such as the penom m where I can at least re-use the components and no real loss other than the materials and time - but it's been a fun first build and good experience all the same.

Fingers crossed...

 

[hawki]

Another Monday gone...

The PSU still hadn't arrived so I made a start on the hard drives. Built a quick template and spaced out the three drives

A little wonky (oops), but actually I think the odd 'wrong' bits are all part of the homemade look and feel - and think if it was all perfect it somehow wouldn't be so good.

Haven't yet ordered the actual drives I will use, so used three spare SATA drives I had lying around to make sure it all fits

The motherboard support across the back of the optical drives should also serve to route the cables along - eventually they will be cable tied to the horizontal struts.

And then... hoorah

Power supply arrived. Went for the 850 in the end to make sure I've got enough room to expand.

The right hand side support that the PSU will rest on top. The larger piece will then also help support the motherboard tray above it. A second similar piece will be used on the left hand side

While I had the glue open thought I'd finally attach the guides onto the two shelves that support the optical drives and fan controller

These thin strips are just to help guide the drives in and out and keep them lined up without sliding about.

Hopefully next weekend can finish off the power supply and get that mounted - I'm slightly nervous I need to put more room between it and the optical drives to give room for all the cabling - if that's so not sure how it's all going to fit :S
One possibility is that I swap over the fan controller on to the left side, as this is much shorter than the optical drives giving a bit more room for cabling

 

[zack1667]

Look's good, can't wait to see the rest. subbed

 

[hawki]

One my fears definitely materialised today, things were looking pretty cosy in my model anyway, and the realisation of space really struck today when I started contemplating all the wiring for the PSU!

Even with the Corsair's flat ribbon cabling it's pretty bulky, and so I've decided that I will have to 'extend' the PSU out of the rear of the case. This is no big deal and partially imagined in my first drafts of the model. This offset is approximately the same dimension as the front side supports so I'm contemplating having this overhang on the front and somehow styling up those front supports.

On the plus side, the space between the optical drives is just perfect for hiding away some of the excess cabling

But I will need to think about the gap at the front and find a way to fill that in

The support for the front fans is at last attached to the front side supports

And I've decided to keep the second 'shelf' that hold the hard drives loose - with a view that to change drives that shelf and front blank panel all slide out through the front.

Made a start on a mount for the forth hard drive and SSD that will sit on the base by the lower exhaust fan and should get this finished off next weekend.

I could really do with buying the motherboard now to help size things out but there's Christmas presents that need buying first!

 

[hawki]

Argh, so having just spent the previous 30 - 45 minutes writing an update, it would appear that I got auto logged out before completing, and so clicking to 'Preview Post' caused the entire post to disappear, so a slightly cut down replacement because I don't have that much time to spare!

Hard drive mount towards the rear of the case, will eventually house the 4th spinning disk and the SSD

Starting to fit together; the PSU now mounted to the case and slides in from the back (with the back panel attached), or lifts up out the case if the motherboard isn't there.

Delivery of 4x Western Digital RED 2TB drives, the Samsung 850 Pro SSD and mounting adapter to use in the housing above

Looking rather slick, and the adapter means I could install a second SSD if required, but if I do any storage modifications it will probably be with the M.2 slot instead!

First problem encountered; the PSU cabling and SATA power adapters are at right angles, and so won't fit to the drives; solution - purchased some SATA power splitters so that I can power two drives from each PSU connector and use that cabling to bend out the way.

Other than the power supply cabling, it's looking good with the drives and fans attached. The molex cable is from the memory card reader / fan controller and I've got an adapter to make it into a SATA power so that I don't have to use the extra cable from the PSU just for this device - the joys of modular cabling!

Picked up the single KALLAX unit from IKEA as will need it for when I move anyway (which, aside: has been delayed until mid-late January )

Nice Christmas Eve delivery; Steamroller bundle with Asus X99-S upgraded to include the 5930K, 2666MHz RAM and Megalahems CPU cooler (though substituted with the blue series Armageddon due to stock issues at OCUK)

Disaster #2; computer no longer actually fits in the cube! Despite my model seeming to fit in the cube, it turns out that missing out the fact that motherboard doesn't exactly sit at 140mm height due to the fan's frame, and the height of the motherboard stand-offs, and the height of the CPU above the motherboard all raised the top of the cooler. Even if I had gotten the Megahalems as ordered it's only a couple of mm shorter. I will evaluate after I move as to whether I put the computer on the top, remove a shelf from the unit, or raise a shelf up with a 'bodge' somehow.

For now, and as the KALLAX unit doesn't fit anywhere near for where it needs to be for cabling the computer temporarily, I've left it exposed under my desk. Handily the Logitech Z5500 subwoofer is a decent size to support the computer anyway (behind the cardboard box the image shows) so it's now pushed back on top of this while I set things up.

My first experience with a UEFI BIOS build and must say; extremely impressed. Though confused why there's some discrepancy over whether the RAM is 2667 or 2133MHz !?

Had some issues getting all the devices to register, but after re-reading the seemingly complicated instructions in the manual about which devices can be installed into which SATA ports everything came together. Originally seemed to get into a situation where the Windows install DVD could see the SSD and install onto it, but the BIOS couldn't identify it to boot from.

After a blazingly fast windows install disappointed to find that it doesn't include most of the drivers for the mobo; including the NIC so the first few downloads had to be downloaded on my old computer and transferred over on CD!

Windows seems to still show the RAM at 2166MHz but everything seems more than fast enough! And I haven't gotten round to upgrading the graphics card yet and just running on a spare 550 Ti to get things started with.

The Corsair Link software is really handy, and a nice simple place to go to for a quick passive system overview

What impressed me even more though is the 'Power' tab which includes wattage for in and out as well as efficiency thereof; idling the system is more than comfortable enough and there should be plenty of room for a 970GTX and possibly extending the overclock further if I find I need to.

Asus' own suit; the 'AI Suite 3' offers much more flexibility and tweaking and seems to be a good place to start with overclocking. Sadly most of the time it just seems to crash out on me but for now the system is otherwise more than stable enough; Hyper-V, Office, Skype, Nero have all been working flawlessly.

 

[Rroff]

Looks like BIOS is booting at 2133 on the RAM but showing 2667 available as the default XMP profile level but your not actually using the XMP profile - you'll probably have to select that somewhere.