MiniFusion - *Sponsored* by Xtia and Bitspower

[Jay85]

I've launched a site for all my builds, current and old here:
www.minibotpc.com


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Would first of all like to Thank Xtia and Bitspower for sponsoring this build. I would not be able to do this without their support so thank you so much to the contacts at both companies. Would also like to Thank Jginyue for sponsoring the motherboard with their B760i Snow Dream.

This is a midranged super compact open frame SFF build. This showpiece is about half the size of my previous build, following on with a similar theme so expect custom distros, gorgeous chrome tubing and Bitspower branding.


Xtia has sent me a full care package for the XProto Mini with all the extras plus a 600w Flex PSU and cabling. The Mini is one of the smallest cases from Xtia, they do make an even smaller one but that's for another time. The layout is very similar to my AquaFusion build, same sandwich layout except it uses a FLEX psu. They included a mounting for a SFX psu but i think to keep with the compact theming i will use the FLEX psu for this build.

The Core components will include the following with more to verify as we go.

• Intel 13400F
• Corsair LPX 3200mhz DDR4
• Jginyue B760i Snow Dream
• Crucial P5 Plus 1tb NVME Drive
• RTX 3070 Founders Edition
• Xtia Enhance 7660B Customised 600w PSU with custom cables
• Xtia PCIE 4.0 riser cable
• Bitspower Watercooling blocks, fittings and tubing
• Custom Distro(s)
• Custom Rad Mount
• Custom Colour scheme

Jginyue B760i motherboard:





RTX 3070 Founders Edition:





Intel 13400F + Corsair LPX 3200 DDR4:





Current design process and layout CPU Side:




The build is still very much in early days of development. We still need to decide on colour scheme, though i think we will end up going full white with black and chrome accents. I will need to get creative and develop a mount for a bottom mounted 240mm radiator. The aim is to not divert from its vertical structure too much, adding things that hang off the front and back is a no go (this is to be avoided). However i can stack rads etc onto the bottom or top, however i see fit. This calls for some 3D planning and i need to becareful with the purchasing side as i have some serious size limitations.

This is particularly true when it came to the graphics card, only 1 card really made the list.. the RTX 3070 Founders Edition. The constraint was having to use a Bitspower block and the only one that met the size requirements, was the 3070 FE card. The limitation was a 210mm length card, the bitspower 3070 Classic block meets this requirement with room to spare.





Next up will be designing tube runs and the bottom bracket to hold the 240mm radiator followed by a pump mounting interface for the custom distro.

 

[Jay85]

Update:

For this build, i have partnered up with AquaCustoms, a liquid cooling specialist in custom distros and CAD design work. It's going to be somewhat of a long process so expect updates to be slowish and will more than likely go on till end of February. We're currently working on the Distro and a possible custom CPU pump block using Bitspower Summit M Waterblock as a base due to size constraints with this build. Definitely thinking well out of the box and to the moon for this one!

AquaCustoms - liquid cooled PC modding and building

Watercooling PC modding and building site located in the UK, making items such as custom distribution plates for our showcase builds.

aqua-customs.com

The Bitspower GPU block is also on the way, should be in hand by start of next week and the case from Xtia should shortly follow.

 

[Jay85]

Sponsored, eh? Nice job!

Also nice to see different vendors getting involved, so tired of seeing every sponsored build using EK Torque fittings and blocks.

Thanks! Definitely a win, trying to branch out abit now and working abit more outside the box to be different otherwise like you say its the same builds over and over again.

This also means i have to start hoarding some hardware so been out buying different graphics cards and processors for future builds.


Btw! It was 13/10 tubing you needed right? I haven't forgot, just hadn't had time to dig lol. I believe i found some 13/10 ZMT black tubing in my box of goodies in the garage if you still want it?

 

[Jay85]

Yes please, 13/10 EDPM tubing would be magical. Hit me up in a conversation to get you my deets.

And hopefully I'm not too far off properly tackling that entire project too. Need to have a word with Mr Banks about distros and a custom waterblock for a Quadro P400. Yes, a low-profile, low-power GPU is getting a custom block made

DM'd my man

Highly anticipating your project log revival! Like any day now haha

 

[Jay85]

It's been hard, but I should be picking it up again soon. Probably just going for the final shots though, maybe a side by side comparison of the modded case with an original (I have 2) to show how stock it looks.

Will be subscribiing when you're ready to start it again, sounds like its gonna be one hell of a system when its finished and your other project .

 

[Jay85]

here we go jay's off again

i did say there would be another shortly after. Taking a break at the end of January but we'll see how far i get with this.

 

[Jay85]

Not heard of some of those presumably Chinese
Manufacturers before
Definitely interesting to see different stuff
And great to see you getting sponsored

Any way you could engrave the bitspower logo
Then use edge lit leds so the logo
Gets illuminated?
I keep asking people for this lol
But it just kind of surprises me with all the glass panel
And rgb cases
That none seem to do this

I strayed abit from the norm purely to see what the Chinese market has to offer and tbh its not bad. The quality is certainly there and the bios revision that i had even supported XMP out of the box. There wasn't a lot to configure with it being a lowish power chip but it does support overclocking too. I reckon if they organised the bios layout abit, it would certainly help with navigation, thats probably one of their weakest points imo.

Haha i did think about this cos my Phanteks Glacier R220C had a similar thing with an LED strip down the side to illuminate it. However, there's been abit of a change in design so i may end up doing something entirely different.

Update coming later today while i work on the rest of the modules for this build.

 

[Jay85]

Congrats on the well deserved sponsorship and a great web-site.

Thanks Brizzles, hopefully this is gonna be one hell of an exciting year.

 

[Jay85]

So development so far, we decided that the distro was a little boring and it needed abit of a Zing to it. I pitched this to Bitspower and they loved it! This isn't the big water tank but the smaller Flow meters which i will dismantle and remove the impellers (maybe leaving one intact for its original purpose), linked together double male fittings and mounted with a custom bracket which i will design once i have all the parts together.

Will be using the Hercules Pump with MOD TOP, due to size limitations this is gonna be the best pump available thats compact enough. Will be mounted via another custom bracket but i plan to do something with the rear end to add an additional fan for cooling.

A lower section is to be designed that will be the enclosure for mounting a 240mm Bitspower radiator in which the radiator will be on standoffs to allow for air intake or exhaust.

 

[Jay85]

ill be honest i think this look's better

EDIT:
the res set up i mean

Yeah its definitely cleaner but i can see why Bitspower prefers the second iteration. I just hope the flow meters are a tad smaller than i anticipated so it sits closer to the L section for a smaller footprint.

 

[Jay85]

I like your 4 x flow meter idea
But it does protrude
Any way 2 of them can be connected at 90 degrees
To the first 2?

Possible but will portrude even more when aligned them in CAD. Plus i need to consider the tube runs so it actually makes it even worse as there's no connection on the rear of the the flow meters.

 

[Jay85]

Make sure you use male to male rotary fittings or you'll never get them to line up facing perfectly when you tighten them

EDIT : i suppose you could pad out the difference with an extra O ring here and there.

I got both, my worry with the male to male rotaries is the added height with them. Was looking to see if Bitspower has another way of connecting them together like the water tank connectors but doesn’t look like they do.

 

[Jay85]

Xtia's case arrived the other day, just not had time to post. They literally did send me everything available for this case... Unfortunately they sent me the wrong colour . Will remedy this the old fashioned way.

I love flat packing, the whole case and all of its accessories was crammed into this small box.

 

[Jay85]

Wheel out the drain cleaner!

(assuming that's anodised aluminium)

Haha! Yes it was, cleaned up pretty well and the painting came out nice

Decided to do it two tone white with black inserts so it breaks it up a little.

I just looked up the case as I had thought it was an open type case, but I see it can be fully enclosed and look more traditional. What do you intend to do with it?

Yup i got the enclosure mesh panels too but i don't intend to use them for this build. See page one near the bottom for the design. I've sort of planned the tubing runs but will plan it better once i get the rest of the parts in.

 

[Jay85]

And tonight we get to build it! What a beautiful case and i think the parts match it perfectly. The black insert sections break up the 2 halves nicely and gives the frame some depth instead of being all white.

Really looking forward to the next phase now in building up the bottom section to hold the 240mm radiator. While i design that, there is abit of drama with the gpu waterblock. Royal mail seems to have lost it.... great timing too. In comms with the retailer in either getting a refund or sending another one out but will need to wait 10 working days.


While it's semi built up, i took the opportunity to test out my new LED softboxes and reflective surface.

 

[Jay85]

Wow, that's clean. It's almost a shame to add anything more to it... I mean, what's a little CPU throttling

Seriously though the old DC-LT pump broke down on my i5-8400 while I left running it Windows Update overnight. LibreHardwareMonitor logs said it clocked @ 400MHz for 6hrs. That was a nice surprise the next day.

I know tell me about it. It looks so good as it is now, i don't want to stick anything to it but i have a sponsorship to fullfil so i have to continue . Maybe afterwards i will do something else with it, my creativity right now is pretty wild.

If there's enough coolant in there and enough radiator space to diffuse the heat, it should technically work fine while running at low usage. I sometimes run my MORA passively and it does the same job though temps will climb gradually but never to the point where it would overwhelm the radiator.

 

[Jay85]

I'm really interested in how this will look when you're finished.

It looks beautiful with the limited hardware in it but the idea of the cables exiting at the top would concern me (personally). I remember having a case with the cable exit out the top but that had a top cover so the cables took a right angle and ended up out the back, so the layout, whilst different in the case was pretty traditional in function.

Given your previous builds I'm really looking forward to what you do with this one. I'm already trying to figure out pipe and cable runs!

P.S. Your photography skills are to be envied also.

I've been looking at 180 adapters for this build so i can run the cables underneath the case. I would only technically need 1 for the video output and the rest can be done via front IO or internal usb.

Thank you for the compliment, i'm always experimenting with light as i love photography. Product photography is still very new to me so this is all very refreshing in contrast to what i normally do.

 

[Jay85]

Big step up in the photography, nice work.

I'm intrigued by your reflective floor. At first glance it looks like you've used a black-tinted mirror, but there is no edge and light overspill. Is that all in-camera, or did you just edit afterwards? Same with your backdrop. Do you have a lot of space between the case and the backdrop so you can use depth of field to smooth out fabric texture, or paint it out in the edit?

Thanks man,

It's actually a black piece of Diabond board that my friend cut for me 400x400mm wide, it had a reflective side and a matte side. I used the reflective side to achieve this look, it's not overly reflective and the black helps bounce some of the light back onto the object (while not being overwhelming). I use 2 LED softboxes to light up the case to create the desired effects.

There is an edge but most of it is done via the camera so when it comes to LRC editting there isn't a whole lot to correct. I'm currently looking at a Sigma Art 35mm 1.4 lens next for crisper and cleaner macro shots, i primarily work with prime lens too.

The backdrop and the subject is relatively close but LRC has a function which allows me to mask the backdrop so i can remove anything that looks out of place. For these pictures, i mostly shot in f8, no room light and just softboxes for lighting.

 

[Jay85]

Only 40cm square board and you still hid the seam in camera? Nice job.

It's tricky but its also about the angles. Love doing stuff like this, very satisfying when you come out with a brilliant quality picture.

 

[Jay85]

For all my years in media, photography has always been something I've struggled with. Should really get practicing for when I need proper project shots of my own.

That's all it is tbh, lots of practice and experimenting. Everyone takes pictures differently and finding their own sort of style. I've always looked towards others to see how they do it then try out new things, composition as you probably know is also key to a good picture.