My SKTC Q2 ITX Case Modding & Hardware Build Project

[Darren_uk]

My SKTC Q2 ITX Case Modding & Hardware Build

​

The History
I purchased the original Raijintek Metis on release in 2014 & the Metis Plus for £44.99 on release in 2016, its one of the best ITX cases to accommodate Large
tower coolers up to 160mm & still being so small size of only:190 x 254 x 277 mm (W x H x D)
so lightweight made mostly of aluminum, But airflow was a real concern so I Modded the top panel with 120mm fan mounts & other mods for the case,
Last year Raijintek released the "METIS EVO ITX CUBE Case"
But was Dual-chamber & can only fit up to 135mm CPU cooler, The width is on the large size & the Price over £100,
A year or so ago, "SKT Case" made very similar cases to the Metis & STYX & other bigger cases
Called SKTC Model Q1 & Q2, Q3, Q5 only available from CHINA,
Q1 is the same size as the Raijintek Metis/Plus ITX & can come with double 120mm fan mounts on top panel & with an Acrylic or
Glass full side window or just plain aluminum side panel Also can come with the new 2.5" SSD mount on the left side of the motherboard tray that looks cool,
This feature is also turning up on the new stock of the Raijintek Metis Plus.
Model Q2 ITX is the same as Q1 on features, but the size is a little bit bigger Being 193 x 285 x 300mm (W x H x D)
As now made room for longer graphics cards of 280mm+ to be mounted,
on top of that, a 3rd PCI-E bracket for thicker GPUs are now supported & can accommodate some Odd longer 19.5x24CM motherboards like the DX
Oh The "3.5" Drive tray" at top of the case is now gone​

The Now

18/02/2020, I placed an order for the SKTC Q2 White double top with tempered glass window,
But a message saying only Blue & Silver Without side window are available,
So I went with silver double 120mm top with Aluminum side panel & Arrived on my doorstep on
10/03/2020, Since this case already got 2 x 120mm fan mounts on top panel,
I only need to mod :​

(1) Mod a Side window

(2) Better case feet (Ones that on the case are plastic with a thin layer of black rubber felt)

(3) Some artwork

(4) Alternative Build with AMD Wraith Prism Cooler

(5) Taking out & replacing the internal power Cable





The Hardware for this Build
SKTC Q2 Mini ITX Case Double top Silver £53 From eBay or Ebuy7 website Around
£30 for fast Air Shipping from china/Customs & courier from the UK to deliver
Powercolor AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT Red Dragon
Gigabyte Aorus B450 I AORUS PRO WIFI
Corsair SF750w 80 Plus Platinum SFX PSU
Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4 3200 MHz C16
Samsung 850 EVO 2.5" SSD 500GB (Superseded with 860 EVO)
Seagate Expansion Special Edition 4TB External 2.5 "Portable
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Processor (8C/16T, 36MB Cache
Arctic Freezer 34 Esports – CPU Cooler White/Grey
upHere 4-PIN PWM 120mm RGB Fan 3 PACK (T4CF4-3 Rainbow LED)
Speclux Magnetic Rainbow Computer Case Lighting, Addressable PC Digital LED Strip
StarTech.com 12in Latching Round SATA Cable



The Modding Tools used
Cordless compact Drill 18V
Pointer
Drill bits size: 1.5, 3, 4mm
Model craft plastic Cutter Scriber
Masking Tape
Metal ruler & Tape measure
Hifi Lab Aluminium Feet solid 33x22 Alu Audio Feet 4x
3mm Perspex Clear Acrylic Plastic Sheet (420mm x 297mm / A3)

 

[Darren_uk]

Mod better case feet
Taken the small plastic stock feet off, Made the feet Holes larger to M4 Size Threads to support new case feet, Drill bit size 4mm was used

















Hifi Lab Aluminium Feet solid 33x22 Alu Audio Feet 4x

 

[Darren_uk]

Mod: Clear full Acrylic side window (3mm Perspex Clear Acrylic Plastic Sheet (420mm x 297mm / A3)


Cutting the Acrylic sheet to Size










Drilling the Holes

 

[Darren_uk]

The hardware build in the case
































Powercolor 5700 XT Red dragon 240mm long



Finished Build

















x 2 120mm Uphere fans as intake & 1 for the rear exhaust
PSU fan 0db tell 360w load then spins silent, 5700XT 0db tell 60c , GPU desktop idle temp 39c & CPU 45c due to PBO , Chipset 43c, VRMs 45c, one silent build

 

[Darren_uk]

Finished Modding, Before & After.

 

[Darren_uk]

@clifbel Thank you, yes great in case/CPU/GPU temps also, Playing Doom eternal CPU temps in the 60s underload
Arctic Freezer 34 Is one of the most silent coolers & great for cooling.
The new ARCTIC LIQUID FREEZER II line Also great

 

[Darren_uk]

The artwork is printed off by an Inkjet Printer
Using special
A4 Vinyl Self Adhesive Sticker Paper Clear/Matt/Glossy Photo
I used an Epson XP-750 printer


One of the best budget Coolers Freezer 34
This may be the one you watched, its the one that made my mind up on getting it

Ya, the Liquid Freezer 2, that little fan on the block meant to help cool the VRMs, but don't really do anything & could disable the fan

 

[Darren_uk]

@mushtafa Thank you
Anybody has any questions feel free to post.

 

[Darren_uk]

Have one arriving tomorrow. I paid £80 which now feels too much after seeing your post.

Is there enough input airflow for the cpu and the psu? Looks like just a few holes between them..

(1) Air Flow is Just Fine, 2 X 120mm intake on top & one 120mm exhaust rear,
Temps in the 60s under gaming load with a Ryzen 3700x & Arctic cooling Freezer Esports,
a Mini ITX Graphics card is even better, running a 5700XT & being longer stops more air from reaching the bottom but cools the GPU.

£80 Is the going price, around £53 for the case, £30 for fast air shipping/with Customs price & paperwork & also courier to deliver the case when it reaches the UK.
So you paid around what I paid

 

[Darren_uk]

is a small PSU a must for this case? I know it takes ATX size but limits gpu size

Hello
A Small SFX or SFX-L PSU From Corsair or Silverstone Helps in Space for Airflow & hiding the cables behind the Back & great for long GPUs that go over the PSU space
Silverstone have SST-PP05-E short cable set for there PSUs that help, I went with corsair this time for the 7 years warranty & plat rated.

 

[Darren_uk]

Yep I had Same with Rear GPU Bracket Holes, I used one of the other screws in the end
Never touched 3D Printing.

 

[Darren_uk]

Agree McPhee, shame Raijintek dumped this design.

 

[Darren_uk]

congrats @Deanodirector, Who delivered it, I had royal mail parcel force.

 

[Darren_uk]

Does platinum-rated equate to lower heat and therefore fan noise? Its the fan airflow that concerns me the most so that might be worth the investment

Well before I used 4 gold rated SFX/L PSUs from Silverstone in passed metis & metis Plus case Builds,
the Corsair SFX Plat 750w Is the best I have used so far, Yes being platinum Makes more energy efficient,
also, the fan is off all the time I used it in this case
Since the fan doesn't even start up on silent mode tell it's under load around 350w.

 

[Darren_uk]

I paid £128 at the time for a Corsair SFX 750w, Shows you how the price has gone up/Shortage of Stock due to Virus.

Silverstone SX700 700W 80 PLUS PLATINUM SFX MODULAR POWER SUPPLY (Pre-order)

Seasonic FOCUS SGX 650W 80 PLUS GOLD MODULAR SFX POWER SUPPLY (10 years W)

Corsair SF SERIES 600W 80 PLUS PLATINUM (7 Year W)

Be others to look out for once in stock

Silverstone SFX-L V2.0 500W '80 PLUS GOLD' FULLY MODULAR POWER SUPPLY (3 years W) £80
Be ok if you know you hardware build will output less than 500w

 

[Darren_uk]

You have done a lovely job on this! The before/after photos make it look like a different colour now. Is it?

Shame you didn't test this before and after changing the feet, I'm guessing better airflow now it's raised higher.

Front darker tone look Due to the Art Print on the fine clear Sheet

Feet: Yes a lot better than the little plastic stock feet & yes raises it off the ground just over an inch. so all great for Airflow if needed.

 

[Darren_uk]

Quiet! 500W SSFX-L with 120mm Fan should be ok
Asrock B450 gaming AC, the M.2 on the back of the motherboard & would need to be installed
before installing the motherboard in the case due to the small motherboard tray cut out.

 

[Darren_uk]

The AMD Wraith Prism RGB the lowest Cooler I used, Dose a fine job with 3700x no whine,
Have you tried the "Fan calibration" & set your own fan curve in Asrock F-Stream Tuning utility ver:3.0.215 , Not the best fan software but it's ok
Otherwise, go with something like Arctic cooling Freezer 34 Due, dead silent.

Nope the case is for ITX, & few odd BTX motherboard sizes
the 3rd PCI-E bracket for more room for 2/half slot Graphics cards.

Storage-wise I purchased a 2.5" Seagate 4TB External USB 3.1 drive around £74 at the time
using it as External means using the rear 3.1 USB port on I/O of the motherboard,
Otherwise, you can take it out of its case & install it at the bottom of the Case.

 

[Darren_uk]

Be another update soon, Using
Ryzen 1700 CPU OC to 3700ghz all cores
Asrock Fatal1ty B450 Gaming-ITX/ac
AMD Wraith Prism RGB Cooler
Also my trusty Gigabyte GTX 1070
with G-Skill RGB Memory 16gb kit
& 1 x Fan only for top front Exhaust
2 x Fan grills

 

[Darren_uk]

Update 11/07/2020

Changed Most of the hardware all but the PSU & Having only 1 x 120mm fan up top as Exhaust out

Keeping the fans config the same as when I had the Tower Cooler, rear 120 Fan as Exhaust & 2 x 120mm at top for Intake went bad using a top down Prism CPU cooler
made the rear fan useless & making the case temp get really hot & sound with PSU fan starting up also, the bottom case floor was hot.

Being the Wraith Prism is a top down Air cooler I found the best Case cooling for this build is having a small Graphics card
so the top fan can suck up a lot of the Heat from the bottom of case & using the old style
Metal Fan Grill Protectors means no restricted airflow.

In case temps are now great & will post few pictures soon of GPUZ & CPU temp playing "Surge 2"


Asrock Fatal1ty B450 Gaming-ITX/ac
Ryzen 1700 CPU with Wraith Prism RGB Cooler Rev C OC to 3700ghz all cores
Gigabyte GTX 1070 OC Mini
G-Skill Trident Z Royal series 3200mhz C16 DDR4 RGB memory Kit 16gb
1 x Silverstone Blue LED (FN121-P-BL Fan 3 pin max 58CFM
Seagate® BarraCuda™ 120 SSD 500GB