Project: Little Rascal - Mini-ITX Gaming Rig

A gaming rig with 4TB of storage and a Mini-ITX motherboard? Your nuts :D.

Would it be possible to copy the Sugo SG03 layout and mount the PSU above the motherboard? The height of the case is determined by your RAD but the space where the PSU currently sits could be used for your hard drives. It would make the machine slightly wider but it wouldn't be as deep.

Interested to see how this one turns out, I gave up on Mini-ITX in the end due to various issues I had with one of the Via motherboards and the cost of new motherboards.
 
Great project :)

Just one thing though, afiak SilenX have some VERY questionable fan stats, they will NOT push 72cfm at 14 DBA or anything near that. Very few companies give accurate CFM ratings for their fans, Yate loon and Noctua both give accurate specs so i'd use them as benchmark of what you want. I'd recomend Yate loons as they are very highly regarded or 38mm panaflo's if you can find them and have the room. There was a sugo build not long ago which used a 240 GTS rad and got some impressive reults with a GTX and a overclocked core2duo.
 
Pah, real men build gaming rigs with nano ITX ;):D

Very nice indeed. If you wanted to save more space inside (at the expense of storage) then you could get some laptop hdd's instead. They are very quiet, much smaller, have a lower heat output and not much slower than desktop hdd's nowadays. To make up for that just RAID0 them.
 
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I was going to suggest 2.5" HDDs also. You dont NEED 4TB of storage. you could get atleast 4 160GB 2.5" drives in there and have much more room for other stuff.
 
Hades said:
Pah, real men build gaming rigs with nano ITX ;):D

Very nice indeed. If you wanted to save more space inside (at the expense of storage) then you could get some laptop hdd's instead. They are very quiet, much smaller, have a lower heat output and not much slower than desktop hdd's nowadays. To make up for that just RAID0 them.
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Haha, i did actually look. But its hard enough to find a Mini-ITX board capable of a worthy gaming machine. For Nano-ITX its impossible.

Skeeter said:
I was going to suggest 2.5" HDDs also. You dont NEED 4TB of storage. you could get atleast 4 160GB 2.5" drives in there and have much more room for other stuff.
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Simple answer, no i dont need 4TB. That said i will get round to needing it eventually. I might slightly cheap and only have a 1TB drive in there with the 500GB, 400GB and 160GB Hard drives i currently have. But over time they will be upgraded.

Also more room for what. I wont need anything else in there that i havent already planned for :)


Arc said:
A gaming rig with 4TB of storage and a Mini-ITX motherboard? Your nuts :D.

Would it be possible to copy the Sugo SG03 layout and mount the PSU above the motherboard? The height of the case is determined by your RAD but the space where the PSU currently sits could be used for your hard drives. It would make the machine slightly wider but it wouldn't be as deep.

Interested to see how this one turns out, I gave up on Mini-ITX in the end due to various issues I had with one of the Via motherboards and the cost of new motherboards.
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Unquestionably nuts. But then im pretty sure they said the same about the first person who modded a PC like people do with cars.... and look where we are now :)

I had plans... not sure if i had them with the PSU above the mobo, but theres a few problems:
a) the depth of the case is determined by the gfx card length and radiator setup at the front, which is the same space needed for the board, hdd's and wc setup i currently have.
b) routing the tubing from over the top of the graphics into the cpu block would be troublesome.
c) i would gain more wasted space and volume, therefore bigger case for something that isnt as effecient.

Via motherboards are rubbish for gaming in all honesty. Though this board will cost me £194, which sounds expensive but if you compare it to the top dog motherboards its a fair price. Yes its not as powerful but it allows me to do something ive always wanted, and also hasnt been done before.

Hope you like the replies :)
 
Now thats what i call planning :eek:, my plans usually consist of a quick sketch on some scrap paper lol. Looking forward to seeing this take shape.
 
hey - looks like this will be an awesome project [subscribed] i have a few questions though.

looking at both motherboards. can either support a graphics card that has a dual slot pci metal bracket thing - i don't know the name but the plate bit you screw into the case.

also the SATA connections look very close to the PCI-E slot so will the be enough space to route 4 cables in and up/around the gfx card to the hard drives.

ps. are you water cooling the gfx card?
 
Hi, just had a look at your designs and they look pretty cool. You do need to consider some cross member structures though within the case to add rigidity. At the moment the case will be very unstable. The side window panel will most likely need to be laser cut as well. Apart from that looks great! Let me know if you need any advice on the structural design... (<<<---- Mechanical Engineering Graduate!)
 
benji182 said:
hey - looks like this will be an awesome project [subscribed] i have a few questions though.

looking at both motherboards. can either support a graphics card that has a dual slot pci metal bracket thing - i don't know the name but the plate bit you screw into the case.

also the SATA connections look very close to the PCI-E slot so will the be enough space to route 4 cables in and up/around the gfx card to the hard drives.

ps. are you water cooling the gfx card?
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The bracket would only be a problem if the case didnt have it. As this is a case being built from scratch, i can make the dual slot pci bracket so it wont be a problem.

With the Sata, from the sketchup model ive done i do think i can get them in there and routed nicely. I would most wanna route the cables under the board then under the graphics and into the slots, but will have to see if there is enough room for that. Sadly you cannot plan cabling that well, most of it has to be done there and then.

Munkeh said:
Hi, just had a look at your designs and they look pretty cool. You do need to consider some cross member structures though within the case to add rigidity. At the moment the case will be very unstable. The side window panel will most likely need to be laser cut as well. Apart from that looks great! Let me know if you need any advice on the structural design... (<<<---- Mechanical Engineering Graduate!)
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You are correct, the case does need some braces, but fear not ive near enough finished the more detailed designs (Yes i did say even more detail) which has a PSU bracket which braces the right side panel, the top and the back, and a removable shroud for the Radiator that will brace support the bottom top and right. This should make the case sturdy. Also that added with the fact that im planning on making the right, bottom, top and back all out of the same piece of aluminium which will be folded, this should give the case even more structural support :)

Those designs will be posted sometime today so you can all have a look.

Hope this helps answer your questions. :)
 
Well guys you know what time it is... yup its update time :)

Sadly this update has been a bit longer in the making, down to me being a bit busy and a bit lazy.

Thanks very much so far for all the comments everyone has left this project on the 9 forums that it is posted on. All the comments have been very favourable and a lot of people have said they will be keeping their eye on it :) That said, a few people have brought a few design ideas and a few faults to my design that i had either overlooked or just didnt notice.

Also with this update you will notice some more work on the theme and some additional ideas i have used. So without further ado, here are the pictures:
case1.jpg


Not much has changed, though i am leaning towards the panel design that is on the side on this picture. Some of you will noticed something in the top left of the panel. I have decided to add a VFD/LCD display. I still might mount it top right though to hide away some of the cabling, but still have to do the mock up of it first.
case2.jpg


On the back ive designed to allow for a 92mm Fan. I was going to scrap this but decided to add it back in to allow for increased airflow going through the case.

There was a worry about negative pressure due to the flow restriction caused by the GTS 240. Thankfully one of my friends has 2 240 radiators laying about, though not the same model but we strapped them together to take in account the flow restriction and placed a 92mm on the back, and it ran fine. No problems what so ever, so i am quite confident about this now. Though if i land up being wrong ill modify the side panel to allow some ventilation holes (which of course) will match the front to increase air intake into the case.


The PSU will have to be inserted into the case from the rear, where there will be a square cut hole which will allow for this. To fix the PSU to the case there will be a cut sheet of aluminium which will border the psu and will have screws going into the PSU and then into the case. This has been done before with a few mods, especially where the PSU sticks out a fair distance from the rear, and it looks and works fantastically. (Look at Project NLM by JegerJon to get some idea (fantastic mod))
case3.jpg


Here is what the bare chassis will look like.
case4.jpg


As you can see there will be a shroud that will fix the Radiator in place. This will be removable just as the HDD caddy will be. The Radiator shroud fixes to the right and bottom panels. This will also help brace the chassis to make it stronger.

You can see there are some modifications to the HDD Caddy. It has been made longer so that the case can be fixed to the right panel 2-4 times on each side. There are also struts that fix onto the PSU Caddy and the Radiator Shroud. This was to address a problem someone pointed out, that i overlooked. Originally the case was not going to be a tower, but a desktop, and the caddy was designed for that. Using it as a tower would change the change the positioning of the centre of gravity and could cause the right panel to bend/buckle. The struts were added in to help the load bearing of the Caddy so it could be distributed better over the entire case, whilst still being a removable caddy.

case1.jpg

The PSU housing will be rivetted to the case as i will not need to remove this from the chassis. as mentioned with the Radiator Shroud and HDD Caddy, it will help brace the chassis to make it a stronger structure. There is a gap above the PSU. Im planning to put some ventilation holes up there as i dont want pockets of hot unventilated air within the case. Also it gives me the option later on to add a card readers or USB hub or anything quite thin in there. As i probably wont have the money to get a modular PSU straight away it will probably be used to put some of the cables i will not be using.

Regarding the overall theme im going to be having the internal metal components, so everything seen in the bare chassis pictures to be painted either Black or Silver. Im leaning towards black more as it will look better. Also from the front i dont want the v300b effect. With the v300b you have black case but silver internals which were visibile through the perforated grill (like i have at the front) I obviously dont want this to be the case in my case.... pun not intended :)

Anyway guys i hope you all like the pictures. Feel free to leave any comments or questions, as you all help me pickup on things i might of not noticed. Its always nice to have a 3rd opinion :)

Also some extra good news, ive just ordered my electric sander and jigsaw which cost me £13 for both brand new. Bargin if you ask me. I shall get a picture up of the tools when they and the bending brake arrive.

Until next time. :)
 
that looks awesome mate, love it. really hope this project goes flawlessly would love to see this in action.
 
looks grate,

this is getting me very tempted to try something like this myself, what cad package are you using at it seams a bit more hardcore that... say Paint

Munkeh said:
The side window panel will most likely need to be laser cut as well.
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Nah I can get this CNC cut for you with a 40K spindle will be much better
 
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