Kimera Industries Cerberus: The 18L, mATX, USA-made enclosure

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Aibohphobia

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Cerberus

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We're working on bringing Cerberus to market even though the Kickstarter campaign did not meet the goal.



“I was at once sent to the underworld to fetch away the hound of Hades, for it was thought that no task could be more fearsome for me than that. But I brought the hound out of Hades’ house, and up to the Earth.”
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— Hercules in Homer's Odyssey

We are so excited, and so incredibly proud, to be able to introduce Project Nova's final form: a product that's the result of nearly two years of work, three generations of prototypes, hundreds of thermal and performance tests, and ongoing community discussion throughout. When James and I [to be clear, I'm James but I'm just copying what Joshua wrote] first began to work together, I don't know that either of us knew where Project Nova would ultimately take us - and yet, as we look at the final version of our project, everything about it seems completely logical, and beautifully inevitable. Our patience has been mightily tested over the past few months, but we are now able, at long last, to reap the rewards.

Friends, followers, and newcomers: the wait is finally over.

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The last substantive update we've provided on Cerberus, in terms of features and functionality, was all the way back in Fall 2015, and although we've mentioned or alluded to some of the changes we've incorporated since, their sum vastly exceeds the individual value of each one. The final version of Cerberus, even with its clear lineage with past prototypes, is very much distinct in both form and function. It is the essence of Project Nova, but refined in a manner only possible with experimentation and the passage of time.

Of course, our work has hardly been limited to design: everything from our manufacturing pipeline, to our crowdfunding campaign, has been in active development for months, and some of our most substantial (and late-breaking) developments will come from those fronts as well. A good design is merely half of the equation when it comes down to delivering quality enclosures to you all - a capable manufacturing pipeline, strong crowdfunding campaign and robust fulfillment plan all carry just as much weight, and therefore took up just as much of our time and energy to perfect.

In any case, the updated product page on our website details the fundamental features of Cerberus.

Original post here
 
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The power button and I/O ports should be on the top, not the front, in a vertical case. And 2x USB 2 + 2x USB 3 please.

Also, airflow may be better if the side is not vented but the top and bottom are.
 
Quartz-1 said:
The power button and I/O ports should be on the top, not the front, in a vertical case. And 2x USB 2 + 2x USB 3 please.

Also, airflow may be better if the side is not vented but the top and bottom are.
Click to expand...

On a really big, tall case that would be on the floor I agree, but this case can easily fit on a desk:
SodaCan.png


Is there a reason you want the power button on the top of a SFF case? Plus, the back panel isn't vented so someone could stick rubber feet to it and lay the case down, HTPC-style if they wanted.

More USB is always nice but I'm using the Silverstone USB 3.0 upgrade kit in the design which only has 2 x USB 3.0.

The side panel is vented because I'm designing with top-down coolers like the Noctua C14P in mind because the case isn't wide enough to accommodate big tower heatsinks. Heatsink clearance is about the same as the M1.

I think airflow will be less than ideal no matter what I do without increasing the size of the case.
 
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What's your plan for actually constructing this, what material and are you going to sell them or one-off for you and buddies?

I like it.
 
ToddW2 said:
What's your plan for actually constructing this, what material and are you going to sell them or one-off for you and buddies?

I like it.
Click to expand...

Thanks!

There is one local machine shop that does precision laser-cutting of sheet metal and another that does waterjet cutting. I'm thinking 0.95mm (20 gauge) steel frame and 2.54mm (0.1in) aluminum panels.

Not sure on the production plan yet. It's not really cost-effective to manufacture just a few cases but I can't imagine there's that big a market for this design. Right now I'm thinking a one-off production run of 20-30 units but I'm not sure there is even enough demand for that.

That's part of why I'm posting this, to gauge how much interest there is.

Note: I've done some research but I haven't had anything manufactured before so if anyone with experience with this kind of thing wants to chime in, feel free to correct me.
 
I love it! Seriously.
I've been contemplating about what to do in terms of my next build. I have a Node 304, which I was thinking to be very small at the time of purchase but I wanna go smaller.

One idea I had was going really small with a mITX build in an L2 (loneindustries) but I just couldn't make peace with pico PSU, idk why exactly.

Another thing that I've been thinking is the X99 and how sweet it would be in a tiny package. I was looking at U3 (Rosewill/Jonsbo/Cooltek), but at the same time I was thinking how great it would be to have something more purposefully built like the M1. So, this exactly fits the bill.

What I would want to see is a bracket on the side panel (similar to M1) that can accommodate 120/140mm AIO coolers. I think there would be space for even thick 140mm rads.

I would love to see this realized, and I would seriously consider getting one.
 
Yes, the idea of a Rampage V Gene w/ a hexa-core or even octo-core i7 in a really compact case was the inspiration for this :D

A bracket should be doable. Here's some pics with the Silverstone TD03 (45mm thick rad)

TD03_test_2.png

TD03_test_1.png
 
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Nice! Maybe just a bit farther from the rear so a 92mm fan can be installed along with a 140mm rad? This case has a lot of awesomeness potential! :D

Another idea could be a bracket to hold two 2.5" drives on the side panel side by side, right under the fan/rad bracket. Similar to what U3 has but for two 2.5" drives instead of a single 3.5" drive.
 
By the way, I don't see a benefit in the flipping idea, and I think most people would rather have fixed and nice feet, rather than stick-on...
 
That was just a quick mockup to see how a 120mm rad would look, I'll have to do some measurements to figure out exactly where it should go.

Putting drive mounts under the bracket may be doable but it'll be tricky because there's not a ton of room vertically and I don't want to intrude into the space for the video card too much. Is two 2.5" drives not enough? Keep in mind that PCIe drives are where it'll be at for next-gen performance and m.2 is starting to take off.

The stick-on feet comment was for if someone wants to lay the case on it's side, the feet in the pictures are modeled after these: http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=22797

The GPU is usually the noisiest component so the stock configuration would bury them at the bottom of the case and provide some measure of noise isolation but for people who don't care about noise they could flip the case over so the card would have more room to breathe.

The case gives up a lot of flexibility in order to reduce the size so I thought this would be a neat feature to offer instead that most (all?) other cases don't have.
 
Two 2.5" is enough for me ;)

About the case flipping option, I don't really mind as long as the feet are nice and sturdy.

I guess keeping the design simple would help in terms of ease of manufacturing and keeping the costs down.
 
Would you consider enlarging the case just enough for an ATX PSU and 180mm rad at the side?
 
I thought long and hard about ATX support during the initial design phase and I was really tempted to make the case a bit bigger to accommodate it but in the end I decided that trying to accommodate every use case by adding 10mm here and 20mm there would just result in something close to the SG09/SG10.

Silverstone has a 600W SFX unit coming out, what are you thinking of putting in this that would require more power than that? Though if you're more concerned about noise, I'm trying to leave enough room to attach a 120x25mm fan to the outside of the 500W SFX PSU Silverstone is coming out with.

The 180mm I'll have to think about some more but I'm leaning against it. It would fit without enlarging the case but it would interfere with the first two expansion slots, negating one of the big reasons for going microATX over Mini-ITX in the first place and I don't really want to vent the entire panel.

Sorry to shoot down your suggestions but I'm trying to keep the volume of the case as low as practical :)
 
I like the idea of a handle and like the idea of a small mATX case. I want the option to run a dedicated sound card or even a mid range SLI setup in a SFF case. Currently getting ready to upgrade my system and will go with a mATX over an ATX board this time. Looking to replace my CM 690 case with something smaller to start going to LANs again. BTW, have you thought about adding just enough room to the front to add a slim DVD/blue ray player vertically similar to the M1 case?
 
It worked out with the M1 because the ODD conveniently fit in that empty space at the front of the case that was going unused.

I may add support for it if enough people need it but according to AFD here, affordable slot-loading ODDs may be not long for this world anyway. A slit for a slot-loader at the seam between the front panel and the top panel would be acceptable but a tray-loader is out of the question.
 
I'm fine with the handle but I'd be happier without it as it would increase the cost, right?
Also, how will it work structurally with the top panel?

I don't know if you considered this but here's an idea: Put the PSU under the motherboard.
This would cause some changes with pluses and minuses:
1) It would increase the height to around 330mm
2) Assuming you wanna accommodate 10.5" cards, it would decrease the depth to around 280mm
3) It would simplify the case design and probably reduce costs.
4) There wouldn't be need for an internal power cable. Less clutter, and lower costs.
5) Cable management would be much easier.
6) You can add a place for a 120mm fan at the bottom in front of the PSU.
7) PSU would be cooler and quieter.
8) Case width could be reduced to 160mm, or even less but I'm not sure if that's what you'd want considering CPU cooler clearance. There are pretty powerful low profile coolers now (e.g. Cryorig C1, AXP200, etc) so it might not be a bad idea to slim the case down further if smaller package is the goal.
9) With the PSU out of the way, a 240mm slim rad AIO would be a possibility.
10) With the PSU out of the way, SLI would be feasible. Considering the 600W SFX PSU, a GTX760 SLI would be very doable, for example.

What do you think?
 
It would be optional. The handle would be bolted through the top panel to a bracket screwed to the frame:
2014-04-23_handle-bracket1.png


Width can't really be reduced much because I want enough clearance to fit a heatsink good enough for a 2011 socket CPU plus it helps with taller video cards that have the power connectors on the side.

I like the depth of the current design because I have my eye on the Sapphire Tri-X R9 290 and it measures in at 305mm :p

Supporting such long cards means that there is this space above the expansion slots and in front of the motherboard that the PSU slots into nicely. What you're proposing does make a lot of sense though, I'll have to think about whether I'm willing to give up support for extra long cards in exchange.

Edit: Here's a mockup of your layout (I put the PSU above the board instead so it wouldn't block the video card's intake):
2014-04-22_alternate-layout-test1.png


It would have to be deeper than 280mm though, most AIO 240mm rads seem to be about 270-275mm wide due to the built-in reservoirs so allowing for clearance and the bracket would bring the case volume to about 16L. The cooling would be better but that's a bit bigger than I was hoping for. If that was the only issue I could give up long video card support but I also don't like the proportions of this layout compared to the original so I'll stick to the current design, thanks for the suggestion though.
 
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Very interesting design! Just seems like there's a lot of wasted space on the bottom-left, beside the PCIe cards (probably enough to fit 2x 3.5" drives, or 4x 2.5" drives), and a lot of wasted space above the RAM.

Maybe consider rotating the PSU 90° and having it located over the RAM, so you could shrink the overall length of the case? Also, the power and front I/O section could be moved to the very top or very bottom (horizontally) to decrease the width slightly.

Anyway, jmo.. looks good :)
 
There's not all that much room there beside the cards with a rad or big top-down heatsink installed:
2014-04-23_clarification1.png


There's about 32-33mm between the card PCB and the side and 102mm between the bottom of the case and the radiator bracket. A single 3.5 could fit if the video card heatsink isn't much taller than the PCB but it would be awful cramped.

I like the rotated PSU idea, and I'll play around with that tomorrow, but my initial guess is that it wouldn't reduce the depth much because there has to be room for a big cooler like the Noctua C14 or a 120mm AIO rad.

If you have a shorter video card I suppose you could stack additional 2.5 drives or possibly a single 3.5 in the bottom front of the case if you need more storage.
 
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^^ Yeah, I forgot the need for space for non-reference heat sinks and for tubing, in case someone would want to watercool the GPU (if a larger rad could be fitted on the side rack).

Personally, I don't think I'd want a case larger than the M1 that couldn't hold the same amount of drives. For M1 size or larger, my personal limit seems to be at least 2x 3.5 + 2x 2.5 (and probably 1x each for something smaller, down to 1x 2.5" only in something around the size of a NUC). I'd definitely settle for a mini GPU (or even iGPU), if it was the only way to get additional drive space. But everyone's preference on this varies widely, and I do understand that you're primarily considering getting this case made to accommodate your own wishes.. so def keep with whatever best suits your own needs, and take my input with a grain of salt ;)

For some reason, your optional carry handle reminded me of the ones you see on the front of rack-mount servers. Might look nice to mimic that, and use two smaller handles attached to the front-top and back-top..

Oss4JCd.jpg


Dunno, might look good.. might look like crap. Just an idea :D
 
If you're going to use a low profile cooler, I suppose 2 x 3.5 drives would fit on the rad bracket using a drive cage like the M1. If there's enough demand I could add that.

4U rack servers need two handles because they are big and heavy while this case is small enough to carry with one hand, that would leave the other hand free to carry a bag/monitor/suitcase/etc. Two handles maybe would look better but it's a matter of function over form.

2014-04-24_4U-comparison.png


Edit: Did some mockups with the PSU rotated like you suggested and while it makes better use of space it would run into big heatsinks like the C14P on some motherboards.
 
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Aibohphobia said:
It would be optional. The handle would be bolted through the top panel to a bracket screwed to the frame:

Width can't really be reduced much because I want enough clearance to fit a heatsink good enough for a 2011 socket CPU plus it helps with taller video cards that have the power connectors on the side.

I like the depth of the current design because I have my eye on the Sapphire Tri-X R9 290 and it measures in at 305mm :p

Supporting such long cards means that there is this space above the expansion slots and in front of the motherboard that the PSU slots into nicely. What you're proposing does make a lot of sense though, I'll have to think about whether I'm willing to give up support for extra long cards in exchange.

Edit: Here's a mockup of your layout (I put the PSU above the board instead so it wouldn't block the video card's intake):

It would have to be deeper than 280mm though, most AIO 240mm rads seem to be about 270-275mm wide due to the built-in reservoirs so allowing for clearance and the bracket would bring the case volume to about 16L. The cooling would be better but that's a bit bigger than I was hoping for. If that was the only issue I could give up long video card support but I also don't like the proportions of this layout compared to the original so I'll stick to the current design, thanks for the suggestion though.
Click to expand...

Well, so didn't need to put the PSU on the top since once the PSU is out of the way, you can put the GPU at the first slot, but anyway, I understand your hesitance to increase case volume and at the same time prohibiting long cards. With that thinking, your layout is better ;)

But, here this, I have another idea that would enhance the compatibility and use cases of the case: Rotate the PSU so it exhausts out on the other side (not the intake side).

Pluses and minuses:
1) It would probably not be doable with 130mm long PSUs unless you increase the case width. To be honest, those new ones (500W) are freaks of nature :) Why don't you base the case on the standard SFX form factor?

2) It would work great with normal SFX PSUs (125x100) and it would enable long cards in the first slot, and SLI would be possible. Coupled with that upcoming 600W version, a beastly system would be possible in such a tiny package.

3) I'm not sure, but case height maybe reduced by 5-10mm. You can take those gains to increase the case width to 170mm for better compatibility, well, or not.

4) Another good idea to go with this is to add another bracket to install 2 x 92mm fans on the side, to improve cooling for SLI. So, one bracket on top for 120/140mm, another bracket below that for 2x92mm, or basically a single bracket to hold all those.

This way, one side and bottom would be full intake, the other side and top would be full exhaust, assuming all sides are perforated. All sides perforated should be feasible with the material thickness you mentioned, and perforations need not be large; to make a comparison, the open area ratio of the perforations can be less than that in M1, for example.

I really think this change would make the case appealing to more people...
 
Everybody sure loves picking on the poor SX500-LG :(

I don't really understand all the dislike for the non-standard dimensions, if you didn't know better you'd think 160mm depth is the standard for ATX from looking at the majority of high-end PSUs.

Standard ATX is 1.8L, standard SFX is 0.8L, 130mm SFX is 1.0L. Even with the extra depth the 500W is still much smaller in volume than a ATX PSU while allowing for better airflow and a 120mm fan. Also, if Silverstone can cram 600W into standard SFX dimensions then maybe 700-800W is doable in a 130mm deep SFX?

Anyway, I don't like whiny little 80mm fans so that is the main reason I'm designing the case with support for 130mm SFX in mind.

/rant

But everyone else needn't suffer a crippled case design due to my disdain for little fans, the current design already allows for SLI with a standard SFX PSU ;)
2014-04-24_standard-SFX.png


It does leave a large gap between the PSU and the top card but the height of the case is dictated more by clearances for the motherboard on top and the card on bottom.

I have a few ideas for video card cooling that I need to test but for the upper bracket what do you think of this: http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1040788390&postcount=221?
 
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Oh, alright then, that clearance should be fine. I didn't think we'd have that much clearance there... Great! :D

That hinge mechanism, if doable, would be dope.

Do you think you can do a side bracket for a 120/140mm on top and 2 x 92mm on the bottom? A single hinged bracket for three fans would be awesome!

Edit: If 92mm would creep into CPU cooler area, how about 3 x 80mm?

Edit: By the way, I intend to fit a Nepton 140XL into this case. It has a 38mm rad. With two fans, that makes 88mm. The block is 49mm tall. So, in total it would need at least 138mm clearance. I know M1 has a clearance of 130mm. So, I'm not sure this case would have 138mm clearance. What do you think? Would you consider making it 170mm wide if needed? Pretty please?

Let me tell you, Nepton 140XL would be the ultimate cooler for this case and nothing would come close. I'm using it on an overclocked (4.5GHz) i7-4770K, and the temps are about 7C better than a Noctua NH-D14, even though I'm using it with silent Noctua 140mm fans in push/pull (stock fans are even cooler but ridiculously noisy).
 
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I was wondering why you kept mentioning 140mm support, now I know :p

Does the second fan make a big difference in temp? I was actually considering adding 12-13mm to the height to allow for a fifth expansion slot. I could justify going a little taller or a little wider but not both.

I was thinking the extra expansion slot could open up a few possibilities:

  • 120x25mm fans on the bottom

  • triple-slot card in the 3rd PCIe slot (if the slot configuration on the Rampage V Gene is the same as the IV it would allow for a Titan-Z in the 3rd slot and leave two slots open for other stuff for the ultimate SFF bragging rights)

  • 3.5in mounts in the bottom front with standard SFX

It would also leave room for 92mm fans below the upper bracket or even 120mm fans with the upper bracket shifted upward

If I shave a few mm off the width that would put the volume a hair over 15L

I also think I'll use the rail design off the PC-10N instead of a motherboard tray to simplify the design. A neat side effect of that is the flexibility of PP05e cables should allow some degree of cable routing behind the motherboard :)
 
Yeah, the second fan makes quite some difference, like 7C. I'm talking about under heaviest of loads.

Idk, for me 3.5" drives are of no use in this case. Even in the Node 304, I'm using just one and that's because there is tons of space.

I understand the "want" for triple-slot card but I think the 8-core CPU would need any bit of cooling. Nepton 140XL is the best cooler that can fit in here, given that 240mm rads won't fit. So, I rather not compromise on the CPU cooling performance. If you make the case any narrower, even C14P won't fit with two fans and its performance will be crippled too.

With side fans (hopefully 92mm fans will fit if you can keep the bottom lip slim), there wouldn't be any need for fans at the bottom anyway...

So, the trade-off's are triple-slot GPU at the third slot vs significantly better CPU cooling :)

I like the rail design idea. Functionality over form ;)
 
Do you think that rail design would actually help increase the CPU cooler clearance a little? In that case, even 166mm width could be fine for the Nepton 140XL. I'm not sure, we're really talking about a few millimeters here. It would be a shame if it won't fit for a few mm :(
 
The rails won't help with the width, there is a minimum of ~11mm between the bottom of the motherboard and the side for the metal tabs on the cards to clear the side panel.

I suppose if there's no demand for a fifth slot that widening the case a little would be fine. Will the tubing bend enough for the rad to mount with the bottom fan practically touching the block? I think there's a dead AIO water cooler at work that I'll pick up tomorrow to do some measurements myself but if you could check that'd be awesome. If we're only talking 4-5mm wider to make it work that's fine but if it'll take something like 10mm more to make room for the tubing you'll just have to live with a single fan.

Sorry to be so stubborn but that's the only way to keep the size down while still achieving my vision for the case.
 
Yeah, the tubing on the Nepton is very flexible. I'm pretty sure tubing won't be an issue as long as the block clears the second fan. I'll try that tomorrow to be 100% sure.

The thing has the tallest block on any AIO, other than the Eisberg series. Thankfully they made the tubing very nice, much more flexible than the Seidon series. They look similar, but definitely different material.

I totally agree with trying to keep the case as small as possible and 15L is a great target. Not only it's a nice round number, it's actually very feasible while compromising very little in terms of functionality and performance.

11mm... Add about 2mm mobo thickness, 8mm from mobo to CPU IHS... Add 3mm for side panel... That's 24mm. Add another 6mm for the other side panel plus bracket plus fan filter... That's 30mm. Need 138mm for Nepton... That's 168mm. Yeah, I'm certain 170mm will do. 166mm might miss it by a mm or 2 :(

Even with 170mm, case volume is 14.92L :D
 
Aibohphobia asked for my input, so here's what I think:

My number one concern is the lack of case airflow. Because it's mATX, you can expect that people are going to try to get a pair of GPUs in, which is going to effectively double the potential heat output (considering as well mATX allows 130W+ CPUs, rather than 73W CPUs mini-ITX allows). That's a lot of heat that's going to need to go somewhere, and right now you have no case fans directing airflow through the case whatsoever. Limiting the case to SFX PSUs will only help to a point; 600W is still a ton of heat. Unfortunately adding case fans will unavoidably increase the size. But if you want proper cooling, it's absolutely necessary.

The other issue, somewhat related to the above, is the lack of dust filtration. Without a coherent positive pressure airflow scheme, dust will be a problem.
 
Thanks for your input Necere!

Don't you think the 92mm side fans at the bottom of the side panel would help? 2 even 3 of them would blow fresh air to be exhausted out by either the GPUs, or through the other side.

The images don't show it (yet) but the side panels are going to be fully perforated (right Aibohphobia?).
With 3 x 92mm fans at the bottom, along with one 120/140mm fan at the top, the positive air pressure would force the hot air out, don't you think?

The case has space for 4 x 92mm fans, including the exhaust at the back, one 140mm fan, plus the PSU fan. Given the power envelope is 600W, that should be sufficient I think, but we'd like to hear more from you :)
 
I've only skimmed the thread, so I've probably missed a few details. I would suggest including the fans in the images to make things clearer.

I can tell though that if the case is only to be ~166mm wide, that will only leave space for fans next to the GPUs if they are no wider than reference cards. Keep in mind that many open-cooler cards have coolers that extend out past the edge of the PCB.

It looks to me like you're recreating the SG09 to a large degree, minus the space behind the motherboard and ATX PSU support. The fan layout in that case doesn't lend itself to an aesthetically pleasing design, IMO, but it's what they had to do to manage the heat of a high-end system in a small volume.
 
Necere said:
considering as well mATX allows 130W+ CPUs, rather than 73W CPUs mini-ITX allows
Click to expand...

Current Haswell mini-ITX boards support 84W TDP chips right now, correct?

Also, I'm not sure how they manage the temps, but the near mini-ITX Shuttle SX79R5 supports up to 130W TDP i7 Extreme chips with only one system fan.
 
Well, there is really no other way but resemble the SG09/10 a bit in terms of the layout. I don't think that's a concern, and I think it's sufficiently different from SG09/10. No huge fan on top, support for 120/140mm AIO, SFX vs ATX PSU, much slimmer case overall...

What they messed up with SG09/10 is not the layout, it's how they designed the outer shell, and along with that their decision to put fan filters. While fan filters are functionally fine, they are an eye sore. That outer shell and overall case structure (not layout) is just terrible, not functional, and not eye pleasing.

I think Aibohphobia's case here has a very good potential to not do the same mistakes. Of course your M1 is an inevitable inspiration and example in terms how functional things can also be good looking. A good case structure, use of that internal bracket for fans and fan filters, and nice aluminum panels all around...

So, yeah, jokingly, I think this case is becoming what the love child of M1 and SG09/10 would be :D

You're of course right about the GPU size that would fit along with 25mm thick fans on the side. However, there are 15mm thick 92mm fans too that would accommodate a bit larger GPUs. The thing is I don't think it's Aibohphobia's goal to have make this case the ultimate mATX SLI case. Actually, just the opposite, his goal has been to accommodate a single very powerful GPU.

It was me that asked for better SLI support but the priorities and limitations of the case are pretty obvious. I did so to widen the use cases so that more people can look at this case and say, yeah, this case is what I need. However, not all use cases can be covered by a case, which is true for any case. For example, if a person has two GTX780Ti Classifieds, they should probably look elsewhere :)

With a single GPU, I don't think the user would need to put fans on the side, so a single GTX780Ti Classified, for example, should be just fine. Of course, again, this case is not gonna help anyone break WPrime or 3DMark records. Any educated buyer/user should know this, I think...

Thanks again! ;)
 
2600K is 95W TDP.

I guess the main issue is that just because you can run dual GPU doesn't mean you should. The main reason I wanted microATX was for the extra RAM slots and to have expansion slots for a PCIe SSD/sound card/etc. It is designed primarily for a single GPU setup w/ a stock/mildly overclocked 2011 CPU.

The top, bottom, and side panel will be vented. Pretty much the whole top and bottom panels will be vented similar to the M1, I'm not sure how much the side panel will be vented yet.

Edit: theGryphon beat me to it
 
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AFD said:
Current Haswell mini-ITX boards support 84W TDP chips right now, correct?
Click to expand...
You're right, and Ivy Bridge is actually 77W, not 73W. And of course Sandy Bridge was 95W. So the maximum TDP difference from ITX->mATX is more like 50%.

AFD said:
Also, I'm not sure how they manage the temps, but the near mini-ITX Shuttle SX79R5 supports up to 130W TDP i7 Extreme chips with only one system fan.
Click to expand...
Apparently they manage it by throttling the CPU speed and ramping the 92mm fan up to 3000rpm. See this review.

theGryphon said:
The thing is I don't think it's Aibohphobia's goal to have make this case the ultimate mATX SLI case.
Click to expand...

Aibohphobia said:
I guess the main issue is that just because you can run dual GPU doesn't mean you should. The main reason I wanted microATX was for the extra RAM slots and to have expansion slots for a PCIe SSD/sound card/etc. It is designed primarily for a single GPU setup w/ a stock/mildly overclocked 2011 CPU.
Click to expand...
I understand what your goal is, but the point I'm making is that people will use it the way they want, not the way you want them to, and they'll have certain expectations to that end. If you were just designing for yourself, there would be no issue. But when you're designing for a larger audience, you have to take into account the median expectation, which I think includes dual GPUs here.
 
Necere said:
I understand what your goal is, but the point I'm making is that people will use it the way they want, not the way you want them to, and they'll have certain expectations to that end. If you were just designing for yourself, there would be no issue. But when you're designing for a larger audience, you have to take into account the median expectation, which I think includes dual GPUs here.
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You're right, people will use parts that are not recommended just because they can (I put a 170mm modular ATX in my M1 for instance). I'm thinking of just a small production run like the Compact Splash rather than hundreds of units like the M1 though. I may be wrong but I think there's enough people who understand and accept the design's limitations to make it worthwhile to produce.
 
Ok, just ordered a Pentium D 840 off eBay, should get it late next week. It has a TDP of 130W and power consumption/heat output should be comparable to a 4930K. I'll build a mockup using a old case and cardboard and run some load tests with a Noctua C12P to see what the temps look like.

I have access to a R9 290 I can test with also but the board I'll be using only has a single PCIe slot so I won't be able to test a dual-GPU setup.
 
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