Case Mod - In Progress Project: Shrink - Night photos added!

Any chance of a sneak peek?

I was thinking of mounting one of these between the PSU and I/O ports, then use the little movable bracket for the PCI slots to route the tubing through. I had no end of problems with my bay res.

And unfortunately I don't have the expendable income I would like to fully utilise this case. Plus my GPU doesn't have a full cover block availible for it.

And I haven't found the PSU fouling the drive cage, when I drilled the holes for it I moved it as far back as I could. Means there's ample room for cables

Anyways, update tyme!

Got a gift today! Well, I say gift, more like the stuff I ordered; Sleeving, heatshrink (still need more), and an LGA1156 bracket for my XSPC Delta V3, which looks a tonne better than the standard!

Anyway, it's not a major update, but fingers crossed I'll pay for my mobo tonight and get that Saturday, and install it and then I can see how awesome it's going to look!

Right, on with the updates!!

First off, I lost my screwdriver... It's somewhere in here..


Ah, found it


Well, I braided the Laing D5's power cable, looks much nicer now:


And my XSPC Delta V3 with the LGA1156 bracket, it looks lurvly:


And again:


Fan bracket, and the power switch, HDD LED etc all braided:


And some cable management/hiding:




That's pretty much it until I get my motherboard really. There's not much more I can do until then. One quick question though. Anyone know of a rather high CFM SLIM fan? I'm kinda wanting to mouth the fan in the case, but it's too phat right now. Any ideas would be awesome.

Ta, mars

 

Would it be near the stoner gear ?

 

Eh?

 

Next to your lighter, the bit of white tubing and barb does kind of look like "stoner gear". The close proximity of the lighter helps your mind build the picture as well.

Nice build, I am really into small builds at the moment. If I had the money to upgrade I would be getting a teeny weeny motherboard like that.

 

Aaaah, that's some left over tubing and some compression fitting...

I think. Not into drugs personally, I'll just stick to the legal one that ruins my liver.

Yeah, there's something about small builds, could be the small space constraints with them that make it that much more special.

 

I think its the fact of cramming something powerful and efficient into such a small enclosure, whilst trying to utilise as much of the space as possible.

Big ATX cases just seem overkill. I believe that MATX should be the new norm as its what most people would use. Only a small amount of people fully utilise an ATX system.

 

Has anyone else noticed that the PC-Q08 doesn't have those "slots" on the bottom of the PCI bracket holes that the ends of the PCI cards are supposed to slip into so they stay in place?

(Slots circled in red)



My problem with this is that my video card only takes up one slot. In my other slot is one of these 4-port USB bracket things:



When I try plugging anything into those USB ports, the bracket pushes in since it's only secured at the top where that lip is that the bracket rests on and is attached to with one screw. Same thing happens with my video card when I try plugging my monitors into it though not as large a degree as the USB bracket since the video card is held in by the PCIe slot.

 

nice work.
I can't wait to see more updates.

 

IsLNdbOi: I think its something they overlooked on their part. a few of my cases dont hhave them due to the board being there and usually restricting movement, however if the board isnt behind one, then you will land up with it moving a lot more.

 

If you mean on the opposite side of the bracket (closest to the motherboard), then maybe you could install a strip of metal to keep it in place. I think I know what I'm on about, it's hard to explain without pictures.

 

you mad MF lol i'm going to be doing similar rig but with H50 or ECO, guess that makes me a convervative whilst your a gun toting whiskey swilling cowboy republican for going full WC in mini ITX!

 

Can I haz updatez?

Okay

Well, recieved my motherboard today, which was awesome.

And here it is! You really don't realise how small these things are until you see them:


And the board:


CPU socket:


NB:


I/O ports:


Something:


And with the CPU block installed. It dwarfs this board!




And the board installed in the case:




Unfortunately I didn't get paid as much as I thought I would, so the RAM and the CPU will have to come later. But if I manage what I did get well I should be able to buy the memory sometime next week. Fingers crossed!

 

Great, it's the time of the month when i have no extra spending money and then you go and post updates about new hardware....

That white tubing really makes it look awesome!

Just out of interest, how much space is there between the motherboard and the side panel (it does mount on the side panel, doesn't it?)

I know that its generally not a good idea to OC an ITX board, but was wondering wheter it would be possible to add some small heatsinks to the MOSFETS on the back of the board and then to drill small holes (like those on the frontl) where the sinks are to aid with the cooling of the board. (Hypothetically of course )

 

shouldn't OC an ITX board? guess i missed that memo

may have a look at some of the enzotech ramsinks for them. there should be enough room.

 

Umm so your saying not to overclock a DFI motherboard.... hmmmm i sense much fail.

 

You can overclock Itx board quite succesfully in somecases, just ensure it is well cooled and doesnt start to cook like you would with any motherboard. Although I would agree the smaller size does pose a problem as it makes everything work that little bit harder.

Loving the mod btw also where did you buy your mobo from I cant seem to find it

Cheers

 

My aim is to try and get it at least 3.6Ghz. Minimum, I'm thinking about buying some ram sinks to cool what needs cooling (MOSFETS?), and maybe some 4cm fan on the NB to cool that. Not sure though.

And fingers crossed I'll have the RAM fairly soon!!

 

Nice,looking good

 

I didn't mean you can't OC a (DFI) ITX board, just that the power circuitry is normally gimped because of the small size of the board.

Obviously you can OC an ITX board because the BIOS allows you to but manufacturers (and Bindi ) normally don't recommend it.

For instance the board that the OP is using OCs very well but DFI has released a BIOS update to limit the OC options on the board because of the power circuitry failing after a high OC.

I was referring to these failing circuits when I asked about the heatsinks and breather holes on the side panel.

Apologies if my previous post was unclear.

Not sure if your board shipped with the BIOS that limits OC options, but IIRC the 750 will be 3.6GHz limited if it did ship with the "new" BIOS. You might be able to find the "old" BIOS on the net somewhere that removes the OC restrictions.

Not that 3.6GHz is slow mind you!

One of the more detailed reviews for the P55-T36 I came across while planning my (planned) ITX build.

 

That motherboard is supposed to be a horrible overclocker. The gigabyte one, on the other hand seems to be ok.