Hullo.. I'm in the planning stage of a scratch build project with _very_ tight internal space requirements, and I need some dimensions on some components before I can proceed with the 3D moddeling and 3D CAD drawing. What I need is.. 1. The heigt of your tallest DDR/DDR2 module. Either meassured from the surface of the motherboard or just on the module itself (please specify wich meassurement it is) Dont include any heatpipe or water coolers cause those wont fit in this system anyway (heat spreaders are ok though). <=) 2. The length and width of the PCB of your largest PCIe GFX card. For simplicity, plz meassure the width either over the PCIe connector part of the card, or just meassure from the surface of the motherboard. Dont include any coolers, cause I will probably have to make a custom wc block due to the tight space requirements anyway. =\ If you know of any PCIe GFX card of memmory module that is larger than what you have at hand, it would be very kind of you if you were to supply me with the make and model of that piece, so I can lookup the dimmensions later myself. Many thanx in advance for any help you can give me with this!!! *bowing several times* Becuause of the complexity of this build, I will probably need the help of you guys later on as well... fore there are certain to be some tough nuts to be cracked! me: -> me: -> you: -> me: -> me: -> me: -> you: (well, we'll have to wait and see about that last one, hehe) ;P
Well, the largest GFX card is probably the 8800GTX IIRC. As for RAM, I have DDR with no coolers: Height: 31.8mm / 1.252 inches Lenght: 133.5mm / 5.256 inches Thickness (including chips): 3.5mm / .138 inches Thats with out the motherboard, so bottom of the pins to the top. -CollinstheClown
Thanx a bunch for those accurate meassurements and the tip about the 8800GTX Collins!! *lifting my hat and bowing deeply* Anyone else care to do some quick meassurements? Remember, if the parts are installed in your system(s), you dont have to take em out, just meassure from the motherboard surface. (You can even use a pice of paper and mark the height and then meassure it on the side so you dont have to stick your metal ruler with sharp edges in there.)
My geil DDR2 RAM with heatspreaders is ~31mm tall (it's not installs, so it's the full height of the module). My 8800GTS is approximately 116mm from the motherboard to the top edge of the PCB, and about 240mm long (GTX is ~270mm long).
Thanx ArsoN!! Really appretiate it! With these GFX card meassurements I can continue checking the space clearance on the 3D model with some boxes as GFX and MB standins. *happy* ^_^ If you ever install that geil ram of yours, think you could meassure it from the MB as well?? I know I'm pushing it here, and I'm really happy with what you've given me already, so dont go above and beyond unless you happen to have something to meassure with at the time of installation. <=) Many thanks again! *bowing* To everyone else: Plz, keep those meassurements comming... the more I get the better my estimation of the space requirements will be. It would be a shame to build the case too small, in the atempt to keep the overall size down, and then not being able to upgrade at a later stage. To clarify why my minimum space requirements are so critical, I'll reveal a tiny bit more about this project... The case will be an object from a game, and the shape of this object (not box shaped) is such that I have to try to keep the space occupied by the computer hardware to a absolute minimum, to avoid the model/case from becomming too large. I'm planning this case arround the Mini-ITX formfactor (17x17cm / 6.7x6.7") and a wide range of PCIe GFX cards (connected to the MB with a flexible PCIe extender), and as of now the biggest meassurement of the case lies arround 90-100cm (35-39"). I really dont want to go above 90cm (35"), but it seems like I may be forced to. This is why I need as many meassurements as possible so I can be sure that most hardware will fit in the smallest possible space. Hehe, making this work is a b**ch! For example, I have to take into account that the placements of the RAM slots differs from motherboard to motherboard, and thus I have to reserve space for a 17 x 17 x <tallest RAM meassurement> box inside the case/model for the motherboard... and given that the space where this box must fit has a diamond (as in the card suit) shaped cross section... ehe ...lemme illustrate with an image instead:
90cm!!!! thats hugeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! im guessing thats length?? will it be that shape for the whole length?
x06jsp: yes, I totaly agree! That's why I'm so keen on making the hw compartments as small as possible, so I dont have to go bigger. Yes, it's the legth. This case will _much_ longer/wider that it is tall and deep, so there isn't much room for components in there. Well sort of, but it wont really be that shape.. that is only a rough aproximation of the cross section of the surface arround the motherboard. Really, really hope I will be able to make a design that will keep the case to 90cm or less in lenght!! If I didn't care about the size I'd just make it 100+ cm long and "just throw" everyting in there... I'd even choose another object from the game that I initially planed to use, but that one ended up being 107 cm long when scaled and meassured in Maya (3D modeling app). I could change the proportions of the 3D model to fit this build better, but that would take away some authenticity, and I'm not sure I could live with that.
Can I suggest something? Why don't you use wasted/died boards and devices, like me? Just for measuring! Good luck!
Design_Master: hehe, if I had any I would have. <=) Hmm... perhaps I could get hold of some dead components... yeah, I'll give that a try.. should be some dead mini-itx boards and gfx card to be had, from somewhere. heh, the thought of trying to get hold of dead components never even occured to me ...thanx for the tip! Though, I'm guessing I will still need messurements of the tallest memory modules ppl have, since I don't know which ones are the tallest. <=) Btw, I have changed my plans a bit. I've managed to make more (usable) space for components, while reducing the length of the case and still keeping the proportions right (the illustration above isn't valid anymore). So I'm pretty happy with how the planning is going atm.. even if it's slow work since I attend a cnc operator training program morning to evening every weekday. Also, I don't have any money for buying building material and such while I'm studying, so the project is on low burner until I get my first paycheck. On the plus side, I get to make parts for the case at school.
