ASRock Forums : Superdense mITX build - 3d printed chassis https://forum.asrock.com/ Copyright (c) 2006-2013 Web Wiz Forums - All Rights Reserved. Tue, 12 May 2026 17:26:38 +0000 Thu, 28 May 2015 01:48:48 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Web Wiz Forums 12.04 360 https://forum.asrock.com/RSS_post_feed.asp?TID=164 <![CDATA[ASRock Forums]]> https://forum.asrock.com/forum_images/web_wiz_forums_black.png https://forum.asrock.com/ <![CDATA[Superdense mITX build - 3d printed chassis : Well, since it&#039;s a scratchbuilt...]]> https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=164&PID=630&title=superdense-mitx-build-3d-printed-chassis#630 Author: sinusoid
Subject: 164
Posted: 28 May 2015 at 1:48am

Well, since it's a scratchbuilt project, we can always make it beer... Sleepy

I prefer Club Mate, though :)
]]> Thu, 28 May 2015 01:48:48 +0000 https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=164&PID=630&title=superdense-mitx-build-3d-printed-chassis#630 <![CDATA[Superdense mITX build - 3d printed chassis : Eh......is it beer? ]]> https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=164&PID=628&title=superdense-mitx-build-3d-printed-chassis#628 Author: Illegalseagull
Subject: 164
Posted: 28 May 2015 at 1:11am

Eh...

...is it beer? ]]> Thu, 28 May 2015 01:11:50 +0000 https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=164&PID=628&title=superdense-mitx-build-3d-printed-chassis#628 <![CDATA[Superdense mITX build - 3d printed chassis : Oh come on, water? It&#039;s the...]]> https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=164&PID=627&title=superdense-mitx-build-3d-printed-chassis#627 Author: sinusoid
Subject: 164
Posted: 28 May 2015 at 1:08am

Oh come on, water? Wink

It's the 21st century, we can use something that has a relatively low freezeing point (-50°C), high decomposition temperature (316°C), is a natural lubricator, has low viscosity, and is a chemically inert insulator.

Something that is, unlike water, perfect. LOL
]]> Thu, 28 May 2015 01:08:24 +0000 https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=164&PID=627&title=superdense-mitx-build-3d-printed-chassis#627 <![CDATA[Superdense mITX build - 3d printed chassis : LolOf course custom water loop...How...]]> https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=164&PID=626&title=superdense-mitx-build-3d-printed-chassis#626 Author: Illegalseagull
Subject: 164
Posted: 27 May 2015 at 7:23pm

Lol
Of course custom water loop...
How did I not see this coming?]]> Wed, 27 May 2015 19:23:49 +0000 https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=164&PID=626&title=superdense-mitx-build-3d-printed-chassis#626 <![CDATA[Superdense mITX build - 3d printed chassis : Now a quick sneak peek of what&#039;s...]]> https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=164&PID=606&title=superdense-mitx-build-3d-printed-chassis#606 Author: sinusoid2
Subject: 164
Posted: 26 May 2015 at 7:00am

Now a quick sneak peek of what's to come.

30000 hours MTBF, ceramic core brushless DC, fit for continuous operation, 15W nominal power, max. operation temperature: 110 deg. Celsius. Those are 1/2 inch threads you see there.
Cost me half of the motherboard. Cry These things are used as recirculation pumps in house heating, solar installations, etc.



Of course we're gonna carve off the top and 3d print a more suitable chamber for the little beast of a turbine this baby houses :)
]]> Tue, 26 May 2015 07:00:36 +0000 https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=164&PID=606&title=superdense-mitx-build-3d-printed-chassis#606 <![CDATA[Superdense mITX build - 3d printed chassis : UPDATE: Cutting down the PSU cablesOkay!...]]> https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=164&PID=605&title=superdense-mitx-build-3d-printed-chassis#605 Author: sinusoid2
Subject: 164
Posted: 26 May 2015 at 6:40am

UPDATE: Cutting down the PSU cables
Okay! So let's set up a workbench and get down to work:


I covered the sensitive parts of the board with blue tape, since there's gonna be a hotair and solder involved. Last thing I want is to get a drop of solder onto the mobo or the PSU.



Tried soldering and heat-wrapping the first cable. It turned out the cables are electroplated with something, and solder doesn't really like it. I thought this may be the case, so I trimmed the wire with some tolerance, to allow me to amend it.



THe workbench got populated pretty fast.
I used a dremel tool with a grinding stone to carve off the electroplating off the wires. Solder caught them brilliantly then.



Heating the shrinkwrap and taking a photo at the same time. It's called safety at work -_-



Then I clamped it and trimmed it, it looks like so:


A closeup on the soldering.
I know I should have soldered it differently, but meh. It's not gonna undergo any tensions, there is no way this is gonna come apart.



Aaand we slowly progress, wire after wire...



Aaaand we're done!


I also trimmed down the additional powercable that's not utilized by the mobo:


And that's how the board looks like now. I also trimmed down the 8 pin connector cables a little:


Workspace shot:


Aaand we're done! A summary pic of what's been removed from the board:


That's how it looks like from the top now:


And this is gonna happen next:


I will cut the AC cable, move it to the connectors panel, and trim the little board with GPU and HDD connectors, then move it so I can access the GPU wires on the other side of the board (more about this later), and the HDDs are gonna fill up the empty spaces on this side of the mobo I think, so that's where their power cables are gonna be needed.
]]> Tue, 26 May 2015 06:40:51 +0000 https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=164&PID=605&title=superdense-mitx-build-3d-printed-chassis#605 <![CDATA[Superdense mITX build - 3d printed chassis : OK, so I apparently lost my password...]]> https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=164&PID=604&title=superdense-mitx-build-3d-printed-chassis#604 Author: sinusoid2
Subject: 164
Posted: 26 May 2015 at 6:11am

OK, so I apparently lost my password to the forum, and retrieval emails failed to arrive... and I can't see any email address for inquiries anywhere. Registered second account, waiting for the problem to be resolved.

Anyway!

@Xaltar - There will be more :) Still got a few surprises up my sleeve. Stay tuned!

@ASRock-Official - Hey, thanks for making such awesome small-format boards in the first place!
:D

@parsec - re: connectors - I went the solder + heatshrink path over the weekend. Update in a sec. Would still have to solder the ends of those cables to use the connectors effectively, and this way I saved a lot of space.
I initially wanted to desolder the ATX port and desolder the cables from the PSU, then match the two with a custom etched PCB board. But the height of surrounding elements (heatsinks on PSU and RAMs on the mobo) made me reconsider. I wouldn't be able to use the resulting space anyway.
I wish I could find small factor PSU in the 600watt range, something like these:
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/PICO-BOX-X3-ATX-300-DC-ATX-PSU-Power-Supply-300W-2-Port-DC-Input-12V/1920946905.html
I could really cut down the size then.

@Illegalseagull - Agreed. Though I'm not a big fan of SLI, you get compatibility issues with virtualizaiton (Xen), etc. Imvho it's better to get a top shelf card, or wait a few years :P.
I like extreme processing power to density ratios. This thing here already has a better ratio than commercial blade servers AFAIK, and it's intended for 4.5GHz stable :) I'll be posting a comparison to a commercial dual-processor blade soon-ish, with photos and some volume calculations. At least that's the plan :)

Now, the update!
]]> Tue, 26 May 2015 06:11:39 +0000 https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=164&PID=604&title=superdense-mitx-build-3d-printed-chassis#604 <![CDATA[Superdense mITX build - 3d printed chassis : very cool build..never seen anyone...]]> https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=164&PID=592&title=superdense-mitx-build-3d-printed-chassis#592 Author: Illegalseagull
Subject: 164
Posted: 25 May 2015 at 2:48pm

very cool build..never seen anyone modding a psu before like this...I like it..will be following along, keep the pics coming


Also, I want to say that I agree about so many people bashing the itx form factor...I really don't understand it.  As much as SLI and having so many HDD bay expandability can be good things, the vast vast majority of people just don't need 4 dimm slots, 6 sata ports, 3 pcie slots, etc.  So many people could enjoy a decent itx build, and I'm happy to see that mfgs are starting to turn out good cases that actually support larger psus and gpus for people that aren't hardcore modders...I'm interested to see how far you can pack it all down  good luck!


Edited by Illegalseagull - 25 May 2015 at 2:54pm]]> Mon, 25 May 2015 14:48:57 +0000 https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=164&PID=592&title=superdense-mitx-build-3d-printed-chassis#592 <![CDATA[Superdense mITX build - 3d printed chassis : sinusoid, your idea of using...]]> https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=164&PID=589&title=superdense-mitx-build-3d-printed-chassis#589 Author: parsec
Subject: 164
Posted: 25 May 2015 at 12:49pm

sinusoid, your idea of using those two wire connection blocks for the PSU cable is not bad at all IMO.

If you keep those connectors on the PSU side of your chassis, it won't look anywhere near as bad as having the original cable in plain sight.

Regarding the PSU wires being stressed when using those connectors, you just need to plan which wires will go to which specific connector on the connection block (which you must do anyway.) Whatever wires will go to the connectors the farthest from the middle of the block just need to be longer than the others.

Your alternative is cutting, trimming, and spicing the wires together, soldering for the best connections. Then hiding the splice with heat shrink tubing.

You could also get a 24 pin PSU extension cable that will become part of the new cable you will be using.
]]> Mon, 25 May 2015 12:49:23 +0000 https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=164&PID=589&title=superdense-mitx-build-3d-printed-chassis#589 <![CDATA[Superdense mITX build - 3d printed chassis : Nice Worksinusoid!a project definitely...]]> https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=164&PID=450&title=superdense-mitx-build-3d-printed-chassis#450 Author: ASRock_Official
Subject: 164
Posted: 22 May 2015 at 4:20pm

Nice Work sinusoid!
a project definitely worth follow, keep on coming my friend:)

]]> Fri, 22 May 2015 16:20:18 +0000 https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=164&PID=450&title=superdense-mitx-build-3d-printed-chassis#450