3D printed computer case
General overview of this project:
Final computer specs:
Project background:
The motivation behind this whole project was when saw online posts about a small form factor PC (SFF PC), which combines the power, upgradability, and silence of a traditional desktop computer into a small, yet easily mobile computer case. However, I didn't have the budget to buy brand new computer components, such as a ITX motherboard with a CPU. But what I did have was spare computer components that was lying around, leading me to create a creative solution to a creative problem as you will see below.
GOALS of this Project:
- Creating a computer that has a small form factor, yet puts out decent computational performance
- The device should be small, preferably small enough to fit in a backpack
- Weight shall be minimized
- The device must be silent and inaudible at idle, except when doing heavy GPU or CPU computational tasks (fans can be slightly audible by that point).
- Must be durable, so that the computer will not break easily when being carried around
- Minimize the cost of this build by using components I already have that are unused to create something useful
- Having fun when learning and building in the process!
FIRST Idea: INJECTION MOLDING A CASE
One thing that came to my mind about low-weight computer cases is that I started to question why computer cases are usually made of metal? I found out that 2 main reasons for this choice of material was that a metal case would act as a faraday cage and shield RF from leaking out of the case. Another reason for this design reason is to prevent ESD buildup (as the metal case is grounded with the power supply); which is a great reason why to use metal as ESD from one touching fragile computer components can kill them!
But still, I decided to use plastic, since it was lighter than metal. I thought of using injection molding ABS, but that was short-lived since injection molding and machining is way above my abilities in terms of cost prohibitive and toolling
USING SOMETHING I HAD ALREADY: E-GPU
I had a spare Toshiba satallite L855 which had some ram and a Intel i7 3630qm, which still performs decently in terms of CPU workloads. It had a geek bench 4 score of 12000, which is good enough for me. However, it’s performance was limited by it’s graphics performance due to a lack of dedicated graphics. Luckily, external graphics card solutions existed at that time, and I decided to get an eGPU riser card that connected to the laptop motherboard, via an mPCIE port that was used for the wifi card, and connected via a 1X slot. I also used a Dell DA-2 power brick to supply external power to the graphics card. In the end the idea worked well and costed only 10$.
The Idea worked for a while and yielded great results. However as the graphics card was connected to the MPCIE slot that was used for wireless networking, it only was a PCIE 1X slot and was a bottleneck to the GPU due to the severe lack of bandwidth. Meanwhile, I damaged the motherboard when I bridged one of the chips when I was trying to solder a power switch. Because of this, I scrapped this setup idea and began searching for other solutions.
SEARCHING FOR A REPLACEMENT
After that happened, I was looking for a new motherboard for the CPU. I did that since it was still worth using the CPU as it still has good performance even today, and I could save A LOT of money not spending on a new CPU and RAM (remember that this project is about using something I had, and the challenge made it so much more fun). While searching for a new motherboard, I stumbled upon Intel’s website about the 3630QM, and it stated how the following chipsets are supported:
- HM75
- HM76
- HM77
- QM77
The first 3 chipsets listed are very abundant and is easily found in laptops with 3rd generation Ivy bridge CPUS (the Toshiba laptop used a HM76 chipset).
However, the QM77 was designed for IPC or industrial applications, and is thus not readily available to consumers. Because of this, it was very cost prohibitive for users like me, just like most enterprise products such as laptops and desktops which have a high brand new price. However, I took advantage of how such devices depreciate rather quickly and is attainable via 2nd hand websites.
However, despite that, there seemed to be many all-in-one pcs that used a laptop CPU and had a external graphics card slot all in a ITX form factor. However, the seller of the motherboard told me that it only supported one GPU and it was locked down by the BIOS. By that point, I had to continue digging for other options.
MOTHERBOARD RUINED BY A LACK OF SUPPORT:
I finally stumbled upon a unbranded desktop HM65 motherboard for around 34$, and it looked like an appealing offer because it supported 3rd Gen ivy bridge CPUs and also later generation graphics cards.
However, due to numerous questionable reviews and how intel did not even support the 3630QM CPU on the HM65 chipset, I did not trust this motherboard as it would likely just waste my time and money. I instead got an unbranded HM77 motherboard from a more reliable source. Although it cost more (55$), it was better to spend more money on something that was more promising to work. Alongside the motherboard, I also bought a Delta DPS-400-AB flex ATX power supply and a Socket 775 CPU cooler.
It worked well and did turn on, but one major problem was that it did not support my Nvidia 1650s graphics card, despite working with my Quadro K2000. The motherboard froze at the boot sequence with code A0 when using the 1650s. Because of this, I decided to return the PSU, Motherboard, and cooler as I scrapped this idea. I was back looking for other solutions
SUCCESS AFTer many attempts
By then, I gave up, thinking that I was trying to pull off some impossible feat.
Until I saw a YouTube video of someone using an AsRock IMB-170 in his computer build. He also used a laptop CPU with desktop components like me, and he confirmed to me that newer graphics cards would work. After that, I knew that I won't have the BIOS problems like before, so I started to search on a second hand website for that motherboard model.
I was convinced and quickly bought the board, reserving it to myself as it was the last hope to this project. I paid 54$ for the IMB-170-V and a CoolJag copper air cooler as the board used a special cooler layout.
After it arrived, I was surprised that it worked like a charm!
However, some issues were very apparent:
- loud CPU fan, due to it being a 5cm fan and having no PWM control. Solved this issue by replacing it with a Delta AFB0512HB fan and connecting it to a PWM header (system fan)
- the power supply worried me quite a bit (a dell da-2 seemed not enough to run the 45w CPU and a 100w graphics card that can peak up to 135w. The power brick itself could only supply 220w and judging by the age, some report that it could only supply up to 180, and some report that it is unstable with the AMD RX580, a card that 180w. So this concludes that sudden shutdowns is a expected issue that can be encountered in the future.
I got a PCIE riser so the graphics card can be mounted on the other side of the motherboard, decreasing the case volume.
BUILDING THE CASE:
The reason I had to build a case was that the motherboard was very custom, and had very specific cut-out holes for the cooler fan. As I wanted to make the case as small as possible, I wanted to build the case around the size of the motherboard and graphics card, in order to minimize the volume. Furthermore, making a case is cheaper than buying one (and more fun as well)!
Designing the case was the hardest part of the project due to how unfamiliar I was to CAD software (especially SketchUp), so this was a great opportunity and motivation to learn CAD. The first opportunity that I used to learn SketchUp was when my school was having us do a math project in which we had to design a car in CAD that was laser cut. I used that as a chance to learn this program, which led to the first version of the case.
THE DESIGN OF THE CASE VERSION 1:
This case was laser cut with acrylic as it looked cool, since there was not many transparent cases on the market. I decided to settle on transparent acrylic as it looked very unique and blended well with the environment, while allowing people to see what’s inside the case.
As you can see from the design, the design and layout of the computer is very unconventional. the power supply is mounted under the motherboard tray and is between the GPU and motherboard. The GPU is mounted facing back to the motherboard using a GPU extender in order to reduce the volume of the case. Unlike most motherboards, the motherboard does not use ATX. Instead, it uses only 12V power, which is intresting as we are starting to see more motherboard manufacturers using 12VO (12V only power supply). Because of this, I used a on/off switch to turn things on or off directly, similar to a A/T power supply computer.
Some changes I made over time was replacing that CoolJag cooler with a larger custom copper heatsink with a 6cm fan and adding some speakers. However with the case design, it looked cool but there were some problems.
- it was still quite noisy (especially the 1U power supply and cpu fan)
- it was still considerably big (larger than the size of the motherboard)
- it was very fragile (I broke some acrylic when opening up the computer case, acrylic is a very brittle material)
- Quite heavy (due to the PSU, I believe I can still do some weight reduction for this computer)
- GPU was not mounted in a stable way; I am worried that the GPU might break off from the PCIE slot during transport since it is not fastened/mounted securely.
By that point, I couldn’t trust the case as one of the acrylic parts broke off and I decided to make another case.
CASE V2: 3D PRINTED CASE Saves the day
I designed a new case to solve all the problems but first, I had to get ready to print and learn 3D printing. I got a 3D printer for my birthday gift (Creality Ender-3 Max) which had a 300 * 300 * 340 mm build size and was large enough for almost everything.
However, before I began printing the case I had to make some upgrades. I changed the PSU fan into a 92mm one in order to make the printer quieter and also fixed the slanted Z axis causing the print head to scratch into the print surface even if the surface was perfectly leveled.
At the same time as solving the printing issues, I made some changes to the design and got inspiration for the gpu mounting solution online.
I started to print the new pieces part by part and here are some photos of the parts slowly being printed and pieced together:
Here are some of the changes made:
- Switched the power supply from the 1U delta DPS-400-AB to a Meanwell 252 250W 12v external power brick in order to make it smaller and lighter and also to reduce noise.
- Added a relay to turn on and off the computer
- Used PETG material instead of acrylic
- Replaced the 2 90mm top fans with 6 50mm top fans in order to reduce the size of the case
- Used a stronger interlocking design, with significantly more joints to increase rigidness
- Volume of the case is substantially reduced
Here is the photos of the final product:
A constantly evolving case
By this point, the base of the case was finished. Interestingly enough, I never reprinted a computer case or came up with a new version of the computer case; rather, changed side panels and adapted them in order to make improvements. Below are all of the changes I have made to the case in order to end up with the final product I have today.
After that, we still have some issues:
- still noisy (although the noise level has dropped by some without a PSU)
- the 6 fans were too noisy
- GPU mounting solution still poor
Cooling upgrade:
there were 2 parts of the cooling upgrade, changing the 6 fans to 2 90mm noctua fans and also replacing the small copper heatsink and rebuilding the cpu cooler completely.
The endless upgrade and problems with cooling:
I realized that the top fans were creating the most amount of noise, so I did a experiment and used the noctua fans in free air instead of the small fans.
As you can see from the photo, there were some slight defects but that was no issue for the final product as it was not visible.
Here is the end product of the chassis fan upgrade:
CPU cooler upgrade:
But it was not practical as it was quite expensive and was not available in my region. I contacted Cooljag and the only way for me to get the heatsink is to buy it from the U.S, and the shipping fees will become too expensive (2 to 3 times the cost of the heatsink itself). So I went with a DIY route
I got a Cooler Master germini t520 heatsink as I heard that this type of cooler fits over the RAM of the motherboard well. It also had a large surface area and a 12cm fan, which would reduce the fan noise substantially, as well as drop temperatures significantly:
Below is the photo of the cooler mounted on the motherboard
Funny enough, after this upgrade, I actually got hold of one of those copper heatsinks, because the custom cooler I made was unreliable. The temperatures would start low (around 60 degrees using Furmark CPU burn test), but would slowly creep up to 70 degrees as time went on due to pump out effect in which the thermal paste will leave the CPU die, reducing the heat transfer from the CPU die to the heatsink to dissipate heat.
Although I expected an improvement in thermals, the copper heatsink instead significantly underperformed my custom CPU cooler solution. After installing, temperatures hovered around 50 degrees at idle (compared to a much cooler 37 degrees), and when under load, the temperature shoots up to 75 degrees (compared to 60) with the fans spinning more loudly. It got so bad that i decided to remove and reinstall the old cooler right after I installed the new one, it's unbearable to use.
In order to address the problem of pump out, I used a PTM7950 phase change thermal pad which exhibits the high thermal conductivity of thermal paste (that is otherwise lacking in most thermal pads), while also preventing the pump out effect since the paste itself is not liquid. However, the pad itself is a phase change type, meaning that at some temperature, the thermal pad starts to flow above a temperature in order to fill in the microscopic gaps between the cooler and CPU.
Another thing to mention is that I changed the PETG mount to a 3D-printed polycarbonate one, as I was worried that the PETG mount would become unreliable over time due to the higher temperatures of a CPU mount. I was going to go with a CNC solution due to sheer durability; however, I don't possess the skills to create mechanical diagrams from SketchUp that would be needed to create such a mount, and it is also costly to custom-make a part. Therefore, I used a 3D print service to 3D print the Polycarbonate mount, which has a higher glass transition temperature of 110 degrees celsius, compared to 70 degrees Celsius for PETG. Although I possess a 3D printer, I don't have a 3D printer with a enclosure.
Rigidity upgrade:
Meanwhile, before and during the cooler upgrade, I increased the rigidity of the computer by changing the GPU side panel from a 3mm thick one to a 6mm thick one. the cooler side panel was increased from 3mm to almost 8mm when doing the CPU cooler upgrade. The rigidity of the top fan panel was increased when the 2 top fans (added 12mm of thickness). Along with this, I created a GPU top retainer to prevent the graphics card from exiting the PCIE slot when being moved around.
The front panel was upgraded in thickness from 3mm to 5mm, along with adding front IO (headphone port, USB 3 front header), and also replacing the power light from green to blue (as it looked better).
I am in the process of upgrading the power connectors since the 6-pin connector get so hot they melt the glue under load. I am going to be using XT90 connectors (which support 90A peak, 40A continuous) despite my power supply only being able to deliver 21A maximum. This way, there shall be no chance of overheating as the connectors is over specced by a factor of 2 so that the connector wouldn't be even close to the maximum rating when under max load
End Result:
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