Titan ITX status. (placeholder)

[Norton]

Maybe you can hunt down the OEM supplier of industrial remote displays similar to these?

http://www.vorne.com/applications/remote-displays.htm

[Lazzer408]

Originally Posted by Norton

Maybe you can hunt down the OEM supplier of industrial remote displays similar to these?

http://www.vorne.com/applications/remote-displays.htm

I can find vfd displays but they don't typically come with software that interfaces with media applications. The retail models (like the pro-lcd) come with it.

[Norton]

Originally Posted by Lazzer408

I can find vfd displays but they don't typically come with software that interfaces with media applications. The retail models (like the pro-lcd) come with it.

Check and see if someone can write a windows based program for it... or look around to see if an interface program is available open source.

[Lazzer408]

Tool time!

It was decided that much of the forming can be done in-house. I'm in the process of purchasing the required equipment to do so. After going over the water jet vs. laser samples, the laser was chosen do to the quality of the cut and finish. Chassis rigidity and airflow has also been improved with some of the more recent changes. The basic design remains unmodified with the exception of the 2.5" drive location. You can even sneek in another 2.5" drive if you mount it with double-sided tape. SSD RAID + 3.5" storage is possible. Everything is a tight fit but to be honest, I can assembly or break down this build in half the time it takes me to do a tower. It's easy to replace any single component without having to remove another to do so.

[Lazzer408]

Not much to update. Some PSU samples arived over the last few days. A 520w model looked promising but failed within one hour under 75% rated load.

The bracket for two extra drives was cut down to one. There was going to be a clearance issue with the VFD. Here's a pic of a mock-up bracket in the prototype. Ignore those ugly pan-head screws with washers. I have some nice truss-heads on the way.

[Winston_008]

Bump, hows the case going man?

[Lazzer408]

Good just a bit slow to get into production. Here's some updates.

All the quotes are back and below what I was expecting to pay which is a good thing. I will be doing the folding in-house to reduce the area needed to store the parts. Takes alot less room if it's all flat pieces. I'm building my own press to do the repeated bends. Press parts are jetted and sitting in my office. I got a great deal on anodizing. I'm also fighting with the factory to get the PSU cost down. The PSU I'm after is a SFF 550w (480w continous) Active PFC with 2x60mm speed controlled fans and custom cables. Aiming for $80-100 retail on the PSU. It beats every SFF unit I could get my hands on to test including another model from the same company that I blew two of during load tests. Stay away from the KDM 550w without power factor correction. It'll pop within an hour at 375w load. The design has been completed for the most part. I gave up outsourcing this CAD crap because they all bail on me. That's why I'm building the press. Once I know my bend radius (I'll measure the darn K factors myself) I can complete the drawings myself and send them to the lazer.

I also leased an office/warehouse building thats about 1400sq-ft. The move has been taking most of my time lately. I've been here about a month now. I'm here now actually. I can fab and store just about anything here.

[atek3]

Forget about all the haters on Anandtech. I've been waiting for about a year for someone to come out with exactly the case layout you're proposing. Please hurry so I don't have to buy an X51 just for the case

atek3

[Lazzer408]

Originally Posted by atek3

Forget about all the haters on Anandtech. I've been waiting for about a year for someone to come out with exactly the case layout you're proposing. Please hurry so I don't have to buy an X51 just for the case

atek3

Aw but the x51 is so CUTE! I think it only holds single slot cards and I don't know how long it will accept. The PSU is pretty limited as well so you may want to spec your power needs and if it'll even power what you intend to stick in there.

I don't know what Anandtech's problem is. This product is partially designed by you (forum) guys. Every bit of input I've recieved is taken into consideration. That's why I redesigned the brackets for more harddrives. Maybe the mods think I'm a corporation marketing on their forums. Ah well. Their loss. TPU FTW!

[atek3]

The x51 will take a double slot card, but the power envelope limits you to roughly 7870 class cards. Somebody actually stuffed a 7950 in there but that's mucho overkill:
http://en.community.dell.com/owners-.../19442269.aspx

My plan isn't to drive an 5760x1200 eyefinity array, I just want a machine that can competently handle 1080p.

atek3

[Lazzer408]

Originally Posted by atek3

The x51 will take a double slot card, but the power envelope limits you to roughly 7870 class cards. Somebody actually stuffed a 7950 in there but that's mucho overkill:
http://en.community.dell.com/owners-.../19442269.aspx

My plan isn't to drive an 5760x1200 eyefinity array, I just want a machine that can competently handle 1080p.

atek3

Stuffed a 7870 in there? lol That's not too bad actually. What I find amusing is I approached Dell with this idea about 2 years ago. I wonder who caught wind.

[Kantastic]

Originally Posted by atek3

Forget about all the haters on Anandtech. I've been waiting for about a year for someone to come out with exactly the case layout you're proposing. Please hurry so I don't have to buy an X51 just for the case

atek3

Anandtech is a worthless forum anyway, nbd.

Lazzer, would it save you space to completely chuck the space for a 3.5" drive? I would assume most people who buy this case would plop in a 120GB SSD and be done with it.

[Lazzer408]

The 3.5" hdd is at the rear of the chassis. It doesn't have an external opening but you could probably mod one in if you wanted. There isn't any benifit in eliminating it. It's not currently in the way. If you don't want to use a 3.5" drive, you could put two 2.5" SSDs on a RAID in it's place.

For me, I've always found it easier to plug the USB cable right into my camera. I've have card readers in my last few builds but never used them. That's just me though. I don't know if I can cram a card reader in the ITX chassis or not. Depends how small the reader is I guess. Maybe SD only?

[atek3]

Update?

Your call, but I wouldn't waste much real estate on an SD card reader. I'd focus on clean aesthetics. In fact I'd appreciate a version with a plain faceplate (ie no cutout to insert DVD's).

thanks
atek3

[Lazzer408]

It costs more to make 2 versions of any part but it had been considered. The more versatile I make the design the more it costs. Typically, every part requires a set-up fee even if it's something as simple as editing the drawing and blanking a hole. I'm working with a new machine shop now and I'll ask them if they can blank it out for a few pieces.

Not much more to update.

The biggest hurdle at the moment is production costs (lowering them). I could purchase a nice car for what material and tooling is costing me. The extruded pieces are purchased 2000lbs at a time. This makes 1000+ more chassis worth of material then needed for my first production run but I need the extrusions for some other products I'm working on.

The second issue is the power supply. I could sell the chassis without one and leave the end user to mess with it but I don't feel that's fair to those who can't cut/solder/splice custom cables. I may have to start pre-selling these supplies.

The last PSU tested is 485w continuous 520w max and has thermally controlled fans and active PFC. I'd rather have passive PFC (because it's more efficient) but their passive PFC model has major issues. The PSUs will have custom wiring, designed for this chassis, to eliminate cable management issues and increase airflow. I haven't settled with the factory on pricing but the cost to the end user should be well under $100.

[atek3]

I wouldn't go too crazy trying to shoehorn a massive PSU into a shoebox sized case. With a modern IVB chip at 77W and powerful GPU's in the ~200W range, Anything more than 350W would seem to be gravy. I mean my first concern would be heat output of a 7970 inside a small case then power concerns.

I have an idea. Only make one case face, but ship the piece of aluminum that fills the hole smoothly. That way customers can choose ODD or no ODD.

[Lazzer408]

It's a SFF supply rated at 485w continuous. That leaves quite a bit of headroom for overclocking and future upgrades. There are other supplies to choose from like the FSP Group aka. Silverstone that's fairly common... FSP450-60GHS(85)-R FSP Group FSP450-60GHS(85)-R 450W Micro ATX12V 8... ...but the quality of that supply is terrible. It did run my test system but it runs hot. The rectifiers use the steel case for a heatsink and it gets uncomfortably warm back there. They skimped on caps as well. I wouldn't trust it to last. My goal was to find a QUALITY supply and that happens to be a variant of a KDM that's 485w.

As far as GPU heat... If I fix the GPU fan at a set RPM, it runs cooler in this chassis then it does in my desktop. If I let the card's thermal management handle the fan, the GPU winds up at the same temp but the RPM is lower in the small chassis. Cooling the components was the first step in design. That was solved early during the testing of half a dozen prototypes with a dozen cooling options. The next step was determining which solution was cost effective to mass produce. I wouldn't have invested the time and money I have and "hope it works".

[atek3]

looks good. When do you think the first batch will ship

[Lazzer408]

Originally Posted by atek3

looks good. When do you think the first batch will ship

I don't have a launch date set. I'm aiming for sometime this summer.

[atek3]

Ivy Bridge Dual Cores hit Q3. I'd be sweet if you released your case at roughly the same time... A Core i3-3220 would be the perfect CPU for a super thin gaming machine.

atek3

[Lazzer408]

That CPU would bottleneck the graphics capabilities.

[atek3]

In theory yes, but in practice, intel's fast dual cores are smoking hot:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...mark,3120.html

Look at the performance of the Core i3-2100. I agree on very CPU heavy games like SC2 and Civ5 you might be leaving a few frames on the table, but in any FPS, your GPU be far more important. Not to mention the fact that the Core i3-3220 is going to be between 10-15% faster than the Core i3-2100.

[SI51]

What city do you plan on shipping from? If close enough are pick-ups permitted?

Thanks for your time,
Mike

[illli]

Originally Posted by Lazzer408

At this point in time it would be easy to make the adjustments to allow for an ATX power supply. The main reason I'm considering this is due to the high cost of a quality mATX supply. To fit an ATX unit, the chassis size would increase to 14~14.5(w) x 13.5(d) x 4"(h). I'm deviating from my origlnal design because I keep stuffing more options into it, but, the ATX supply would be significantly more alluring to people.

just wanted to say that i was thinking of designing something very, very similar to your concept you've posted. i would say just extend the height another half inch. the difference between 3.5 and 4 inches is not that noticeable. also it would solve the hassle of finding a decent power supply, people could just use their own.

there might be an issue with longer cables etc, but what if you could raise up the motherboard a half inch or an inch? then you could just stuff all the extra cable underneath


oh and i'm not a huge fan of these buttons http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/at...1&d=1324513827 aesthetically speaking, they seem to clash with each other, one is extruded, one is recessed. would there be a way to make the buttons more flush with the faceplate?

i like your other concept too http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/at...0&d=1327499538
i like how there is a separate compartment for the video card. i'm guessing it might help keep the other components cooler.

[Lazzer408]

Originally Posted by SI51

What city do you plan on shipping from? If close enough are pick-ups permitted?

Thanks for your time,
Mike

Ships from 60002. Where are you located?

Originally Posted by illli

just wanted to say that i was thinking of designing something very, very similar to your concept you've posted. i would say just extend the height another half inch. the difference between 3.5 and 4 inches is not that noticeable. also it would solve the hassle of finding a decent power supply, people could just use their own.

there might be an issue with longer cables etc, but what if you could raise up the motherboard a half inch or an inch? then you could just stuff all the extra cable underneath


oh and i'm not a huge fan of these buttons http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/at...1&d=1324513827 aesthetically speaking, they seem to clash with each other, one is extruded, one is recessed. would there be a way to make the buttons more flush with the faceplate?

i like your other concept too http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/at...0&d=1327499538
i like how there is a separate compartment for the video card. i'm guessing it might help
keep the other components cooler.

The buttons in that image were a test of raised vs. recessed buttons. For cost reasons, the optical drive's eject button is a slightly raised solid aluminum button. The power button is flush with the faceplate. They are not next to each other either.

The chassis uses a SFX supply which are fairly common. There are many off-the-shelf SFX supplies that can power an ITX build+GPU. I was attempting to locate the best SFX supply I could find and order them with custom cables to offer a better solution then a retail unit.

The last link you posted is not my design but I do use a compartmentalized layout.