Cortinaone's G4 Power Cube project - i7 4790k - Audio Workstation

[cortinaone]

I'm stupid right? That hot CPU in a little box with poor ventilation...
We'll I'm gonna make it even harder on myself and chuck and SFX PSU in there while I'm at it!

I'm building this hackintosh as I am and audio engineer and I'm wanting to have a reasonable powerful, good looking system for my studio.

I'm fully aware that my hopes of having this build work out are slim (main concern is heat), but I'm gonna give it a go anyway. Besides - I figure if worse come's to worse I can still put these components in a ITX PC case?

Here's what I've purchased so far

G4 Cube - Reasonable condition. A few cracks, but they are small.
i7 4790k
Gigabyte GA-B85N Pheonix-WIFI
2x 8GB Ram - Crucial DDR3 PC3-12800 CL11
Noctua NH-L9-x65
Noctua 92x14 Low profile cooling fan
Silverstone 450w SFX Gold PSU
Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SSD
HOTER PCI-E Express 1X Riser Card
SYBA Low Profile Firewire 800 PCI-E Card
Broadcom BCM94360CD 802.11ac mini PCI-E WiFi WLAN Bluetooth 4.0 Card for Apple

Something that separates my build from a lot of the builds on this forum is that I won't be using a dedicated graphics card as it is unnecessary for the audio work I do, It also would take up space in the cube that I'm going to be needing for the PSU. I will still need to find a spot for a small PCI-E card though as I rely on firewire for my audio interface and external project drives.

Here's some of the planning I've been doing in sketchup to figure out the best spot to put everything.
I still haven't figured out where I'm going to put the firewire card, and I want to try and re-use the OEM touch sensor, but as the cube hasn't arrived yet, I don't really know the size of anything yet.
My sketchup model is based entirely of photos, known component sizes, and rough guesses. I don't mind if it's perfect or not - I just need to visualise it. I think I'm pretty close though!



Underneath - I don't think I will try and make the IO panel line up with the old ports on the cube. I'll just cut a new bottom plate out of aluminium and rivit, or JB weld it on.


Looking from below I am unsure about the cooling performance I will get considering the PSU is covering a big portion of the grate? Surely the fan inside the PSU will help get air into the case?



Rear side - I want to put USB in the back ventilation slot like others have done. This will mean leaving space behind the motherboard, so I might as well put my SSD there. Heck - I could even put in a 2.5" HDD there too!



Hidden PSU - You can just see the lower fans where the handle sits. Ideally I want two 60mm fans down there side by side to get as much air into the case as possible.




Anything really obvious that I'm missing here??
I will continue to post photos as the various parts arrive!

Thank you everyone for your inspiring mods.

 

[fabycae]

Hi @cortinaone, what about your project?

I'm trying to design something similar.
I've a question for You about the SFX psu, the fan push the air into or out of the PSU?
I'm looking for this info on the web without result...

Thanks in advance.
Fabio

 

[cortinaone]

Hi Fabio,

I actually got it to fit with the SFX power supply and had everything up and running, however the power supply constricted air flow in the case, and ultimately was over-kill for running the components I used.

My current setup is a 250w pico psu and that hasn't caused me any problems at all!

I haven't updated this thread yet because I don't feel like the project is fully finished yet, but perhaps I will update in the coming days..

 

[fabycae]

So, You probably have chosen something like this: HDPLEX 250W
I'm trying to understand if this PSU can be the solution for my next built too.
In my case an other possibility is use a flexATX but It might be too noisy.
I'll find the best compromise, thanks for your reply.