neilhart's Prodigy "The Black One" - ATX in a mini-ITX case

[neilhart]

also see: http://www.tonymacx86.com/case-mods/63866-neilharts-prodigy-white-one-matx-itx-case.html

Current Bill of Material:

BitFenix Black Prodigy - source NCIX.com (Black Friday)
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UP5 TH - source TigerDirect
Intel i7-3770k - source Amazon store Antonline.com
COOLER MASTER RR-H101-22FK-RI 80mm from some past project - Newegg
Patriot Viper 32GB 4x8 GB kit DDR3 PC3-12800 1600MHz - source Fry's
OCZ Technology 128GB Agility 4 SSD 6Gb/s - source Amazon (Black Friday)
Siverstone ST50F-P - source Amazon
Enermax Marahon 80mm fan UC-8EB - source Fry's
Cooler Master 200mm fan in the front
Modular I/O panel - source Mountain Mods
#6 black button head screws - source Mountain Mods

Raw material:

ABS plastic - source Tap Plastics
AL sheet stock - source McMaster Carr

Rear Panel machining - source Front Panel Express (this is due next week) The current rear panel is my hand cut and file not so perfect part. It looks better with the single coat of flat black primer.

OS X integration - source TonyMacX86 and forum members.

Photo story follows:

The chassis stripped of everything that can be removed without drilling.

more

normal orientation

Using this Gigabyte ATX board as a model for size.

After drilling out a goodly number of rivets, the back panel is free.

more

The rear panel. This part is a work of art from a metal bender's view.

MB model with standoffs mounted setting on a 12" square aluminum sheet, .048 inch thick

Corner shot - top

Corner shot - bottom

Looking into the assembly with the right cover installed.

A sheet cut to size for the prototype rear panel.

Cut away - this piece interfered with the MB assembly.

And window in the rib is to provide MB clearance.

A test fit of the MB assembly sitting on ABS riser blocks.

Humm...

Working up the base plate, 7 slots for pci slots - hand cut.
And the Mountian Mods PCI and IO panel sectioned and trimed.

Test fitting IO panel.

Another MB test fit.

More.

Note the seventh slot is a little tight.

The recess for the removable top vent intrudes into the space needed for th MB assembly.

Test fitting in slot 7.

Test fitting in slot 1.

The rear panel mounted to the MB base plate.

A view of the ABS riser blocks which are attached to the existing side cover locating rails found on the top and bottom chassis parts. Used # 6 Phillips Flat head screws.

A view showing the alignment of the IO and slots to the panel assembly.

This is my panel after a session or two with my dremel. And some hand filing to true my sloppy cuts followed.

At this point I had the MB mounted and a rear panel so I could run the system (after installing ML).
This gave me a good feeling as the test board could run under 100% load and not exceed 70C.

As the final parts started to arrive I could get into final PSU mounting details.
This is a modular PSU and intend to size the cables (cut and reterminate) to help with cable routing and overall apperance.

This is a shot of the hack in the normal operational orientation.

And this photo is of the top ABS riser and the MB mounting base seen throug the top vent opening.

I thought the hack would be more presentable if the rear panel did not look so bad. So I shot a coat of flat black primer and did a quick bake off. My wife does not know about this one.

And as I was reassembling the chassis for a photo session, I saw the mounting point hanging out in the breeze. Four more custom brackets needed (later).

And that is my new system. More work needed but close enough that I could bring up my new system today.
I have a rear panel design out being machined which will need some tuning when it arrives but will be more true to my intent and it is out of 2mm stock so should be a little more durable.

End of the prototyping phase.

neil

 

[taumaz]

I'm interested!

 

[unclekitch]

I second that

 

[Nathan991]

same here neilhart.

 

[minihack]

Another great mod Neil. Always amazes me what you are able to do with your filing and cutting.....

This case seems to have been stretched to the limit now as you have managed to do the seemingly impossible and get that quart into a pint pot.

Can't wait to see the photos of the inside as I know you will have carefully thought out all of the cable management too.

 

[Dschijn]

Bring it on

 

[neilhart]

Well all is right with my world this morning. I have just booted the new GA-Z77X-UP5 TH for the first time and this is in The Black with all new components (with exception of the GPU where I am using an old GF 8800 card for now). I find that the MB has an F4 BIOS and sees the 32GB of memory and my little 80GB bring-up hard drive.

Anyway went through the BIOS and made the minimum of changes, rebooted to a Unibeast 1.5.3 USB installer. I partitioned the hdd into two 40GB partitions and installed 10.8.2 to the first partition. Rebooted using the USB installer and OS X greeted me. Went through the initial set up and logged into TonyMacX86, downloaded the current Multibeast. Also downloaded Superduper! and am cloning to the second partition.

This is a first for me. I always bring up new motherboards on the bench. To boot an entirely new system in the case and have it work is almost un-heard of for me. Anyway there are a good number of guides for the MB that I should not get too lost. So far I am just following my own process using "Tony's" tools (thank you Tony).

neil

I ran Multibeast in the first partition - Easybeast, ALC898, and E1000 and upon first reboot from the hard disk, I have a working system with sound and ethernet and accelerated video. You have to love these tools.

And then I re-ran Multibeast and targeted the second partition - UserDSDT, ALC898 and E1000. Rebooted to the second partition and found a working system with sound and ethernet. Yea!

Okay it is time to swap in an SSD and see this system zip.

 

[chaosdesigns]

Awesome! I was wondering what you were up to lately.

chaos

 

[neilhart]

Awesome! I was wondering what you were up to lately.

chaos

chaos - to tell the truth I have been spinning my wheels on the Loop L5 AIO system with the DQ77KB motherboard. This system has a problem that appears as no EDID for the internal display. As such the best that I can do is a fixed resolution non-acellerated video. I hate to admit defeat... but this thing may have beat me and may become a 64bit Window 8 machine... and get passed along to someone.

Now I am playing with "The Black" and it is another learning experience. However this one makes sense.

neil

 

[neilhart]

I have just updated the first posting with photos of the prototyping phase.

neil