Overview / Usage

To The Judges: Hello, I would like to admit that I am a high school student who is not of legal age. I understand that not including those under legal age could be a legal issue or an attempt at trying to display only good builds, but I'm asking that my build is judged as one amongst the contenders, and if I somehow beat the competition then I'm sure we can work out some way for me to make it. And even if I am disqualified, still hope to get feedback and ideas from anybody who cares on how to improve. I apologize for the inconvenience this may cause to the judging process.

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This project is a submission for the Ultimate PC Mod Challenge by Intel. The goal of this build is to try to make an SFF (Small Form Factor) system as portable as possible while still using the parts that would be seen in a high-end build. I was very inspired by Intel's NUC builds as I wanted to replicate its form while seeing what could be done with generic parts that anyone could use. This build is heavily focused on measurements, with a custom case designed from 3D printed material. The measurements are 11.82 in. x 9.10 in. x 5.10 in. That is a little more than the size of a piece of paper with the height of a soda can. There are two fans in the system: an intake in the "back" and a radiator exhaust on the top, and multiple spots for airflow. The "back" of the system has the PSU plug and video output and the "front" has direct motherboard ports. There is also a collapsible handle built for a method of carrying around only the computer. This was designed to be built durably instead having to worry about any fragile outside details breaking, which then allows many portability options such as backpacks or suitcases or even on its own.

Methodology / Approach

Note: As someone who does not owned nor made a physical custom build of a pc, every piece of this build was done in consideration of what I believe how to properly build a computer based on research and common sense.

Design: This computer is meant to be powerful while small, but what does that mean exactly? It means that I did not want to compromise the system or parts in a single way like a gaming laptop may do with its GPU . I took inspiration from many other SFF builds, the difference with mine being that this computer had to be taken anywhere by any method and therefore needed to be built to last. This meant that every part needed to be designed to work together to get rid of the most space as possible. I also decided to include RGB as a little accent piece with the main colors being a light blue or purple to match the colors displaying from the A770.

Creation: The case itself will be 3D printed with PolyMide™ CoPA with the roof being a removeable piece by screws if needed. I chose that material because it can withstand temperatures of up to 180 degrees Celsius, and be printed by most 3D printers. The case will not feature any glass because if the computer is on the move then it may not be treated well, and broken glass could do a lot of damage to the system. The case has airflow holes for the radiator and for overall airflow in the case (size undetermined), a backing for the GPU (2.5 inches tall and stretching across the whole length of the GPU) so that it can be installed from the top and not be screwed in with the traditional way, and openings for the fans and each individual motherboard port. When printing, I will have to split the case into two 5.91 inch halves in order to print the full thing, I will then solder the pieces together. I have decided to make the case a little longer than it could be because I want the cables that are coming out of the PSU to not be in direct contact with the motherboard. The handle on top will be made out of braided parachute chord that will rope around some added fixtures on top of the case and be held together by a side release buckle. For cable management, I will use zip-ties and hook-and-loop fasteners along the walls of the case. I decided to go for a vertical GPU with a riser cable so the width became the height, lining up perfectly with the height of the PSU, and allowing the fans for both the PSU and GPU to be directly facing the outside. I put the motherboard on the floor instead of on the wall so the height could stay down, which was lined up with my overall goal of cutting down open space. I went for a radiator so that I could avoid a huge CPU fan making the height much higher than needed. The situation with heat is that the one intake and one outtake fan should keep enough airflow in the system to keep the temperature low. "Low" in the case of this build means below 90 degrees Celsius, as even though PolyMide™ CoPA has a melting point of 180 degrees Celsius, I might as well keep the parts from overheating. Storage will be a M.2 SSD because HDDs are not needed in something that is focused on portability. I will use an Intel Wi-Fi Kit to provide an internet connection without the support bracket but instead use the front of the case as a place to lock the antenna in place by screwing it in through the holes in the wall.

Application: My process went straight from my notebook to Blender. Everything besides the fans were made from scratch in that program. I opened my doodles in an image editing software to present a floor plan and a color guide so the placement of all the cables could be seen a color where they didn't blend in.

Like mentioned, I don't have a lot of experience in this field of work so I do have some problems that have yet to be figured out. This model was created solely by myself in blender with no prototyping or testing of the materials, which as can be imagined, led to a few issues:

• Parts such as the precise sizes of screws, as I did the research to get the general size of what is needed, however the precise lengths of, for example, the chassis fan screws is not something I cannot account for and therefore my case cannot be accurately printed quite yet.
• There are the problems with a custom-printed case like how it will handle the heat, how hot it could get inside, and how thick it needs to be to support the weight. Annealing is something I had never heard about prior to this study and this would definitely be something that I would like to reach out to the community to get an idea on how effective of a method that would be.
• The internet can lie and this whole build may be rethought if some of the pieces end up being bigger than what was listed. I tried to design with 0.1 inches as wiggle room (that sounds small, but this whole build is as well) but more likely than not, if there is a difference then it is going to be a big one.

Technologies Used

PC Parts

• Intel Core i7-12700 - The brain to the body. It is going to push the limits of every game but still be able to flex depending on how hot the system gets or how fancy the graphics get. This build is small and requires unity between the parts in order to keep everything flowing smoothly. This CPU is going to take in all the data of temperatures of the system and automatically tune to keep everything below 90 degrees Celsius, giving me the ultimate comfort when having to deal with a graphically-intense game. Sadly the i9 requires a lot of power, and my PSU cannot deliver that power reliably. There was also the possibility of going with a 13th gen i7, however I worry that too may use too much power.

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• Intel Wi-Fi 6 (GIG +) - The motherboard of this build does not have any built-in Wi-Fi, which means that we are able to implement our own Wi-Fi chip and it only makes sense that we go with one of Intel's best. This m.2 Wi-Fi port can hit up to 2.4 gbps, which means I will have top notch speeds to beat the competition.

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• ASUS Prime H610I-PLUS D4 (6.7 in. x 6.7 in.) - A Mini-Itx board that offers plenty of heatsinks of its own and an excellent BIOS for overall management of all the pieces.

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• Corsair Force MP510 4TB - A solid choice for an M.2 Storage that perfectly lines up with what the motherboard allows and gives more unity between the computer products.

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• Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO SL 32gb - This RAM was chosen because of my goal of as much unity as possible between products so that way I can have the most success of programs working together to control the heat.

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• Intel ARC A770 Limited Edition (10.05 in. x ~1.6 in. x ~4.2 in.) - Some may say that the A770 isn't the ultimate graphics card, I disagree. The ARC cards have way more potential than what has been seen in years in the computer industry. XeSS is a brand new software that is rapidly growing in advancements of giving more FPS by just changing some code. This card runs side by side with DirectX 12 Ultimate, which is what most games are being created with nowadays. Intel graphics cards are designed to be able to communicate with their CPUs, which is exactly the unity that I need in a computer that has little flexibility and a lot of reliant parts. The point is that this card has the ability to be the most flexible and capable card on the market, and choosing anything else means that I wouldn't be getting the best flow possible out of the best portable computer that can be made.

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• Thermaltake TT Premium 300 mm Extender Riser Cable - I got this idea when I watched a stream one day during Intel Gamer Days that I don't have to necessarily always have to put my GPU right on my motherboard. So I made sure to take advantage of this freedom in the build and prioritized airflow of the GPU instead of having it attached and blowing hot air around the tight case.

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• Corsair SF750 (3.9 in. x 2.5 in. x 5 in.) - This is meant to be a SFF PSU, and I never encountered any issues with the amount of wattage it produces besides the choice of Intel CPUs, but I'm pleased my selection anyway so there is no problem.

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• Cooler Master SickleFlow 120 ARGB (1 in. x 5 in. x 5 in.) - The reason I chose this fan in particular is because it is the same fan that is used in the radiator. That is important because this case does not have a lot of airflow potential so to play it safe I want to keep the same air movement across the two fans controlled by the same program instead of having one fan be more powerful than the other and causing an imbalance.

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• Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML120L RGB V2 (Radiator: 6.2 in. x 4.7 in. x 1.1 in. Pump: 3.1 in. x 3 in. 1.9 in.) - This is one of the few radiators that I found that consist of a single fan system, and since a radiator was about the only thing I could fit, this ended being the best option.

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Technologies

• Windows 10 - This is a more familiar operating system for myself.

Documents and Presentations