instructables

Open Frame Mini ITX PC

by Honus

I've been wanting to build a small desktop PC for o ers PCIE 4.0 when used with a 3rd gen Ryzen
quite some time. I also really liked the idea of an open processor as well as better power delivery and greater
frame test bench style chassis- something that would RAM capacity (B450 and X470 max out at 32GB RAM.) I
allow me to easily remove/replace components. wanted to be able to use dual M.2 hard drives and
that limited my choice to either Gigabyte or Asus. Asus
My requirements for hardware were primarily based o ers dual M.2 on its B450, X470 and X570
around content creation, 3d modeling, photo editing, motherboards- the B450 would have been my rst
and CAD work. I do enjoy occasional gaming but that choice but it was always out of stock with long lead
wasn't a priority for me. times. The Asus X470 didn't make any sense price wise
since it didn't really o er any advantage over the B450
W it h t ha t in m ind he re is t he ha rdw a re (except maybe looks.) The Asus X570 is super nice but
bre a kdo w n: the price was signi cantly higher than the Gigabyte
board. The Gigabyte board had the best combination
Pro ce s s o r - I went with an AMD Ryzen 7 2700 8 core. of features and cost I could nd and it's good to go
For a while these could be purchased for $150 or less, when I eventually upgrade to the Ryzen 3900 series
which is pretty fantastic deal. The Ryzen 5 1600AF is processors.
another awesome deal since it's essentially a Ryzen 5
2600 for under $100. If you need PCIE 4.0 for fast hard G ra phics ca rd - I went with the EVGA GTX 1660
drive access then you want a 3rd gen Ryzen. For 3rd Super. Trying to keep the PC as small as possible
gen Ryzen the Ryzen 5 3600 is a great all around buy. meant using a graphics card under 200mm in length.
Since my monitor is 1080p and I'm not a super gamer I
M e m o ry - RAM is highly dependent on the didn't need a high end card. For 1080p the 1660
motherboard you choose (be sure to check the Super is probably the best deal out there in a small
manufacturer's QVL sheet) but with Ryzen I've had card around $200. The RTX 2060 didn't really seem
good luck with G.Skill. I used 16GB (2x 8GB) G.Skill worth it to me for the$100+ cost increase. If you want
Flare X from my old PC build. Higher speed RAM does a small workstation card the AMD Radeon Pro WX5100
o er an advantage with Ryzen but you get to the is probably your best bet. If you're going to build a
point of diminishing returns quickly. Hackintosh get an AMD Vega 56 Nano or a RX 570/580
ITX card o eBay or Craigslist- newer ITX size Radeon
M o t he rbo a rd - I chose the Gigabyte X570 Aorus Pro cards are non existent right now. PowerColor lists a RX
Wi . With mini ITX motherboards choices are a bit 5500XT ITX size card as well as a RX 5700 ITX card but
limited. With Ryzen your choices are B450, X470 and I don't think anyone has actually ever seen one.
X570 series. B450 are the most a ordable. X470 isn't
really that compelling since it only really allows for Po w e r Supply - I used my old EVGA 450W ATX
running dual graphics cards, which isn't used in the power supply. Your choice in power supply will
min ITX format. Sometimes X470 o ers a bit more depend entirely on what processor and graphics card
power delivery for higher core count processors. X570 you choose. The more modern graphics cards have

Open Frame Mini ITX PC: Page 1

signi cantly less power draw than cards of a couple of
years ago. I will say that with a build like this full
modular power supplies are de nitely the way to go.

Co o le r - The stock AMD cooler is pretty good. If you're

going to overclock or have intentions of installing a
Ryzen 3900 series processor then Noctua coolers are
tough to beat and the NH-DH15 is the king of the
heap. It's nearly dead silent, will last forever, and it
looks killer in black.

Ha rd driv e s - This is often a matter of personal

preference. The Gigabyte board o ers dual NVME
drive compatibility so I used my old Samsung 960Evo
along with a Sabrent Rocket. The Sabrent drives are
very competitively priced right now. For a larger
storage drive I'm using an Adata SU800 2.5" SSD.

When purchasing PC parts I use PCPartPicker to

locate in stock items at the best price and check
system compatibility. Always read through
motherboard manuals and product data sheets to
con rm compatibility- this can save you a LOT of
headaches later on!

To o ls /m a t e ria ls ne e de d:

You really don't need much in the way of tools to

build this. A drill press is really nice as you need to drill
accurate, straight holes.

You'll also need drill bits to drill proper size holes for
drilling, tapping and countersinking 6-32 socket head
cap screw bolts.

I used a 3d printer to print a 2.5" hard drive mount as

well as a cover for the power switch but the hard drive
mount can be purchased online.

You'll also need a power switch and some cable

sheathing (just to make it look pretty.) Note that this
power switch is just barely long enough for the
threads to stick through the .375" thick Aluminum
plate.

Ple a s e be s ure t o re a d t his a ll t he w a y

t hro ug h a nd lo o k a t t he no t e s in a ll o f t he
pho t o s be f o re a s king que s t io ns !

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Step 1: Design

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I ha d a lis t o f f e a t ure s in m ind w he n
de s ig ning t he cha s s is :
1) Have a very small footprint. The footprint of this
design is 175mm x 187mm (6.88" x 7.36").
2) Use a full size ATX power supply. Small form factor
(SFX) power supplies can get really expensive.
3) Everything must be easily accessible. Many PC
chassis require motherboard removal to access the
M.2 drive on the back of the motherboard.
4) Maximum air ow. A lot of mini ITX cases really limit
air ow, with a subsequent rise in temps (especially
with more powerful processors.)
5) Simple cable routing.
6) A carrying handle for easy portability.
7) Support a full height (2.75) graphics card.
8) 5.5" wide slot under the graphics card allows for
installation of additional USB ports.
I looked at a few open style ITX chassis available but
they were expensive, had limited air ow (due to
distance between power supply and graphics card) or
the M.2 drive on the back of the motherboard was
inaccessible. I also wanted this to be able to be easy to
of components on the chassis model to make sure I
liked the way everything looked. Grabcad is an
excellent resource of 3d models for various
components. It didn't matter that the component
models weren't exact- I was just trying to get an idea
as to what the nal appearance would be.
When I was nished I sent my Inkscape .eps les to
SendCutSend to cut the chassis parts from .375" thick
5052 Aluminum.
T he Inks ca pe . e ps le s a nd . s v g le s a re
include d he re f o r y o u t o us e a nd m o dif y ! T he
. s v g le s a re w ha t y o u w a nt t o o pe n in
Inks ca pe t o m a ke m o di ca t io ns .
Open Frame Mini ITX PC: Page 7
modify. You want to use an ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII
Impact mini DTX motherboard? No problem! Just
make it 30mm taller. Want to use a SFX power supply?
Easy- just use an adapter plate or change the design
of the power supply plate (and make the whole
chassis an inch shorter.) Since the motherboard plate
and the power supply plate are separate you can
modify one or the other without redesigning or
rebuilding the whole chassis. You could even enlarge
it and make an mATX version to use with a full length
graphics card.
I also wanted this to be super easy to manufacture
and be able to ship at to reduce packaging required-
S e nd Cut S e nd t o t he re s cue ! SendCutSend takes
your vector artwork and then laser cuts your design in
various metal alloys and ships it to you within a
matter of days! This was so easy to do it was silly.
First thing I did was lay out my components on
cardboard and make measurements for cutouts and
necessary clearances. Next the motherboard plate and
power supply plate were drawn up using Inkscape.
SendCutSend uses .eps les to laser cut so you need
to use a drawing program like Inkscape or Illustrator
to draw your design. Once I had my design done I
printed it out full size to double check my dimensions.
Next I exported my Inkscape design as an .svg le and
imported it into Fusion360 and converted it from a
mesh model into a solid model. Then I placed models
4 /14 /20 - Upda t e !

I have added a new power supply plate design named

"PowersupplyplateV2" that changes how the graphics
card mounts- the securing screw now sits on the
opposite side compared to before. This allows you to
insert the graphics card without having to remove the
power supply plate rst. It also has a larger
rectangular slot that allows you to make a at plate to
hold the power switch vs. having to try and drill a
16mm hole through the .375" thick material. It also
gives more room for additional USB ports (which I will
be adding soon, along with some new 3d printed
parts.) The other change was making the plate .375"
longer so now it overlaps and matches up with the
edge of the motherboard plate. This allows you to bolt
it into the edge of the motherboard plate as well as
the baseplate, making the entire assembly more rigid.

1. Chassis frame model

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 1

1. Full size cardboard templates

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 2

1. Full size printed Inkscape motherboard plate 1. Full size Inkscape printed power supply mounting plate
2. Full size printed Inkscape baseplate

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 1

1. Updated V2 of the power supply plate. You can see how the graphics card
screw is now on the opposite side, making assembly much easier.

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https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/F0J/LT65/K8ZZOH2H/F0JLT65K8ZZOH2H.eps
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 https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FAT/S982/K8ZZOH2L/FATS982K8ZZOH2L.eps
… Download

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…

Step 2: Frame Assembly

A f e w da y s la t e r t he la s e r cut Alum inum base plate. Then all through holes were drilled and I
cha s s is f ra m e a rriv e d a nd it w a s t im e f o r also drilled a countersink for all of the bolt heads for a
a s s e m bly ! nice clean look. All of the screws are 6-32 thread.

One of the limitations of laser cutting metal is that
you cannot have shapes or cutouts smaller than 1x –
1.5x material thickness. Since the material is .375" thick
this means that you must drill/tap all mounting holes.
I printed out hole templates for the ATX power supply
and ITX motherboard (just do a google search for
templates- I found some nice motherboard templates
in this thread.) Then I taped them in place on the
Aluminum parts and marked the holes using a center
punch. I also marked holes for the bolts that hold the
motherboard plate and power supply plate to the
The motherboard is held using .375" long threaded
stando s so those holes were drilled and tapped for a
6-32 thread and the stando s were screwed in place.
At this time I also drilled and tapped holes for the 2.5"
SSD mount on the back side of the motherboard
plate.
A 16mm diameter hole was then drilled for the power
switch on the power supply plate.

1. Laser cut chassis showing placement of 1. Laser cut chassis plates as they arrived from SendCutSend!
parts

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 1
1

1. Marking mounting holes for the ITX motherboard 1. Marking mounting holes for the ATX power supply

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1

1. Marks on the bottom are for bolt holes to screw chassis plates to the 1. Drilling out holes by first using a centering drill
baseplate

1. Tapping 6-32 threads

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1. Chassis plates temporarily held together

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1. .375" long 6-32 thread

standoffs for mounting the
motherboard

Step 3: 3d Printed Accessories

Since I ha v e a 3d print e r I t ho ug ht I' d m a ke a

were also designed in Tinkercad by combining larger
f e w a cce s s o rie s t o m a ke t he nis he d de s ig n
cylinders and then putting holes in the center of each
a bit nice r. cylinder to create the cable guides. Super simple! I
made cable combs for both 8 strand and 24 strand
First I made a hard drive mount for the 2.5" SSD. This 4mm diameter sheathed cables. These were printed in
was done using Tinkercad and it was incredibly easy to PLA with 100% in ll.
do! I basically made a block, hollowed out a section,
made recessed mounting holes and holes to hold the I didn't like seeing the back of the power switch so I
hard drive, and then removed a bit of material in the also made a cover for that. It's basically a two
base to reduce the print time. This was printed in PLA cylinders and a cone hollowed out. This was printed in
with 20% in ll. PLA with 100% in ll.

Next I thought I would make some cable combs as I All o f t he m o de l le s a re he re f o r y o u t o us e

had anticipated doing all custom sheathed cables (I a nd m o dif y a s y o u s e e t .
later changed my mind- more on this later.) These

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1. 3d printed SSD mounting bracket

1. Attaching the bracket to the backside of the motherboard mounting

plate

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1. Printing cable combs 1. Finished cable combs

1. Printed cover for back side of power button

1. There are juuust enough threads to tighten the nut on the power switch

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 https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FRL/INFG/K8OP94WP/FRLINFGK8OP94WP.stl
… Download

Step 4: Assembly

Fina l a s s e m bly !
First I installed the power supply. This ts so the fan
draws air from underneath. Note that the power
supply has .5" clearance on one side for cable routing.
Next was the motherboard, which is mounted to the
stando s using four 6-32 screws. You can see the
second M.2 hard drive on the back side of the
motherboard through the cutout in the Aluminum
plate. This way it not only cools better but it's super
easy to install and remove. The other M.2 hard drive is
mounted under the heatsink on the front of the
motherboard. The SSD mount is then screwed down
on the back side of the motherboard plate.
Now comes the graphics card. This is the only part
that is a bit tricky when you rst install it as you need
to install the securing screw for the card. You need to
remove the power supply plate in order to install the
graphics card and mark the location for the threaded
hole for a 6-32 screw to secure the graphics card. This
is done by removing the three bolts that secure the
power supply mounting plate to the base plate, then
moving the plate enough to slide the graphics card
into place. Then tighten the mounting bolts and note
the location of the graphics card mounting screw.
Now disassemble everything on the power supply
mounting plate and remove the plate from the rest of
the chassis. Then drill and tap a hole for a 6-32
threaded screw where you marked it. This may require
a long jobber type drill bit. It is v e ry im po rt a nt t o
g e t t his pa rt rig ht - g o s lo w a nd t a ke y o ur
t im e .
Once you have the completed drilling and tapping
the hole for the graphics card screw you can
reassemble everything. Now install the power switch,
2.5" SSD, and the processor cooler.

1. Mounted power supply

2. This slot can be used later to mount additional USB ports

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1. Clearance on this side of power 1. Fan draws air from underneath

supply for cable routing

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1. Mounted mini ITX motherboard 1. Access to M.2 drive on backside of motherboard

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1. Fitting the graphics card 1. A 6-32 threaded hole must be added here to secure the graphics card

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1. Lots of room here for air flow

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1. Graphics card secured in place

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1. Fitting the massive Noctua cooler 1. At this point I tested everything before doing final wiring

Step 5: Finish Wiring

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T im e t o w ire it up!
Originally I thought I would do all custom sheathed
cabling as I anticipated having to run custom length
cables. As it turns out the stock length cables that
came with my ATX power supply were perfect!
All I had to do was connect the motherboard 24 pin
cable, motherboard CPU power cable, 8 pin power
cable for the graphics card, and SATA cables for the
2.5" SSD. That's it! The real beauty of an open chassis
like this is how easy it is to run cables. :)
Now I have my mini desktop PC and it works
beautifully. As with any project there is room for
improvement so any and all suggestions are welcome! If y o u build t his be s ure t o po s t pict ure s a nd
One idea I had while designing this is to make a
simple folded sheet enclosure for people who would
rather not see all of the guts. SendCutSend has a neat
feature where you can cut a prede ned "wave cut"
pattern wherever you want a folded edge. Doing this
you could easily make a folded Aluminum sheet slip
on style cover that attached to the edges of the
chassis frame using stando s. This would allow you to
make a custom cover with whatever design or pattern
you want cut into it for air ventilation. Since this is
made from Aluminum you can even anodize the
chassis a vibrant color!
If you are using PCIE 4.0 NVME drives you could also
mount a fan to the back side of the motherboard
plate to cool the drive. You could even use that area to
mount a liquid cooling setup if you'd rather build a
liquid cooled rig instead of an air cooled setup.
if y o u ha v e a ny que s t io ns be s ure t o le t m e
kno w !

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Such a simple and great design ! Congrats, I love it :D

How much did it cost you to build only the custom parts(casing)??

wonderful design and the simplest computer case I thought.

But what about dust, I mean how to protect it from dust ?
I think the entire system may be putted into another case or jar like thing.
BTW great job and nice configuration also.
You could easily make a folded slip cover style case for it if you want. Just attach it to the chassis
edges using 6-32 standoffs.
I love the design and the build but do have one concern - The heatsink.

The Noctua NH D15 is 1.3Kg when equipped with fans. As the cooler is exposed it is likely to get
knocked or jarred putting a lot of torque on the motherboard mounts.

As such, I question if it needs caution when choosing such a big heatsink. I think if you can get
away with using a stock AMD Wraith Spire/Prism you should, and as @Honus says only use such
a monster if you are dropping a top of the line CPU in there.
The Aorus X570 motherboard has a very large metal reinforcing plate that covers the backside, as
well as the metal CPU cooler reinforcing plate. It's fine for supporting it. The cost however is only
really worth it if you plan on upgrading to a top end CPU. I do love how unbelievably quiet it is- it's
dead silent compared to the Wraith cooler. Realistically the Noctua NH-L9a will even support the
Ryzen 9 if you set power limits on it.
is this B L A C K T O W E R

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No, I know what you're thinking of. Totally different as this is a modular Aluminum chassis.

This was a pretty cool project and I appreciate the amount of effort you put into selecting the parts
that meet your needs. You also did quite well explaining it. I plan to save this one back for a rainly
day. Thanks!
Glad you like it! I did a ton of research trying to use as much of my old hardware as possible and
getting as much bang for my buck with new parts while still keeping an eye on future upgrades. If
you ever have any questions just let me know!
Would you be willing to sell the laser cut aluminum , pre drilled holes, and I'd assemble and build? I
have very limited shop access. This would be such a fun switch from the core p1 with all the kids.
That's a grat design. Keep it up!

Thanks!

You're confused, some X470 boards max out at 128. Don't no where you got the 32 GB figure
from, seems rather arbitrary.
I'm not aware of any Ryzen mini ITX boards that can use 128 GB Ram as they only have two slots.
Even the super high end Crosshair Impact VIII doesn't support it. The only ITX board I know of that
can do that has four slots and is a Xeon board. Most of the X470 ITX boards support 32GB. Asus
states the ROG X470 board supports 64GB but it's not on their memory QVL. You might be
thinking of mATX or ATX boards, neither of which apply here.

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