Hello! I’m looking to try to find some cases for my framework desktop MB (which will ship soon this quarter)
I am mainly looking for the cooler dimensions/height (with the 120mm fan) so I have somewhere to start looking.
A case that peaks my interest is the Sparrow-MQ4, which says to have 70mm cooler height. If this case is not compatible, I would love a case like it, thick CNCed aluminum is what I’m after. Another reference to thick cases is Xikii, which also peak my interest, but they don’t have APU cases.
Under 5L is my goal, but if its 5.5L, that’s fine. Thank you
edit: would like to know the cooler height with and without the fan
Have a look at the store at the Desktop page Framework lists the following heat sink specs:
123.75 x 123.15 x 54.58mm
It is not made clear what that includes but from the images I would assume that it is only the bare heat sink without fan and without mounting bracket.
But something doesn’t add up here. The Framework case is only 96 mm thick, while the MQ4 is 100 mm. Why does the latter support only 70 mm cooler height? Is it because of the optional SATA drive mount?
With it being 55mm, I can at minimum have a 15mm thick fan on it. But hopefully the 70mm limit is wrong and I can still put a full 25mm fan on it. Hopefully its just that optional drive mount that takes away some of the height
I’ll hopefully remember to give updates here, thank you again!
Just be aware that you might also need to mod the mounting as the official mounting bracket needs a bit of space above the fan. I am sure however that one could get the fan mounted in an alternative way if space is tight.
hard to say.
The 70mm is for me for a normal MB with a Bracketed CPU with shim… that is ~8,5mm (?) height. so it is 78,8 mm height from the MB.
In case of Framework the height are all from the MB. In the spec say: 75.88 FAN HEIGHT and a max of 83.2 mm with the FAN DUCT…
On some picture the MB is mount on U2 rack that is only 88,9 mm height …
So… it may need to remove the fan duct to fit…
Note: I did not see this case before, but look nice!
Actually, there seems to be a mismatch with measurements. According to the schematic here the requirements may be ~82mm but even this diagram does not quite make sense.
Has anyone installed the Framework motherboard in the Cooj Sparrow-MQ4 case?
If so, did you use the FLEX 350W or 600W power supply that can be buy with this case?
So, what about the noise from the power supply and the case in general?
Thanks.
Nice. I also canceled my desktop order and switched to the mainboard only: so now I’m back in control to have a silent PSU (and one with bigger fans). This even makes it easier to add an extra graphics card in future when the hardware gets outdated after a few years.
An alternative approach to getting a case for the Framework motherboard is to make/print one. I haven’t seen anyone do this specifically for the Desktop yet but there is this for maker inspiration. It uses MakerBeam aluminium as the skeleton but there are loads of alternative sources for these
