This is not quite what I had intended to post, and I will preface this by saying that Sergii issued me a partial refund (although even that took over a month to arrive). I was very hopeful about the case, and I understand this is basically a one-man hobby operation.
However, the product costs essentially the same (nearly $300 all-in for mine) as manufactured products of vastly better quality-- so I guess it makes sense if you create a completely custom case with your own dimensions and such; less so if you're looking for an AIO-supporting DAN Case / Louqe Ghost alternative, as I was.
I ordered the 9.3L v3.x AIO case in batch 6 on 9/15/2017 -- it was supposed to ship before 10/30/2017. After many delays and little visibility on what was happening (Sergii did reply to emails, but not much info on what was happening), the case finally arrived here in the US five months later, on 2/6/2018. I spent a while trying to build the PC into the case. Had a very difficult time -- the case has a lot of serious problems.
Here are the components in my build (I had purchased the key parts – AIO and GPU – after consulting with Sergii to make sure they would fit):
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 1800X
- Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty X370 Gaming-ITX/ac
- Graphics: EVGA Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti FTW3 11 GB
- RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws V 32GB (2x 16GB) DDR4 3200
- SSD: Samsung PM961 1 TB M.2 NVMe
- Power Supply: Corsair SF600
- AIO Liquid Cooler: Corsair H100i v2
- Fans: Corsair ML120 x2 (for AIO), Noctua NF-S12A (intake)
First are the quality problems -- unrelated to the case design issues:
- One of the four motherboard standoffs was very off (by several mm)- not even close to the correct location, so had to just rely on the other three.
- Radiator mounting holes were drilled wrong for the radiator, with only a few screws correctly aligned. There is not enough height to fit Corsair’s mounting screws (the top body panel hits the screw heads), and the screws provided with the case are not the right thread for the radiator. So had to find my own flat screws.
- The small screws in the side of the case (which serve to help the magnetic side panels stick) interfere with many different parts (intake fan, radiator, etc.)
- The rubber feet stuck on the bottom are made of poor material (make marks on every surface, and they come off with the slightest pressure)
- An aluminum body of this sort needs reinforcement around the screwholes (e.g. steel screw inserts - helicoil) - without that, the holes very quickly get stripped if you tighten
- The power switch / LED wires were not labelled, so had to guess to figure out which was which
- The side panels arrived quite bent out of shape; tried making them as straight as possible, but they're still not straight
- Acrylic side panels were cut in the wrong pattern
- Poor finish - streaks where the paint ran, marks, etc.
Then the design issues:
- There is not enough height to fit an AIO (Corsair H100i v2) with an SFX power supply (Corsair SF600) and full-sized GPU (EVGA 1080Ti FTW3).
- The radiator’s pipes are thick and cannot be detached from the CPU block. In trying to install the radiator, the power supply bracket got in the way, and eventually I had to remove and re-insert the bracket. But the bracket was riveted, so I had to drill out the rivets. Even then, there was not enough room to fit the power supply (Corsair SF600), and the bracket was cutting into the H100i’s pipes. There was no clearance for the PSU wiring. Eventually I had to remove the bracket, meaning the PSU could not be mounted anywhere.
- The way the PSU is supposed to be mounted means that for the Corsair SF600, the power wires for the motherboard are on the back and the GPU wires on the front, meaning they'd have to cross past each other to reach. There is not enough room for this and an intake fan below.
- There is no room for 120mm intake fan below with front USB ports. I had to cut off the whole corner of the Noctua fan, and also shave the corners of the USB header to fit; but even then, the fan hits the motherboard, so had to squeeze in very, very tight, and most of the 120mm fan screws were not aligned anyway.
- The PCIe riser cable goes inside the H100i radiator fan. I tried pulling the riser cable as tight as possible below the GPU, but there is less than 1 mm clearance between them, and after a few minutes the cable goes into the fan, which makes a very unpleasant sound and (when the GPU cools down) completely stops the fan from spinning. So I had to disconnect the radiator fan, leaving just one fan.
- With the radiator installed, there is no way to insert the GPU, as the USB header is in the way. But even the USB header was riveted, so I had to drill out the rivets to remove it.
- The power switch on the side is in the way of the GPU; I removed it and re-mounted next to the motherboard.
- Once I got the GPU in, and got screws and nuts to replace the rivets, the black plastic part of the USB header was slightly too big for GPU, so had to shave the USB header.
- A bigger problem is that 1) there is no vertical room for the GPU body itself (it hits the radiator fan). But beyond that, there is also zero space to fit the GPU power cable on top.
- So there was no way to fit the GPU at all - not enough height.
- The only remaining option was to move the PCIe slot down several mm, to give clearance for the GPU. I unscrewed the slot and adjusted the cable to move the slot down several mm.
- The PCIe slot then hit the AC power plug, so I had to remove the power plug; same with the front USB port header.
- Then I had to cut off the rear case PCIe card mount (the horizontal piece where the GPU is screwed in, and some of the vertical metal below it)
- Then the riser slot could not sit lower in the body, as the standoff was in the way, so had to cut off the standoff
- Then put the GPU into the slot, and technically it stays in place, but neither the GPU nor the PCIe slot it sits in (from the riser) are secured by anything but pressure from the side panel
- Except the side panels won't fit, as they use a little lip that slides into the body… but where they slide in is exactly the area filled in by the radiator, so with the H100i v2 installed, you cannot put the side panels on
- The only way I could mount the side panels was to break off the lips, but then the panels don't stay in
- Then had to cut out another few pieces from inside to have any way of getting the power supply in
- I had to place the power supply "just resting on other components" with the AC plug facing forward, so power cable coming from front of case (meaning can't put on front cover at all)
- Since the side panels don't stay in, I can only keep the case in anything close to one piece by using packing tape wrapped around tightly
Ultimately after cutting up the case to somehow make these things fit, I have a 240 mm radiator of which only one fan can run, due to the riser incompatibility (meaning less cooling for CPU), a GPU and PSU that both just sit there by pressure, not mounted to anything, front USB ports slid into the hole between the radiator pipe and the PSU – both sticking out of the front of the case (where the panel cannot go), and the whole thing kept together by shipping tape.
This has been a very frustrating experience.
I was inclined to ask Sergii to fix these issues via some replacement parts or a new case, but (1) I don’t have confidence that the quality problems can be solved with his current manufacturing process (e.g. how can something so basic as motherboard mount locations be so wrong?), and (2) I could not wait another 5 months to have a functional case.
Overall, quite a bit below my expectations -- but it could still make sense if you're truly customizing the build to your exact desired specs (and your specs are not within range of other, better-built cases out there).