Here is an album showing my case, which I just received in Australia on November 16, having shipped on October 28. I was in batch 5, so the ship date was delayed about four weeks from what was originally listed; I think that's OK for a semi-custom product such as this.
I'm very happy with the case overall. It's beautifully compact with basically no wasted space. The build actually wasn't that hard, since there are so few components. Mounting the motherboard was straightforward. Power cabling was a bit fiddly, obviously, in such a small space. There is limited space underneath the power supply so I had to fold the excess cable length back on itself. I've yet to purchase and install a graphics card but I don't think there'll be any issues running those power cables. The 278mm maximum length specification looks to be spot on, with the power button being the limiting factor. (I'm hoping to get a Sapphire RX Vega 56, which I think should fit and be within the limits of my power supply.)
There are a few small quality issues. Tolerance on the motherboard mounts is a bit sloppy, but the case flexes slightly to get the holes in alignment. As a result, the video connectors are slightly out of alignment with the back plate (see image 14), but this does not prevent insertion of the monitor cable. The stiffness of the case metal is fine—no softness as was reported in an earlier batch. One of the hex standoffs for the motherboard came loose and spins when I turn the screw, preventing further tightening; no big deal, although it might be annoying if I need to detach the mother board later. There is a slight bend in the case floor above one of the feet (image 5), which might be responsible for a slight rocking of the case when placed on the table. (The gap is only a fraction of a millimetre though.) Finally, there is a transparent separator between the GPU compartment and the rest of the case (for insulation, presumably). This looks to have been manually cut out with scissors and is a bit sloppy; a more precise cutout would have looked better.
More disappointing was the omission of several accessory parts of my order. The parcel was missing dust filters, SSD mounting brackets and the front headphone assembly. I emailed Custom MOD, who promised to send the parts in an additional parcel next week. Luckily I'm using an M.2 SSD to start with, so it didn't prevent me from completing the build. Most problematic of all was the lack of a hole in the front panel to accommodate the headphone jack. I'll be able to drill the hole myself, but that's a regrettable omission.
My main parts list:
- motherboard: ASUS STRIX H270i GAMING
- CPU: i7-7700
- power supply: Corsair SF450
- cooler: ID-COOLING IS-40 V3
The power supply fan does not spin when idle and I can barely hear the CPU fan, so I'm very pleased with noise levels so far. Presumably it'll kick in a bit more once I start actually working on the machine.
So early impressions are of a great case all-in-all, with actual availability being especially attractive compared to other vapourware cases! Obviously some room for further polishing of the design and quality, but I also feel the manufacturer could improve communication in this forum somewhat, so that customers feel more in-the-loop about progress.
