Chimera Industries Cerberus: The 18L, mATX, USA-made enclosure

[PlayfulPhoenix]

Edit - Actually, just wondering, what if you went with the swappable backplates? Would that allow the general cost for most to be increased by a lower amount, while still allowing those that want the cutouts + grommets to pay a premium for them?

I actually thought of this, but with the ATX bracket and rear I/O bracket, we're already pushing it. So unfortunately we can't solve the problem that way.

Your other thoughts were helpful, though. Thanks for sharing (and thanks to everyone else, and all who continue to share).

Pardon me if this has already been asked, but are there any thoughts about a variant of the Cerberus for a full ATX motherboard? If not, would to have any qualms about 'borrowing' the specs of the Cerberus to manufacture my own variant for personal use?

Two parts to that question. First one: We've toyed with this internally, but it isn't necessarily as simple as just making the case taller and adding more slots - in part because having SFX as the default just doesn't make much sense. So we have no current plans for this sort of thing, at least insofar that we want to get Cerberus done before we invest a lot in subsequent designs.

Second one: in all likelihood, no. We've shared a simplified 3D model in the Resources section of the site that you're free to download and use to design this sort of thing, but we'd probably only share files fit for engineering if we ourselves could never get Cerberus out the door. (And we're feeling pretty confident that we will at this point)

 

[tedlas]

rear I/O bracket

But isn't that for mostly that company that wanted a large quantity of cases anyways?

 

[jeshikat]

Pardon me if this has already been asked, but are there any thoughts about a variant of the Cerberus for a full ATX motherboard?

I've thought about it. I think there are certainly those who want such a thing, but on the other hand the expectations of what's possible with an ATX case is much greater than a microATX chassis so it would be a tougher sell.

But isn't that for mostly that company that wanted a large quantity of cases anyways?

It is, but we figure we would offer it as an option if there's interest since the bracket is already designed.

 

[Phuncz]

Personally I would love an "ATX limited-support" design, just to be able to choose from 4 or 5 times as many boards, I would have no problems with the bottom 3 slots not being usable or limited usable.

I'm looking at Socket 2011-3 and for mATX with a fully enabled M.2 (PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe) slot, there are only 4 choices: three ASRock boards (Extreme4, Fatal1ty Killer and Fatal1ty Killer/3.1; basically 98% identical) and one EVGA X99 Micro2 board which has horrible M.2 support according to the web.
So I basically have only one board to choose from (Fatal1ty costs more because of marketing and "Killer" crap), even though it's probably a good board (looking at the ASRock X99M Extreme4). For Socket 1151 there is more choice but still not really close to ATX or mITX which saddens me.

 

[Theelichtje]

Personally, i think the best way to compromise for the cutouts it just to cut them, and ship without grommets. When the panel is on,you won't be able to see them anyway and it adds a lot of possibilities for future use.

 

[Ceros_X]

Have you guys thought about something like these? Obviously a different finish/material could be used but perhaps cheaper than the current solution?

 

[jeshikat]

I'm looking at Socket 2011-3 and for mATX with a fully enabled M.2 (PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe) slot, there are only 4 choices: three ASRock boards (Extreme4, Fatal1ty Killer and Fatal1ty Killer/3.1; basically 98% identical) and one EVGA X99 Micro2 board which has horrible M.2 support according to the web.

Gigabyte is showing off refreshed X99 boards at PAX. They're all ATX but there's hope that one of the other manufacturers will release a new mATX X99 board in anticipation of Broadwell that's better than the current models.

Have you guys thought about something like these? Obviously a different finish/material could be used but perhaps cheaper than the current solution?

Metal covers would be nice but a quick check doesn't turn up any in black, or at a reasonable price even unfinished.

 

[Phuncz]

Gigabyte is showing off refreshed X99 boards at PAX. They're all ATX but there's hope that one of the other manufacturers will release a new mATX X99 board in anticipation of Broadwell that's better than the current models.

Yeah I've seen those ATX Gigabyte boards, including the extremely tacky white shrouds. I would expect ASRock or Asus to consider releasing a new board, but they'll probably wait for the launch of the new CPUs.

 

[Roll Over]

My vote would be to leave the cutouts, eliminate the costly grommets. Those that want to water cool should bear this expense, and pick the size/colour grommets they want. This is also a good choice for the 'repurposability' you may not want to water cool now, but in a later build?

 

[jeshikat]

For a hypothetical ATX variant of Cerberus, would anyone mind if the standoff locations were fixed? There isn't room behind the motherboard tray for normal screw-in standoffs so they'd have to be the pressed-in type, permanently installed in the following locations marked in green:

This looks like it'd work for most ATX boards, but not all.

 

[Phuncz]

I wouldn't mind, unless it turns out 25% or more of the boards aren't combatible.

About the tubing cutout discussion, it'll probably be too expensive but oh well:

So basically a steel plate with two holes for screws. It could be used on the outside or the inside, although it would look "stacked" on the seperate rear bracket when on the outside. But it could be an all-purpose plate for I/O or the power button even.

 

[jeshikat]

it'll probably be too expensive but oh well:

Yup, an additional custom metal part would be way more expensive than grommets so that won't be feasible.

 

[PlayfulPhoenix]

I'm curious, given it's a question that seems to logically follow what's been said - would anyone be particularly upset about having the cutouts in place, without the grommets?

 

[MunneY]

I'd rather have holes and no grommets.

 

[Isomer]

I'm curious, given it's a question that seems to logically follow what's been said - would anyone be particularly upset about having the cutouts in place, without the grommets?

I don't think most people would care about how the back looks like as long as it's functional.

 

[Josh | NFC]

I'm curious, given it's a question that seems to logically follow what's been said - would anyone be particularly upset about having the cutouts in place, without the grommets?

I've never hated user-punchout holes personally. I think they look fine.

 

[artimaeus]

I'd be totally cool with fixed standoff locations

 

[tedlas]

just give us the diameter of the hole, the thickness of the metal, and we can 3d print a pop-in hole cover ourselves.

 

[Phuncz]

Or eBay some solid rubber grommets for 4$ with shipping, I did with my Ncase M1 because the standard ones are meh.

 

[iFreilicht]

just give us the diameter of the hole, the thickness of the metal, and we can 3d print a pop-in hole cover ourselves.

Or eBay some solid rubber grommets for 4$ with shipping