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

[Horstprott]

I would be utterly overjoyed with a battered and semi incomplete prototype case if there are any going to be left lying about after the final prototyping stage. all minor points raised so far are (to me anyways) minor points. filters....i have magnetic strips and plenty of suitable filter material to trail out till i find one that works.

hang on thats a point..... have you thought of having one of the Nova-00 prototypes as an incentive offer for the crowd funding campaign?

someone may well pay over the odds for the chance of having what is in effect the rarest variant?

if i'm feeling ill or flush due to a casino win i would probably do it!!

 

[Horstprott]

i typed that as david was typing pretty much the same thing

 

[Horstprott]

oh everyone's gone to bed.......

 

[alamilla]

Going back to my original thoughts on helping the whole process, the "expediting" reference was more in the lines of how we as backers could help you streamline manufacture and get this off the assembly line as soon as possible.

Expediting of shipping wouldn't be of a whole lot of benefit to me personally; I'll still have to pay horrendous import taxes here in the UK unless it's marked as a gift

I hope to be one of the first 100 though and the hand stamped suggestion I think is a really great idea.

 

[jeshikat]

i assume a lot of thought will be going into packaging/shipping materials, (so hopefully i won't need a case for my case)

please don't consider cutting corners here; it's how you are introducing yourself to the world!

The current plan is for closed cell foam and thick cardboard. Fancy packaging like Apple or Razer is expensive. With some of Razer's products the packages cost as much or more to manufacture than the product itself.

i'd pay $20 for expedited delivery if you threw in an engraved production number somewhere onto the body (say, first 100?)

I'm still debating on the serial number, it's more difficult with Cerberus because of the powder coat so it can't be laser engraved like it was with the NCASE M1.

Lots o' text

Last I heard the SX700-LPT was set to release in March.

We'll probably go with a 30-day campaign.

The ATX and SFX versions will be the same price and you'll have to pick at the time of the pledge. We should be able to switch orders between them on a case by case basis though until the cases are actually close to shipping and we have to lock everything down.

For a Fury-X type card, if they come in a single-slot form factor with a slim 120mm, then two of them plus a rad for the CPU is possible. If they're the exact same form as the Fury-X, double-slot with a thick rad then there isn't room for two of those plus CPU rad.

make a pre-production run of 100. you'll have the demand. i think your average kickstarter values "prototype pre-production limited edition" over "final version" because at this point, the flaws are a selling point.

That's along the lines of what I'm thinking instead of an expedited version.

 

[Zerofool]

Last I heard the SX700-LPT was set to release in March.

A sigh of relief! Thanks for the info. Fingers crossed!

For a Fury-X type card, if they come in a single-slot form factor with a slim 120mm, then two of them plus a rad for the CPU is possible. If they're the exact same form as the Fury-X, double-slot with a thick rad then there isn't room for two of those plus CPU rad.

I bet there are quite a few engineers within both AMD and Nvidia which see great potential in such products, but I'm not so sure the marketing guys are on the same page :/ Let's hope for the best.

 

[david]

The current plan is for closed cell foam and thick cardboard. Fancy packaging like Apple or Razer is expensive. With some of Razer's products the packages cost as much or more to manufacture than the product itself.



I'm still debating on the serial number, it's more difficult with Cerberus because of the powder coat so it can't be laser engraved like it was with the NCASE M1.



Last I heard the SX700-LPT was set to release in March.

We'll probably go with a 30-day campaign.

The ATX and SFX versions will be the same price and you'll have to pick at the time of the pledge. We should be able to switch orders between them on a case by case basis though until the cases are actually close to shipping and we have to lock everything down.

For a Fury-X type card, if they come in a single-slot form factor with a slim 120mm, then two of them plus a rad for the CPU is possible. If they're the exact same form as the Fury-X, double-slot with a thick rad then there isn't room for two of those plus CPU rad.



That's along the lines of what I'm thinking instead of an expedited version.

i had edited my previous post before reading your response.

the engraving doesn't have to be the outside as long as it gives the client a reason to open the case. you could write something, all different, inside each case, that we can use as a conversation piece. what did you learn as you built this?

 

[PNP]

Yes, little rubber grommets. Nothing fancy.

Do you mean the motherboard tray mounts?

Whoops, yes I do. Well with that placement, switching drives out will be considerably less troublesome than I was thinking.

 

[jeshikat]

hang on thats a point..... have you thought of having one of the Nova-00 prototypes as an incentive offer for the crowd funding campaign?

someone may well pay over the odds for the chance of having what is in effect the rarest variant?

You wouldn't want Nova-00, part of the reason we went with the clips for the side panels on Cerberus even though they're a bit pricey is that the panels on Nova-00 are extremely difficult to remove sometimes if the frame is out of alignment. Plus it's my first prototype so I'm loathe to sell it

Going back to my original thoughts on helping the whole process, the "expediting" reference was more in the lines of how we as backers could help you streamline manufacture and get this off the assembly line as soon as possible.

The main problem is the long lead times for the power cords and custom front IO and there really isn't much that can be done to speed up that process short of throwing lots of money at the company and even then that will only get you so far.

the engraving doesn't have to be the outside as long as it gives the client a reason to open the case. you could write something, all different, inside each case, that we can use as a conversation piece. what did you learn as you built this?

Ah, so like a certificate of authenticity like the Cooler Master CSX cases came with? http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/coolermaster_stacker_830/images/83.htm

 

[david]

You wouldn't want Nova-00, part of the reason we went with the clips for the side panels on Cerberus even though they're a bit pricey is that the panels on Nova-00 are extremely difficult to remove sometimes if the frame is out of alignment. Plus it's my first prototype so I'm loathe to sell it



The main problem is the long lead times for the power cords and custom front IO and there really isn't much that can be done to speed up that process short of throwing lots of money at the company and even then that will only get you so far.



Ah, so like a certificate of authenticity like the Cooler Master CSX cases came with? http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/coolermaster_stacker_830/images/83.htm

no, the characters should be affixed, etched onto the plexi at least. is it 100% powdercoated inside?

 

[jeshikat]

Literally all the metal parts are powder coated except the feet, which are coated with Alodine.

What about the expansion slot dust cover?

It's the little plate to the right of the slots in this pic

 

[david]

Literally all the metal parts are powder coated except the feet, which are coated with Alodine.

What about the expansion slot dust cover?

It's the little plate to the right of the slots in this pic

sure, that's perfect

 

[Horstprott]

if it was stamped prior to powder coat it should still be visible through the finish. then it would be a simple job to pick it out in another colour. might be a lot of faff but it would look sweet.

 

[Horstprott]

Or even a tiny plate like a VIN plate. again tho more expense and faff.

 

[PNP]

Surely there's paint that will adhere to powder coats? Hydroflask uses it on their containers and it seems at least as durable as the underlying material. In that same vein, are you likely to release drawings or scale templates of the outer panels? I'm trying to plan out a custom paint job and it would be a lot easier if I could test schemes beforehand.

 

[tedlas]

2. Order the ATX variant, beg you guys to offer these as optional accessories or some sort of "Conversion Kit"

You can just get the atx version and use an adapter plate ($8), and put the sfx psu where the atx psu goes.

 

[tedlas]

I'm still debating on the serial number, it's more difficult with Cerberus because of the powder coat so it can't be laser engraved like it was with the NCASE M1.

You don't need a laser engraver. This one is a bunch faster. Or you can use plaques, and epoxy them on.

It seems like the rear exhaust is a removable plate, you can do it on that.

 

[jeshikat]

Surely there's paint that will adhere to powder coats? Hydroflask uses it on their containers and it seems at least as durable as the underlying material. In that same vein, are you likely to release drawings or scale templates of the outer panels? I'm trying to plan out a custom paint job and it would be a lot easier if I could test schemes beforehand.

Powder coat is basically just melted plastic, so maybe a plastic paint? @Josh | NFC may have suggestions.

You don't need a laser engraver. This one is a bunch faster. Or you can use plaques, and epoxy them on.

That's neat, they engrave it after powder coating. But I was thinking silkscreen on the dust cover plate since it's fairly easy and Sliger Designs can do it.

 

[PNP]

You can silkscreen powder coats?? With what, epoxy ink?

 

[tedlas]

That's neat, they engrave it after powder coating. But I was thinking silkscreen on the dust cover plate since it's fairly easy and Sliger Designs can do it.

yash, and it looks really good because of the metal's shine and the contrast. the tool costs $70 with the replacement bits being $20, but i'm not sure how long they last, although they should last a while as you are engraving plastic and steel, and not marble and granite. Then all you need is a cnc of some sort, which Sliger should already have.

It seems like it brings up some burr, so cleaning it up like he did is a good idea to keep a suuper nice finish.