Concept Circle CORE - 280mm rad, 3-slot GPU, 78mm CPU height, mesh panels, 13.7L ITX

[WinterCharm]

In hindsight it's laughable, considering the state of gpus now.

None of us could have known, TBH. Even for Winter One, the Beta Units (v10) ended up being too small to accommodate a 3090, so I had to make a last minute decision to change the size for final production. That sort of change (as you know) was a harrowing experience, to say the least. o_o

Needless to say, I've learnt a lot and am back with a vengeance. My goal here is to contribute to the community by helping to push the boundaries of case design. I will only consider manufacturing a concept if there's a lot of interest, otherwise it's too risky. Until then I'm going to keep posting new ideas.

I think this is a concept you should at least consider making. There isn't enough experimentation in case materials, just yet. Also, I just love the visual design. It's beautiful!

Ps. It's awesome to see the progress you've made on Winter One. From someone who's been on that journey before - mad respect and keep it up

Thank you that means a lot from someone who inspired me to do this.

 

[Vir]

Eyy! This is amazing! The colours are great and I'm curious how it would look in transluscent orange. If this went into production with HDPlex support I'd order in a second.

 

[the1q]

Dope. About to buy 2 more polycarbonate keebs so this is right on point. Color me interested.

 

[Pikaroto]

Boom. Semi-transparent black PC is definitely an interesting look.

I gotta say though, it probably looks even better in frosted white.

iMac G3 vibes.

 

[BRSxIgnition]

Loving the look of the frosted white - subscribed to the email list and this thread.

 

[Brude27]

Needless to say, I lost track of the concept thread on your invite forums a while back... I assume this is what you came up with, and boy oh boy this is a beauty! I’m glad to see your back, and I’ll be following this project closely as it moves forward.

 

[oOflyeyesOo]

Would be really nice to have a option for a distro front panel.

 

[xredlinexx1]

Looks really cool! I'm especially interested in the polycarbonate. Can't say I'd actually want one that's semi translucent, but you have peaked my interest. Are there any concerns about rigidity of the case? Will parts securely screw together? Will the cases ultimately fall apart from repeated rebuilds, due to screw holes stripping? So many questions haha.

Are there any existing examples of polycarbonate cases?

 

[Ricky]

Will this have mini DTX support, or just mini ITX?

 

[Aleksander]

Any ETA?

 

[CircleTect]

Will this have mini DTX support, or just mini ITX?

Technically yes, but only if you sacrifice 280 and 240mm radiator support, and that's the biggest selling point of this concept.

Any ETA?

There's not enough interest in this concept, so I won't be producing it. I am working on a new idea. Please comment what you'd like to see in a new case!

Still looks pretty cool in stealth black.

 

[Ricky]

I don’t think there’s a lack of interest, but if you insist on feedback for a new one, the only changes I would recommend are SFX-L and DTX support, for future proofing. Cases are probably the thing to be kept the longest along with monitors, so adding these (especially SFX-L) are going to enable the case to be able to keep pace with whatever madness CPU and GPU manufacturers come up with.

P.S. Perhaps dual 280mm support as well?

 

[thelaughingman]

I would recommend are SFX-L and DTX support,

I'm personally for this, even if stepping up the case volume into the 15-16L bracket

 

[CircleTect]

I don’t think there’s a lack of interest

Injection molding requires a large capital outlay upfront to make the tooling, so would be un-affordable for a small batch. Would need about a thousand orders upfront. I thought I would float the idea anyway just in case to see interest levels because I think using injection molding would solve a lot of the scalability issues we often see with bespoke extrusion / CNC designs.

 

[Ricky]

Injection molding requires a large capital outlay upfront to make the tooling, so would be un-affordable for a small batch. Would need about a thousand orders upfront. I thought I would float the idea anyway just in case to see interest levels because I think using injection molding would solve a lot of the scalability issues we often see with bespoke extrusion / CNC designs.

Understood, thanks for elaborating!

 

[oOflyeyesOo]

No one will work with you, and keeping the molds in stock, to produce as needed, as in 200-500 amounts? Lots of smaller chinese factories can be more accepting

 

[REVOCCASES]

You can try getting a quote from Star Rapid (formerly known as Star Prototype) for vacuum casting.

They are not the cheapest ones but focused on smaller quantities, quality is also good. Their engineers are pretty helpful and can provide some advice how to make the parts easier / cheaper for production. I have worked with them a few times for plastic parts.

Star Rapid - Low-Volume Manufacturing & Prototyping

Prototyping & Manufacturing Enabling Innovation Through Prototyping And Manufacturing Solutions At Star Rapid, we provide high-quality prototyping, rapid tooling, and low-volume manufacturing services to support your product development needs. Our international team of engineers works with you...

www.starrapid.com

 

[AlexTzone]

IMO you have the cleanest case designs period! Love that you make beautiful design from all sides (I’ve seen many cases that outright ignore the back side, but not this or Circle Pro). It surprises me that Apple hasn’t begged you to join their design team at this point!

 

[CircleTect]

Hehe, thanks @AlexTzone. I actually have been approached by the Apple recruitment team in the past, but didn't have enough industry experience at the time to proceed to the next stage.