Completed Custom SFF/mITX Aluminum Case
- Thread starter grsychckn
- Start date
When you are gearing up for your kickstarter, I highly recommend sending the next version out to YouTubers for publicity if possible. I too think this has a lot of potential.
Any news on the new bad boy?I am loving mine!
Funny you should ask today. I got word that the first prototype is going to be finished today and they claim they'll be shipping it out to me tomorrow. They will not be painting it as I had a few mistakes in my model for some fasteners so I'm going to use this first one to adjust mounting positions. As soon as I have something to share I'll post it - probably in a new thread.
Edit: Too many "todays".
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Thank you for the kind words, I'm going to try and send some out for marketing, but making contact is quite difficult with most YouTubers unless you are also contributing to their revenue (which I would). That said, I'd be interested in hearing which ones you think would be the best ones for me to contact.
Hardwarecanucks, LinusTechTips, JayzTwoCents, and BitWit are some off the top of my head. Having them get the cases and post a video just ahead of your kickstarter seems to be best way to increase interest.
Ok, first prototypes made and not completely fastened but bent and were shipped to me today.
Ok, first prototypes made and not completely fastened but bent and were shipped to me today.
I like the hexagons a lot. Looks like the design has changed quite a bit, but I don't think it looks any bigger. Is the power port between the Motherboard and GPU ports? One thing I kinda miss, at least from looking at it is mounting places for fans on the side. I see a couple screw places that look like they could hold something though... nice work.
Regarding publicity, a lot of people seem to forget SFF Network does reviews :|
I will reach out when I'm ready - I'd love to send you a case and get your thoughts. Are you the person to contact when I'm ready?
Indeed - I like the size of the smaller holes as well. These may be too large but the idea is to reduce the machine time to lower costs. I cut the number of punches nearly in half by enlarging the holes, even though I paid for the new hex punch tool. If I manage to make a lot of these, this time and punch count savings should significantly reduce cost. That said, I will probably tweak the hole pattern and might include both size hex holes in the future.
Thank you. The power will be located between the mainboard and GPU - at least for now. I'm testing this location because it saves me from making the case larger and thus wasting space. I have not yet attempted to make holes for fan mounting yet - I have to finalize the hole pattern and location for the components inside. I was going to address the fan mounts after I know where they *could* be added. I'm going to start a new thread either tonight or tomorrow because I'll have the prototypes in hand today and I'd like to leave this one for the 400.
I feel comfortable saying that my target is $150 or less (before shipping). That all depends on what quantity I can sell though. I am not currently at the point where I have cost figures from the machine shop but I do know they claim to be able to produce 100 units a week if there is a large order.
I totally skipped over the word "thick". I'll get some current dimensions when I get home tonight.
The current prototype is 14.125" x 12" x 2.625". In mm thats 359 x 305 x 67. That totals 7.33L in volume.
I'm probably going to extend the 12" dimension to allow for longer video cards as my R9 290X Lighting will not fit. I want my Sapphire Fury Nitro+ and my Lighting to fit inside the case. I also want to get my hands on an MSI Gaming X to make sure the width is supported. I'm going to take some pictures tomorrow and start the new thread.
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Ok, I haven't had time to start a new thread yet - I want to get all my information correct before I do. That means it will probably be this coming week before I start it as I solidify some of the design decisions. I don't want too many cooks in the kitchen. Until then, I thought I'd throw out a spoiler of the special side panel I had made for the 401 prototype.
Ok, I haven't had time to start a new thread yet - I want to get all my information correct before I do. That means it will probably be this coming week before I start it as I solidify some of the design decisions. I don't want too many cooks in the kitchen. Until then, I thought I'd throw out a spoiler of the special side panel I had made for the 401 prototype.
Look fantastic! I really like the size of the hexagonal pattern. Keep it up!
Thank you sir! I wanted to give a quick update to let you all know I haven't been idle. I've been tweaking the design to allow for longer video cards and I added some 60mm fan mounting holes. I also changed the stand to simply use two metal pieces that are much smaller and less complicated than the larger piece. This should help for people who are traveling. The first 4 prototypes I had made included wrong hole dimensions for some of the fasteners so I couldn't really test a lot of the mounting locations. I did what I could and now I'm almost ready to send the updated model to the machine shop for revision 2. Including a new render below.
P.S. I've decided to wait and start the new thread until I have a prototype in working condition where I can show all the components installed. This will take some time I'm sure as the back-and-forth between myself and the machine shop takes at least a week before I can get a new prototype in my hands.
