Received my unpainted modmini yesterday. batch 8..
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Soon we will finish sending out lot 8 and start sending the shipment 9. We were let down by the painting company. Sorry for delay. We will also send you the tracks on the email.
The OG hex vent pattern is still my favorite. Looks really nice unpainted actually. Maybe a polish and clearcoat?!Received my unpainted modmini yesterday. batch 8..
Looking foreword to seeing the build.
Thanks..temporarily will be using plastidip.. My previous mini s4 had polish panels (DIY), Fingerprint magnet and need to wipe every other day..
Will reuse my old a8 7600 and gtx 1050ti for this build..
What batch are you in?Ssd 2.5 won't allign to holes, ended up using double sided tape.
Need to cut this portion to fit my ssd.
Pardon my bluntness, but this is getting a little ridiculous. People are routinely receiving their cases with major defects, I/O shields don't fit, graphics cards don't fit, now SSDs don't fit... I mean any of those is solid grounds for RMA, but of course there is no warranty. I understand this is a one-man project, so a defect here and there is understandable, but people are receiving their cases essentially unusable.
I get that everyone who orders a case is something of a beta tester and that's understood, but at the same time I think it's a reasonable expectation to receive something that is not garbage for $300. By this batch the manufacturing details should have been ironed out. With only 7-8 cases per batch and manufacturing tolerances so inconsistent, every case should be tested by putting in a motherboard + I/O shield, a Gigabyte 1080 Mini, an MSI Aero 1070 ITX, and an SSD and making sure everything fits and all the holes line up before it's sent out. That is super baseline QC. I don't think it's asking for much.
This case is a unique product, and I really wanna be excited for it, but it's really hard to recommend with these issues. The reason I haven't bought one is because of the negative reports. And I'm sure a lot of other people silently feel the same way. This case could be selling triple digits per batch if it was manufactured well.
Sorry for the rant.
I get that everyone who orders a case is something of a beta tester and that's understood, but at the same time I think it's a reasonable expectation to receive something that is not garbage for $300. By this batch the manufacturing details should have been ironed out. With only 7-8 cases per batch and manufacturing tolerances so inconsistent, every case should be tested by putting in a motherboard + I/O shield, a Gigabyte 1080 Mini, an MSI Aero 1070 ITX, and an SSD and making sure everything fits and all the holes line up before it's sent out. That is super baseline QC. I don't think it's asking for much.
This case is a unique product, and I really wanna be excited for it, but it's really hard to recommend with these issues. The reason I haven't bought one is because of the negative reports. And I'm sure a lot of other people silently feel the same way. This case could be selling triple digits per batch if it was manufactured well.
Sorry for the rant.
That's quite interesting that hdd didn't fit. I received my case like 2 weeks ago. Haven't had the time to take pics and such, but I didn't have any problems with my hdd. In fack, unlike the pic, I have metal brackets to hold my hdd so I can screw it on the sides. The holes are 1/4 inch long so I have some wiggle room to push it up and down. In the pic, there's nothing to screw the hdd on its sides. As I'm on batch 7 4.0L, I would assume that ryandvd got a older batch. Or maybe a more recent 3.5L?
Here's is my review of my 4.0L version 4 hexagonal holes black case with removable dust filters:
Computer parts: Gigabyte GA-H170n-WIFI, EVGA GTX 1060 SC, Intel i5-6500, Corsair DDR4 2 X 8GB 2400, Noctua L9i, G-Unique Archdemon Limited edition with 400W power adaptor.
Shipping: A bit more than 3 weeks
Packaging: Received it in a normal cardboard box with styrofoam to hold the smaller box that contained the box with the case. It seemed well protected in my opinion.
First look: The case looks amazing. The black paint seems well applied. Only downside is that a few sections where the dust filters were glowed didn't stay glowed. Probably because of transport. Other than that, I have to say this thing is really small and light. #Exited
The built: Installation was somewhat of a challenge, though not unexpected. But I managed to pull through with a few tried here and there. In the end, everything fits.
The challenges:
Would I recommend the case?
If you can wait, are ready to pay more for a custom case, you understand that it's a work in progress and accept certain limitations (heat and size), then YES! I would like to see some improvements done. I would say that at least 3 problems that I have stated has been fixed. The top screw, the front USB side and if the extra 5 mm height of version 5 is space added at the bottom, that would fix the I/O shield of the m/b and the cables of the archdemon. So at this point, we just need to know if @sergiiua fixed the problems I had with the video card and this would basically it. Everyone should also know that you can ask @sergiiua to make custom modifications, so if there's anything you want or don't like, you can ask him to modify it.
Anything else?
If you're thinking of buying this case and haven't purchased your hardware yet, I would suggest using my review, any other reviews you might see and comments by people that purchased this case to chose your hardware as to have the easiest time to do the install. Also, please get the 4.8L instead of the 3.5L. It's not that much bigger and less of a headache for the installation. Unless you want the bragging rights. At that point, there's no hope for you.
I'm gonna end this by saying, @sergiiua I'm loving my case and thank you for making it. Wish I needed a second one.
Here's is my review of my 4.0L version 4 hexagonal holes black case with removable dust filters:
Computer parts: Gigabyte GA-H170n-WIFI, EVGA GTX 1060 SC, Intel i5-6500, Corsair DDR4 2 X 8GB 2400, Noctua L9i, G-Unique Archdemon Limited edition with 400W power adaptor.
Shipping: A bit more than 3 weeks
Packaging: Received it in a normal cardboard box with styrofoam to hold the smaller box that contained the box with the case. It seemed well protected in my opinion.
First look: The case looks amazing. The black paint seems well applied. Only downside is that a few sections where the dust filters were glowed didn't stay glowed. Probably because of transport. Other than that, I have to say this thing is really small and light. #Exited
The built: Installation was somewhat of a challenge, though not unexpected. But I managed to pull through with a few tried here and there. In the end, everything fits.
The challenges:
- Motherboard I/O shield: The m/b shield wouldn't go down enough to fit the m/b. The problem is that all around m/b I/O shields, there's a 2 mm border to hold it in place so that you can't push it to far when installing it. That was the 2mm I needed to make the shield fit the m/b. So I cut it and that was the end of that problem.
- Video card: At first I had a problem installing my video card. The dam metal bracket protrudes beyond the side of the card where the fan is. Making the case 2-3 mm larger to give the video card side that extra space would be helpful. But I can't really blame @sergiiua on that. The official dimensions of that video card on the EVGA website are wrong. This has been discused on this forum a few months ago and I wasn't expecting that version 4 had a fix for it. I do hope that version 5 didn't just add space on the m/b side just for the Cryorig C7. The metal lip where you can screw the card in place could be 1-2 mm lower. I felt like that card could have gone in the PCI-E connector a bit more. But then, it's working, so I'm not complaining. Just hoping that @sergiiua will use this review to make his case even better.
- Hard drive: I do have enough space to install 2 x 15mm hds from what I can see. I only have 1, but I see nothing stopping me from installing a second. One thing I noticed is that I had to install the hd with the connectors facing the bottom or else I would have had a problem with the metal piece that hold the m/b section and the front plate. That's the metal part that ryandvd had to cut. Not a big deal really. I even had enough space to send my sata cable and the excess hd power cable between the hd and the front plate. Looks like there is a bit of cable management available after all. ;-)
- Archdemon: To be honest, that was the worst part of the install. Why you might ask? Have a look at my motherboard here. You'll notice that the 24 pin connector is at the top left. But when you install it in the case, you have to put the m/b upside down. So the 24 pin is now bottom left. It wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't for the fact that the cables coming out of the archdemon is also pointing down. And since there's next to no space between the m/b and the bottom of the case, there's very little clearance left between the archdemon and the bottom. I had to slowly push it down, hoping I wouldn't brake the solders. I did finally make it after 15 minutes of working the problem. The other problem I had was that the external USB I asked for is on the same side as the m/b. This thing is about 30 mm in length before the cable that connect to the m/b starts. And that cable is directly in the path of the archdemon. It's also not the most flexible when it's coming out of the hard plastic part. I had to push that sucker as much I could towards the bottom to prevent it from touching the archdemon as I wasn't sure if or how hot it could get. So, you can imagine how installing the archdemon could have been a challenged.
- Clearance: Finally, everything is installed. The computer starts. I have a big smile on my face as I'm happy I made this work without any issues. I close the case. No problems there. Put my headphones and start a game. At some point I hear a weird sound. I take off my headphone and I can hear a noise coming from my case. As I stated at the beginning, I got removable dust filters. My 1060's fan was touching the dust filter. I decided to removed it figuring I didn't really care that much about it and it doesn't let enough air in to adequately cool the card. Close the case again and still, the fan is touching the side of the case. I had to install tie raps at the end of my video card, where the front of the case is, so that it would get closer to the middle of the board. My view on this is that because the metal bracket of the video card protrudes by about 2 mm, as I stated earlier, so it make the part where the video connection are push more towards the interior, resulting in the other end of the card moving away from the center of the case. In case I'm not explaining well, it's like having your card lay flat on a table and you just lift the end of it a few mm up. That's what it's doing, but in this case, it's on it's side.
- Screws: The 5th screw, the one that is on top is more a problem then anything. The screw touches the core frontal plate. What I call the core frontal plate is the one you see in ryandvd where the hd is placed flat on. There's another frontal plate that you install to hide all of this and then you can close the case with the 4 side screws and the one on top. I'm pointing it out as I'm doing a review of version, but to anyone ordering version 5, @sergiiua fixed that issue. No more top screw. Good job.
- Frontal USB port: The port was on the right side of the case when looking at the front. Granted I did not specify putting it on the left, but I didn't notice from the few pics of people showing there case, if they had a front USB, that it would be a problem with the PSU. If I had a suggestion to anyone, it would be to ask it to be in the left side unless you have a reason not to do so. The core front place already has the cutout, it's just the front cover plate that needs a hole that can't be changed. The pics of version 5 show a front USB on the left, so I guess @sergiiua has already figured it was a better place to put it.
- Removable filter: Since no one had bought it or said anything on the forum about it, I figured I would pay the extra. Better to pay it and try it than wishing I had purchased it and not knowing. Personally, it's to restrictive airflow wise. My video card couldn't get enough air to cool down and had to get the fan to spine faster just to compensate. I know I usually play with my headphones, but even then I can hear the fan in the back ground. I might just keep the one on top and on the m/b side, but as for the video card side, I'm not putting it back. I also didn't expect it to be glued to the case. I though it was magnetic. Just in case someone wants to know, the glue doesn't stay on the case if you remove it. My best guess is @sergiiua is using black glue from a glue gun. I have no opinion on the matter if it's good or not. I just figured the more info I can get the better.
If you can wait, are ready to pay more for a custom case, you understand that it's a work in progress and accept certain limitations (heat and size), then YES! I would like to see some improvements done. I would say that at least 3 problems that I have stated has been fixed. The top screw, the front USB side and if the extra 5 mm height of version 5 is space added at the bottom, that would fix the I/O shield of the m/b and the cables of the archdemon. So at this point, we just need to know if @sergiiua fixed the problems I had with the video card and this would basically it. Everyone should also know that you can ask @sergiiua to make custom modifications, so if there's anything you want or don't like, you can ask him to modify it.
Anything else?
If you're thinking of buying this case and haven't purchased your hardware yet, I would suggest using my review, any other reviews you might see and comments by people that purchased this case to chose your hardware as to have the easiest time to do the install. Also, please get the 4.8L instead of the 3.5L. It's not that much bigger and less of a headache for the installation. Unless you want the bragging rights. At that point, there's no hope for you.
I'm gonna end this by saying, @sergiiua I'm loving my case and thank you for making it. Wish I needed a second one.
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Ssd 2.5 won't allign to holes, ended up using double sided tape.
The counter sinks are drilled, not punched. Can tell by burrs on top side. Most likely they were left out of tool setup on this run and hand added after, probably not the fault of the case designer.
Batch 8 revision 4 to be exact, mine is 3.5l version, found a new problem
gtx 1050ti won't work inside the case(no signal), I can force it to gpu riser but it won't allign to back panel..tried low profile gtx 1030 and this is what it look likes..
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I think this is the culpruit for my gpu tilt and io shield..
there is a 2mm gap in top
gtx 1050ti won't work inside the case(no signal), I can force it to gpu riser but it won't allign to back panel..tried low profile gtx 1030 and this is what it look likes..
I think this is the culpruit for my gpu tilt and io shield..
there is a 2mm gap in top
Same problem here.. using pico psu 160xt and msi a88xi ac, no space for my other 12volts port.. The archdemon is the perfect psu for this build, the hdplex 160 or new dynamo 160 will not work for my build..
To be honest, I really like this case (dan a4 layout)..will try to DIY next year if I can fix it's flaws..
I always want to support creators, but honestly, given the costs involved here, I cannot in my right mind, recommend that anyone purchase this chassis. Though support from Sergiiua was very good, my case was unusable and the reality is, that people are laying down huge chunks of cash for cases that just don't live up to the spec. This at a time when the NFC/Dan/NCase guys are all using Lian Li for manufacturing, so you absolutely know you are going to receive a top quality bit of kit.
The current state of play here, is not ok.
The current state of play here, is not ok.
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This is the exact reason why I don't recommend this case anymore. You'd think after 8 batches, most if not all of the issues have been resolved considering everyone who got their cases are posting their feedback on this forum.
You'd actually see the creator saying they're trying to improve with each revision. But don't get your hopes too high because even after batch 8, issues are still there. I actually regret buying mine.
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