DAN A4-SFX v4.1

Dedaciai

Trash Compacter
Jan 31, 2016
42
20
@dondan I really like the revisions and if you can add the 92mm fan support that would be awesome!...really looking forward to the second kickstarter!
 

dondan

Shrink Ray Wielder
Original poster
DAN Cases
Feb 23, 2015
1,981
8,392


Without a comment ;)
 

Phuncz

Lord of the Boards
SFFn Staff
May 9, 2015
5,943
4,952
Nice to see a v2 is on the way ! Did the first version go over smoothly, no "logistical nightmares" or issues ? Still a one-man company ?
I can't but feel much respect for the people behind DanCase, Ncase, Zaber and Kimera what the amount of time and effort go into logistics.
 

Samsquamptch

Trash Compacter
Jun 22, 2016
34
19
@dondan with the release of the rx 580, I'm interested in trying to fit the asus strix in my Dan A4. However, the card is measured at 298 mm, but I believe that includes the bracket. I've seen people fit the 1080 strix in the case previously. I know youre a busy dude, especially with designing the 48mm heatsink, but any info you could provide would be awesome.
 

jtd871

SFF Guru
Jun 22, 2015
1,166
851
@dondan Can the V1 feet be removed relatively painlessly? Will you have additional rubber feet for V1 backers to replace theirs? My case slides a bit on my desk when I use the power button.
 

Dedaciai

Trash Compacter
Jan 31, 2016
42
20
@dondan Extremely stoked about getting my hands on one of these during the next Kickstarter in May. How long will it be open? Somehow I missed the first one and am looking forward to getting in on this one!
 

Praetorian95

Minimal Tinkerer
Apr 23, 2017
4
0
@dondan Few improvements proposal:
– Substitute round ventilation holes by hexagonal ones. For the same mechanical strength, it would offer extra open surface area for greater cooling, and still great visual.
– Add support for 3.5" drives in the existing vertical bay. This would enable mounting high capacity HDD, at the cost of an elongation of roughly a centimeter.
 

flacman

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Feb 23, 2016
128
61
@dondan Few improvements proposal:
– Substitute round ventilation holes by hexagonal ones. For the same mechanical strength, it would offer extra open surface area for greater cooling, and still great visual.
– Add support for 3.5" drives in the existing vertical bay. This would enable mounting high capacity HDD, at the cost of an elongation of roughly a centimeter.

Why would you want to use a 3.5" drive? They're loud and high capacity SSDs are available now...
 

jtd871

SFF Guru
Jun 22, 2015
1,166
851
@dondan Few improvements proposal:
– Substitute round ventilation holes by hexagonal ones. For the same mechanical strength, it would offer extra open surface area for greater cooling, and still great visual.
– Add support for 3.5" drives in the existing vertical bay. This would enable mounting high capacity HDD, at the cost of an elongation of roughly a centimeter.

Hex holes will only increase the cost of the case for no improvement in performance. Temps are currently only 1-2 degrees above an open air setup. See Dan's tests in the development thread on hardforum.com.

A removeable internal drive cage (V1) supports 2ea. 2.5" drives and the front panel can accommodate 1 more. Plus many motherboards offer M.2 drive support. There is already plenty of storage capacity in this case. 2.5" drives are relatively affordable at reasonably large capacities (SSD or HDD). If you need more storage, suggest you look into an external enclosure or NAS (which can provide better protection for all that data) or maybe see if you can use a short GPU and use the extra space in the GPU area to mount a 3.5" drive somehow.
 

jeshikat

Jessica. Wayward SFF.n Founder
Silver Supporter
Feb 22, 2015
4,969
4,783
– Substitute round ventilation holes by hexagonal ones. For the same mechanical strength, it would offer extra open surface area for greater cooling, and still great visual.

Dan is limited by Lian Li's tooling so that's not practical. It's the same reason the exterior panels on the M1 are limited to 1.5mm, Lian Li's tooling for the vent pattern can only deal with aluminum that thick.
 

Praetorian95

Minimal Tinkerer
Apr 23, 2017
4
0
Why would you want to use a 3.5" drive? They're loud and high capacity SSDs are available now...
At a cost! High capacity SSD are costly, and some would prefer HDD+SSD as it would be more affordable, still delivering similar performances.
That's not because one can spend a lot of money that everyone can afford it; nor disregarding these persons!
 

|||

King of Cable Management
Sep 26, 2015
775
759
At a cost! High capacity SSD are costly, and some would prefer HDD+SSD as it would be more affordable, still delivering similar performances.
That's not because one can spend a lot of money that everyone can afford it; nor disregarding these persons!

While that may be true right now, it may very well not be within two years:

http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3678417
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1331223

At the price point the A4 is hitting, it should last a good deal longer than this.
 

Praetorian95

Minimal Tinkerer
Apr 23, 2017
4
0
While that may be true right now, it may very well not be within two years:

http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3678417
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1331223

At the price point the A4 is hitting, it should last a good deal longer than this.
But as games are becoming heavier and heavier, the trend will not change as fast. Again, the imperceptible size increase would please some people and should not upset others, except those that develop hives seeing 3.5" slots in their cases.
 

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King of Cable Management
Sep 26, 2015
775
759
You missed the point...the difference in cost between NAND-based SSD's and HDD's will reduce so much that there will no longer be demand for HDD's. Then, it will be cheaper to get a GB of SSD than HDD.

Also, there are already 4TB SSD's and will just get larger with more layers in 3D NAND stacks. So any notion that SSD's won't be able to handle capacity shouldn't be of worry.