DAN C4-SFX - old

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JDK

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Sep 25, 2018
96
93
I like that you are exploring different ideas, but I don't like the design. The case doesn't look like "one piece" and the vent pattern looks off.
 
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RockZors

Trash Compacter
Aug 21, 2018
48
30
I personally am leaning much towards the original design as I fell in love with it.

Can you give a render with these 2 along with the C4 showing the size difference?

Edit: Also, would you bring both SKU's into production if you went this direction?
 
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Brude27

Master of Cramming
Jun 21, 2018
384
878
These new designs look like:

@dondan I love the minimalist-sleek design language we have learned to expect from you, but the most recent renderings aren't even close to being that. They are more corporate-minimalist, and in my opinion... boring. I don't mean to be harsh, so I hope I don't come off that way, but what you had in the original design is far superior to the recent renderings.
 

RockZors

Trash Compacter
Aug 21, 2018
48
30
These new designs look like:

@dondan I love the minimalist-sleek design language we have learned to expect from you, but the most recent renderings aren't even close to being that. They are more corporate-minimalist, and in my opinion... boring. I don't mean to be harsh, so I hope I don't come off that way, but what you had in the original design is far superior to the recent renderings.
Dude, your gettin' a Dell!
 

Rankless

Trash Compacter
Sep 6, 2018
48
49
I like the new designs. Sleek and modern to say the least. Far, far removed from boring.

I prefer the previous design, and my biggest hangup with the new renders is the front-facing I/O. If the new styling was applied to a side or top I/O orientation like what we had seen previously, I suspect that most folks would be more supportive. That being said, I still think the previous design was beautiful, especially without screws. I can understand if you found it boring Dan, but the same could have been said about the A4 and I think that was one of the major reasons it has been so fantastically received by the community.
 

Tazpr

Master of Cramming
Aug 7, 2018
553
429
I feel like there needs to be 2 products here.
As an enthusiast I absolutely love the idea of a tower design that supports 360mm radiator, but I feel like the original design is what so many people here saw and really liked.

The comment I saw earlier about creating a T4-SFX is a good one.
If there was the C4 using the original layout and the T4 employing the tower layout with 360mm support at a higher cost I would happily opt for the T4 personally, but would flesh out the product line nicely.
 

chairmanmeow

Minimal Tinkerer
New User
Oct 23, 2018
4
10
Thanks, I made that T4 comment! @dondan can have it. No (tm) credit necessary.

But currently I only have the time to do one project so we/I have to decide.

I absolutely understand having only time for one project having a family to care for myself. However, that seems to support pushing a T4-SFX in the future even more strongly. There are two reasons for that. The first is simply that the C4-SFX is further along in development. Pivoting to the T4 would restart development from scratch. The second is that shuttering the C4 would be like purposely cutting the portfolio from three to two. This makes no sense from a business perspective.
 

bilibili1

Cable Smoosher
Oct 10, 2018
10
8
An SFF tower case with good cooling all around is a beauty in and of itself. I could care less about the little details like shape of vents or the fact that the rad is installed on the outside of the case because imo this is SFF done right. Small foorprint + good cooling > "omg i dont like this subjective detail of case design therefore this case is terrible"

For what it's worth, the sunmilo T03 A4 already took the C4 concept to market (a 10L case with 240 rad on top that acts both as cpu cooling and case exhaust). It's hardly an innovation at this point. That new tower design though, if cooling is good, take my money.
 

omod

Cable Smoosher
Oct 24, 2018
11
14
Here are the concept rendering:







Created an account to say this. Dan, your original idea was a thing of beauty. Truly, it had something rare and subtle hat no one else could manage. The curved glass, hidden front panel io while still having a clean face. I even bought my new parts so they could easily move over to it. But if you are changing to this new design, im sorry, but I will not be buying. I can only speak for my personal circle, but It's not going to raise any eyebrows. No one will ask about it. It is no longer this thing of beauty. It's just another computer box, part of the crowd.

+ 1 for the old design
 

Tazpr

Master of Cramming
Aug 7, 2018
553
429
Created an account to say this. Dan, your original idea was a thing of beauty. Truly, it had something rare and subtle hat no one else could manage. The curved glass, hidden front panel io while still having a clean face. I even bought my new parts so they could easily move over to it. But if you are changing to this new design, im sorry, but I will not be buying. I can only speak for my personal circle, but It's not going to raise any eyebrows. No one will ask about it. It is no longer this thing of beauty. It's just another computer box, part of the crowd.

+ 1 for the old design
I agree the original design was a thing of beauty, but the new design is by no means unattractive and if it brings things like 360mm radiator to a compact ITX case, not something really any other ITX cases have, then it will be unique and will draw a lot of attention.
With more and more 360mm AIO's coming out and the fact that 360mm will support a full system loop happily, where 240mm is barely enough for a full system, it would hold a position as one of the most flexible compact chassis from a cooling perspective.

As bilibili1 just pointed out, there are other similar designs to the C4 that may result in more competition which the A4-SFX didn't really have until more recently.
A 10.6L case with 360mm support would be unique on the market and I would buy the crap out of it!
 

Tazpr

Master of Cramming
Aug 7, 2018
553
429
Dan, I think in my opinion, I would prefer the vertical towers be 230mm deep instead of 205 to allow for full internal mounting of the radiator with slim rad and standard fans.

This would make the case 12L total, instead of 10.7L, which is still stupidly compact for the supported hardware. Just my 2c.

Even if Dan doesn't make this case, I really hope someone decides to make a 12L vertical chassis with 360mm radiator support.
 
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omod

Cable Smoosher
Oct 24, 2018
11
14
I agree the original design was a thing of beauty, but the new design is by no means unattractive and if it brings things like 360mm radiator to a compact ITX case, not something really any other ITX cases have, then it will be unique and will draw a lot of attention.
With more and more 360mm AIO's coming out and the fact that 360mm will support a full system loop happily, where 240mm is barely enough for a full system, it would hold a position as one of the most flexible compact chassis from a cooling perspective.

As bilibili1 just pointed out, there are other similar designs to the C4 that may result in more competition which the A4-SFX didn't really have until more recently.
A 10.6L case with 360mm support would be unique on the market and I would buy the crap out of it!

Understandable. I'm not ever going to use a 360mm, and the fact that its mounted outside the case strengthens that feeling. But if that's what people are into, and this is the case dondan wants to make, than truly more power to you. But it's not how this design started, its not the design I have been following, and its not something that will fit my needs. So if he sticks with the change, I guess I need to look for a different case.
 

gunpalcyril

Airflow Optimizer
Aug 7, 2016
294
319
One of the primary reasons why I sold my dan-a4 and never bought the ncase m1 was because I hated the horizontal design, I thought it would be more "sff" if it also saved desk space by going vertical. I really like the new vertical designs, purely in terms of functionality and use-case wise, it just makes sense for a pc that is designated to take up desk space to take up less desk space as much as possible, given the difference is small, but unless you want another ncase or dan a4 clone, why not go vertical and stand out from the rest, not only aesthetics wise, but with better functionality as well. If I could just buy the corsair "one" itx case i would, but its not possible atm.

Thats just my rant, but a lot of the people here are bitching about looks over functionality, but a vertical case would certainly add better variety to the sff gold standard rather than another "dan-a4" v2 or a more expensive version of the ncase m1(purely because of the extra cost of glass window + custom riser).

I'm just pushing for more innovation rather than another option for a shiny new tempered glass rgb metallic toy.
 
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bilibili1

Cable Smoosher
Oct 10, 2018
10
8
Ah the dilemma of designing an SFF case: Cooling, size, aesthetics, pick two.
Fitting powerful standard components into an increasingly smaller footprint is always going to look unattractive unless you have custom motherboards, custom GPUs, custom everything. I for one am willing to sacrifice the visual appeal for function and performance.

But it's also worth noting that I'm the kind of person who hates the plastic engine cover that's on almost every car these days.
 
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bilibili1

Cable Smoosher
Oct 10, 2018
10
8
Dan, I think in my opinion, I would prefer the vertical towers be 230mm deep instead of 205 to allow for full internal mounting of the radiator with slim rad and standard fans.

This would make the case 12L total, instead of 10.7L, which is still stupidly compact for the supported hardware. Just my 2c.

Even if Dan doesn't make this case, I really hope someone decides to make a 12L vertical chassis with 360mm radiator support.

I understand where you are coming from and I think if dondan has the resource then he should do different variations of the tower design to appease to a broader audience. But if his resource and time are both limited then I think the external mount should be prioritized first. It gives the possibility of mounting thicker radiators which are more efficient. And based on this ekwb benchmark, radiators of different thickness have a large variance on efficiency. https://www.ekwb.com/blog/radiators-part-2-performance/

For example the 360mm versions of 26mm and 60mm thickness rads have a cooling capacity difference of around 150w when the fans are set at 1800rpm. That's the difference of cooling a 1080ti or a 1080ti + moderately OCed 2700x. Again this is just for example. damn those 60mm rads are thiiiccc. I will prob just use 38mm ones instead and kick the fan up a notch.
 
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Tazpr

Master of Cramming
Aug 7, 2018
553
429
I understand where you are coming from and I think if dondan has the resource then he should do different variations of the tower design to appease to a broader audience. But if his resource and time are both limited then I think the external mount should be prioritized first. It gives the possibility of mounting thicker radiators which are more efficient. And based on this ekwb benchmark, radiators of different thickness have a large variance on efficiency. https://www.ekwb.com/blog/radiators-part-2-performance/

For example the 360mm versions of 26mm and 60mm thickness rads have a cooling capacity difference of around 150w when the fans are set at 1800rpm. That's the difference of cooling a 1080ti or a 1080ti + moderately OCed 2700x. Again this is just for example. damn those 60mm rads are thiiiccc. I will prob just use 38mm ones instead and kick the fan up a notch.
That's certainly true, Although if there is 60mm of internal room by default, you could just mount the radiator inside with the fans outside but still allow slim fan/rad configs internally.
 
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