Happy birthday, my own was on the 16th.
Re: @blubblob's comment about heatpipe orientation, I believe that most heatpipes used in CPU/GPU coolers these days are the sintered powder variety, which are less affected by gravity.
On the case ventilation, I share the concern about the restrictiveness of the Braun-inspired sparse holes. It looks nice, but it's really not intended for the cooling requirements of 150W+ CPUs/GPUs. Listen to @EdZ's advice on this, it's spot on.
On the top vs. bottom I/O, my preference is either for bottom I/O, or a cover for a top. Either option makes the case considerably longer though, so hurts portability to some extent. I understand you prefer top I/O for ease of accessibility, but that's what front ports are for, no? Most mini-ITX boards will support up to four USB ports (2x2.0 + 2x3.0), and if you need HDMI for VR or something you can get video cards with front-mounted HDMI ports too.
Re: @blubblob's comment about heatpipe orientation, I believe that most heatpipes used in CPU/GPU coolers these days are the sintered powder variety, which are less affected by gravity.
On the case ventilation, I share the concern about the restrictiveness of the Braun-inspired sparse holes. It looks nice, but it's really not intended for the cooling requirements of 150W+ CPUs/GPUs. Listen to @EdZ's advice on this, it's spot on.
On the top vs. bottom I/O, my preference is either for bottom I/O, or a cover for a top. Either option makes the case considerably longer though, so hurts portability to some extent. I understand you prefer top I/O for ease of accessibility, but that's what front ports are for, no? Most mini-ITX boards will support up to four USB ports (2x2.0 + 2x3.0), and if you need HDMI for VR or something you can get video cards with front-mounted HDMI ports too.
Thanks guys
and thanks for the feedback. I'm glad some people like the bird's nest, heh. Since the staggered rounded slots seems like the front runner favorite right now, I'm hoping to come out in the next few days with a few new renders of variants for the staggered rounded slots design and see what people think of them.Thanks, and happy belated birthday!
The heatpipe info is good to know, so thanks for the clarification.
Yeah, I've listened. I think I've been weaned off the Braun design now and will be going for the bird's nest for my own build, since it shouldn't give me any headaches cost-wise and airflow-wise.
Thanks for understanding my thing about accessibility and portability. I know that having a "front" (front in quotations since this case doesn't really have a defined front side) I/O would help reduce my own accessibility concerns, but I'm doubtful I can I find a good place to put those ports in the case without increasing the volume in addition to the volume increase from the inverted layout. It seems like the only "good" place for front panel I/O would be the top side of the case in the inverted layout. The cost of sourcing a supplementary front I/O part and the effort in designing to implement it was something I just didn't want to consider if the motherboard's built-in I/O could just serve the same purpose with the additional benefit of a smaller volume.
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I'll break from the pack with my preference for Staggered Rectangular slots, with 6mm holes (narrow spacing) coming in second.
lol I feel bad for not coming out with an update for more than a week. Just been busy with exams, but they're all over now, so it's all good.
While I personally don't mind having my components be exposed to open air, since I find my PC collects less dust that way, I do realize that people would want dust filters; but the problem is that they would just be very tricky, if not impossible to implement. The case will be made of aluminum, so magnetic dust filters are out of the question, and in addition to that, the sides that are perpendicular to the motherboard tray pretty much have zero clearance for anything to be stuck onto the interior faces of those sides, so inserting and removing a dust filter from those sides would be hell to deal with. There's only enough clearance between the edge of the motherboard tray and the interior walls to accommodate the thickness of the PCI-E riser cable. If I have dust filters on the two side panels, what good are they worth if the other third of the case's surface area allows dust to come in? I'd like to have dust filters, but it seems I just have to do without them.
Again, thanks for all the feedback guys. Since the staggered rounded slots is still the front runner, I have an update/variant to its design, as I said I would.
I increased the spacing by double (6mm) between the slots since I had concerns about the previous version being too "chicken wiry" and how it wouldn't be too durable against pressures being exerted onto the case's exterior faces.
Think about the case being in a backpack with a mouse, keyboard, and a pair of headphones. A lot of movement happens inside a backpack and therefore, a lot of collisions between whatever's inside. You might go down some stairs, or lean back on your backpack when sitting. I wouldn't want to arrive at my destination and pull out my case/PC from my backpack only to find it be dented by my mouse.
It should be much stronger in that regard, while still keeping loads of airflow. I also like the way it looks a lot more.
Here it is again compared to the old design.
Furthermore, I've made an update to the bird's nest design, redesigning two of the faces, since it seems it'll be my design of choice for my personal rig due to its affordability and ventilation — and I also want to be able to show off my hardware when I go to my college's LAN parties.
Front
Back
Protocase quoted a single unit of the bird's nest at about the same price of the voronoi (~$300). Again, not bad at all. Expect the price to drastically go down with volume orders. For example, if I ordered two, the price per unit would already only be about $180-$190.
Also just some general thread housekeeping — I reworded some of my previous posts for better understanding, most notably the post on page 1 in which I clarify my position as a designer and vendor.
Heh, interesting. I honestly didn't think anyone would like any of the rectilinears.
Thanks, I quite like the staggered rectangular slots as well, but I just had concerns about its strength as far as its durability to withstand compression perpendicular to its face.
Thanks! I'm glad you like it.
While I personally don't mind having my components be exposed to open air, since I find my PC collects less dust that way, I do realize that people would want dust filters; but the problem is that they would just be very tricky, if not impossible to implement. The case will be made of aluminum, so magnetic dust filters are out of the question, and in addition to that, the sides that are perpendicular to the motherboard tray pretty much have zero clearance for anything to be stuck onto the interior faces of those sides, so inserting and removing a dust filter from those sides would be hell to deal with. There's only enough clearance between the edge of the motherboard tray and the interior walls to accommodate the thickness of the PCI-E riser cable. If I have dust filters on the two side panels, what good are they worth if the other third of the case's surface area allows dust to come in? I'd like to have dust filters, but it seems I just have to do without them.
Again, thanks for all the feedback guys. Since the staggered rounded slots is still the front runner, I have an update/variant to its design, as I said I would.
I increased the spacing by double (6mm) between the slots since I had concerns about the previous version being too "chicken wiry" and how it wouldn't be too durable against pressures being exerted onto the case's exterior faces.
Think about the case being in a backpack with a mouse, keyboard, and a pair of headphones. A lot of movement happens inside a backpack and therefore, a lot of collisions between whatever's inside. You might go down some stairs, or lean back on your backpack when sitting. I wouldn't want to arrive at my destination and pull out my case/PC from my backpack only to find it be dented by my mouse.
It should be much stronger in that regard, while still keeping loads of airflow. I also like the way it looks a lot more.
Here it is again compared to the old design.
Furthermore, I've made an update to the bird's nest design, redesigning two of the faces, since it seems it'll be my design of choice for my personal rig due to its affordability and ventilation — and I also want to be able to show off my hardware when I go to my college's LAN parties.
Front
Back
Protocase quoted a single unit of the bird's nest at about the same price of the voronoi (~$300). Again, not bad at all. Expect the price to drastically go down with volume orders. For example, if I ordered two, the price per unit would already only be about $180-$190.
Also just some general thread housekeeping — I reworded some of my previous posts for better understanding, most notably the post on page 1 in which I clarify my position as a designer and vendor.
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Oh dear, my mistake. I have the numbers corrected now, sorry about that. Thanks for catching my error; I must have still been sleepy when I wrote that this morning.
Personally, I'm going with the Cryorig C7 for cooling my CPU and as for the GPU, I'm going with the Asus Strix GTX 1080 (Ti?), since I pretty much designed the case around that card with its massive cooler.
You should be safe to throw in any graphics card you want as long as it's strictly dual slot (no 2.5 slot cards) and no longer than ~12.2 inches.
The only exception to these criteria is the EVGA GTX 1080 Classified, since it's a very tall card with non-recessed power headers and would leave no room for the PCI-E power connectors.
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Loving the case so far, especially the latest staggered round slot design like many of the others (also, happy extra belated birthday!) It screams something from Star Wars to me - futuristic yet classic/unique! It's really nice to read through the thread and see how you are really listening to others and considering their suggestions (I certainly learned a lot from reading this.) I feel too often people will post project logs, but then ignore feedback and continue with their own personal agenda.
Can't wait to see some real life photos (hopefully soon!) It's pretty crazy how much changing the vents affects the cost. I think you found a good price-performance balance for the case with the rounded rectangle slots, it seems like it would take longer to cut than the birds nest, but if both are the same price, then it seems to be a good balance.
Can't wait to see some real life photos (hopefully soon!) It's pretty crazy how much changing the vents affects the cost. I think you found a good price-performance balance for the case with the rounded rectangle slots, it seems like it would take longer to cut than the birds nest, but if both are the same price, then it seems to be a good balance.
Your Bird's Nest and Voronoi cutouts are PHENOMENAL! Amazing venting and completely beautiful...but most importantly...CHEAP to CNC with any method!Good evening. Content dump time.
It's my birthday today, so I think it's only appropriate to celebrate with a little party — and you're invited.
I have some guests you might like to meet.
Some are old friends. Most are new. Welcome to the main (e)vent.
The Grids
From left to right:
- 3mm holes "Braun"
- 4mm holes
- 6mm holes
- 6mm holes spaced "polka dot"
- 3mm squares
- 6mm squares
The Rectilinears
From left to right:
- Large rectangles
- Medium rectangles
- Bars
- Asymmetrical 1
- Asymmetrical 2
The Slots
From left to right:
- Horizontal slots
- Long vertical slots
- Vertical slots
- Staggered rectangular slots
- Staggered rounded slots
The Architecturals
From left to right:
- Bird's Nest
- Voronoi
Care to tell me who were some of the best dressed? Who were the worst dressed?
But yeah, here are all the vent patterns I was able to work on over the past few days.
My personal favorites are the Braun, bird's nest, staggered rounded slots, and polka dot patterns.
The bird's nest design is quite notable since it's more tightly-knit and stronger than the old Voronoi model, retains about the same amount of airflow, should cost about the same to make, and (in my opinion) looks better than the Voronoi design.
I think I'll still be going with the Braun for my personal rig (if I can get it made at a reasonable enough price). If not, then the bird's nest is my next go-to.
The purpose of this is just to get an idea of which vent patterns may be preferred for a production model. Let me know what you think.
I know it's early, but any idea when one might be able to grab one these beauties up? International shipping available?
I've been holding off building a PC for a while and now that the 1080Ti emerges it might be a good time for it.
Still thumbs up for the birds nest and top IO orientation.
I've been holding off building a PC for a while and now that the 1080Ti emerges it might be a good time for it.
Still thumbs up for the birds nest and top IO orientation.
Thanks! I really appreciate your words. I definitely know what you mean when you say it screams Star Wars
heh.
I can't wait for the real thing either (skip to the end of this post to read all the details on when I plan to release it and make it available for purchase). I plan to have more than just photos on that day
.Yeah, with the pricing of the cutting for different vent designs, I'm still a little sad I couldn't afford to have the Braun vent holes cut, but it's alright. I dream of the day Protocase eventually gets their hands on a CNC turret punch; they're such a nice company to communicate with. I'm still trying to find an affordable manufacturer for the slots design; but with Protocase, the bird's nest design is pretty much ready to rock and roll.
Thanks for the feedback! I'm really happy that so many people like the bird's nest.
Thanks! It means a lot coming from you.
Thanks! A lot of people have complained about the issue of cables already, but honestly, the image I have in my head of it doesn't look too bad. Perhaps I can illustrate this with some photos once I get the case made and have a system running inside it.
Thanks! Glad to hear from you again and I'm excited by your interest in buying the case. This is a little complex, but here are all the details relating to my projected schedule for the release of the case. I want to be completely transparent.
I currently have a large sum of the funds for this project invested in AMD stock and I don't want to sell those stocks until all the Ryzen processors have hit the market and AMD's Vega graphics cards have been released and have had their full technological and financial impact realized. I hope that day to be sometime between June and August, since AMD disclosed that they would be releasing Vega during the second half of this year. That coincides neatly with my own agenda for my personal rig with this case, since I don't really need to build my new PC until late August, which is when the fall semester starts. This is my safe, smart, and sure plan. I want to be able to do things proper and build my rig in the case "prototype" first to prove to everyone that the case is real and works before even attempting to sell any units. Another benefit from waiting this long is that hopefully, prices between AMD, Intel, and Nvidia will be lower and more reasonable due to competition and age. Also probable (but not really) is that Intel's Coffee Lake processors might be released by this time.
So with that timeline in mind, mid-late August would be the for-sure guaranteed time by at which the case would be available for purchase. The basic details of this plan/schedule is for me to wait for a while so that I have a surplus of money so that I have enough funds to execute my personal build, prove the case works, and then handle the setup costs for the first batch of orders.
Secondly, there exists an alternate timeline. My dad, being the great supportive guy he is, told me he's willing to give me some money at the end of this semester (early-mid May) so that I can get my personal rig built already and accelerate this project. In the case that my dad actually commits to his promise, I would sell my AMD stock early in order to cover the remaining cost of my personal build, but I don't think I would have as much funds as I'd like in order to cover the setup costs for a secondary, separate order for cases for a full first batch. So in order to solve that, I'd be open to receiving somewhat "pre-orders" for the bird's nest design that can be placed in the same manufacturing order as my personal case to take advantage of volume pricing early. If I can get about 10 people to "pre-order", then I would be much more comfortable doing this, since I would be able to use the profits from those cases to set up a full-fledged second batch. This isn't something I suggest, since I'd still like to do things right and prove the design with my personal rig first; but if a brave handful of people are willing to trust me and Protocase's capabilities, and place a few pre-orders, then why not?
So with this timeline, the earliest time the case would be available for purchase would be mid May.
Then there exists the third possible timeline. This is something I'm not so sure about, but is probably entirely more likely than either of the two aforementioned predicted schedules. I might figure something out and events from the two above timelines may combine to provide a sort of middle-ground timeline that would place the case's availability in between; perhaps in June.
Apologies if my indefinite date estimates may have upset you, it's just that as much as I try, life continues to be extremely unpredictable. For example, when I built my current PC in 2012, I had absolutely zero premonitions in my mind that I would be designing and building my own 3D printer less than a year later. Stuff just happens.
In summation: Honestly, I'm pretty much ready to take orders for the bird's nest design now; it's just that I'd rather not, since I don't have any hardware in my hands yet to tangibly prove the case's functionality. So the earliest likely date the case will be available would be in May. Absolutely for sure by August. But probably in June.
TL;DR: I do want to make the case available as soon as possible, so I'll work towards a release in June, since it seems that's a pretty safe date to aim for, and it's very probable that things will work out to make that date possible. The absolute earliest possible time that orders would be able to be placed would be in May. If either of those dates fall through, then the concrete guaranteed release will be in August.
Yes, I will definitely be able to ship internationally. I'm hoping to price the case (bird's nest, at least) somewhere between $120-$150+shipping. This should be a good price that sits very competitively with the other "community-made" cases out there. But don't take this price as a promise just yet. I still have to talk this out with Protocase.
I think I can at least promise it won't be $200 lol.
The slots design doesn't have a price estimate on it yet since I haven't been able to secure a good manufacturer for it yet.
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