Interview with Michael Hooper (Corsair's PM for cases) on SFF case design

[EdZ]

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2016/03/08/corsair-interview-michael-hooper/1

Some interesting stuff there, particularly Corsair's intent to make smaller, more 'modular' cases (e.g. install a 3.5" drive Or a long GPU) due to their need to target a large chunk of the ITX market to keep sales volumes up.

 

[Phuncz]

Interesting but also frustrating to read. No middle ground between a Manta and an M1 ? He apparently has never looked at Silverstone or Lian-Li. It's the middle ground that made mITX what it is today, it's the Ncase M1 that's showing the manufacturers what they are doing wrong. The Cerberus is about to show them what they've been doing wrong with mATX.

Recently at a LAN party I saw a friend's PC I built for him years back, I got him this case: http://www.lian-li.com/en/dt_portfolio/pc-a05/
It's still smaller than the Manta and fits an ATX board. There is definitely middle-ground for mITX and it was there way before the Manta and the Ncase M1.

 

[iFreilicht]

Interesting interview, thanks for posting it!

Interesting but also frustrating to read. No middle ground between a Manta and an M1 ? He apparently has never looked at Silverstone or Lian-Li. It's the middle ground that made mITX what it is today, it's the Ncase M1 that's showing the manufacturers what they are doing wrong. The Cerberus is about to show them what they've been doing wrong with mATX.

It seems that he's talking about it in terms of a business perspective.
If you want a really small ITX case, you'll end up with something in the realms of the M1 where you really have to think through every component you put in there. If you just want an ITX case and don't care about size, you're in the market for a Prodigy or even a Manta, which allows you to just throw everything you have in there, no worries at all.
Michael apparently doesn't see enough market potential between those two kinds of cases, but then again, the Bulldog is close to double the size of the M1 and close to half the size of the Manta.

 

[EdZ]

Michael apparently doesn't see enough market potential between those two kinds of cases, but then again, the Bulldog is close to double the size of the M1 and close to half the size of the Manta.

My takeaway was that he DOES see a market for smaller cases, but they need at least some nod to 'modularity' to pass marketing, with the constraint that cases need to support at least some of Corsairs other product lines (SFX PSU, AIO coolers). A case that could support a 240mm AIO but could instead use that space for a full-length GPU might be on the cards when sold in that manner.

 

[iFreilicht]

Yeah that's true. Maybe he was talking about the current market? If that he did, though, Phuncz would be right, that's absolutely not the current situation.

 

[Phuncz]

I am happy the guy is a fan of SFF for a long time and atleast acknowledges the Ncase M1. A company like Corsair is ofcourse not run on what we want but what marketing says they can sell. But that still produced the ugliest mutt I've ever seen, the Bulldog.