Why? You can put mounting holes right?
Any other possible design & color? Perhaps going industrial look with some exhaust holes / grill in front?
The issue is that the ac-dc and the hdplex 400 are random odd sizes where there is no metal to add mounting spots that makes the most sense.
The 160W AC-DC should be used with the hdplex 160 mini instead anyways.
I prefer the clean front, but that is on the consideration of the interested buyers. If others chime in perhaps. Same with color. Colors besides black and white increases cost, since it'll be custom.
No estimation, but $130 should be the price range.
This hole pattern is my signature pattern. But just circular holes cost more. They require more lasering and edge deburring for similar amount of perforations.
Double sided tape is fine for mounting the PSUs. That 3M stuff is MAGIC!
I usually don't engage on pricing, but I'll do this to help explain the position of small time makers like myself. I see that you own a CCD MI-6 so you are certainly aware of the high prices.
A lot of the costs come from fixed costs, or costs that in generally, don't scale much.
1. Shipping & handling cost - Manufacturers generally deal with "pieces." That it is, it generally cost a certain amount of time to process a single piece, and even if something is more complex, has more features, still cost similarly.
2. QC/Receiving/Packaging cost - Once I get the product in my hand, I must spend time inspecting each unit, receiving it, assembling it, packaging it, stocking it, uploading pictures, providing some kind of guide, etc. If something costs twice as much, or is twice as complex, it doesn't take twice the amount of time. Maybe a bit more time.
3. Shipping to customer. It costs about $15 in shipping fees to ship a small case to a customer. A larger one? $20 possibly.
As you can see, a lot of the costs don't scale on the complexity or size of the case. Something like the MI-6, while being twice as complex, more materials, etc, doesn't cost "twice" as much.
Our prices are often compared to mass produced stamped steel chassis, whose production number in the tens of thousands, with huge automated production. They are shipped by container load, essentially costing only a couple dollars to make it across the ocean. They have the luxury of scaling the correct amount of skill to handle certain tasks, while in our case, the CAD designer is handling receiving and packaging as well as customer inquiries that are generally handled by entry level workers.
Don't think this is me singling you out though, I'm just shedding some light on the subject that I know many people are thinking about as well...why do these tiny pieces of metal cost so much when you can buy a full sized chassis with TG for half the price?
Don't get me wrong, i agree with all the points, and like what you said I'm totally aware of the challenges.
I'm just not informed enough regarding the difference in material, effort & cost between a, say full size case VS smaller case like yours ie how a smaller volume, design and minimim order quantity affects the price.
A lot of manual operations is needed for prototype scale manufacturing. For large case manufacturers, their assembly line stamps out and assembles them crazily and efficiently. Steel can be bought in bulk, machines are created and designed for specific tasks, and production can be outsourced to save cost. Discovery Channel's "How it's Made" has a lot of good examples. For 20 parts, they can have 20 types of machines for only one type of process. That's where they dramatically lower costs. it doesn't matter how many components are in a case if they can all be made in parallel in a large factory with all those machines. Metal doesn't account for much of the cost in the end.
For Kickstarter projects, this is usually the reason for delay. Choosing the right manufactuer and parts, Tooling, test runs, diagnostics, etc all takes time. After months of painstaking preparation they can then start producing the products that can be shipped.
Other designers don't have such tooling nor funding for something like that. Luckily, there are smaller scale manufacturers but they use a lot of tools manually or via software programmed machines, which isn’t as fast. Production isn't continuous for long periods. Tooling can be expensive. Time and cost per unit goes way up.
Another interesting example that I've found is with cloud storage. Only 23% of revenue is spent on hard drives for backblaze. The rest is with bandwidth, employee, datacenter, software development, etc.
I hope it helps.
For Kickstarter projects, this is usually the reason for delay. Choosing the right manufactuer and parts, Tooling, test runs, diagnostics, etc all takes time. After months of painstaking preparation they can then start producing the products that can be shipped.
Other designers don't have such tooling nor funding for something like that. Luckily, there are smaller scale manufacturers but they use a lot of tools manually or via software programmed machines, which isn’t as fast. Production isn't continuous for long periods. Tooling can be expensive. Time and cost per unit goes way up.
Another interesting example that I've found is with cloud storage. Only 23% of revenue is spent on hard drives for backblaze. The rest is with bandwidth, employee, datacenter, software development, etc.
I hope it helps.
Last edited:
First post on this forum so I'm not exactly sure what is considered "too old to reply to" but I registered to express interest in this project. I have been keeping an eye on the Lone Industries L5 but I do favor this design over the L5. Option to include a FLEX ATX/TFX power supply plus a low profile GPU in what looks to be a steel chassis is just perfect.
In a perfect world I'd just combine this with the L5 since I do dig the two 80mm intake fans shown for that design... regardless, if this case goes to production I'd buy it.
In a perfect world I'd just combine this with the L5 since I do dig the two 80mm intake fans shown for that design... regardless, if this case goes to production I'd buy it.
Completely agree with this. The brickless aspect is part of the reason why I would go with this. Plus it would make a great sleeper build.
I would say I'm currently stuck between this case and the ZS-A4DC.
I appreciate you stopping by and showing interest. This is important so that I know if the case viable to produce or not.
It is designed to be a more accessible but still high quality case and I hope the flex atx design help make it overall affordable. The Pure series are very functional design
It is aluminum 1.5mm btw. No plastic.
Currently looking into other Flex ATX options. Would the Seasonic SSP-300SUG or SS-350M1U be good choices? They are both modular, but the SS-350M1U is 190mm long.
I would go for the shorter one. 160mm is the length I recommend. I like the Silverstone one.
I assume you mean this PSU?
https://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=784&area=en
Yeah I'm a fan of this idea for sure. I like the concept that everything you'd expect to be in a full sized PC is here, its just in its most downsized form. Keeping some space set aside for the PSU to stay in the chassis just really appeals to me, and over all looks to be a cleaner way to deliver more power as well.
That said, I also haven't done a lot of playing around with HD Plex or anything of that nature, so my feelings may well just be down to wanting to use what I'm more familiar with. Still... I dig this. The over all aspect of it also kind of remind me of the old IBM XT/AT systems. Just scaled down a lot.
https://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=784&area=en
Yeah I'm a fan of this idea for sure. I like the concept that everything you'd expect to be in a full sized PC is here, its just in its most downsized form. Keeping some space set aside for the PSU to stay in the chassis just really appeals to me, and over all looks to be a cleaner way to deliver more power as well.
That said, I also haven't done a lot of playing around with HD Plex or anything of that nature, so my feelings may well just be down to wanting to use what I'm more familiar with. Still... I dig this. The over all aspect of it also kind of remind me of the old IBM XT/AT systems. Just scaled down a lot.
I hope we see more modern and OEM made modular Flex ATX units someday. A modular FX350-G from Silverstone or a newer design from Seasonic. My current plan involves going with a motherboard that can hold two M.2's, so I will not need Sata cables. Only cables I will need will be the motherboard and eps cables.
(I know the GEEEK's are an option, but on reflection I would rather go with something unmodified.)
(I know the GEEEK's are an option, but on reflection I would rather go with something unmodified.)
I would love to know if this will support the Geeek custom Delta Flex units (170mm) as I already own one and would be really, really keen on something like this to pair with my WX4100. I wanted to support the initial Pure, but this is a sweet spot I can totally get behind.
