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Completed Jeffinslaw's Trials and Tribulations of Designing a Case

PNP

Airflow Optimizer
Oct 10, 2015
285
257
Plus, it takes up the spot of the bottom 240mm radiator. So, if you planned on using the ATX PSU bracket (which takes up the spot of the front 240mm radiator), you'd be left with one 240mm radiator for all of your parts. Not the best solution.

I see. Well, best of luck on your endeavor.
 

QinX

Master of Cramming
kees
Mar 2, 2015
541
374
Although not being able to use a 3.5" drive there are still 2.5" hard drives, and in most cases , pun intended, those can provice enough bulk storage and with most ITX board now having a M.2 slot you can use that for the fast SSD.
 

iFreilicht

FlexATX Authority
Feb 28, 2015
3,243
2,361
freilite.com
3.5" drives are mainly used for very large storage applications and for the option of reusing older components.
If those are uses you strive for with your case is a different question.

If you really wanted to use 3.5" drives at the bottom, you'd just have to buy 5.25" to 3.5" mounting brackets like these and drill 120x120mm holes into the bottom of them:



Not sure what kind of design you had in mind that would be complicated to produce.
Additionally, if people wanted to use an SFX PSU, there's no reason not to allow them the use of 3.5" drives at the bottom.
 

Phuncz

Lord of the Boards
SFFn Staff
May 9, 2015
5,959
4,957
Very appealing ! If I wasn't waiting for the Nova, this would be my next case !
 

Phuncz

Lord of the Boards
SFFn Staff
May 9, 2015
5,959
4,957
Because I can't justify paying two premium custom cases when I still am happy with my Ncase :)

Buying premium cases just to not use them a month or two later is not something I can convince myself of. I regret to hear that pre-orders aren't going as well but communicating that is not helping anyone and will certainly not boost sales, I'd expect quite the opposite. Though you shouldn't focus too much on pre-sales if your business model can afford to, word of mouth can be a powerful ally.

And if your case is a good product, I don't doubt it will sell. But you have to bring your product into people's minds, not just hope they'll end up finding it. Send out review samples to well-known reviewers, get as much media attention as you can, etc etc.
 

Jeffinslaw

Average Stuffer
Original poster
Mar 3, 2015
75
66
Because I can't justify paying two premium custom cases when I still am happy with my Ncase :)

Buying premium cases just to not use them a month or two later is not something I can convince myself of. I regret to hear that pre-orders aren't going as well but communicating that is not helping anyone and will certainly not boost sales, I'd expect quite the opposite. Though you shouldn't focus too much on pre-sales if your business model can afford to, word of mouth can be a powerful ally.

And if your case is a good product, I don't doubt it will sell. But you have to bring your product into people's minds, not just hope they'll end up finding it. Send out review samples to well-known reviewers, get as much media attention as you can, etc etc.

My apologies, the comment about how preorders wasn't meant to be directed at you to get you to feel guilty or anything, it was a comment in general. However, your response still holds true.

It's hard for me to justify sending a case to someone for free for them to do a review when I am paying for all of this out of pocket. There hasn't been any crowd funding or investors, just me saving up money to pay for manufacturing fees. I do realize the potential of more sales by sending out review samples but again, the cost behind it.

If everyone who has reserved a case already follows through with purchasing it, then I will have a little more wiggle room to think about review samples.

Thanks Phuncz for your comment, appreciate it :)

-Jeffinslaw
 

Phuncz

Lord of the Boards
SFFn Staff
May 9, 2015
5,959
4,957
Well you could do the next best thing and send a case you can miss (for a while) to more trusting people to review and return. Maybe even on this site ?
 
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iFreilicht

FlexATX Authority
Feb 28, 2015
3,243
2,361
freilite.com
Well you could do the next best thing and send a case you can miss (for a while) to more trusting people to review and return. Maybe even on this site ?

Additionally, if you get one case into circulation in Europe, that could be your review sample there. It seems like reviewers are not reluctant to send a case to the next person after doing their review. I would consider that once you've finished your own build in the case and got the beauty-shots done for it, it could massively increase your exposure.
 

Jeffinslaw

Average Stuffer
Original poster
Mar 3, 2015
75
66
Well you could do the next best thing and send a case you can miss (for a while) to more trusting people to review and return. Maybe even on this site ?

Additionally, if you get one case into circulation in Europe, that could be your review sample there. It seems like reviewers are not reluctant to send a case to the next person after doing their review. I would consider that once you've finished your own build in the case and got the beauty-shots done for it, it could massively increase your exposure.

That is something I can definitely do! Great idea! Thanks!
 

Phuncz

Lord of the Boards
SFFn Staff
May 9, 2015
5,959
4,957
I would make sure you supply some very sturdy packaging or maybe a box in a box for reshipping. Also be sure to include (in online corespondence) a lot of information regarding installation options, how-to's, little issues and cautions, so these don't get obsessed about in the reviews. Also provide good digital pictures of the case so if a case comes to the last one reviewing it all scratched-up, he doesn't have to deal with that issue.

It's the difference between making a case for yourself and possibly a few others, or for many people: you have to convince people to pay for your case when they don't know you or the company you represent. And that means work like this. But we rarely see this as a consumer happening, but those graphic cards, motherboards and cases have to end up in the hands of those high-profile websites some way or another, most don't end up buying these in the store.
 

confusis

John Morrison. Founder and Team Leader of SFF.N
SFF Network
SFF Workshop
SFFn Staff
Jun 19, 2015
4,347
7,462
sff.network
I would make sure you supply some very sturdy packaging or maybe a box in a box for reshipping. Also be sure to include (in online corespondence) a lot of information regarding installation options, how-to's, little issues and cautions, so these don't get obsessed about in the reviews. Also provide good digital pictures of the case so if a case comes to the last one reviewing it all scratched-up, he doesn't have to deal with that issue.

It's the difference between making a case for yourself and possibly a few others, or for many people: you have to convince people to pay for your case when they don't know you or the company you represent. And that means work like this. But we rarely see this as a consumer happening, but those graphic cards, motherboards and cases have to end up in the hands of those high-profile websites some way or another, most don't end up buying these in the store.

A lot of what us reviewers cover depends on the manufacturers themselves supplying samples, be it for us to hold on to temporarily or to keep (for company use) - there's no way that we can afford to buy all of the hardware we cover outright! SFFn has been lucky so far with support from a few companies though :) In return, reviewers offer what amounts to exposure, as well as useful opinions for further improvements to a product or later products.