Production Lazer3D LZ7 - Quiet Gaming Cube PC Case

[K888D]

Just to be sure, would the 1070 fit without the power connector? In that case, a low-profile PEG mod might make it possible.

In this particular prototype the card is too tall for the case including the PCB and shroud. The power connector only sits a few mm above the card itself thanks to the 10mm recess.

So the stripes light up, but you can't change their colour, is that correct? The look pretty orange without power as well.

No the stripes are just painted on, this ITX card does not have any LEDS.

 

[iFreilicht]

Speaking of a low-profile PEG connector mod: http://www.hardwareluxx.de/communit...-einen-abgewinkelten-pcie-stecker-683614.html

That's the exact one I had in mind, though the retention tab on the PEG socket is on the bottom of the 1070, so the cables would go in the wrong direction and the shroud might block them.

No the stripes are just painted on, this ITX card does not have any LEDS.

Oh. Somebody claimed they were RGB LEDs. Thanks for the info!

 

[BenNZL]

Is there enough room for a thin AIO water cooler in the front of the case?

 

[K888D]

Is there enough room for a thin AIO water cooler in the front of the case?

Unfortunately not, a case with this layout would need to be considerably larger to fit one in.

Although I have been working with @MarcParis to develop an alternative version with space for a watercooler, one of the concepts involves using an external PSU so you can fit the radiator into the top of the case where the SFX PSU currently sits.

Alternatively you can make the case roughly 50mm wider to fit the radiator where the 140mm currently sits. Or if you wanted the radiator at the front you would need about 50mm extra case length, advantage of this is space for longer GPU. Both options add a couple of litres to the volume.

 

[K888D]

The other thing to think about is that this case isn't really about all out overclocked CPU performance, it's goal is to provide a quiet yet high performance gaming experience.

A 65W Intel i7-6700 is more than enough juice to power even the most demanding games, this case is capable of cooling a 65W CPU very quietly without watercooling.

I would say the strength of this case is more weighted towards GPU cooling, you would gain much more gaming bang for your buck if you spent your budget on the very best ITX GPU you can afford.

I'm going to post some more in depth gaming test results later today hopefully.

 

[iFreilicht]

Alternatively you can make the case roughly 50mm wider to fit the radiator where the 140mm currently sits. Or if you wanted the radiator at the front you would need about 50mm extra case length, advantage of this is space for longer GPU. Both options add a couple of litres to the volume.

Just another idea: There's already a 140mm fan in the side, so potentially, you could mount a 140mm radiator to the outside of the case and make two holes/a slot in the side panel as passthrough for the tubing.

So you'd mount the fan and radiator to the sidepanel first, and then screw it onto the case. Could look pretty neat if it's well done.

 

[MarcParis]

@K888D there is also the variant of lz7 with 180mm top fan, external psu, and big air cpu cooler..

So many good options..

 

[K888D]

Just another idea: There's already a 140mm fan in the side, so potentially, you could mount a 140mm radiator to the outside of the case and make two holes/a slot in the side panel as passthrough for the tubing.

So you'd mount the fan and radiator to the sidepanel first, and then screw it onto the case. Could look pretty neat if it's well done.

Good point, that's a possible solution if you don't mind the radiator being on the outside of the case. The tubing slots would need to be custom cut as I assume each radiator would have different tubing positions.

 

[MarcParis]

@K888D : what will be available height above standard gpu (like r9 nano) on lz7 rev 0.2 please?

 

[iFreilicht]

The tubing slots would need to be custom cut as I assume each radiator would have different tubing positions.

I would've expected the user to cut those themselves, but yeah you could offer a service to cut them for a small fee. It seems like the best way to do it would be to re-position the fan cutout a bit more to the front to have space for the tubing holes near the back. Then the slots would be cut from the back to the front, that would be the least disruptive in terms of aesthetics. Some might actually quite like the look of that.

 

[K888D]

If you're interested in how well the LZ7 performs with the GTX 1070 in real world gaming scenarios, here are the results:

SYSTEM SETUP
Case: LZ7 v0.1
Fan: 140mm x 15mm Prolimatech Vortex 14
PSU: SF450
Motherboard: Gigabyte B150N Pheonix
CPU: Intel i5-6500 (3.2Ghz Quad Core, 65W TDP)
Cooler: Noctua NH-L9i
RAM: 2x 4Gb DDR4 2133Mhz Corsair Vengeance LPX
Storage: Samsung PM951 256Gb NVMe M.2 PCIe SSD
GPU: Gigabyte GTX 1070 ITX OC

RESULTS OVERVIEW
- The first line shows the ambient temperature and noise of my living room where the testing took place.
- Games were tested at 1080p 60Hz with Ultra settings and maximum AA applied.
- Games were left to run for minimum of 1 hour to allow the system to stabilise.
- Noise levels were measured at 20cm distance from the GPU side of the computer.
- The Gigabyte GTX 1070 ITX has a base clock of 1531 Mhz and a boost clock of 1721 Mhz.

*60fps was the maximum for this game

DETAILED RESULTS
If you want to see the full breakdown of results including different fan cooling profiles please see below:

Spoiler

CONCLUSION
Witcher 3 looked absolutely stunning, but surprisingly it stressed the GPU the least of the 3 games tested probably due to its capped framerate. Battlefield 4 was the most demanding game on the system, but the end result was only a few degrees difference between games resulting in a gaming noise level of around 27dB, making it difficult to hear from 3.5 meters away.

Even with GPU and System fan profiles set to their lowest/quietest, the GPU clock speed never dropped below its 1721 Mhz boost speed, in fact in most tests the GPU exceeded its boost maintaining speeds above 1800 Mhz.

 

[K888D]

@K888D : what will be available height above standard gpu (like r9 nano) on lz7 rev 0.2 please?

The LZ7 v0.2 will have around 22mm space above the R9 Nano card.

 

[MarcParis]

@K888D thank you for the available height above r9 nano..
Good results also.. cool and quiet target seems achieved..

 

[MarcParis]

Another question about rev 0.2, where will be located bulgin/vandall button if we choose this power button option?

 

[MarcParis]

@K888D please could you share render of rev 0.2 with most popular color (black mat acrylic and smoky transparent) and standard equipment?
Also what will be vents shape on front panel by default? A stylish LZ logo?..

 

[K888D]

Another question about rev 0.2, where will be located bulgin/vandall button if we choose this power button option?

Well that is a good question, from the feedback survey it turns out that 42% of people would prefer to save £10 and lose the USB/Audio ports for a Vandall type switch instead.

I can't really ignore such a high percentage of people's preference, so I will likely offer a non standard cheaper version of the case with less features such as removing these ports.

If there will be a Vandal switch version then the power button would be located on the same side panel as the current power button and be placed in the top or bottom front corner.

Another design element that the survey highlighted was an opinion split over the side fan cutout design. 38% of people would prefer slotted vents for the side intake fan. So perhaps this alternative cheaper version will be a way for me to offer 1 of each design.

@K888D please could you share render of rev 0.2 with most popular color (black mat acrylic and smoky transparent) and standard equipment?
Also what will be vents shape on front panel by default? A stylish LZ logo?..

Yeah no problem, I'll try and put a few updated renders together over the next week.

The plan is to keep the front panel vent design the same as v0.1, I've not really received any objection to the aesthetics of the vents so far.

The advantages of this type of vent design is it costs less to cut straight lines than smaller more detailed patterns, the long vents also offer very good airflow performance due to a high open airpath ratio compared to smaller patterns.

By default the front panel will be plain apart from the vents. Depending on whether I'm in a position to offer laser cutting customisation, then customers could potentially me send me their own cutout designs/logos to add to the front panel.

 

[BirdofPrey]

Why does everyone like those vandal switches so much?

 

[MarcParis]

Why does everyone like those vandal switches so much?

I guess because they are easily customizable and strong.. my bulgin/vandall on my nfc s4 mini is gorgeous!

@K888D
As discussed if you put bulgin/vandall power button on top front of side panel, this could easily remove one ssd slot..

For front panel vents, you mean the 3 straight line like jurassic park 3 logo?..if yes, it's perfect.

Clearly a new render of last version will clarify the lz7..

 

[K888D]

Why does everyone like those vandal switches so much?

I would have thought that a large proportion of the people who voted to save £10 by removing USB/Audio ports voted to lower the price rather than a preference for vandal switches.

I probably should have worded my question better!

As discussed if you put bulgin/vandall power button on top front of side panel, this could easily remove one ssd slot..

That is true, but you can buy shorter vandal switches. I will need to look into this in more detail. I also have 1 more idea up my sleeve which I may reveal later this week as an alternative power switch.

For front panel vents, you mean the 3 straight line like jurassic park 3 logo?..if yes, it's perfect.

The front panel will be plain by default (apart from the GPU vents).

 

[MarcParis]

I guess the easiest solution for proto 0.2 you need to go for only one version. You can go for your power button/usb panel and large cutout for intake for a start.
Based on nfc s4 mini experiençe, people prefer chosing their color..