Production Lazer3D LZ7 - Quiet Gaming Cube PC Case

MarcParis

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Apr 1, 2016
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Again to be honest with you, I will prefer by very, very, very FAR to have such front panel ( LZ with red ssd bracket should be awesome) instead of plain one, even if it's a little more expensive...after all it's your best marketing tool..:)

 

K888D

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Again to be honest with you, I will prefer by very, very, very FAR to have such front panel ( LZ with red ssd bracket should be awesome) instead of plain one, even if it's a little more expensive...after all it's your best marketing tool..:)

The detail on the front is down to personal preference and from what I've picked up over time is that most people when it comes to PC cases seem to feel that 'less is more' and prefer a minimalist look. But I understand that some people do like loud aesthetics and I will do my best to offer customisation options.

When working with Acrylic Laser Cutting companies you have to bare in mind that every option you give the customer to choose from (including colour) will increase the overall price of the case for everyone as you are fragmenting production runs into more runs of smaller quantities, so piece part price will increase.

I'm not saying that customised panels are not possible, but they will cost allot more and will have a longer lead time as they will be specially ordered in as a 1 off panel.

My end goal is to be able to laser cut these products myself, once I get to that point I can offer unlimited customisation options for only a small cost increase and in a much quicker turnaround for custom parts. But whilst I am dealing with external laser cutters bigger volume orders of the same spec panels will cost less.

The default design has to appeal to the wider audience, which unfortunately may not be to the taste of the minority, its difficult to please everyone with 1 design!

On a related note - the 3D printed corners can be any colour you want and this wont affect the price.
 

MarcParis

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When you say people prefer minimalistics / sober esthetics, you are right on global pc market.
However your lz7 is dedicated to small, quiet, gaming computer, that is not at all standard pc market.

I was not speaking of customization right now but default design of your case. You have opportunity to put your logo, even in a sober way (reduce size, color scheme with less contrast, etc ). It's a great opportunity because your customer will take picture of their case, and your company signature will be there.
 

BirdofPrey

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Sep 3, 2015
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My end goal is to be able to laser cut these products myself, once I get to that point I can offer unlimited customisation options for only a small cost increase and in a much quicker turnaround for custom parts. But whilst I am dealing with external laser cutters bigger volume orders of the same spec panels will cost less.
Just don't be too quick to offer unlimited customization for a low price. The reason other companies charge more for it is that it complicates handling and inventorying, and if you start to sell enough volume, you'll see the same issues, and you don't want to devalue your own time.
 
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K888D

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Just don't be too quick to offer unlimited customization for a low price. The reason other companies charge more for it is that it complicates handling and inventorying, and if you start to sell enough volume, you'll see the same issues, and you don't want to devalue your own time.

Thanks for your comment, very good points!

When I say 'unlimited customisation', I guess I was meaning in the sense that if a customer wanted to put their own logo on the front then that is something that could be done for a certain price and extra lead time of course.
 

Soul_Est

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Feb 12, 2016
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Just had a look at your completed build on PCPartPicker and read the comments. Glad to see the overall positive feedback and just shaking my head at the sheer ignorance and vanity of others.
 
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K888D

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Thank you. Yeah the response was quite overwhelming, I was expecting it to just get lost amongst all the other builds.

One thing I did pick up from all the comments is that dust is very big concern for allot of people. The current design allows you to fit a dust filter on the case fan side, but I think people would also like the option to add one on the GPU side.

So for the next revision I have added some mounting holes on the GPU side. A secondary benefit of this is that it may be possible to add a 140mm AIO in the GPU bay if you wanted use integrated graphics instead of dedicated. But that is something I would need to check to be sure!
 

MarcParis

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@K888D it should be hard to put a radiator instead of gpu due to radiator thickness...but i'm curious of your proposal..:)

So do you have news about your rev 0.2 proto?..:)
 

K888D

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it should be hard to put a radiator instead of gpu due to radiator thickness...but i'm curious of your proposal..:)

True, it will likely interfere with the motherboard! But I've added some 120 and 140mm mounting holes to the gpu panel to give people options to fit whatever they want including dust filters for the GPU.

So do you have news about your rev 0.2 proto?..:)

I placed the order last night for v0.2, it took a bit longer than I originally planned due to some minor changes from last minute feedback.

I've also got a few surprise additions, not going to mention exactly what they are as they may end up looking crap!

Should have the prototype built up in about 1 - 2 weeks.
 
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K888D

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Just a quick update to let you know things are still progressing forward. I've received the 3D printed parts for v0.2, but I'm still waiting on the laser cut parts.

It was mentioned a while ago about the possibility of the option to add 'HiFi' style feet onto the case, for v0.2 I have added some holes to the bottom panel that will allow you to screw your own feet on, here is a render of what that would look like if you used the Lian-Li case feet (45mm diameter):


The above render also shows the new 120mm and 140mm mounting holes on the GPU side for those who would like to add a dust filter. You can also see a line accross the front which will be laser etched onto the surface of v0.2. I'm not sure how this will look in reality, its just an experiment for now.

Some other new changes include - In order to try and reduce the price of the case, for those who do not require the front USB and Audio I am hoping to offer an alternate side panel that will allow the customer to fit their own 16mm power switch (Vandell/Bulgin). There will also be a vented side panel for those who would prefer not to fit a dust filter:


And as a bonus here is a shot of the rear to give you a better idea of the component layout and the kind of clearances to expect:

 

atl

Cable Smoosher
Aug 7, 2016
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I love the changes. But is it too restricting to be opinionated and require a 140mm fan on the GPU side?

LZ7 gets its strengths from being opinionated.
 

K888D

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I love the changes. But is it too restricting to be opinionated and require a 140mm fan on the GPU side?

LZ7 gets its strengths from being opinionated.

Thanks! Yes the feedback is very much appreciated and has been a massive help to progress the design.

Adding a slim 140mm fan on the GPU would increase the width by around 18mm and an extra 0.56 litres volume. From the testing I've carried out so far the GPU runs very well, the 360 degree ventilation surrounding the card in combination with the positive pressure setup does a great job in getting rid of all the cards exhaust heat, plus the gpu has direct access to cool air through the side vents.

Basically I'm not sure that the benefits would outweigh the size increase of the case, hope that helps answer your question!

with these changes what are the new size limits? (cpu cooler and gpu)

Here is an up to date list of specs for v0.2:

SIZE
  • Mini ITX form factor
  • SFX PSU Support
  • 226mm (W) x 196mm (D) x 158mm (H) - case only
  • 7.0L volume
GPU COMPATABILITY
  • 1x Dual Slot Full height
  • Length up to 187mm
  • Height up to 131mm* (compatible with Gigabyte GTX 1070 ITX)
COOLING COMPATABILITY
  • CPU Cooler clearance up to 65mm (below 60mm recommended)
  • 1x 140mm/120mm x 15mm fan
The full spec list can be found on page 1 of this thread.
 

MarcParis

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Apr 1, 2016
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I love the view from the back of the case, this illustrated perfectly components integration/compatibility.

I truly like the small band LZ7 on the front panel.

Finally I prefer this right panel (16mm vandall button + vents for 140mm/120mm slim fan), sober, efficient!

Finally the model you are showing, all black, is very beautiful..:) I'm eager to see photos of the physical prototype.
 

K888D

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Finally the model you are showing, all black, is very beautiful..:) I'm eager to see photos of the physical prototype.

Cheers Marc, thanks for all the positive feedback! I've contacted the laser cutter this morning to see where they are up to with my order.

my bad
didnt see you had updated the front page

No worries, I should have let people know that I'd updated the front page!
 

K888D

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Finally the Acrylic panels for LZ7 v0.2 turned up this morning!


Some experimenting with laser marking:


I've built up the case and it goes together perfectly, later on today I will be testing it out with some components. I need to spend some time testing and taking better pictures of the case, but for now I will leave you with this teaser image:



Plenty more photos to follow!