Production Lazer3D LZ7 - Quiet Gaming Cube PC Case

[paisapues]

Thanks for the updates! Seems like we can pack quite the machine in that little box!
That 1060 sc from EVGA was the card I was thinking about putting in there anyways, how was the noise compared to the Gigabyte 1070?

 

[K888D]

I reckon the Gigabyte fan is about the same noise level as the EVGA at the same RPMs, but the 1060 is only 120w whereas the 1070 is 150w. So at full load the Gigabyte card runs around 1550rpm whereas the EVGA is running at around 1100rpm, so the EVGA is quieter.

 

[TheHig]

The case looks awesome! Congrats on getting the production going. Temptation to transplant my Son's Hadron build into the LZ7 growing... Cheers!

 

[n4ru]

I have a ridiculous question. Can I fit an AIO CPU liquid cooler here? It looks like there's a tad bit of space for a radiator between the 1 case fan and the PSU. Naturally the radiator would be behind the 1 case fan. What's the amount of clearance there?

 

[K888D]

I have a ridiculous question. Can I fit an AIO CPU liquid cooler here? It looks like there's a tad bit of space for a radiator between the 1 case fan and the PSU. Naturally the radiator would be behind the 1 case fan. What's the amount of clearance there?

Not a ridiculous question! But unfortunately the answer is no, there isn't enough room to fit a radiator inside the case.

There is less than 20mm clearance between the side panel and motherboard which is just enough room to fit a slim 15mm thick fan. You could however fit the radiator on the outside of the case if you wanted to experiment with some modding!

 

[n4ru]

Not a ridiculous question! But unfortunately the answer is no, there isn't enough room to fit a radiator inside the case.

There is less than 20mm clearance between the side panel and motherboard which is just enough room to fit a slim 15mm thick fan. You could however fit the radiator on the outside of the case if you wanted to experiment with some modding!

'tis a shame. I wanted to ditch my Node 202 case for the sweet 3 Liter savings but I don't wanna give up my CPU liquid cooling :'(

Either way will be ordering one once you start shipping.

Do you estimate there will be a backlog? Or are you manufacturing extras? Myself and a lot of other consumers are wary of falling into the pre-order trap and wait for a product to actually be on the market. Are you taking this into account when predicting manufacturing quantities?

Also I hope you reach out to Linus if you haven't already. I saw your reddit post a month ago and I'm hoping someone convinced you by now that your case is worth talking about, I've seen it casually mentioned in a few forums and I think you could greatly benefit from it.

 

[BenNZL]

Will this case fit a sfx-l psu?

 

[K888D]

Will this case fit a sfx-l psu?

In theory it should fit, but it may be quite difficult in reality due to clearance for cable routing. It isn't something I have tried yet and hence why I can't confirm SFX-L compatibility.

There is 188mm total internal clearance from the back panel to the front panel, SFX-L is 130mm deep which leaves you 56mm of room to play around with if you don't fit any 2.5" drives. If you do fit a 2.5" drive then you will have about 35 - 40mm (depending on drive thickness) of room to play with which is cutting it fine for routing cables without restricting airflow.

Maybe when people get their cases and if you have both SFX and SFX-L you can experiment and let me know!

Do you estimate there will be a backlog? Or are you manufacturing extras? Myself and a lot of other consumers are wary of falling into the pre-order trap and wait for a product to actually be on the market. Are you taking this into account when predicting manufacturing quantities?

When you say pre-order trap, do you mean the product never being released, or do you mean lots of delays for it to be released?

I can assure you that all pre-orders are going to be shipped as soon as possible and early December is still the target date for doing this.

If the First Edition sells out before launch then I will likely order a second batch which I would expect to be ready early January 2017, but these will be the standard product at full price.

Also I hope you reach out to Linus if you haven't already. I saw your reddit post a month ago and I'm hoping someone convinced you by now that your case is worth talking about, I've seen it casually mentioned in a few forums and I think you could greatly benefit from it.

I think that the indie cases Linus has reviewed/featured so far are cases that have allot more potential to be taken seriously, and are intended for much higher sales volume and therefore a higher appeal to his audience.

At the moment the LZ7 is very low volume in comparison partly due to its niche market of only fitting SFX PSUs and ITX GPUs. It also has a few hurdles such as the perceived lower quality of using Acrylic panels for which most people aren't prepared to pay the relatively high price tag which comes from the low production volume/economies of scale.

Therefore I have a feeling that the general feedback in the comments and surrounding discussions will be centered around the case being over priced which will in turn over shadow the actual benefits on offer.

I've seen this happen in other forums and social sites all over the world where random people have linked to the LZ7 product page, most comment replies tend to focus on the price being too high rather than the advantages of the design.

But on a related note, my brother is putting the final touches to a video he has put together of the case for his YouTube channel. It's not a review but more of a feature video.

Hopefully it will give you guys a better understanding of the case. We tried to show how quiet the system can be while gaming, but I'm not sure the microphone did a great job of differentiating background hiss from actual fan noise! There is also a tour of the internal layout with components fitted and a brief explanation of the 360 degree GPU ventilation. One thing that the video does highlight is how much polished panels show up finger prints especially under studio lights, but it is worth noting that the First Edition panels will be a matte finish and not polished.

Hopefully the video will be ready before the end of this week.

 

[iFreilicht]

It also has a few hurdles such as the perceived lower quality of using Acrylic panels for which most people aren't prepared to pay the relatively high price tag which comes from the low production volume/economies of scale.

Really? Parvum is doing great selling cases made from metal cubes and acrylic. If anything, I would assume the perceived lower quality to come from the case being held together by 3D printed parts.

But I guess it's true that the price tag feels too high for most people. Indie cases are just pricey, there's no way around it.

 

[K888D]

I would assume the perceived lower quality to come from the case being held together by 3D printed parts.

That is true indeed, I think you will be surprised how tough these corner pieces are though. They feel, look and act like injection moulded plastic parts. I guess I need to do a better of job of getting that point across! Here goes:

These aren't your standard run of the mill 3D printed parts, these are top of the line high quality Nylon SLS parts. They are strong, durable and can flex like a standard ABS plastic part. Their surface finish is consistent, sharply detailed and has a slight matte texture with an almost soft to the touch feel.

Here are some example parts from the first batch, I didn't expect anyone to order purple!

 

[zhl146]

After having it in my cart like 5 times and then deciding against it over the last several weeks, I finally just ordered it last night. I like the design simplicity and the fact that I can have a real PSU in it. I hope that the thing is sturdy enough to travel!

Thanks for designing the case @K888D !

 

[EdZ]

and can flex like a standard ABS plastic part

You may want to omit this line, or add an explanation of why flexing is a good thing. To a layman, case flexing = bad.

 

[K888D]

You may want to omit this line, or add an explanation of why flexing is a good thing. To a layman, case flexing = bad.

Fair point!

Flex in the sense that the parts are not brittle, ie they will Flex and return to their original shape rather than snap when stressed.

One of the drawbacks of some 3D printing methods is they can result in brittle parts, Nylon SLS however is not, the parts are nice and strong.

 

[Phuncz]

The printed parts look amazingly high quality, that purple color looks awesome !

 

[K888D]

I mentioned last week that I would be posting some dust filter comparison results between a Metal Fan Guard, a Silverstone Dust Filter and an Akasa Dust Filter.

Please see the results below:

The same system spec was used as the last round of testing (GTX 1060 + i7-6700), see below for a more detailed component list and information on the test method:

Spoiler

• LZ7 v0.1 Prototype Case
• Gigabyte Z170N WiFi
• Intel i7-6700
• Noctua NH-L9i
• EVGA GTX 1070 SC 6Gb ITX
• 16Gb DDR4 2400MHz Corsair Vengeance LPX
• Samsung PM961 M.2 PCIe 256Gb SSD
• SF450 Corsair SFX PSU
• Silverstone 150x140x13mm System Fan

A full system stress was applied, running Prime95 with 8 threads in full power draw mode, Unigine Valley was also run at the same time to stress the GPU, the system was run for a minimum of 30 minutes per test before recording the results and swapping the fan cover for the next test.

The system fan was set to 'standard' fan curve profile starting at 30% at 30C and topping out at 100% when at 55C. The CPU fan curve was set to reach 100% fan power at 72C. The GPU was left at default settings.

As you would expect the metal fan guard achieves the best temperature results, the fan grill adds very little (if any) restriction or turbulence noise to the system fan. If maximum airflow is your priority then a fan guard/grill is the way to go.

Adding a dust filter however does reduce airflow slightly, temperatures rise by a few degrees but are kept under 41C for the system and under 69C for the CPU which is still pretty good going for a fully loaded system.

There is a small difference in temperature between the Silverstone and Akasa dust filter of around 1 degree, nothing significant. The Akasa performs marginally better probably due to having more 'open' surface area, the Silverstone has some bars running across the filter mesh which I presume are there to help keep the mesh material flatter. The Akasa filters have been selected to go ahead with, they perform better and also look nicer on the LZ7 with their simpler design.

GPU performance is not affected by the system fan cover type with no difference in temperature or fan speed between a fan guard or dust filter, full boost is maintained throughout testing with a max fan speed of 1093 rpm.

 

[cmyk78]

Does the red match the red on the Asrock Fatal1ty boards well?

 

[K888D]

Does the red match the red on the Asrock Fatal1ty boards well?

It is just a standard red, unfortunately I do not have any control of the specific colour shades, they are just offered as a 'red' or 'yellow', etc.

If I had to describe the shade, it is probably similar to the AMD red but a little bit lighter.

 

[K888D]

As promised, here is the video put together by my brother:

 

[Phuncz]

Awesome video, still anxiously awaiting to fondle it.

 

[confusis]

I shared a link to this thread in the comments on the video (which is awesome BTW), so that people can see how this was developed.