Thank you very much, and thank you everyone for the kind comments.
These are very good points and something I have been thinking hard about whilst I have been developing the case.
My thinking at the moment is that there will be 2 versions of the case, the one pictured above being the low profile version.
In terms of new ITX cards, (to my knowledge) all of the latest ITX cards do not have the power connector on the top. I am hoping this is a trend going forward. For example the GTX 950 cards do not have a power connector at all. The next new release before these cards was the R9 Nano (please correct me if I've missed anything), this has its power connector facing towards the rear of the card.
It would be great if this will be the norm going forward, although I doubt it.
I will concentrate my efforts on the full height case, with the intention of having a lower profile version for those who will want to squeeze out that extra 1 litre of volume.
One of the great things about using Acrylic is the relatively low cost for low volume manufacture, for this reason you can produce different designs without increasing the price too much.
Secondly the corner attachment method does not need to be adjusted to accomodate the different height panels, as they are located in the corners.
For these reasons I am also considering a third case option, which will be about 30mm wider but will allow for a 120mm water cooling radiator with a slim fan, or the new Slim Tundra TD03 models from Silverstone (37mm total thickness). This wider option would give a case volume of 7.5 litres.
On a side note - the 5mm Acrylic is adding around 0.7 litres volume to the case, if the case was to be made from 2mm sheet metal it would reduce to 5.2 litres for the low profile version. Just something to think about!
I made the prototypes myself, is that what you mean?
For the 3D print tests, we have an FDM 3D printer in the office where I work, I am hoping my boss will allow me to use it for the test prints. For the actual final case parts I am going to look into using Shapeways, I have got some basic prices from early CAD models and the prices are very reasonable.
For the next prototype I am going to use 5mm knife cut foam board to replicate the Acrylic panels.
After I'm happy with the design I will then move into using Acrylic sheets. I will be using a local plastic laser cutting company that I used for my other case project that can be seen here. Each prototype of that case cost £120 (including the heat bent parts).
4 Litres is indeed hard to compete with, I think these guys have that end of the market covered, the designs on this forum are very impressive!
This is why I decided to take a slightly different approach of not using any custom parts such as PCIe Risers, to see what is achievable if you just stick to the fundamental case layout of an upright graphics card inserted directly into the motherboard. ITX cards are gaining popularity and I can't wait to see what the manufacturers come up with next using the next gen tech.
You could in theory reduce the volume of this form factor drastically by creating an 'L' shaped case, I did do a quick CAD mock up of this shape, but it wasn't pretty!
I am a big fan of gaming cube/shoebox style cases, to my knowledge the Silverstone SG13B is amongst the smallest that is widely available at 11.5litres in volume. But the SG13b still caters for a wide market with space for an ATX PSU, 120mm water cooling radiator and a 10 inch graphics card. Obviously you can build a much more powerful PC with this case, but the majority of consumers cannot afford more than a GTX 970 anyway, so there is definitely a market for a smaller case that can accomodate up to a GTX 970 spec.
I have also found the thermal performance of the SG13b to not be that great and I would not be comfortable with using a GPU with a TDP of above 200W. There is allot of re circulation of hot air and the front mounted fan does not extract air from the rear of the case efficiently where the CPU is located.
I will check when I get home from work tonight, but the full height version can comfortably fit a Noctua NH-L9 with (I think) around 20 - 30mm clearance to the underside of the PSU. The SFX PSU stops about half way across the cooler, so the fan also has plenty of breathing room beyond the PSU.
The side intake case fan also pushes cool air directly across the CPU cooler intake providing nice and cool temps.
The lower height case varient (to fit the R9 Nano) will need to use a lower profile cooler than the NH-L9 such as the Zalman CNPS2X, I estimate this to be around 30mm max cooler height allowing for CPU intake clearence of around 20mm, the side intake fan will aid with the cooling helping to keep fan RPMs lower.
I have found the Corsair cables fairly easy to work with, they don't feel as stiff as the Silverstone ones. Routing cables in this case was suprisingly easy, although adding the HDD cage in front of the PSU may make it slightly more difficult.
