Prototype Lazer3D ST8 - Slim Tower Case

[K888D]

I apologise for the slow progress on this. Since many countries have gone into lockdown we've seen a substantial increase in orders, combined with schools being closed its been difficult to find much time to work on new projects!

A new prototype has been made in grey and walnut with a clear side panel. Some minor improvements have been made including increased CPU cooler clearance height up to 105mm whilst retaining the same case volume through a reduction in case height.


TESTING

To test the system I'm using a Ryzen 5 2400G paired with a Gigabyte ITX GTX 1650 Super and powered by a Corsair SF450 PSU (it's all I have to hand at the moment!).

For cooling I tested both a Corsair H60 120mm AIO and then a NH-L12S in combination with a 140x25mm Noctua Chromax fan.

Full Stress = Unigine Valley + 8 threads of Prime95. All tests were left to run for 30 mins minimum until temps had settled.

Corsair H60 120mm AIO

• IDLE - the CPU ran at 37C with a system temp of 35C and a GPU temp of 29C, fans were set to silent/quiet speeds where possible.
• FULL STRESS - the CPU ran at 75C with a system temp of 43C and a GPU temp of 64C, all fans were set to max RPM

Routing the AIO tubes was fairly straight forward, they folded round either side of the radiator:

There is sufficient clearance between the pump and fan with the Corsair H60, there may not be room for thicker pump/radiator combos from other brands:

The Radiator/Fan can be mounted either to the rail mounts, or for an extra 6mm of clearance they can be mounted directly to the side panel:

NH-L12S with 140mm Noctua Fan

• IDLE - the CPU ran at 39C with a system temp of 38C and a GPU temp of 31C, fans were set to silent/quiet speeds where possible.
• FULL STRESS - the CPU ran at 74C with a system temp of 47C and a GPU temp of 67C, all fans were set to max RPM

TESTING CONCLUSION
Surprisingly the NH-L12S held its own against the H60 AIO with very similar CPU temps under stress and gaming. But with the H60 exhausting all CPU heat straight out the case, it helps to achieve lower temps elsewhere in the system with the GPU running a few C lower.

GIGABYTE GTX 1560 Super ITX
Some notes on the Gigabyte ITX GTX 1650 Super - I would not recommend this particular model due to the fan noise. For some reason Gigabyte decided not to include a fanless (zero RPM) idle mode, which in my opinion for a £165 card is not acceptable. To make it worse the lowest they allow the fan to spin is 1900 RPM, meaning it idles at around 30C! You can control the fan speed and curve, but 1900 RPM is the lowest it will go even in MSI afterburner.

The fan noise is about what you would expect for a 92mm fan running at 1900 RPM, but it's just too noisy for idle usage and is more in line with what you would expect it to sound like whilst gaming. This fan noise was present with and without the side panel fitted, it is not from vent turbulence.

If anybody knows a way to reduce the fan speed please let me know!

 

[KingJ]

Really like the latest design! I think you’ve nailed the look with the wooden strip and grey colour on the front!

Would there be an option for some form of front I/O? Maybe just one USB-C port on the side or the top would keep the clean design?

Love the work!

 

[cmyk78]

How strict is the new 105mm cpu cooler height? Because that's only 5mm away from the 110mm height of the NH D9L which would allow for taller ram and better cooling on boards like the ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 which can't fit the lower profile coolers due to the chipset heatsink.

 

[Legion]

It's still a work in progress, nothing is fixed at this point. It's a case of where do you stop to keep the theme of the concept intact and at the same time try and satisfy a good range of buyer build options.

I've had lengthy chats with @K888D about potential coolers for the case, a Dark Rock TF without the top fan is 105mm.
In an attempt to keep the design as minimal as possible and where he was at with dimensions for protoype 1, supporting "Up to" the Dark Rock TF at 105mm was a sensible choice. It also opened up better ram (and pump) options for AIO builds.

I do believe if you want air cooling for the case C-Type (i.e top down) is the way to go, I also think you want something close the side panel to minimise recirculation. 90mm+ heights will be the ball park to shoot for.
As shown the NH-L12S with a 25mm top fan (95mm total) is showing good results already. And with the bottom fan removed still gives you good options for various ram heights and in your situation with the TB3 it will clear that chipset heatsink.

As soon as Covid subsides, I'll supply @K888D with some hardware that he doesn't have right now to test some builds out

 

[chewie13]

Can't wait for this to go into production to add it to my Lazer3d case collection

 

[miptzi]

Keeping an eye here too. Love tiny footprints

Pallas, pallas 120, big shuriken 3 also would match perfectly this case. Even with thicker fans.

Noctua C14 non - S fits in the new clearance, noice

 

[Poblopuablo]

How's this project coming? Specifically the 12l? It reminds me of the sunmilo bg3, knarr and xolid13

 

[comagoosie]

I must still be living in 2020, as I saw the thread creation date of "April 4th 2020" with a couple posts and I got excited that Lazer3d just dropped a new and beautiful case design. Took me a minute to realize my mistake.

 

[K888D]

How's this project coming? Specifically the 12l? It reminds me of the sunmilo bg3, knarr and xolid13

Hi there, it's on hold at the moment while we concentrate on launching the LZX series of cases.

I'm not sure if it will be picked back up at the moment, one of the main reasons for putting this on hold is due to the situation with PCIe 3.0 and 4.0 risers.

 

[comagoosie]

one of the main reasons for putting this on hold is due to the situation with PCIe 3.0 and 4.0 risers.

Yeah and with PCIe 5.0 on the horizon, it seems we'll be battling riser compatibility issues for the years to come.

Hopefully something shakes out and you can bring this case to market without too much headache.

 

[Poblopuablo]

Yeah and with PCIe 5.0 on the horizon, it seems we'll be battling riser compatibility issues for the years to come.

Hopefully something shakes out and you can bring this case to market without too much headache.

What would the point of pcie 5.0 be? The past 2 generations of gpus with 4.0 have had little to no performance gain from it. And it will likely be similar next generation. After that 2-4 year from now I could see 4.0 being relavent for graphics cards. I understand that the higher bandwidth is not necessarily meant for just graphics cards, but many other applications. But a majority of sffpc's are used by people with graphics cards for either gaming or content creation.

The only benefit, from what I have come to see, with 4.0 risers is the compatibility between gpu and motherboard. It's not a need for bandwidth. I hope 5.0 with a 4.0 riser will not have the compatibility issues that 4.0 did with 3.0 riser.

 

[K888D]

What would the point of pcie 5.0 be? The past 2 generations of gpus with 4.0 have had little to no performance gain from it. And it will likely be similar next generation. After that 2-4 year from now I could see 4.0 being relavent for graphics cards. I understand that the higher bandwidth is not necessarily meant for just graphics cards, but many other applications. But a majority of sffpc's are used by people with graphics cards for either gaming or content creation.

The only benefit, from what I have come to see, with 4.0 risers is the compatibility between gpu and motherboard. It's not a need for bandwidth. I hope 5.0 with a 4.0 riser will not have the compatibility issues that 4.0 did with 3.0 riser.

I wasn't personally aware of a looming PCIe 5.0 spec, but like you say the GPU performance increase from 3.0 to 4.0 is minimal so a further version doesnt seem neccessary.

The main issue from a manufacturers perspective is the Motherboard/Riser/GPU compatibility issues and the customer service nightmare this would create, especially being such a small company.

PCIe 4.0 risers are currently too expensive to buy in small quantities and ship with a case, so realistically we could only include a PCIe 3.0 riser with our cases. The problem with that is the majority of people who buy a PC case are not enthusiasts like those on this Forum, they rightly expect to buy something and for it to work out the box, and it's unrealistic to expect the average user to be messing around in their BIOS to get their case to work.

Hopefully the riser situation will improve with time.