News Lian Li PC-Q17WX - Crowdfunded case by ROG fans?

One that really stands out, despite the stiff competition however is the PC-Q17WX, which began life as a Kickstarter project from RoG fans and engineers. It’s a design that breaks down very easily and is a much loved piece of kit for system builders. While many manufacturers competed to make the design, Lian Li won out by delivering it within six months, over a year before other case makers were ready to produce it.

http://www.kitguru.net/components/cases/jon-martindale/heres-all-of-lian-lis-computex-cases/

Anyone know any details of this? First I've ever heard of it.

Edit: More pics here

http://www.cowcotland.com/news/47915/computex-2015-pc-q17-lian-li-asus-rog-boitier-mini-itx.html

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/45636/make-yourself-complete-asus-rog-themed-custom-build/index.html

 

[Kip]

OK. First, I mean the kickstarter was the Ncase M1 project, not an ROG or other. That much I hope we agree on.
I was told ROG brought the idea to Lian Li and they made this case somewhat together. I will check on the rest.

 

[iFreilicht]

Yeah the first statement is correct.
In the article about this case that's linked in the OP, it said that ROG brought this to multiple case manufacturers and LianLi were the first to deliver a working prototype. What we don't know is: How much of this was designed by ROG? If they designed everything of this case and basically copied the M1, then that's rather sad, but frankly unavoidable in an industry like this. But if ROG came to LianLi, gave them the basic idea and then LianLi modified the drawings they have of the M1 to fit the bill, that would be extremely sad.
I don't think this would be the case, though. It seems very unprofessional of LianLi to do something like this, I think they just rolled with what ROG gave them.

 

[Phuncz]

OK. First, I mean the kickstarter was the Ncase M1 project, not an ROG or other. That much I hope we agree on.
I was told ROG brought the idea to Lian Li and they made this case somewhat together. I will check on the rest.

The main issue seems to be that the Ncase M1 is referred or insinuated to be related with this ROG project, but the so-called Kickstarter campaign (also mentioned on other sites) was never seen. There is a lot of misinformation about this case being spread which is not needed for something ROG to succeed in selling.

 

[Kip]

Well, sorry guys, this case won't be sold in USA or Canada due to ROG marketing rules. Is there no ROG Certified in America?
And, I got my boss to talk to the Lian Li marketing guy who talked to nCase. Yes, 3rd hand, I am a mushroom. The report I got back: "After he heard the MSRP, nCase was not worried." Ah, good old Lian Li

 

[iFreilicht]

Well, sorry guys, this case won't be sold in USA or Canada due to ROG marketing rules. Is there no ROG Certified in America?
And, I got my boss to talk to the Lian Li marketing guy who talked to nCase. Yes, 3rd hand, I am a mushroom. The report I got back: "After he heard the MSRP, nCase was not worried." Ah, good old Lian Li

I'm pretty sure there is, they get all the ROG mainboards as well, don't they?

How freaking expensive will that case be if the M1 is way cheaper, even including shipping? I guess some people will still pay the premium for the "fancy" ROG logo on the side.

 

[jeshikat]

The ROG certified program is where they attach the ROG branding to products manufactured outside of Asus, like the PC-Q17WX.

 

[iFreilicht]

Oh I see, didn't know that existed.

 

[PlayfulPhoenix]

...

Interesting, I've learned things today. Thanks for the update!

 

[veryrarium]

Hmm, I think North America would be the market where the In Win transformer case would get the most popularity but it's also ROG Certified.

 

[Kip]

Yes, the ROG certification program is not actually ROG products. They are just ... well... Certified
You can see our case, we have the logo and the ROG Certified designation, but not a big ROG anywhere. Its all branding and legal and stuff over my pay grade. Hope this helps
http://rog.asus.com/rog-certified-products/

 

[confusis]

Interesting. Sort of an own brand kind of thing. Slapping on a logo to 'add value'

 

[iFreilicht]

Interesting. Sort of an own brand kind of thing. Slapping on a logo to 'add value'

Didn't you read the website? The products undergo extensive testing and only the best succeed! They wouldn't just slap the logo on if it wasn't worth your money, now, would they? /s

 

[confusis]

Not quite what I was implying. More that adding the branding increases the value to the end user - much like product reviews. The stuff has been tested and known to work.

In saying that, there was the fa(i)ltality stuff that Abit then ASRock ran for a while!

 

[Kip]

Testing.... Yes, they do do that. But, Its more ROG just being very very picky what they put the name on.

I met fa(i)tal1ty. Nice guy. He only kicked my ass playing for a few minutes before he humiliated me enough. But good fun.

 

[Necere]

@Kip, do you work for Lian Li? You're tagged as such, but I got the impression from your posts you worked for someone else and your company is only involved with them in some capacity.

 

[Kip]

I don't work for Lian Li directly, no native English speakers do. They are actually a very very small company. I am their official Face Book rep, PR writer, TweakTown rep, and many other menial tasks. You can also see me on their YouTubes, I just did the DK-03. I also rep them on OCN, because I was staff there, and by staff, I mean the lucky guy that gets to go to Computex with a camera

So yes, my company is hired by Lian Li to communicate with the world outside Taiwan.

 

[Phuncz]

Nice to have a representative of Lian Li on this forum, it proved valuable on [H]ardForum to have Tony Ou from Silverstone there as well as a representative. Since Lian Li is also focused on SFF design, this could be a good fit. Especially with the projects originating from here that could be outsourced to Lian Li and the general design wishes for cases conveyed here by designers and consumers alike.

 

[confusis]

Yay company reps! It seems Lian-Li and Silverstone are the major players in SFF and have been for some time.

 

[Wahaha360]

...And, I got my boss to talk to the Lian Li marketing guy who talked to nCase. Yes, 3rd hand, I am a mushroom. The report I got back: "After he heard the MSRP, nCase was not worried." Ah, good old Lian Li

I think you may be connecting two separate events.

First, regardless of the MSRP, I was worried and still am, because I thought Lian Li will at least tell us about the ROG given the similarities. That's the trend that I worry about.

Give Lian Li manufacturing costs, we knew the ROG MSRP would be high.

 

[veryrarium]

The official page for Q17 is public now:
http://www.lian-li.com/en/dt_portfolio/pc-q17/
And so is Q21:
http://www.lian-li.com/en/dt_portfolio/pc-q21/