Completed Lone Industries L4

[Kmpkt]

Out of curiosity if a batch of designers on here, let's say NFC, Kimera, Lone as an example, batch ordered their parts through one factory would there be a significant volume discount or shipping discount? Might be the way for this community to handle future designer's orders. Other thing to think of (for Lone and I at the very least), it it's a really big disadvantage to have things come as far as Canada since the likely bulk of our orders will not be coming from Canada. Perhaps we could also collectively arrange for someone here to act as a distribution agent from the US side?

 

[Lone]

Since every case has a different design, I don't think there would be any volume discount.

I've wondered about shipping product from within the US, but then you still have to pay to get the product into the US, and pay for warehousing. I have even considered just driving the hour to the US border to ship product. Maybe the "Network" in SFF Network could include a shipping network? There is also significant trust issue. You don't want some random person running off with your product.

 

[EdZ]

Regional distribution centres work well when you can ship in defined batches. For example, you could ship a large batch into an EU country, pay all required customs fees in one go at the border (percentage plus one overhead charge rather than a percentage and an overhead per item), then reship inside the EU with no further customs charging. The downside is the extra expense of unpacking and reshipping. If you can ship the initial batch by slow sea freight that can save a lot over individually shipping items internationally.

An SFF shipping network is a great idea, but a lot of the work would be 'bursty': maybe a couple of small items per week, then suddenly 8 pallets of 1000 cases to deal with.

 

[Kmpkt]

If there was a planned release schedule between partners it would probably alleviate the bustiness. Also having too many products hit the market at once is bad for all involved. As an example (sorry not to pick on anyone), but !nverse hitting two weeks or so after the Sentry was pretty much the worst timing possible IMO. Perhaps some collaboration/communication between different designers within a distribution group could alleviate this sort of thing in the future.

 

[Lone]

8 pallets of 1000 cases would be a bit unusual for me.

Another option could be to find retailers by cold contacting existing shops/online stores and see if they'd take on some stock and sell it for you. Maybe if they don't have to actually pay for the product, and instead just take a profit they'd be more interested.

I think this goes along with increasing product price in order to offer free shipping. If you sell through a retailer, then you save on shipping which can then be turned into profit for the retailer.

 

[d28zGp]

Any news here ?

 

[Lone]

Any news here ?

Not much new. I should receive 10 sets of parts from my anodizer by the end of next week. If they're good and there's no issues, I will get more on the way.

 

[Lone]

Well, I got my small batch of parts back from the anodizer today. Unfortunately they messed up on which outside shell parts were supposed to be clear and which were supposed to be black, so they're essentially unusable and have to be sent back for refinishing.

 

[devinkato]

Well, I got my small batch of parts back from the anodizer today. Unfortunately they messed up on which outside shell parts were supposed to be clear and which were supposed to be black, so they're essentially unusable and have to be sent back for refinishing.

Bummer! Seems to be a string of bad luck with these!

I think i recall that your first runs had some non-aluminum parts welded in - making anodizing difficult. Has that changed with this latest design? Or will the non-aluminum parts be added after the anodizing process?

 

[Lone]

Ya, it would seem that way. Better to catch any issues with this small batch than something much larger though.

L3 and L4 are all aluminum, including the PEM fasteners, so anodizing is not an issue.

 

[devinkato]

Oooh - all aluminum Any chance of you selling any raw cases?

 

[Lone]

Yes, there's a chance. Would you have someone finish it locally? They really need to be finished somehow, otherwise the aluminum is just too easily damaged.

 

[devinkato]

Yep, I'd have it sent out for anodizing. Thinking of something like this -

 

[Lone]

Okay, cool. I'd love to see some custom anodizing done by customers.

 

[raymondo]

Would you offer them on your website? I'm thinking about getting one for the sake of tinkering.

 

[Lone]

Would you offer them on your website? I'm thinking about getting one for the sake of tinkering.

I'm considering accepting pre-orders for the L4. If this happens then I could offer an unfinished option. To have someone anodize the parts you're probably looking anywhere from $50-100+. I'd shop around and see what the minimum charges are in your area.

 

[koramas]

I'm curious, if I wanted to use my existing i5-3470 (77w tdp) and one of the new 1050 (75w tdp) low profile GPUs in this case, would that be too much power draw for one of the 160w pico psu units/similar? I'm guessing yes since this is already 150w+ without accounting for other stuff.

 

[Biowarejak]

I'm curious, if I wanted to use my existing i5-3470 (77w tdp) and one of the new 1050 (75w tdp) low profile GPUs in this case, would that be too much power draw for one of the 160w pico psu units/similar? I'm guessing yes since this is already 150w+ without accounting for other stuff.

Put that into PC Part Picker and it should estimate the power you need.

 

[CC Ricers]

The official Pico PSU units are surprisingly strong. You can push the peak wattage over 200W with those. You'll need to keep the case well ventilated so that it easily gets cooler air.

 

[Lone]

I'm curious, if I wanted to use my existing i5-3470 (77w tdp) and one of the new 1050 (75w tdp) low profile GPUs in this case, would that be too much power draw for one of the 160w pico psu units/similar? I'm guessing yes since this is already 150w+ without accounting for other stuff.

If you already have the components then I'd recommend measuring your typical and max power usage. As CC Ricers mentioned the PicoPSU-160-XT is rated for 160W (200W peak), and is sold with an optional 192W AC adapter. This should be sufficient. If you don't mind the potential wait, I'd recommend considering G-Unique.