Completed Lone Industries L4

[Lone]

So I like the design here, as an owner of the L2 I was wondering what with the decision to drop dual fan support on the top of the case? It seemed to me the best way to maintain decent aiflow throughout the build.

The L3 introduced a very open vented side panel, which allowed for effective (if not better) cooling without the use of the 80 mm fans. Remember, the L2 vented side panel was optional (and not a very open design), whereas with the L3 it was standard. The L2 evolved from the L1, at which time I was trying hard to avoid having a vented side panel.

It's not perfect, but it works well, is smaller, quieter, cheaper, and easier to build.

 

[Lone]

Received a new prototype part with larger vent holes (48% larger diameter holes). Appearance is still good, and cooling is much better. Feels like I'm back on track.

 

[devinkato]

Found my next case right here. Curious - seems like there is a pretty drastic departure from your previous versions in terms of the way the case goes together (proud owner of a L1 and L2) - do you have any pics of it exploded? I have some cool ideas for the front panel - it seems like it's a separate piece now?

 

[Lone]

Once I have things finalized I'll post some images of the inside. Still sleeping on a few things. The front isn't a separate piece. I had played around with having a separate front panel, but decided against it. I guess someone could make an add-on front panel (metal or acrylic).

 

[Lone]

I think I'm going to powder coat the L4. It's just not realistic to expect parts to be free from imperfections that won't show after anodizing, and for some people that's not acceptable. It's probably not realistic to expect powder coated parts to be perfect either.

My current thought is to powder coat some black, and some silver. Then I can mix and match parts to create four colour options: black/black, black/silver, silver/silver, silver/black.

 

[raymondo]

My powdercoated L1 is still looking great. Go powder!

 

[devinkato]

My current thought is to powder coat some black, and some silver. Then I can mix and match parts to create four colour options: black/black, black/silver, silver/silver, silver/black.

Powdercoating is the best way to do a pure white - just say'in. Love my white Lone cases.

 

[Lone]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll test both and go from there. Each method has it's pros and cons, which makes it hard to pick a clear winner.

 

[Lone]

Prototype parts go to my anodizer tomorrow. Going to see how that turns out before deciding on powder coating. Removed 2.5 inch drive mount behind motherboard (to do it right, I believe drives need much more space than I could give them). Also, planning to offer/include (depending on cost) 120 mm fan mount bracket, and 2-3x stacked 2.5 inch drive brackets.

EDIT: Also added a new 2.5 inch drive mounting point. If you're not using a big GPU, you can mount 2.5 inch drives in the bottom of the case now.

 

[LukeD]

Oh how i wish nVidia and AMD made higher end GPU's that were half-height.
Great looking case though, very clean and minimalistic.
I'm guessing you're going with an external power brick for the power supply with something like the HD Plex ?

 

[Therandomness]

Oh how i wish nVidia and AMD made higher end GPU's that were half-height.
Great looking case though, very clean and minimalistic.
I'm guessing you're going with an external power brick for the power supply with something like the HD Plex ?

Well, the Tesla P4 is essentially a low profile, short and single slot 1080 according to the techpowerup GPU database... why can't this be mainstream?

 

[LukeD]

Well, the Tesla P4 is essentially a low profile, short and single slot 1080 according to the techpowerup GPU database... why can't this be mainstream?

Because its still full height PCI. I believe this case does half height ?

 

[LukeD]

Lone, can I ask you how do you do these amazing renders ?

 

[Therandomness]

Because its still full height PCI. I believe this case does half height ?

Yeah the case appears to be half height. I was saying, the Tesla P4 is a half height 1080, but of course it doesn't have display ports...

 

[LukeD]

You're right it is half height. Huh ! Google's first image was of a full height card ! Damn google

 

[EdZ]

Well, the Tesla P4 is essentially a low profile, short and single slot 1080 according to the techpowerup GPU database... why can't this be mainstream?

I've seen a few PNY-branded Tesla P4s on a handful of supplier websites (though no listing from PNY themselves, so those could be erroneous) who might be able to drop consumer binned GP104 chips onto the board. It would still need a fair bit of redesign to be suitable for a consumer product, like a brand new developed-from-scratch thermal solution that is self-contained rather than relying of chassis forced airflow (and PCB niceties like display outputs!). It'd be uncompetitive with 'normal' 1080 cards (louder, hotter), and for custom SFF PCs from large OEMs it would make more sense to use the 1080 MXM module.

With the almost total lack of a half-height GPU market, I could only see a HH 1080 being made as a 'bragging product'.

 

[jtd871]

The Quadro K1200 is a GM107-based card. 4GB GDDR5, LP, single-slot. Restricted to PCIe 2.0, but that shouldn't be much of a handicap at x16. The "lesser" Quadros K420/620 are much weaker.
Apparently there is a MSI 750Ti/2GB available from Newegg according to https://techreport.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=94408, and Galax released a LP 950/2GB, but may be Japan-only.

 

[Lone]

Oh how i wish nVidia and AMD made higher end GPU's that were half-height.
Great looking case though, very clean and minimalistic.
I'm guessing you're going with an external power brick for the power supply with something like the HD Plex ?

Thank you. It would be nice if there were more options for those into gaming. Aren't there a lot of great (independent?) games out there that don't require a power hungry GPU?

The L4 supports PicoPSU, HDPLEX AC-DC 80W*/160W* and DC-DC 160W/250W*.

* Reduces number of 2.5 inch drives you can fit in the case.

Lone, can I ask you how do you do these amazing renders ?

We use KeyShot here at work, so the price is right. I'm really a beginner when it comes to rendering, and not something I do for fun.

 

[raymondo]

One could still get the R7 250E which is available in low profile and even single slot for some models. I think it's similar to a Radeon HD 7750 which in turn is even weaker than a GTX 750 I think. So reasonable gaming in low quality would be possible or good quality for a majority of indie games or older games. Other option would be the 750 Ti if you can get your hands on one (as for all low profile GPUs).

 

[Kmpkt]

GTX 950 should be available through Galax now since it's been on their website for a while. Has anyone inquired as to availability?