Stalled Mosaik - Klotz: 18.9L (prev. 18.6L) Case for Large Air and Liquid Coolers With Minimalistic Design

[adesignaddict]

Awesome! No compromise to the performance. Have you tried vertical stand? Or provide vented panel to the front?

A vertical orientation would, unfortunately, make this case larger than 20L. We really like the vertical approach though as it takes up less room on a desk, but this would make more sense with a different layout. Also, a vented front panel wouldn't do much good as there isn't enough room for a proper fan in the front because of the power supply being in the way.

 

[WiseGuyPlato]

BILLYKING is right. I think we are too stressed about the volume numbers here. A vertical orientation with vented front (top) panel and a 2-3 cm added at the bottom for cable bending will exceed the 20L mark by a couple of liters, BUT, in my opinion, the case will be perceived smaller. Not to mention that you benefit from the natural rise of warm air.
Think about it please, you will be the only ones providing such layout in the market, the other are using the "MB at the top, PSU at the bottom" approach in this form factor (excluding NZXT H1 with sandwich layout and **** cooling).
P.S. I, for one, have been waiting all my life for a Silverstone Fortress FT03 optimized case, but with MB cutout at the bottom.

 

[Linero]

I just stumbled upon this project, and I am now very interested in it. While everything looks great, I would say that I would only seriously consider this sort of size if it was able to house an ATX form factor build. The power supply can be anything, but it's mainly the ATX motherboard that would make sense the most. What do you think about that?

Either way, I have started following this thread. Best wishes =)

 

[adesignaddict]

BILLYKING is right. I think we are too stressed about the volume numbers here. A vertical orientation with vented front (top) panel and a 2-3 cm added at the bottom for cable bending will exceed the 20L mark by a couple of liters, BUT, in my opinion, the case will be perceived smaller. Not to mention that you benefit from the natural rise of warm air.
Think about it please, you will be the only ones providing such layout in the market, the other are using the "MB at the top, PSU at the bottom" approach in this form factor (excluding NZXT H1 with sandwich layout and **** cooling).
P.S. I, for one, have been waiting all my life for a Silverstone Fortress FT03 optimized case, but with MB cutout at the bottom.

Hey, thank you for your feedback and suggestions.

So the problem with the vertical orientation for this layout is, as mentioned, volume, but also airflow. The volume of our current design is already pushing it for a lot of people. If we go beyond the 20L mark then you could argue that a different layout or even a different motherboard form factor would make more sense at that point. And regarding the airflow, orienting the case so the motherboard is at the bottom and the PSU at the top means that you'd either exhaust the air out the bottom or reverse the airflow to use as an intake, but both of these scenarios aren't ideal for cooling in regards to the placement and orientation of the rest of the components.

Also, a fan at the top of that layout/front of the current orientation really wouldn't do much good as roughly half of it would be blocked by the PSU.

Just a side note worth mentioning: Ventilation holes add significantly to the cost of a case. So the more ventilation holes we add, the higher the manufacturing cost and the higher the retail price.

 

[adesignaddict]

I just stumbled upon this project, and I am now very interested in it. While everything looks great, I would say that I would only seriously consider this sort of size if it was able to house an ATX form factor build. The power supply can be anything, but it's mainly the ATX motherboard that would make sense the most. What do you think about that?

Either way, I have started following this thread. Best wishes =)

Sorry to disappoint, but in order to make the current case able to accommodate an ATX board it would have to be much much larger.

Thank you for your interest though!

 

[Linero]

Sorry to disappoint, but in order to make the current case able to accommodate an ATX board it would have to be much much larger.

Thank you for your interest though!

Not at all. Your case is still very much interesting. I wish you the best of luck in your endeavor!

 

[adesignaddict]

Not at all. Your case is still very much interesting. I wish you the best of luck in your endeavor!

Thanks for the kind words and glad to hear it's still of interest to you

 

[tlw2014]

This will definitely be my next case. Hope everything works out.

 

[lallyt]

This case is so nice and the renders look great ! Are you planning on doing an option for gpu bifurcation to be able have 2 (blower) GPU ? That would be a perfect rendering worksation sff for CPU and GPU rendering !

 

[WiseGuyPlato]

Any news regarding prototyping? Do you have a rough (very rough) estimate on when it should it be available for ordering?

 

[adesignaddict]

This case is so nice and the renders look great ! Are you planning on doing an option for gpu bifurcation to be able have 2 (blower) GPU ? That would be a perfect rendering worksation sff for CPU and GPU rendering !

Thank you! Much appreciated That would indeed be a nice setup for rendering, though we don't have anything like that planned right now. I would need to check how that would affect the size of the case, but also if the layout could handle the extra temps. Thanks for the suggestion though, we'll look into it.

 

[adesignaddict]

Any news regarding prototyping? Do you have a rough (very rough) estimate on when it should it be available for ordering?

Sorry, I don't have an estimate at the moment, but I can give a small insight into what's currently going on:

We have gotten a price quote for the manufacturing of the case that, given the relatively low MOQs that we would be starting out with, sounds reasonable and we could move into prototyping at this point.
However, while doing a very crude mockup test of our design some slight concerns cropped up. These concerns could turn out to be no problem at all or a major roadblock. The only way to find out is through prototyping. Since the prototypes cost several thousand dollars a piece though, we have to be fairly confident in the design as we simply can't afford to make a lot of these.
So, as a backup solution, we're currently taking some extra time to work on an alternative design (with the same layout and size) that would address the potential problems of the current one. Status wise, I'd say it's roughly 70% finished at this point and we will try to get a price quote for that design as soon as it's ready.
If the alternative design can be manufactured at a reasonable cost, while being better than the original concept, then we'll post an update and do a poll or sth to see what you guys think.

Apologies for the slight delay this is causing, but we want to make sure that the case we end up making is absolutely worth your money.

 

[WiseGuyPlato]

Sorry, I don't have an estimate at the moment, but I can give a small insight into what's currently going on:

We have gotten a price quote for the manufacturing of the case that, given the relatively low MOQs that we would be starting out with, sounds reasonable and we could move into prototyping at this point.
However, while doing a very crude mockup test of our design some slight concerns cropped up. These concerns could turn out to be no problem at all or a major roadblock. The only way to find out is through prototyping. Since the prototypes cost several thousand dollars a piece though, we have to be fairly confident in the design as we simply can't afford to make a lot of these.
So, as a backup solution, we're currently taking some extra time to work on an alternative design (with the same layout and size) that would address the potential problems of the current one. Status wise, I'd say it's roughly 70% finished at this point and we will try to get a price quote for that design as soon as it's ready.
If the alternative design can be manufactured at a reasonable cost, while being better than the original concept, then we'll post an update and do a poll or sth to see what you guys think.

Apologies for the slight delay this is causing, but we want to make sure that the case we end up making is absolutely worth your money.

Don t apologize. Thank YOU, for taking the time and explaining the situation.

 

[robinpfeiffer]

Wow, this looks awesome! Certainly ordering the black version from the first batch. ?
Anyway, best of luck with the prototypes and take your time.

 

[oliveoil]

Looks great! Have you done any airflow tests with the "hull"/sidepanels? I have a Streacom DA2 and have found that the size/spacing of the perforations hinders airflow more than I'd like. (It only has a perforation ratio of about 20%, looks like yours is closer to 50%?)

 

[adesignaddict]

Don t apologize. Thank YOU, for taking the time and explaining the situation.

That's mighty kind.

 

[adesignaddict]

Hey everyone, here's an update on the current situation:

We've spent several weeks now working on countless variations to either solve or work around the issues we discovered with our original concept. However, all of the solutions we've been able to come up with either make the design un-appealing, or the end product considerably more expensive than the other cases out there, and that's not the direction we intended when we first started this project.

While we briefly thought to be on the right track with an alternative design, it turned out to have issues of its own while also increasing the cost of production to a point that it just wouldn't be feasible.

The delay this has caused, combined with the current pandemic, has strained our budget considerably and we are unsure if we can continue with the project at this point.

 

[Fitchew]

What exactly is the problem you are facing?

 

[adesignaddict]

What exactly is the problem you are facing?

The exterior shell is the biggest issue at the moment. It's expensive to make, too fragile in its design, and not as user friendly as we'd like it to be.

To be able to slide the core into the shell there needs to be a bit of clearance between the two. This leads to a gap in the finished build that makes the shell quite vulnerable to bending if too much pressure is applied to the sides or top, as the shell is only held in place with screws on the bottom. This leads to another problem: in order to secure the core to the shell the entire case needs to be flipped on its side. With nothing holding the two together at that point, such a move could lead to the core sliding out of the shell while flipping it over, if it's not being done carefully. The gap between the shell and core will also cause issues with aligning the screws to secure the case. Eliminating the gap will make it quite hard to fit the core into the shell.

We tried modifying the shell so it slides over/attaches to the core in a different way but those approaches always ended up needing screws that were visible on the exterior, which made the case very unappealing.

Another problem is the wooden front panel. We did some testing and were disappointed with how warped some wood panels are from the get-go. Through that testing, we also realized that we would need to increase the thickness of the wood panel for the mounting screws to secure properly. This would make the case bigger but also cause issues with how the front IO fits.

All in all, this design has too many issues at this point.

 

[Fitchew]

Another problem is the wooden front panel.

I think you need to investigate alternative materials. For example, HPL plastic or other laminates. HPL plastic perfectly imitates not only wood texture and color, but also other materials concrete, stone, metal, matte surfaces. In addition, it has excellent strength characteristics, moisture resistance and heat resistance.

The exterior shell is the biggest issue at the moment. It's expensive to make, too fragile in its design, and not as user friendly as we'd like it to be.

Maybe you should consider the option of separate panels as exterior shell? I would not want you to abandon the project. I don't see obstacles that could not be overcome. Yes, structurally, the case can change as a result, but I think you can succeed in the aesthetic part without much loss.