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Concept Necere's concept/ideation thread

8three

Efficiency Noob
Jul 20, 2018
5
0
Is there any chance you can post the renderings showing the rear IO? Does this concept use any kind of riser for the GPU or is that not needed? Love the design!
 

lawney

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Jun 28, 2018
104
68
I don’t mind a more difficult slide on mount, but why is everyone so averse to simple screwed on panels a la CaseLabs BH series. Could probably open up some creative opportunities.
 

Necere

Shrink Ray Wielder
Original poster
NCASE
Feb 22, 2015
1,720
3,284
@Necere Any chance you have any updates about the recent concept? Or is it JUST a concept you don't intend to move forward? The case threads I'm interested in (this thread and the Dan-C4) have gone stagnant, so I figured I'd at least ask. :)
Haven't done much work on it tbh. I probably should, see how far I can go with it. It's got potential.

Is there any chance you can post the renderings showing the rear IO? Does this concept use any kind of riser for the GPU or is that not needed? Love the design!
A riser is required, yes.

I don’t mind a more difficult slide on mount, but why is everyone so averse to simple screwed on panels a la CaseLabs BH series. Could probably open up some creative opportunities.
It's just a cleaner look without visible screws. IMO screws make it look less refined, more industrial and/or like a DIY job.
 

Necere

Shrink Ray Wielder
Original poster
NCASE
Feb 22, 2015
1,720
3,284
I'm thinking I may have to bump the length by 30mm to open up long GPU support. So many people use longer cards that you're really shooting yourself in the foot by not supporting them. This also gives you some room to move the top rad forward and helps with tube routing.

Pic of +30mm (340mm) and rear I/O:



This does push the volume to 11.4L however.
 

gunpalcyril

Airflow Optimizer
Aug 7, 2016
294
319
For me, the greatest impact for sff is footprint and how much desk space it eats up rather than volume, I think most people won't even notice the difference from 9 -13L if the footprint is kept small enough.

Looks great, I'm bias, but if you make a vertical tower itx case, I'm sure it will be really popular.
 

QuantumBraced

Master of Cramming
Mar 9, 2017
507
358
But also consider that thermals will be pretty bad if you use an open-air card, so it shouldn't be recommended. I think there are a lot more reference-sized cards than non-reference. The case already has strict support for CPU coolers and PSU. Especially CPU coolers, almost no one uses 120mm AIOs unless you need it specifically for a case like this. So requiring reference-size cards won't make a huge difference in the number of potential customers I think...

Not a fan of the vertical design, I don't know why these are popular. That extra cable clearance seems like a massive waste of space.
 

SashaLag

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Jun 10, 2018
127
111
not a fan too even if @gunpalcyril 's point is correct... It's much more "savy" to have a smaller fooprint than a case with less volume... But I found that ugly to eyes... and not particularly intelligent in airflow... So I prefer to stick with a "less volume" requirements!

I'm thinking I may have to bump the length by 30mm to open up long GPU support. So many people use longer cards that you're really shooting yourself in the foot by not supporting them. This also gives you some room to move the top rad forward and helps with tube routing.

Pic of +30mm (340mm) and rear I/O:



This does push the volume to 11.4L however.

Still looks awesome to me :D
 

lawney

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Jun 28, 2018
104
68
I like the layout and the airflow. That 120mm fan in the front is unique and more versatile than having intakes on the sides, and the psu positioning accommodates that in a clever way. It's likely still a negative pressure case with the GPU pulling and exhausting air, but I'd let the front intake idle at a higher speed than the exhaust.
 

Brude27

Master of Cramming
Jun 21, 2018
384
878
I'm thinking I may have to bump the length by 30mm to open up long GPU support. So many people use longer cards that you're really shooting yourself in the foot by not supporting them. This also gives you some room to move the top rad forward and helps with tube routing.

Pic of +30mm (340mm) and rear I/O:



This does push the volume to 11.4L however.

I like the original version better, but I understand trying to appeal to the masses when considering a production run for a product you want people to buy, haha.

With the case extension, and potential for a radiator in the front, would that leave enough room to have a dual 120mm rad setup? One in the front, and the other in the original rear/top slot? That would make this even more interesting than it already is!

Edit: I read your post wrong... I read it as moving the radiator to the front, so don't mind me... I'm just excited to see updates to this thread, haha. Also... no vertical case designs please... I just don't see the appeal... Think of the mess of cables... THE CABLES I SAY!!!!
 
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Necere

Shrink Ray Wielder
Original poster
NCASE
Feb 22, 2015
1,720
3,284
But also consider that thermals will be pretty bad if you use an open-air card, so it shouldn't be recommended. I think there are a lot more reference-sized cards than non-reference.
I think both points are debatable. I've purposely factored in about a slot's worth of space (~20mm) between the GPU and window to allow its fan(s) to breathe. That's not as much as would be ideal, but it's not completely choking it, either. With the intake and exhaust fans moving a steady flow of air through the case, an axial fan GPU might actually do okay.

As for there being more reference-sized cards than not, I think it's actually the opposite. At least at the higher end of the market, and if you look at the cards that people actually buy.

Here's a spreadsheet I put together a while back of (at the time) all the available GTX 1080s, RX 480s, and R9 Furys:



(Non-white fields are larger than reference. Physically similar models are lumped together.)

In fact it looks like most of the non-blower cards are larger than reference, with really only EVGA consistently making reference-sized open cooler cards. ASUS and MSI are probably the most popular brands you tend to see, and all of their open cooler cards are bigger than reference.

Especially CPU coolers, almost no one uses 120mm AIOs unless you need it specifically for a case like this.
I mean... someone must be buying them, or else manufacturers wouldn't keep selling them. I think it's true though that 120mm AIOs have been supplanted to some extent by 140 and 240 sizes.

Not a fan of the vertical design, I don't know why these are popular. That extra cable clearance seems like a massive waste of space.
I can appreciate their value for people that have very limited desk/floor space to work with, but where height isn't a concern. I'm probably not going to take that direction here, but I can see the utility of it.

With the case extension, and potential for a radiator in the front, would that leave enough room to have a dual 120mm rad setup? One in the front, and the other in the original rear/top slot? That would make this even more interesting than it already is!
Yeah, in principle +30mm would allow for a reference card and a 30mm thick rad up front, for a dual rad setup. It's possible even at the shorter length, just with short cards rather than reference (though that's of limited value since most hybrid AIO cards are reference size).
 

QuantumBraced

Master of Cramming
Mar 9, 2017
507
358
Ok, great points. I guess I was thinking about EVGA when I made that blanket statement about reference-sized cards. Well, the other advantage of making the case longer is you will be able to potentially fit a 3.5" drive, and also fit a rad in the front with a reference-sized card. You'll have to decide where to draw the line, do you make it long enough to accommodate all longer cards or say 85% of cards.

This is a minor thing, but is there any other spot for the power connector? Where it is right now looks kind of weird. I know, I always must complain...
 
Last edited:

einmannbude

Caliper Novice
May 22, 2016
25
18
And for something a little different, how about another vertical case?





I was thinking about the Corsair One and vertical cases more generally (had something to do with the Mach One launch, I'm sure), and knocked this thing out. Typical back-to-back layout, unusual only really for the vertical orientation with the rear I/O at the bottom and a 140mm exhaust fan at the top. Air in through the sides and out through the top, aided by the fan, benefits overall system cooling and potentially keeps noise levels lower.

The bottom cap ideally would be rubberized plastic or something else nonmetallic so as to not block wifi/bluetooth transmission.

Specs:
  • Dimensions: 430x150x190mm, 12.3L
  • CPU cooler: 65~70mm
  • GPU: 300mm+ long, 140mm+ tall
  • PSU: SFX only (no SFX-L)
  • Drives: 1-2x 2.5", slim optical drive
  • Fans: 1x 140mm top

I like vertical designs a lot. Also this one. On the pictures it looks a bit too tall for its footprint. I guess the full volume of the bottom area is not needed to house all cables. Maybe this area could be thinner (a lot?) and I don't mean in height. I mean moving the sides more to the inside. Creating a "floating" look for the upper silver part. I imagine something like the OSMI case did, although there must be some volume for cables, which the OSMI does not need. https://******/images/S2KXhy
 

chyll2

Master of Cramming
Jun 27, 2018
431
362
The full bottom area is needed. Not all cable can be fitted with 90 degree angle adaptor.

The osmi is an acquired taste then. It looks ugly for me and serve no practical purpose.
 

Necere

Shrink Ray Wielder
Original poster
NCASE
Feb 22, 2015
1,720
3,284
So I've been thinking about the latest generation of GPUs and their ever-growing proportions, and how to accommodate them in an SFF case. Initially I tried increasing the width of the previous concept to allow for triple slot cards, however for that you essentially need four slots (for airflow, assuming a solid window/side panel), and at that point the width was the same as the M1 (160mm), and a riser-based layout no longer makes much sense. So I thought, well, if we need four slots anyway, and a traditional layout makes more sense, why not just do mATX? Which led me to this:



Specs:
  • Dimensions: 270x170x360, 16.5L
  • CPU cooler: ~140mm
  • GPU: ~300mm long, ~140mm tall, triple slot
  • PSU: SFX/SFX-L
  • Drives: multiple 2.5"/single 3.5" (depending on GPU/cards installed)
  • Fans: 140mm front (filtered), 2x120mm (slim) top

Pretty similar layout as the Cerberus, with one less slot (since it's optimized for one big GPU rather than two), and sans any real watercooling support. Fairly straightforward design overall, that should cover what most people would want (big GPU, decent cooling, window option, a few drives, 1-2 extra PCIe slots for expansion), with nothing extra. Thoughts?
 

chyll2

Master of Cramming
Jun 27, 2018
431
362
What are the options for the rear fan? I overall like it (cause I love aircooling) but from my observation, people really love their AIO.

Can you make a housing around the SFX PSU to maximize space around it and mount the 2.5 drives there.
 

Necere

Shrink Ray Wielder
Original poster
NCASE
Feb 22, 2015
1,720
3,284
What are the options for the rear fan? I overall like it (cause I love aircooling) but from my observation, people really love their AIO.
At the current width, it could only support a 92mm fan in the rear. Moving up to 120mm would require adding 20mm to the width, which kind of kills the proportions IMO.

Can you make a housing around the SFX PSU to maximize space around it and mount the 2.5 drives there.
There may be space for a single 2.5" drive, but there'd be cables from the front I/O running through that area as well, so not a ton of room to play with.
 

rcradiator

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Feb 23, 2018
117
79
So I've been thinking about the latest generation of GPUs and their ever-growing proportions, and how to accommodate them in an SFF case. Initially I tried increasing the width of the previous concept to allow for triple slot cards, however for that you essentially need four slots (for airflow, assuming a solid window/side panel), and at that point the width was the same as the M1 (160mm), and a riser-based layout no longer makes much sense. So I thought, well, if we need four slots anyway, and a traditional layout makes more sense, why not just do mATX? Which led me to this:



Specs:
  • Dimensions: 270x170x360, 16.5L
  • CPU cooler: ~140mm
  • GPU: ~300mm long, ~140mm tall, triple slot
  • PSU: SFX/SFX-L
  • Drives: multiple 2.5"/single 3.5" (depending on GPU/cards installed)
  • Fans: 140mm front (filtered), 2x120mm (slim) top

Pretty similar layout as the Cerberus, with one less slot (since it's optimized for one big GPU rather than two), and sans any real watercooling support. Fairly straightforward design overall, that should cover what most people would want (big GPU, decent cooling, window option, a few drives, 1-2 extra PCIe slots for expansion), with nothing extra. Thoughts?
I'd say if you could eek out an extra 5mm for a Cryorig H7, that would make this an excellent choice. Of course that may push it out of sffpc range though.