The orientation of the sticker on the side of the PSU indicates it is in the bottom intake position, if it were intaking from within the chassis, we would see the spec sticker, but upside-down...?
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Concept Necere's concept/ideation thread
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The orientation of the sticker on the side of the PSU indicates it is in the bottom intake position, if it were intaking from within the chassis, we would see the spec sticker, but upside-down...?
Yet another take on ~20L mATX:
Wanted to see how much I could pack in with a hard limit of 20L, to that end this is a little wider than the previous mATX concepts for better CPU cooler/GPU support (~150mm tall) and a rear 120mm exhaust fan. This could also support 1x240 and 1x120 rad, at least in theory.
Love it. Please make it. Kind of amazing that you can have the PSU on the bottom, have a full window, and still have the same volume as the Cerberus. I love the no vents on top or bottom. It's a bit unfortunate that you are 8mm short of being able to fit 120mm coolers, like the U12S, but I don't think it's worth adding the extra volume. Why can't you fit a 140mm AIO or a 280mm with a reference-sized card?
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I am in love also, @Necere this won't be a thing?
Nailed it.
This is the one.
To be fair, the Cerberus spends some of its volume on the solid front panel/shroud for the front fans. If you really want to optimize for volume, you have to go with direct ventilation.
140 in front is a possibility, but I think the height internally is insufficient for a 280.
I may revisit it in the future. There are some manufacturing challenges with the concept as presented in the render, and that particular version of the front I/O (photoshopped by another user) won't work unless the cover is split up into multiple parts.
For now, M1 V6 takes precedence over everything else, so until that's sorted I won't be working on any of these.
Thanks for the answer @Necere , in truth the front I/O located on the bottom like your previous designs (way more practical) or none at all, will also make a damn good looking case.
Out of curiosity, could you make it slimmer by going with 120mm fans in the front and a 92mm exhaust? You're limited to a 92mm air cooler anyway.
Sure, I could make it slimmer by dropping down to a 92mm fan on the rear. Going to 120mm on the front doesn't save anything, though.
There are actually a handful of tower coolers with 120mm fans in the <150mm tall range. The Scythe Fuma Rev. B is an especially interesting choice, with performance not far off a NH-D15.
Interesting... Well I know none of these designs ever go anywhere, but I hope you'll consider making this one, seems like you've been thinking about it for a while now. It solves all of the problems I have with the Cerberus. I think it would sell, especially now with the SF750, people are really warming up to SFX PSUs. I also think people would like that there are no top or bottom vents, that way feet can be very slim, maintenance is easier and looks cleaner.
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I like it, I want it...!
But if it did have top fans, one could have a 240mm AIO for the CPU mounted up front (intake) & have a 120mm AIO for the GPU mounted at the rear (also intake), with dual 120mm fans up top exhausting...
Or, reduce GPU max length (and overall chassis length) to increase width of chassis to accommodate the NH-U12S...
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It's an optimized meshify c: the meshify mini². I like it a lot for being a good air cooling enclosure: 120mm exhaust, wide enough for good* tower coolers, direct air intakes, and room for oversized gpu coolers. I bet noise levels would be pretty good, too, if the side panel is well sealed. I imagine I'd end up using an itx board anyway since matx tend to be spartan on the feature set and use 120mm intakes because nothing yet rivals the a12x25 fans. I'd much rather it stay at this size and flexibility, though, than save 2-3L.
*the cryorig h7 (145mm) seems to be essentially out of stock at most US retailers. was it discontinued? the scythe fuma rev b also seems to be on the way out, with the fuma 2 having grown 5mm to 154.8mm. hopefully another product steps into that 145-150mm void, as being able to use an a12x25 on a tower cooler would be my primary draw toward this case.
*the cryorig h7 (145mm) seems to be essentially out of stock at most US retailers. was it discontinued? the scythe fuma rev b also seems to be on the way out, with the fuma 2 having grown 5mm to 154.8mm. hopefully another product steps into that 145-150mm void, as being able to use an a12x25 on a tower cooler would be my primary draw toward this case.
Yeah but it's better for dust and looks if there are no vents on top, you can also make the case smaller without top fan/rad support and bottom feet clearance.
There's something else. A lot of Necere's designs use streamlined airflow without pressure loss. I think that's underrated, it allows you to cool more efficiently, because the entire case effectively becomes a radiator and air channeling is much better. If you've seen the new "cheese grater" Mac Pro, that's how they're able to cool a 28-core, 12 DIMMs, multiple GPUs and a 1400W PSU in such a small package because they have 3 fans at the front with front-to-back airflow in a completely pressurized case. You're essentially getting static pressure for free. It's also how server racks work. It's very suitable for SFF cases and it's also good for dust management because air doesn't linger inside the case and you only have to worry about cleaning the intake filters.
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Why does this case not exist?
I have been looking for this case for ever - this exact layout - and no one has ever made it, some come close sure, but none ever do it as it is here....
Would it be possible to place the PSU & 3.5" drives such that a full-size ATX motherboard could extend behind them (with the bottom PCI slots blocked)? Given the lack of new mATX boards (only 1 for x570), I imagine lots of people would be willing to trade a few PCI slots for hugely increased board choice.
Well, it is a pretty bog standard layout in many ways - like an NZXT H400 or Fractal Mini Define Mini C, just smaller. Sandwiches are the hot new(ish) thing in the SFF world, and as SFF cases go, this isn't exactly small. But nevertheless, I think there's a niche there for something like it.
Yes, see this post.
It's the same layout with motherboard over PSU, but SFX takes up so much less space and this design with clean front and dual fans pushing air straight to the back is something I was planning to get custom did for a while - This design is like standard ITX case size which is why I like it as a workstation case - since SFX has hit the kW mark now, there really isn't much reason for ATX PSU's to remain the standard...
I mean, it's as small as the Cerberus, doesn't get much smaller for mATX. I'd love for you to do an ATX version, I know you had the M5 concept, I feel like going full ATX might be the jackpot here because you'll attract a lot of mainstream builders who want to go SFF, but don't wanna give up their ATX boards. If you can get them ATX PSU support, 280mm AIO support, and a window with the M1-like design language, aluminum panels, channeled/filtered front-to-back airflow in ~26L for ~$200-220, you can knock it out of the park. You are probably the most talented case designer out there and a lot of these concepts can be profitable, I hate to see them wasted.
Just in case you missed it, I'll reiterate that this design could support an ATX board (though not PSU). If you mean a full seven-slot capable case then yeah, that'd be solidly outside the realm of SFF, and of course ATX cases are hyper-saturated. It would be hard to stand out from the crowd.
The other problem with larger cases is shipping, as it does get much more expensive the larger you go. To the point that you could be paying more for shipping than the actual cost of the case. Flat-packing is a way to mitigate the cost, but it introduces its own challenges and limits what you can do design-wise.
I appreciate the compliment, though I think there are plenty of other talented designers in our little community. If I'm any good at this, it's probably on account of just having been at it for so long. Believe me, my early forays into case design were pretty terrible. But yes, I agree that it's a bit of a waste not to put my skills to practical use and make something tangible that people can use and enjoy.
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