Concept Necere's concept/ideation thread

Necere

Shrink Ray Wielder
Original poster
NCASE
Feb 22, 2015
1,720
3,284
From my observation, I think the demand is there.
I see these cases on Taobao, there seems to be a new case with similar dimensions, every few month.
One of the highest voted sffpc subreddit posts I seen in recent times was on one of these cases, 1.3K upvotes;
That's a clean, colorful build and all, but the case itself seems a bit lacking. No place for intake fans, and just two 80mm for exhaust? That's not great. Definitely more of a form over function case/build, IMO.
 

chyll2

Master of Cramming
Jun 27, 2018
431
362
imo, upvotes doesnt mean there is a demand for it (but hey, that is really good and clean looking build).

One of the biggest demand for custom ITX has really been 2.5 slot and up support for GPU.
 

CC Ricers

Shrink Ray Wielder
Bronze Supporter
Nov 1, 2015
2,234
2,557
That case @Sam quoted is a K77 btw. And yea it's pretty much trying to be as small and barebones as possible without needing a riser cable. You'd expect it to sacrifice a lot of options that way. But looks like a fun challenge to watercool in it.
 
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cbri

Chassis Packer
Aug 28, 2019
15
11
Hi Necere, next time you're bored, perhaps you could think about what this case would look like with the same style vents on a larger area of the side panel?
I know it's just a concept, but at such a small size I'm guessing it would most likely be passively cooled and call for more ventilation, especially in a horizontal config.

I love console-style cases. I'm currently planning a build in a Sentry that I just bought secondhand, but this looks so much nicer imo.
There are some beautiful renders in this thread! Cheers!

 
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QuantumBraced

Master of Cramming
Mar 9, 2017
507
358
@Necere, I was thinking... what if you made a 4-slot version of the NCase M1 that could fit mATX. It's already 3 slot, just add another slot, i.e. another 20mm in height and another 10mm in length, so that the SFX PSU would more comfortably clear the board and you should have mATX compatibility, correct? It would only add ~12% more volume, or 1.5L.

You'd also get a few new options for ITX. You could do a bottom-mounted AIO (might also work in mATX config?). Maybe even bottom-mounted AIO + side-mounted GPU AIO/hybrid rad. You could do a custom loop and cool a bottom rad comfortably with the extra clearance. You could use an M.2-to-PCIe riser or bifurcation riser to add another slot to ITX. Even in the default config, it would be nice to have extra airflow clearance for bottom fans to the GPU. So lots of options, seems worth another 1.5L. And you've already done all the development work and R&D for it, seems like it's just a matter of extending those 2 dimensions a bit.

Does it make sense? I was inspired by those 3-slot mATX boards that fit in the M1.
 
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Necere

Shrink Ray Wielder
Original poster
NCASE
Feb 22, 2015
1,720
3,284
@Necere, I was thinking... what if you made a 4-slot version of the NCase M1 that could fit mATX. It's already 3 slot, just add another slot, i.e. another 20mm in height and another 10mm in length, so that the SFX PSU would more comfortably clear the board and you should have mATX compatibility, correct? It would only add ~12% more volume, or 1.5L.

You'd also get a few new options for ITX. You could do a bottom-mounted AIO (might also work in mATX config?). Maybe even bottom-mounted AIO + side-mounted GPU AIO/hybrid rad. You could do a custom loop and cool a bottom rad comfortably with the extra clearance. You could use an M.2-to-PCIe riser or bifurcation riser to add another slot to ITX. Even in the default config, it would be nice to have extra airflow clearance for bottom fans to the GPU. So lots of options, seems worth another 1.5L. And you've already done all the development work and R&D for it, seems like it's just a matter of extending those 2 dimensions a bit.

Does it make sense? I was inspired by those 3-slot mATX boards that fit in the M1.
In principle, sure... but if I'm increasing dimensions, wouldn't it be nice to add ~12mm to the width so it properly supports the NH-C14S with its top fan, as well as better support for tall GPUs? And what about another ~10mm at the top for some slim exhaust fans and better clearance for SFX-L PSUs? That puts us at 15.7L though, and at that point it starts to feel like a different layout might make more sense. I have various ideas for that on the drawing board, but nothing I've settled on for now.

Plus, the issue with going even slightly larger is it increases shipping cost, which has been one of the main showstoppers to doing a larger case for a long time. It just becomes too great a portion of the overall cost. The case would either need to be designed to be flat packable and assembled by the user, or else we have to move production out of Taiwan (and away from LL), as it's significantly more efficient to ship from China. W360 has been pushing in this direction for a while now, and part of the impetus for the Sidearmd project is to test the waters of manufacturing+shipping from China.
 

Sam

Caliper Novice
Jul 19, 2019
25
7
That's a clean, colorful build and all, but the case itself seems a bit lacking. No place for intake fans, and just two 80mm for exhaust? That's not great. Definitely more of a form over function case/build, IMO.
Take a look at this one for more M1 mini inspirations, has an interesting liquid AIO implementation;
 

dzungitx

Caliper Novice
Sep 16, 2019
26
22
Take a look at this one for more M1 mini inspirations, has an interesting liquid AIO implementation;
Liquid AIO has been removed from 2nd batch. I placed an order at Nov 1th and he said it doesn't support liquid AIO. But I see someone can still use liquid AIO.
 
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k0n

Airflow Optimizer
Jul 3, 2019
233
313
That's a clean, colorful build and all, but the case itself seems a bit lacking. No place for intake fans, and just two 80mm for exhaust? That's not great. Definitely more of a form over function case/build, IMO.

I just needed to reply to this... The SF600 and reference XT are both exhausting. CPU cooler is very close to the vented panels (blowing towards backside and psu). I would say it is pulling air in at the bottom and top.
 

Jaxel

Average Stuffer
Jun 10, 2018
60
45
Are either of these cases going to be a thing? They are both nearly perfect...



The vertical tower is great... just need to add audio ports on the front panel.



This is probably the best Sandwich case I've seen! Especially since its one of the rare ones that actually has front panel connectors. All it needs would be a top handle.
 

Tonyblu331

Caliper Novice
May 9, 2020
24
3
Is this project still active? If so what route will it take the vertical, sandwich-style, or more like a regular boxy case? All of them look good so far!
 

Soul_Est

SFF Guru
SFFn Staff
Feb 12, 2016
1,536
1,928
Is this project still active? If so what route will it take the vertical, sandwich-style, or more like a regular boxy case? All of them look good so far!
This is not a project. The thread is about presenting concepts and ideas and discussing them. Whether they show up in future products is not to be expected.
 
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thelaughingman

SFF Guru
Jul 14, 2018
1,413
1,566
So here's something else I've been playing with the last few days:









Specs:
  • Dimensions: 240x140x310mm, 10.4L
  • CPU cooler: 120mm AIO
  • GPU: reference-sized
  • PSU: SFX
  • Drives: 2x 2.5"
  • Fans: 1x 120 front, 1x 120mm top

this hits me like a truck. damn I want this bad even though it ain't real.
 

Phuncz

Lord of the Boards
SFFn Staff
May 9, 2015
5,938
4,951
Necere has shown us many wonderful concepts but it sadly isn't realistic to fabricate them all (or even a few) up to the level of the M1 in regards to availability, support and price. I'm hoping we're going to see more of these concepts some day.
 

QuantumBraced

Master of Cramming
Mar 9, 2017
507
358
Necere has shown us many wonderful concepts but it sadly isn't realistic to fabricate them all (or even a few) up to the level of the M1 in regards to availability, support and price. I'm hoping we're going to see more of these concepts some day.

Or any... Let's be real, none of these will ever see the light of day, but it's fun to play with AutoCAD.