The grille looks good in your renders (light effects, shadows,...), wondering if it still will be IRL and won't look like a toaster or heater...
Well, it looks like a grille to let air flow through, which is what it is, and it serves the same function it does on those appliances. There's nothing wrong with something that looks like just what it is, and no more. Indeed, that kind of purity of design is what I aim for these days. Reduce everything to the essential elements, harmonize and refine what remains.
Maybe having a 3.5" reservoir under the PSU would leave enough room on the bottom for a D5, just a thought...
Unfortunately the only one I find is from Bitspower and seems to be discontinued:
http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/bi3bayresbla.html
A D5 wouldn't fit anyway. They're a fair bit bigger than the DDC (yet people seem to prefer them).
Hey
@Necere the case looks stunning as always! What about making the lines vertical? Maybe you should look at Project Orthrus or DSE Breathe grill designs.
Long unbroken vertical slots probably wouldn't work that well structurally. Smaller, staggered slot patterns like on the Breathe IMO look better if they can be brought all the way to the edge (either wrapping around the edge, or extending under another panel). Otherwise, the border of the hole pattern is visible, and since they're staggered that uneveness at the border usually ends up looking a bit awkward. I do like the Breathe though, for what it is.
Apart from that, the horizontal slots are visually cohesive with the front I/O cutout in a way that vertical slots wouldn't be.
Then you would be blocking the fan intake for the PSU...
You'd want the PSU fan facing up with the 3.5" bay fully populated. Facing it down would mainly be for if you were concerned about water leaking into it with a full water loop, and in that case you'd want to keep it to a single 2.5" drive in that bay.
I forgot that generally people here are less into windows, and this concept is explicitly intended as a windowed case, so it may be less appealing to some here.
Conceptually, I specifically didn't want to make any bold statements with the design of the case itself. Rather, the case here should serve as something like a frame for a painting; unobtrusive and complimentary, so the viewer's attention is drawn instead to what's going on inside the case -- to the parts assembled together by the system builder/artist.