!nverse: A Highly Versatile Steam-Box Design

[iFreilicht]

Setting yourself some upper limit on a round liter number seems like an arbitrary limitation, but there's a reason why most prices end on .99. You have to take compromises of course.
How thick are the walls by now?

 

[esplin2966]

If it adds rigidity and strength to the case I'm all for it. Like you said, I won't notice the extra space it takes up since its negligible, but I will notice the extra strength and rigidity it adds to the case. My guess is that espelin and his team added the extra thickness to avoid the top panel drooping and deforming when some weight is put on top. Which from what I've seen, is a problem with thin metals.

That's exactly right. I want to be able to hold a large monitor on top, so the case needs to be very strong.

Setting yourself some upper limit on a round liter number seems like an arbitrary limitation, but there's a reason why most prices end on .99. You have to take compromises of course.
How thick are the walls by now?

Yeah, I really wanted to be able to say that it's a sub-10L case, but I can't have a case that's not absolutely rigid.

The exterior walls are 2mm thick aluminum while the interior walls are 1.5mm thick steel. These are the specs recommended by our manufacturer.

 

[jeshikat]

16 gauge steel seems a bit excessive. You could probably get away with 18 gauge.

 

[esplin2966]

16 gauge steel seems a bit excessive. You could probably get away with 18 gauge.

Hmm, you might be right. There's this one spot that requires more fortification. If I can think of a way to do that mechanically, I can probably reduce the thickness of the interior walls down to 18 gauge or so.

 

[esplin2966]

Update 08/18/2015:

The second prototype is complete! ...kinda. All the surface finishing are done, but our manufacturer made a mistake on one of the parts, so we're having them redo that part before sending the complete package over to us.

For our second prototype, we have two different surface finishing for comparison: Brushed Aluminum and Powder Coated Aluminum. Please do this very short survey and let me know which you prefer!

Edit: Images

 

[jeshikat]

Is it actually pink or is the white balance off?

Brushed anodized aluminum looks nice but it's prone to fingerprints and scratches. Since the case is meant to have stuff sitting on top I kinda lean to the powder coat.

 

[esplin2966]

Is it actually pink or is the white balance off?

Brushed anodized aluminum looks nice but it's prone to fingerprints and scratches. Since the case is meant to have stuff sitting on top I kinda lean to the powder coat.

I think it's supposed to be cherry red. The picture is taken by the manufacturer, so the white balance might be a bit off. I'll post a better picture when I get the prototype.

Thanks for voting man!

 

[MJVR1]

Cherry red would be an awesome color option. Time to break free from the black and white cases! Powder coating got my vote since I like tend to touch the whole case trying to press the power button .

 

[esplin2966]

Cherry red would be an awesome color option. Time to break free from the black and white cases! Powder coating got my vote since I like tend to touch the whole case trying to press the power button .

I actually really like the cherry red + black combination, but surprisingly both my girlfriend and the lady in my team didn't. They wanted black and blue lol.

 

[iFreilicht]

I actually really like the cherry red + black combination, but surprisingly both my girlfriend and the lady in my team didn't. They wanted black and blue lol.

I think blue would be an awesome option as well! Personally I think the consumer should be allowed to choose between the two finishes, because brushed alumium does look a lot nicer and may fit into their HiFi setup better.
The problem is that more options of course mean higher cost, so you've got to balance that somehow.

 

[esplin2966]

What's this?

Is that an !nverse Prototype #2 I see?

It's finally here!!!!!!!

So now that I have the prototype in my hands, I will be doing a bunch of tests in the next few weeks. There is a mountain of new PC components sitting in my room, ready for testing of every configuration. I will be doing some temperature tests and possibly some noise tests.

Some initial thoughts:

1) This thing is solid! I was worried that my design was too flimsy, but it definitely felt like I can throw a few 45 lb weights on it. Monitors and stuff should definitely be fine on top. I think I can actually reduce the thickness of the 2 exterior aluminum panels and it'll still be fine.

2) There are some parts that employ sliding mechanisms. Our manufacturer was concerned with how difficult they are to use, but they feel fine to me.

Some people were concerned with AIO coolers not fitting into this case due to the bend radius of the tubing. I just received my cooler master AIO coolers with FEP tubing and I can confirm that they fit fine. AIO coolers without FEP tubings will most likely not be supported due to the larger bend radius of the tubing.

That's all for now. Super excited to start building in this thing!!

 

[iFreilicht]

It looks really nice, but there are a few things I immediately noticed: Why is the "grain" oriented horizontally to the bend on the top panel? Don't you normally bend Aluminium perpendicular to the "grain"? (I know grain is not the right word, but I don't know what is) And the USB 2 port seems offset by a few mms, doesn't look too good. Also is there a bend on the bottom of the front panel? It looks kinda warped, like the relief cuts weren't deep enough.

 

[esplin2966]

It looks really nice, but there are a few things I immediately noticed: Why is the "grain" oriented horizontally to the bend on the top panel? Don't you normally bend Aluminium perpendicular to the "grain"? (I know grain is not the right word, but I don't know what is) And the USB 2 port seems offset by a few mms, doesn't look too good. Also is there a bend on the bottom of the front panel? It looks kinda warped, like the relief cuts weren't deep enough.

I'm not sure what the most common direction to orient the grain relative to the bend is. I always thought that you orient the threads to the longer side. Is it bad for the material or something to have it be perpendicular to the bend? Or is it just something that's common?

Our manufacturer gave us the wrong dimensions for the USB 2 port, so the cutoff is off. We'll fix it in the next iteration of the design, but for now I don't want them to remanufacture the case since I want to test it ASAP to discover any other issues.

I don't think the bottom of the front panel is warped, just the angle and lighting. I haven't taken a very thorough look at the case before I go to work today morning though, so I will make sure once I get home.

 

[iFreilicht]

From what I know the aluminium can get small fissures along the bend if the bendline and grain are parallel. Not that it really matters, but if it can be seen it looks a bit bad. Personally, I think that the horizontal grain looks a lot better at the front than vertical one would, so maybe keep it that way if you don't see any issues arising from it.

 

[Phuncz]

Very nice, can't wait to see more ! The bends/warps at the bottom are very obvious on the photos, I would certainly look into this with the manufacturer.

 

[esplin2966]

From what I know the aluminium can get small fissures along the bend if the bendline and grain are parallel. Not that it really matters, but if it can be seen it looks a bit bad. Personally, I think that the horizontal grain looks a lot better at the front than vertical one would, so maybe keep it that way if you don't see any issues arising from it.

I see. I will take a close look to see if there are any visible fissures. If so, that will be on the list of things to bring up with our manufacturer. Thanks!

Very nice, can't wait to see more ! The bends/warps at the bottom are very obvious on the photos, I would certainly look into this with the manufacturer.

Thanks! I will check on the the bend/warp at the bottom and let you guys know.

 

[esplin2966]

@iFreilicht @Phuncz Just want to follow up on the bend/warps on the bottom. I took a very close look and there was no dent or warping at all. There is, however, a bit of a smudge, which is why it looked like that in the photo haha.

 

[Phuncz]

Ah good to hear ! Keep us informed about the progress !

 

[confusis]

More SFF cases in the world is only a good thing

 

[esplin2966]

More SFF cases in the world is only a good thing

@Aibohphobia we really need a multi-like buttons