All is well and Brian is a man of his words. Thank you for the excellent case will post pictures when I finish installing everything! I am still buying parts for the build.
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Completed S401: Salvo Studios <8L mITX Steel Unibody Chassis w/ GPU & CPU fans in same direction
- Thread starter grsychckn
- Start date
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- Tags
- mitx s400 s401 s700 salvo studios steel case
All is well and Brian is a man of his words. Thank you for the excellent case will post pictures when I finish installing everything! I am still buying parts for the build.
Thank you for the kind words - I want users to be happy so I'm glad you are! I've been very busy at work and am just now getting over being sick for the last two weeks so hopefully you'll see more updates from me soon.
I'm trying to think of ideas for a Christmas sale. I will offer something before the end of the year but I'm unsure of what at this time.
I'm actually thinking of adding a mesh screen to the front vent for future orders. If it looks good I'd be willing to ship an install kit to those who have an S401.
would the spacers allow for the dust filter to be mounted on the interior? this would provide a cleaner aesthetic and cleaner interior. =]
Would said dust filter theoretically be transplantable to the top and/or bottom vents? If I ever get around to adding that third fan, a dust filter on the bottom fan as an intake would be great for not sucking dust and dirt directly toward my video card. As things stand now, not much air seems to pass through my front vents. Although, with a nice mesh, I may be able to hide my shoddy cable work.
Yes, they would provide more than enough clearance for a filter to be installed on the inside. I will say though that the current filters I sell are a little smaller than I expected and if installed on the inside some of the magnetic strip would be exposed through some of the vent holes. After I sell out of the current filters I might buy some more that are slightly larger. I think there was a communication problem between myself and Demciflex which resulted in a slightly smaller than anticipated filter.
I assume you mean an interior-installed filter. The Demciflex filters can't be used on the outside because the frame of the filter is too thick and would cover some of the vents themselves. For internal filters, I would have to also cut holes for the fan mounts but could be possible (because I can laser all the things). Let me first work on getting a sample front vent made so I can post some pictures. Maybe I could sell a set of filters that users can install on their own (either with strong magnets or glue - not sure which would be best).
Oh, I see what you're saying about external vs internal. Would it be possible for Demciflex to make a filter with strips of magnet on two sides instead of four? Then the magnet could wrap around to the sides and mount there. Not my hairbrainiest idea, I don't think, but it will be good to see it mocked up first.
this would be awesome. thank you for the continuous support even after purchasing the product! I will be building it soon, and will share some photos with everyone.
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I don't know - it seems they are fairly inflexible when it comes to changing the frames on their filters but I'll make a note to ask the next time I order some custom filters. I'm going to move forward with the interior filter designs and try to get some pictures sometime this weekend (if not sooner).
I was thinking of buying those micro fine black filters and then cutting it to shape then heatpressing it on to the metal with glue film.
Of course cutting it to the shape of the inside of the vented area. but not sure what to do right now.
Of course cutting it to the shape of the inside of the vented area. but not sure what to do right now.
I just picked this case up and my GPU temps are 10-12* less while gaming (EDIT: with an open-air EVGA 2080) than with the Node 202 I switched from. I'm a happy camper. Has anyone tried to squeeze an ID-Cooling IS-60 into this case? Its listed height is 55 mm, which is a few hairs more than the ~52 mm recommended for the case. Maybe with a little flex in the side panel, or shaving off a little from the motherboard standoffs it could work? I ask because it's listed as a 130W TDP cooler, which as far as I've been able to tell is the smallest height cooler with the highest listed TDP out there. Could come in very useful when Ryzen 2 is released...
Glad to hear you're happy! As for the ID-Cooling IS-60, I've not personally tried it but also can't officially support it. That said, when using the steel side panels, they provide a few extra millimeters of clearance due to their rolled edges. The other option you have is installing some spacers (washers maybe?) between the panel and the case if you want an inexpensive way to make it fit. I also have 5 sets of acrylic spacers that I've been meaning to list on the website but haven't had time to - these would provide an additional 5.6mm of clearance on each side when used. I don't intend on making more of these as the shipping costs alone would pretty much limit orders to new cases. For the ones I do have I was thinking of listing them at $10/set plus shipping - I don't know how much that would be until I can get a few boxes that will protect them. I also need to powder coat the heads of the extra-long screws that would have to be used with the steel panels. I have a handful of different thumbscrews that would work with the custom acrylic panels as well. I'll try to get this done tonight.
Ok, I managed to finally add the side panel spacers to the website. Below are pictures I have of the panels which show the new screws but unpainted for now. If anyone orders these it will take me a few days to get the screw heads painted before I can ship them.
Just wanted to give a shout out to @grsychckn, you've done amazing work. Just saw AdoredTV () give you some free advertisement, and I believe it is well deserved! Hopefully the new orders don't swamp you too much!
Well, definitely going to check this video out on my lunch break hearing that it's got a Salvo shoutout in there. This video is all the buzz around town now and I've been reading synopses of it. Generally, if I can get the same info by skimming a written article compared to sitting down and watching a long video, I do (especially for speculative news). Time to make an exception.
It is pretty crazy what they're claiming AMD's upcoming lineup can do. The time may be close to ordering some red side panels. (well, just CPU for now I guess. The 1080 + G-Sync monitor can stay).
POST-LUNCH BREAK EDIT: Having now watched this video, it strikes me how amazing it is that the S401 and the SFFN review of it are a central promotion on this video that has the computing/tech world completely ablaze. So many of the major talking heads are buzzing about and reposting this video. Best of luck @grsychckn; I hope your life gets busy in a profitable way.
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Thank you! BTW, when you decide to order some panels contact me first.
I have been busier but not overwhelmingly so. I think the niche market of SFF helps eliminate a lot of window shoppers because you have to really already desire an SFF system to consider my cases. Even then it's like most things in that it's all subjective based on the person's likes/dislikes.
Regardless, I'm sold out of my current stock but I'm told the 75 remaining units should be done so I'll be ramping up packaging again - I think I overestimated the market for the S401, I'll probably have to continue to sell late into 2019. But that's OK because every sale in 2019 will help my company appear in the black at the end of the year.
While I'm here I feel that I should layout my BOM costs for transparency. I break even on the cases, so when I offer $20 off that's coming right out of my pocket, not margin. The total cost for each case is $154.43. This doesn't include supplies I need like tape, packing materials, or overhead (like shipping costs to me, spare parts, warranty claims, etc). If I'm lucky, I won't end up losing a lot just to sell the remaining cases but I will want that money to move onto other projects. Below is the breakdown of my costs (raw, unshipped to me). Then all my time spent packing, labeling, and documenting with build videos/manuals.
Item Quantity Cost Per Unit Total
Part A 1.00 $42.54 $42.54
Part B 2.00 $4.68 $9.36
Part C 1.00 $22.65 $22.65
Part D 1.00 $13.36 $13.36
Part E 1.00 $4.67 $4.67
Power Cable 1.00 $8.71 $8.71
Part C Screws 4.00 $0.28 $1.12
Part D Screws 4.00 $0.28 $1.12
GPU Screws 2.00 $0.06 $0.12
Mainboard Screws 4.00 $0.06 $0.24
PSU Screws 2.00 $0.06 $0.12
PCIe Extender Screws 2.00 $0.28 $0.56
Part E Screws (PSU) 2.00 $0.28 $0.56
SSD Screws 16.00 $0.03 $0.48
HDD Screws 8.00 $0.04 $0.32
USB Screws 3.00 $0.06 $0.18
Fan Screws 12.00 $0.03 $0.36
Part B Thumbscrews 2.00 $0.26 $0.51
Front Button 1.00 $4.65 $4.65
PCIe Extender 1.00 $20.28 $20.28
USB Adapter 1.00 $13.29 $13.29
Antistatic Bags 1.00 $1.08 $1.08
End Caps 2.00 $3.12 $6.24
Cardboard Box 1.00 $1.42 $1.42
Zip Ties 4.00 $0.03 $0.12
Accessory Box 1.00 $0.37 $0.37
My point here is not to virtue signal but rather to show that this is strictly a hobby for me (and a pretty cool one at that). Even if I made $10 on each sale, it would still be a pretty horrible return on investment. At this point, the largest challenge to selling I believe is the cost of shipping. Everyone is so used to Amazon-esque shipping that $20 for domestic or $100 for international shipping is a complete turn off (even though I lose money on every package not shipped to the east coast). And that is at pretty good discounted rates from UPS. I looked into using Amazon warehouse but the cost for storing and handling from Amazon meant I'd have to ask around $250/case just to use their platform and still break even. Plus, I'd still have to pay shipping to their warehouse. Regardless, If you've read this far you need to know I'll be planning another promotion between Christmas and New Years. I don't know what it will be but I hope to drum up some more business then to get a large block of cases sold to help fund the S700.
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Pictures of the front filter. They aren't great as my wife recently broke the lens and now it won't auto-focus.
I'm looking into finding some magnetic strips that I could glue to the filter, but I want to make sure it won't damage any 2.5" HDDs.
I'm looking into finding some magnetic strips that I could glue to the filter, but I want to make sure it won't damage any 2.5" HDDs.
Brian, it was fortuitous that you sent out this BOM. Last night I was disassembling by build because I needed to RMA the motherboard. While trying to disconnect the USB cable to the front ports (or rather, pry it off...man, it was snapped in well), my thumb slipped and I broke off one of the capacitors on the PCB. The PCB is labelled "LA251-1A1C-V1.0". Is that the "USB Adapter" in your BOM? Would you mind providing the source for that so that I can get a replacement? The case works well for my build and the front USB ports are a nice feature.
I can ship you one if you need it - the adapters themselves cost $13.29 as you can see from above. If you prefer get it sooner, you can buy the one below on Amazon with Prime shipping.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EYBWRII/?tag=theminutiae-20
