Stalled Z-CASE P50 v1.1: Innovative console-style SFF PC case

Status
Not open for further replies.

BernardoZ

Founder of Z-CASES
Original poster
z-cases.com
Feb 7, 2018
264
490
www.z-cases.com
@All Can anyone that got tracking number this week and received the case confirm if your order came with all accessories included?

Also, if some of you haven't seen, check these important updates from last page:
95% of orders are shipped already;
50% of separate accessories replacements are shipped;
We'll continue to ship the rest this Monday, as this whole week is national holiday in China.

If you are facing problems with customs requiring the order invoice, please send us an email.
We are out of stock now unfortunately, but I'll evaluate the possibility of running another batch soon.
 
  • Like
Reactions: britsches

2rochi

Minimal Tinkerer
New User
Mar 18, 2018
4
4
Can you please measure it accurately and provide some new pictures?
15cm is NOT ok for PSU cable length, the minimum it should be is 20cm.....

Here. PCI-E cable has 150mm length and this is too short for me. I think I should buy extension cable for this
 
  • Like
Reactions: Nichronos

chrimen

Trash Compacter
Sep 9, 2019
52
14
I just made a pretest build:

- case looks and feels great :)
- PSU is crazy small!
- PSU- and powerbutton-cable lengths are almost perfect
- USB3-cable is a bit too long and a bit too prominent for my taste (will probably try to hide it under the GPU for the final build)
- Tempered glass is darker than expected, but I like that even more
- customs for germany was 53€
- Gigabyte X570 I Aorus Pro WIFI fits (including backplate)
- spacers are just unpainted aluminum (so I painted them black)

I also didn't had original screws and PSU-cables etc.
But I took some donor parts from my Node 202.

I am still testing this thing for temps...

What power cord are you using from the PSU to the back of the case?
I can't seem to find anything that rotates 90 degrees and has a screw mount. I was searching online out of curiosity.
 

TheGrine

Chassis Packer
Sep 22, 2019
14
11
What power cord are you using from the PSU to the back of the case?
I can't seem to find anything that rotates 90 degrees and has a screw mount. I was searching online out of curiosity.
Mine is also just custom made.
Nothing I would recommend anyone do...
 
  • Like
Reactions: chrimen

BernardoZ

Founder of Z-CASES
Original poster
z-cases.com
Feb 7, 2018
264
490
www.z-cases.com
UPDATE
All separate accessories are shipped, check your email;
Only 5% of case orders are left to ship, give me 1-2 days.

If you face any problem, please send us an email.
 
  • Like
Reactions: chrimen

Wenemun

Caliper Novice
Mar 7, 2018
27
31
Just built in my new case, still some work to go, but it's up and running.
Good work Bernardo and z-case team. Really loving it.



Initial thoughts:
Great finish and build quality.
The cables tuck VERY snuggly under the psu shroud.

PSU is great. Even with this system (8086k+2070 more specs below) under full load, it remained quiet. My only pain point is the psu fan makes a hiss, which is not a very aesthetic sound compared to the hum of the noctua.

I'm not sure if it was intentional, but it does dump a lot of heat into the chassis and shroud, which means having feet in this configuration is important, and makes me worry about having the hdd mounted where it is. Also makes me worry how much heat is being dumped between the base plate and cover, and warming up my motherboard and nvme.

Quibbles:
It only has 3 sata power plugs, so i will need to get a squid.
Internal powercord is way too long.
One of the rear screws had a stripped thread.
Pain in the ass to install the power supply. Hopefully only gotta do that once.

Tips for build:
Don't fully screw in the PSU shroud until you have finished tucking the cables.
The 24 pin cables had to be trained to basically turn 180° so they would tuck under the shroud.
Take off the riser from the standoffs and train it so it does a wider loop. Theres actually a fair amount of room under the graphics card which could be used to mount 3 ssd's and tuck cables into.

Mod/accessory ideas (in order of necessity):
Rubber feet
40mm side fans.
Drill some holes under the PSU
Mounting holes for ssd in lower case, possibly put in a 2.5" drive cage. If the holes are rearranged, you can mount 4 drives flat under there.
Hot swap drive bay in front
Silverstone Ultra Thin Lateral 90 Degree SATA Cables with Custom Low-Profile Connectors
Custom sata power cables
Low profile usb header cable
USB C on the front maybe?

Maybes:
Cut off the angle on the psu shroud and extend it all the way across and install an infinity mirror.
Mount the ssds only in the lower case.
Unicorn barf: Corsair LL120 on CPU cooler and maybe GPU. Light strips under edges.





Specs:
Asrock Fata1ty Z370 ITX/AC
Delidded i7 8086k with liquid metal and copper heatspreader with a cryorig cu cooler.
3D printed fan mount. (I've also got one for a 120mm)
Currently running at a comfortable 4.3ghz (not boosted) at 70°C under load.

Samsung 500g 960 evo nvme on the back
Crucial 120gb (with the skull) (I will probably make this a hot swap bay)
Samsung 1TB 860 qvo under the skull
Seagate 4tb 2.5" hdd (This will likely be moved to the lower case)

16g corsair 3600mhz
RTX 2070 Aero
 
Last edited:

AstroWan

Caliper Novice
Apr 14, 2016
33
17
I also just finished building my case today and moving everything over. I'd say I'm pretty with how everything turned out. The case itself is absolutely fantastic in finish, although there were a few stripped screws that made mounting things weird, such as the pci-e extender and one of the motherboard standoffs but with some work it came out fine. Now the real puzzler was trying to figure out placement of cables because the psu cable was really long and the motherboard 8-pin was just long enough (the psu shroud is absolutely amazing though as it does a great job keeping all of that mess hidden). To summarize my thoughts:

The Good:
- Aluminum finish is absolutely amazing and looks great
- The psu shroud and spacing between the psu and motherboard make cable management much easier to handle and worked great for my build in my case
- Mounting holes for top 60mm fans are great and really help keep things quiet
- Everything packs nice and neat and mounting holes for everything such as the back panel, the top brackets, and the psu are very sturdy and leave me confident that things won't move or or fall lose

The Meh:
- The top panel screws and holes are just slightly off causing my screws to be angled slightly, its subtle but noticable if you're OCD
- The psu cable is just way longer then it should be and was a challenge to work with at first
- Room between a 60x60x25 fan makes it really hard to squeeze the psu cable in between
- Usb 3.0 cable is kind of awkward for a full length card, putting it behind the gpu made it hard to mount the gpu while putting it in front was ugly so I had to turn it around to the front
- Gpu Mounting Screws to the case were missing
- Case Glass is kind of really dark, so if you're trying to see through it like the Lian Li Pc-0x line is pretty hard

The Bad:
- Some of the screws had stripped holes, such as a motherboard stand off and the bottom pci-e extender mounting screws
- Bottom plate replacement that increases surface area doesn't sit flush with my front panel on one side
- No rubber feet is a real let down but not really a deal break, probably will just buy some from Lowes

Altogether, even with all the small qualms, I still love this case and I think it's probably my favorite sff case on the market. It greatly reminds me of what I wanted the Lian Li Pc-05sx to be but in a much more clean form factor. I wish the glass was more see through as I wanted to place a 5inch screen over the psu shroud. Also posted below are pictures + specs.



Specs:
CPU: Ryzen 7 1700x
CPU Cooler: Cryorig C7
Mobo: Asus B-450i
Ram: 16gb Corsair RGB 3000mhz
Storage: 512gb Samsung 970 + 2tb Intel 660p
GPU: MSI Ventus 2080
 
Last edited:

chrimen

Trash Compacter
Sep 9, 2019
52
14
- Room between a 60x60x25 fan makes it really hard to squeeze the psu cable in between
Looks great man.

Do you mean in between then fans and the back panel of the case or between the mother board and the fans?

I have the fans already installed and don't have the psu cable extender yet. I see almost no room to fit it between the fans and the back panel.
Since I'm using the noctua antivibration mounts they were a pain in to install.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AstroWan

AstroWan

Caliper Novice
Apr 14, 2016
33
17
Looks great man.

Do you mean in between then fans and the back panel of the case or between the mother board and the fans?

I have the fans already installed and don't have the psu cable extender yet. I see almost no room to fit it between the fans and the back panel.
Since I'm using the noctua antivibration mounts they were a pain in to install.
Thanks!

It's between the fans and the psu mounting bracket, the space between them is surprisingly tight. I tried to figure another way to place it and the excess cable, and was luckily able to push the excess under the angled part of the psu shroud.

Besides that, I have no idea for the life of me how you pulled it off because I tried really hard to get the anti-vibration mounts on and gave up as I was worried I'd just rip them. May try it again though since you were able to get them through.

Edit: I can add a picture of where I mean if you want better clarification, as it's a little hard to describe.
 

chrimen

Trash Compacter
Sep 9, 2019
52
14
Thanks!

It's between the fans and the psu mounting bracket, the space between them is surprisingly tight. I tried to figure another way to place it and the excess cable, and was luckily able to push the excess under the angled part of the psu shroud.

Besides that, I have no idea for the life of me how you pulled it off because I tried really hard to get the anti-vibration mounts on and gave up as I was worried I'd just rip them. May try it again though since you were able to get them through.

Edit: I can add a picture of where I mean if you want better clarification, as it's a little hard to describe.

I get what you're saying now about the psu cable fitting between the fans and the shroud.

I got creative with the anti vibration mounts. I managed to pull the first fan with my fingers. For the second fan I tied dental floss and pulled with steady force till it popped in. Used a type of knot on the string that could be released by pulling one side. The mounts towards the bank panel were very difficult I did rip the tip of onewhile doing this.

Try at your own risk because the mounts can break if pulled too hard, at an angle or with jerky motions.
 
Last edited:

AstroWan

Caliper Novice
Apr 14, 2016
33
17
I get what you're saying now about the psu cable fitting between the fans and the shroud.

I got creative with the anti vibration mounts. I managed to pull the first fan with my fingers. For the second fan I tied dental floss and pulled with steady force till it popped in. Used a type of knot on the string that could be released by pulling one side. The mounts towards the bank panel were very difficult I did rip the tip of onewhile doing this.

Try at your own risk because the mounts can break if pulled too hard, at an angle or with jerky motions.

Yeah that was what I was afraid of, at least you proved it's possible, but the ones near the back just have no direction where you could easily grab it and pull it, maybe I'll dabble with it more and try to get it through. On a side note, do you possible have any ideas for mods to do? I'm trying to fill in the spot where the psu shroud is with something like a screen or rgb ssds but with the dark window I'm not sure.
 

chrimen

Trash Compacter
Sep 9, 2019
52
14
Yeah that was what I was afraid of, at least you proved it's possible, but the ones near the back just have no direction where you could easily grab it and pull it, maybe I'll dabble with it more and try to get it through. On a side note, do you possible have any ideas for mods to do? I'm trying to fill in the spot where the psu shroud is with something like a screen or rgb ssds but with the dark window I'm not sure.
The screen sounds like a great idea. There 3.5 usb powered raspberry pi screens. Using and hdmi connection then rainmeter and hwinfo you could get all your readings set up. Like you said it might not show clearly with the dark tinted glass.

I haven't thought of any big mods. This being muy first build and I'm still waiting for the other pieces.

I'll have 2 Samsung ssd's in that location.
 

Arch

Cable Smoosher
Oct 9, 2019
8
4
I just received my case and I'm kinda disappointed. The tempered glass is way too dark and not even close to the pre-production pictures. It is not clear or even transparent enough to see internals. I hope we get an option to return and replace it. I'm part of the second shipment batch and is still missing accessories which I did submit for issue. Also what screw head do you use to take off the back place? It looks like a small allen but none of mine seem to turn it? While I've built my own computers, this is my 1st SFF case. I hope bernardo can chime in on these issues. I guess I expected a better process like I have with other builds.
 

DuKe

Chassis Packer
Jun 7, 2019
19
20
I just received my case and I'm kinda disappointed. The tempered glass is way too dark and not even close to the pre-production pictures. It is not clear or even transparent enough to see internals. I hope we get an option to return and replace it. I'm part of the second shipment batch and is still missing accessories which I did submit for issue. Also what screw head do you use to take off the back place? It looks like a small allen but none of mine seem to turn it? While I've built my own computers, this is my 1st SFF case. I hope bernardo can chime in on these issues. I guess I expected a better process like I have with other builds.
I'm with you on the glass, it's too dark to do with the web.
bernardo could you get the transparent glass? or where to get it but I'll have to make it
 
  • Like
Reactions: britsches

TimLFoss

Cable Smoosher
Jul 13, 2019
11
0
I have to agree about the glass. The glass panel is the main appeal of this case, and what made me purchase it. The glass is extremely dark, and not at all like any of the pictures or videos that were shown of it before purchase. Plus, I recieved the wrong case color. PLUS the fiasco with the missing accessories. Feeling kind of ripped off right about now.
 

revan

Chassis Packer
Aug 30, 2019
16
5
I think it actually looks better with the darker glass, but I absolutely get that it isn’t what you thought you were getting. I really just need mine to arrive soon so I can finish the build.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.