Stratos 3: ~3.5L PicoPSU Chassis

[Thehack]

After seeing all the great cases everyone has been designing, I attempted to design my own. So far it hasn't been named. I decide to serve the PicoPSU market. For now, let's call this version P3, for prototype and at around 3L.

Supports:
ITX motherboard
2 SSD
CPU Cooler up to 47mm.

The case is made of 3d printed parts and acrylic.

Expected price per unit in low runs is ~$60-90 per case depending on number of orders and color combination. I don't expect to make much of a profit, only enough to support more prototypes and projects.

A second Prototype, P5 will follow that supports Low Profile GPUs.

Currently finishing up designs. I am welcome to feedback. Next step is ordering the prototype, to be done in about 1-2 months.

Here's a question, would you mind a DIY case? The cuts and parts will sourced from 3rd parties and you can order it with color customization. Cost will be higher and the QA/QC will be not be done by me.

 

[iFreilicht]

So I guess this is a super simple case internally, about 185x185mm footprint with two SSDs below the mainboard, right? The P5 seems very similar to the Lone Industries L2/L3 in terms of layout. Either way, nothing wrong with that, having 3D-prints and acrylic seems to be a good way to get cost down for a low number of cases.

Here's a question, would you mind a DIY case? The cuts and parts will sourced from 3rd parties and you can order it with color customization.

Could you try to rephrase that? Does that simply mean that the case isn't assembled by you or does it mean that you will sell the 3D printed parts over the shapeways store and publish the panels drawings for everyone to source on their own from local shops?

 

[Thehack]

So I guess this is a super simple case internally, about 185x185mm footprint with two SSDs below the mainboard, right? The P5 seems very similar to the Lone Industries L2/L3 in terms of layout. Either way, nothing wrong with that, having 3D-prints and acrylic seems to be a good way to get cost down for a low number of cases.



Could you try to rephrase that? Does that simply mean that the case isn't assembled by you or does it mean that you will sell the 3D printed parts over the shapeways store and publish the panels drawings for everyone to source on their own from local shops?

Yes. It follows the lone industries layout. K888D also made a similar acrylic case a while ago before he decided to pursue the LZ7. I checked for lone industries online but it seems the project has been halted and he no longer makes the case. The website returns a DNS error. I really liked the L3. Anyways, I decided to start this a small endeavor. I am quite inspired by the other cases we have on our forums.

The P5 will come afterwards and will clock in at around 5L for low profile support. I decided to support at least the Cryorig C7 for P3, and to allow some working space inside the case. This is about my 4 or 5th design. Ideally, it'll be scaled up all the way to mATX.

To reiterate, I meant the latter. The panels will be available for local sourcing or online acrylic cutting shops, and the 3d printed parts will be available on shapeways. I will sell the small parts (screws, stand offs, power button) after sourcing them in large quantities.

I hope that in the future AMD's new APUs will replace the need for low end graphics card and this can be a viable option for budget gamers.

 

[iFreilicht]

Oh I didn't know @Lone even stopped the website now, that's a shame.

To reiterate, I meant the latter. The panels will be available for local sourcing or online acrylic cutting shops, and the 3d printed parts will be available on shapeways. I will sell the small parts (screws, stand offs, power button) after sourcing them in large quantities.

That is a very cool idea, and I think this case could be an excellent study to try it out on. This feels quite similar to open-source keyboard projects, and you might take inspiration from those and offer the case as a complete kit in addition to the DIY version. It's a good way of getting a few units out to people that just want the case with as little fuss as possible short term while allowing indefinite availability in the long term without your involvement, so you'll be able to move onto other projects once sales from the first one are dropping. A plus is that potential customers in more remote areas can circumvent extraordinary shipping costs.

I think this model could work quite well for a lot of artisan cases, maybe @K888D might do something similar in the future?

 

[CC Ricers]

The case design looks good, and I think it's a good idea to sell them as you can pick up the slack from where Lone Industries left off. Have more of these kinds of cases in the hands of people that want one like this. The only other currently available case I think comes close is the Apexx 1 and that is a pre-built mini workstation so you gotta purchase all the components that come with it.

Sourcing all the printed parts from Shapeways and selling as a DIY kit would be great in getting the cases shipped out as quickly as possible. If you can maybe have a website where users pick color combinations for their case panels and then group the orders in batches to have each set of parts billed to the shops.

 

[Kmpkt]

Kinda sad to see James has shelved the entire Lone Industries project and taken the website down. I guess no LP graphics cards since the 750ti kinda hurt his niche.

 

[Thehack]

Kinda sad to see James has shelved the entire Lone Industries project and taken the website down. I guess no LP graphics cards since the 750ti kinda hurt his niche.

It is because 750ti is actually the new card. It is part of the maxwell family of cards and completes the line up of nVidia's 900 series. Only thing was, they tacked it into the 7-series, and then they skipped the 8 series. However, AMD's new RX 460 should be available in LP format, and with APU's with 750ti level of performance early 2017, I think this form factor will be great for HTPC or light gaming duties. It is very unfortunate that he stopped his work. It would've been also great to see his designs in regular ITX form factor.

 

[Kmpkt]

Kinda sorta, but the 950 LP has been available in Japan for quite some time and I haven't seen any evidence of it making it to either Europe or North America anytime soon.

 

[CC Ricers]

Kinda sorta, but the 950 LP has been available in Japan for quite some time and I haven't seen any evidence of it making it to either Europe or North America anytime soon.

If I had the money, I may order a low profile 950 from Japan, for one unique home console build and to have bragging rights for it

 

[Kmpkt]

It cost me 24000 yen to get the 950 LP delivered to my door in Canada. I believe that works out to about 225 USD delivered.

 

[Thehack]

It cost me 24000 yen to get the 950 LP delivered to my door in Canada. I believe that works out to about 225 USD delivered.

Wow. That is some dedication! $225 USD.

 

[Kmpkt]

Yeah apparently my super power is overspending on specialty PC hardware. You'll get a clearer idea of how bad my problem is when we get the buy/sell boards up. Anyone need a 250W flex ATX? How about three?

 

[Lone]

@Thehack, I like it!

Kinda sad to see James has shelved the entire Lone Industries project and taken the website down. I guess no LP graphics cards since the 750ti kinda hurt his niche.

Don't want to hijack the thread, but I'm sorry the site is down. I'm just sleeping on things at the moment. I do have a new L4 design I'm planning to produce, but I believe other projects here and other places are a better choice for people who are into gaming.

 

[Thehack]

@Thehack, I like it!



Don't want to hijack the thread, but I'm sorry the site is down. I'm just sleeping on things at the moment. I do have a new L4 design I'm planning to produce, but I believe other projects here and other places are a better choice for people who are into gaming.

Glad you like it. Do post your design here when you finish it.

On another note, here is a one-off I did.
2.5L, pico, 2 SSD, low profile case I designed and produced. Just waiting for the rest of hardware to come before I can fully put it together.

First time using the laser cutting service. It went very well.

Update: I decided to go for a blue/white theme. Instead. I should be finalizing and sending laser cut requests this week.

 

[Lone]

Love the colour combinations you can achieve with the acrylic and wood. Also like the sharp, chamfered corners.

 

[confusis]

loving the orange and wood!

 

[K888D]

@Thehack I have sent you a PM regarding certain aspects of these cases.

 

[Thehack]

It is here!

 

[Thehack]

Here it is:

Fully gallery can be viewed here:

 

[NRG]

dayum