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The Chimera MachOne: For the pros. Small meets flexible.
- Thread starter PlayfulPhoenix
- Start date
I'm glad to see there's still a lot of interest and progress on this case. For me, there aren't many small footprint cases (ITX in the vertical orientation) that have good airflow and allow for a 240mm radiator. I cant wait to get this ATX beast off my desk, so I'm patiently waiting for more info!
Is the "flexible" design goal still a thing? The 3 different schemes seemed like a neat approach.
Is the "flexible" design goal still a thing? The 3 different schemes seemed like a neat approach.
Don't need 280x45mm (usually 12-16FPI) radiator, Noctua new Fans on Koolance 280x30mm 30FPI should have the noise and performance to match thicker radiators.
cant wait to see the new case. i think is a great idea to make an atx version. there isnt many atx sff and dual 280mm rad support it can be great. hope you will make it the smallest possible for an atx. my dream is to use a sfx psu, no 3,5 drive only 2,5 and m2. of corse is only a dream of mine. just cant wait to see more
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I thought the layout and cooling flow of the new Mac Pro is rather elegant. I already prefer air to water, but the size/portability/airflow is pretty simple and perfect to me (if it can handle the heat). I would kill to see this become and industry-standard formfactor with with factory-standard GPUs with giant heat sinks that are cooled by front intakes. It's what I liked about the original MachOne concept--front intakes that are powerful enough to flow across the whole system and out the back without assisted exhaust (it's just so simple and obvious to me...if gpu and cpu coolers can better accommodate that without adding anemic heat sinks and noisy fans that interrupt airflow, then I'm all for it).
I don't care for the price (or the blower cooler on the other side of the motherboard), but it really seems elegantly utilitarian compared to the trashcan Mac Pro or even the original MacPro (which was pretty cool too, imo).
Awesome. Is there a place we can sign up to get notified about the launch?
Also, will the mini ITX version have 2x 120mm fan support / 240mm radiator support?
That would be a huge deal for me, personally, as it would allow for proper airflow optimization.
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@Wahaha360
Man, any kind of teaser(s) towards the mITX / mDTX variant...?
Right now I am torn between the compactness of the M1 & the 'extra breathing room' of the Cerberus for a shiny new 3900X/C8I/5700XT build...
But I would not mind considering a Mach One build with a custom loop...!
I've made up my mind that whatever cases I buy in the future, they will never be ones where the video card goes in the conventional horizontal way. Sidearm vertical position, and this case's hanging position are amazing. I probably will buy both the T1 and this case later. Great designs, can't decide which I like more so I'll have to own both.
Very smart decision.
I just wanted to say this is literally my dream case and I registered to post here. We need more upright Vertical style cases in general. I believe they make the most sense for SFF and I think they are the future. I love the Macpro Pro aesthetic of the MachOne premium aluminium with perforated front grill. Now time for some feedback:
- Call them "MachOne" and "MachOne Mini" not Gearone/Geartwo" - then people will instantly know which one is the SFF version.
- Please make the "MachOne Mini" as small as possible (for portability) preferably sub 13 litres and as light as possible without sacrificing quality.
- If possible lease makethe silver alluminium exterior have a soft polish finish like iMac and not a brushed rough one like Ncase.
- Allow for window and non-window versions, BUT offer the option of a bare side panel as an extra so there is less chance of damage in shipping a seperate window.
- Please focus heavily on cooling (without sacrificing aesthetic). I believe there is great potential for this in a vertical case.
- If motherboard is at the top PLEASE add a cut-out for an IO at the bottom next to the powersupply for microphone headphone and USB-C/ Power button to help reduce wires hanging down (a common flaw with some cases).
- Consider adding an air intake fans at the bottom and incorporate feet for this. I think this would be good because heat rises (you should take advantage of this in vertical case).
Just wanted to say, I think the kind of finish on the NCase M1 is called brushed (stripes from grinding are visible). Grinding is practically coarse polishing. Polished aluminium would look shiny like chrome. You'd be reflected in it. The soft, matt surface of Apple devices is achieved by sand- or glassblasting.
To me it looks like the panels on the picture you added are all sand- or glassblasted. The different appearance of the panels only results from the different incidence of light. Depending on the fineness of the blasted material (glass is finer than sand), the surface looks rougher or softer. Apple devices or Louqe's Ghost S1 are good examples for a very soft surface.
I prefer sand/glassblasted aluminium over brushed aluminium. Just looks more modern and higher quality to me.
A shiny surface on aluminium won't last long since this metal is chemically unstable. That is why a powder coating or anodization is always necessary for any aluminium parts.
Anodized aluminium is almost impossible to be made shiny either since its surface is coated by aluminium oxide which is harder than most sanding papers and grind wheels. Of course, with enough patience and expensive boron nitride or even diamond grinding wheels it may be possible to get a shiny surface on anodised aluminium, but it is definitely not mass producible.
Yeah, the price of Apple's case and base configuration is insane. I get that it's a workstation, but holy hell that thing is not cheap. On the other hand, the airflow optimizations of that case are absolutely amazing, and deserve recognition for how effective they are. Their CPU cooler alone can handle CPU's with up to a 300W TDP, and it's all done with heat sinks that are just air channels without any attached fans. Airflow is left to the 3 large fans at the front to create a single-direction flow that keeps all air flowing in one direction, and the hole cutout and wide channeling of the heatsink probably does a lot to reduce turbulence. I bet that desktop is whisper quiet, even under full load. The holes that are milled out of the aluminum are designed to maximize airflow and cut down on turbulence, and I love the idea of shipping the case with a bunch of modules that can be made for cooling any component, and standardizing the cooling.
As for the blower cooler on the back, it's a large diameter blower, and runs really quiet. It's main job is to actively cool the RAM and SSD, neither of which need tons of airflow, and both of which have proper heatsinks attached. With modern NVME SSD's reaching 2.5 GB/s file transfer speeds, they *do* tend to get somewhat hot, so active cooling will allow for peak performance over sustained read/write.
I'm actually toying with the idea of machining my own mini ITX case using similar principles, and packaging a CPU and GPU cooler with the case, and relying on just Noctua NF A12x25 fans to cool the damn thing. Maybe with a push/pull configuration... Problem is that this significantly limits part compatibility, because you have to make a custom cooler for each GPU... accounting for things like VRM cooling and more.
I would also like to add that I love the bead blasted / sand blasted aluminum look. It's very soft and elegant, and is absolutely my preferred look. I hope the Mach One goes with this finish.
Can you confirm if the new design for the mITX version is going to be smaller in volume than the previous mATX 18.5Litre one?
The reason I ask is because 18.5Litre seems excessivly large for a SFF ITX case but would make sense for an mATX one.
Regards.
Still within the 20 liter volume that is considered SFF; and if you are putting a 280 radiator in there, well, that makes for a larger overall volume...
Due to the layout where all connections are on top and cables come out from a gap, you can't expect it to be much smaller.
And when the case looks this good, I can't complain about size.
So an ITX case thats large enough to fit an mATX motherboard. I really don't see the point since the Cereberus already exists.
Why would connections being at the top prevent it from being smaller anyway? I'll wait for official word but if the ITX version is going to be 18.5Litre then that's a real shame and I think i'll stay with a ghost.
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