Stalled The ]M[ - Versatile: modular SFF casing from console size to much more

[Marwan]

I really liked the design of your case, previous and current, but wasn't really interested due to the low cooler clearance. I have to say this extension changes things completely, really cool concept. Hope you can get decent cooling with available airflow.

Thank you so much. Well with the extension it is possible to get a cooler of up to about 90 mm or more. I didn't check that yet.

 

[Marwan]

Dear All,

Now that I have projected important possible upgrades to the casing, I would like to ask you few questions regarding this project:


1. the extension that I am currently working on is of 1mm thickness because I was aiming for stainless steel as the material for it with powder coating color. it will not look as clean as aluminum but it will look clean no doubt. would you like to be stainless steel? working with stainless steel for such design will definitely means bending and cutting and welding rather than machining like in aluminum.

or thick aluminum as thick as the original shell? that is 4mm aluminum and CNC work of course. the 4mm aluminum extension will make it look very seemless however it will surly increase the price.

2. I believe that I have come across something really awesome that is not yet presented. coming soon in the updates, would it be OK if the casing volume with the extension becomes 13 liters? I am thinking of making one more extension that is smaller than this and would increase the casing size to about 10 liters. just to add bigger water cooling support if someone wants to upgrade from console style.

3. I understand that there are other good forums that I can publish my design at like OC, HW, LTT, reddit and so on, I just want to finalize the design here as much as I can since the gurus of SFF are here . I would like to ask the help of you all to guide a media outlet to review the casing make a youtuber or an SFF forum member from the experts to review the casing.

4. last but not least, and this is an important one, what would be a fair price for the console style full package (without the water cooling extension)? I have a price on my mind I would like to know your thoughts.


your reply is most appreciated.

 

[Poblopuablo]

Dear All,

Now that I have projected important possible upgrades to the casing, I would like to ask you few questions regarding this project:


1. the extension that I am currently working on is of 1mm thickness because I was aiming for stainless steel as the material for it with powder coating color. it will not look as clean as aluminum but it will look clean no doubt. would you like to be stainless steel? working with stainless steel for such design will definitely means bending and cutting and welding rather than machining like in aluminum.

or thick aluminum as thick as the original shell? that is 4mm aluminum and CNC work of course. the 4mm aluminum extension will make it look very seemless however it will surly increase the price.

2. I believe that I have come across something really awesome that is not yet presented. coming soon in the updates, would it be OK if the casing volume with the extension becomes 13 liters? I am thinking of making one more extension that is smaller than this and would increase the casing size to about 10 liters. just to add bigger water cooling support if someone wants to upgrade from console style.

3. I understand that there are other good forums that I can publish my design at like OC, HW, LTT, reddit and so on, I just want to finalize the design here as much as I can since the gurus of SFF are here . I would like to ask the help of you all to guide a media outlet to review the casing make a youtuber or an SFF forum member from the experts to review the casing.

4. last but not least, and this is an important one, what would be a fair price for the console style full package (without the water cooling extension)? I have a price on my mind I would like to know your thoughts.


your reply is most appreciated.

1. What would the pricing difference be? Since you plan to powder coat, would the color match seamlessly? (Not sure if powder coat looks different on aluminum vs steel). I think steel would be wise, because it would more easily allow for magnetic dust filters. As long as the pannels are flat and have good quality control, I, personally, have no issue with the steel over aluminum.

2. 13l could be fine, that being said it really depends on what it will offer. We must consider if the increase in size and price is worth it. There are great cases already available around the 13l (ncase m1 @ ~13l and the loque Ghost S1 (with large TH) @ ~ 11l). What will the reason being for the 10L vs the 13L? How do they compare, and what do they offer. I like the concept, but if cases already exist in similar performance in a similar Volume, then we must carefully proceed, because the lines start to blur between asthetic and price/performance ratio.

3. I totally agree. Take the the same kind of approach as the Moljnir, wait until you have your product 95-100% confirmed before going around spreading. (Maybe post things like interest Check's, but that's about it). If you go about spreading the word across-the-board then you will have to go to each site when you make a design update/change to get everyone to know(which just puts more work on you).

4. To keep pricing appropriate, the s401 is 160. Now this will be more feature rich. But I would suggest keeping below 200. I'd say 185-200 would be safe. But the biggest caveat is the price of the modular extensions(s). Console style seem less popular than shoebox. (Maybe that's because Shoebox came out 1st And dominated the market, maybe it because of hardware compatability... Idk) but it seems like console style cases are not quite as popular. I think people want them to be, but there just hasn't been the mainstream push from them (aside from the zaber sentry, which has poor thermal issues that plauge it when placed horizontal). But I think people like the idea of a system they can put under a monitor stand, or stand erect on their desk, but a lot of us(not all, but a lot) want something portable. The console cases can fit in a backpack. Yes some larger backpacks can hold the shoebox cases, but most backpacks can house a console style case better than a shoebox case.

This could be a great release, and I want it to be, but first and foremost it needs to be worth it. Price/performance/features generally you can only pick two of those things. If you can make a tri-fecta go for it!!

I believe you have a lot of things going for you, people like modularity (like at the loque ghost, or the Stek).

Keep up the good work!!! It's going strong and I believe you really have a potentially unique enough and quality enough product to make this stand out from the rest and offer things people have desiered, but haven't know yet!


Edit: Bear with me it's 2am, if I have grammatical errors it's because I'm dying lol. I'll try to proof read tomorrow. Just wanted to hit you with good news before I lay down. ,

 

[Marwan]

1. What would the pricing difference be? Since you plan to powder coat, would the color match seamlessly? (Not sure if powder coat looks different on aluminum vs steel). I think steel would be wise, because it would more easily allow for magnetic dust filters. As long as the pannels are flat and have good quality control, I, personally, have no issue with the steel over aluminum.

2. 13l could be fine, that being said it really depends on what it will offer. We must consider if the increase in size and price is worth it. There are great cases already available around the 13l (ncase m1 @ ~13l and the loque Ghost S1 (with large TH) @ ~ 11l). What will the reason being for the 10L vs the 13L? How do they compare, and what do they offer. I like the concept, but if cases already exist in similar performance in a similar Volume, then we must carefully proceed, because the lines start to blur between asthetic and price/performance ratio.

3. I totally agree. Take the the same kind of approach as the Moljnir, wait until you have your product 95-100% confirmed before going around spreading. (Maybe post things like interest Check's, but that's about it). If you go about spreading the word across-the-board then you will have to go to each site when you make a design update/change to get everyone to know(which just puts more work on you).

4. To keep pricing appropriate, the s401 is 160. Now this will be more feature rich. But I would suggest keeping below 200. I'd say 185-200 would be safe. But the biggest caveat is the price of the modular extensions(s). Console style seem less popular than shoebox. (Maybe that's because Shoebox came out 1st And dominated the market, maybe it because of hardware compatability... Idk) but it seems like console style cases are not quite as popular. I think people want them to be, but there just hasn't been the mainstream push from them (aside from the zaber sentry, which has poor thermal issues that plauge it when placed horizontal). But I think people like the idea of a system they can put under a monitor stand, or stand erect on their desk, but a lot of us(not all, but a lot) want something portable. The console cases can fit in a backpack. Yes some larger backpacks can hold the shoebox cases, but most backpacks can house a console style case better than a shoebox case.

This could be a great release, and I want it to be, but first and foremost it needs to be worth it. Price/performance/features generally you can only pick two of those things. If you can make a tri-fecta go for it!!

I believe you have a lot of things going for you, people like modularity (like at the loque ghost, or the Stek).

Keep up the good work!!! It's going strong and I believe you really have a potentially unique enough and quality enough product to make this stand out from the rest and offer things people have desiered, but haven't know yet!


Edit: Bear with me it's 2am, if I have grammatical errors it's because I'm dying lol. I'll try to proof read tomorrow. Just wanted to hit you with good news before I lay down. ,

Thank you so much this means a lot to me.

A tri-facta...… I think I might have it not sure how people would receive it but I hope it's good.

 

[Marwan]

1. What would the pricing difference be? Since you plan to powder coat, would the color match seamlessly? (Not sure if powder coat looks different on aluminum vs steel). I think steel would be wise, because it would more easily allow for magnetic dust filters. As long as the pannels are flat and have good quality control, I, personally, have no issue with the steel over aluminum.
,

Actually the aluminum part is anodized while the steel part can only be powder coated. The texture will vary for sure. But it will look clean no doubt. Pricing will be very close to the aluminum part, however didn't check that yet. Of course we are talking here about the extension part.

 

[dragon50305]

I think the extension for liquid cooling will be pretty niche (even within our own little niche ) but if it can hold hard drive I think the appeal of a NAS would increase your market share a bit, as most people here are enthusiasts and probably can see the value of a NAS. As @Poblopuablo said if the volume increased to 13L with the extension it would need to offer something pretty compelling as it would then shift from console style to more shoebox style that we're all familiar with.


As far as pricing obviously lower is better . But, with the unique design and the features your case offers along with being more compact than the other leading console style cases I think the $180 +-$30 range is fair. It offers what I think the s4m is missing in that it gives full parts in as compact of a package as possible. (Not that the s4m is bad, it's the best case I've ever seen in its niche)

 

[Marwan]

I think the extension for liquid cooling will be pretty niche (even within our own little niche ) but if it can hold hard drive I think the appeal of a NAS would increase your market share a bit, as most people here are enthusiasts and probably can see the value of a NAS. As @Poblopuablo said if the volume increased to 13L with the extension it would need to offer something pretty compelling as it would then shift from console style to more shoebox style that we're all familiar with.


As far as pricing obviously lower is better . But, with the unique design and the features your case offers along with being more compact than the other leading console style cases I think the $180 +-$30 range is fair. It offers what I think the s4m is missing in that it gives full parts in as compact of a package as possible. (Not that the s4m is bad, it's the best case I've ever seen in its niche)

Thank you so much, your comments are a great push for me to do more actually. Please give me feedback as much as possible. It benfits me greatly.
I will be adding a really cool feature (at least that's what I hope it is to you all )

Thanks to all of you.

 

[Marwan]

Hay All got a question for you,

Are 60 mm fans any good to move air especially at 10-15 mm thickness? I am thinking of removing their support from one side of the casing, the one that is busy with PCIE and the HDMI ports.

let me know your thoughts.

 

[BaK]

1. the extension that I am currently working on is of 1mm thickness because I was aiming for stainless steel as the material for it with powder coating color. it will not look as clean as aluminum but it will look clean no doubt. would you like to be stainless steel? working with stainless steel for such design will definitely means bending and cutting and welding rather than machining like in aluminum.

or thick aluminum as thick as the original shell? that is 4mm aluminum and CNC work of course. the 4mm aluminum extension will make it look very seemless however it will surly increase the price.

While I would find it ok for a top hat to stand apart from the main case, I personnally would prefer my case not being made of two distinctive left and right parts.
So unless you want such an appearance on purpose, I would suggest the two parts to be made of the same material.
The case would then look as a one main body like in your last renderings which are awesome!

Are 60 mm fans any good to move air especially at 10-15 mm thickness? I am thinking of removing their support from one side of the casing, the one that is busy with PCIE and the HDMI ports.

Not sure to understand correctly your question, but I am quite happy with the NB 60mm fan that is replacing the stock fan of my FLEX ATX PSU in my MiniCube build.

 

[Marwan]

While I would find it ok for a top hat to stand apart from the main case, I personnally would prefer my case not being made of two distinctive left and right parts.
So unless you want such an appearance on purpose, I would suggest the two parts to be made of the same material.
The case would then look as a one main body like in your last renderings which are awesome!


Not sure to understand correctly your question, but I am quite happy with the NB 60mm fan that is replacing the stock fan of my FLEX ATX PSU in my MiniCube build.

Thanks for the reply. If you look at the very first post there is a space and I have included placement for 60 mm fan with 10 mm Max so my question was whether this fan with this thickness can push/pull enough air from the casing.

 

[BaK]

Got it now, thx!
Never used such small slim fans though, so no clue...

 

[Marwan]

Got it now, thx!
Never used such small slim fans though, so no clue...

Thanks . I will check it out. I have a couple of those around.

 

[dragon50305]

It's my understand that those 60mm fans, especially 10mm fans need to get to high speeds and therefore pretty loud to move as much air as a 120mm fan. So they're not the best for moving air. But in such a small case I think any amount of additional airflow is a bonus. Is there any particular reason you're thinking of dropping the fans?

 

[Marwan]

It's my understand that those 60mm fans, especially 10mm fans need to get to high speeds and therefore pretty loud to move as much air as a 120mm fan. So they're not the best for moving air. But in such a small case I think any amount of additional airflow is a bonus. Is there any particular reason you're thinking of dropping the fans?

I am only thinking of removing the upper side. Because that area will be a bit busy with the cables. It is still possible to fit them. I'll look into it.

 

[dragon50305]

If it's possible I think it's always good to have options. If it's too difficult I think the two 60x25 fans would be enough.

 

[Marwan]

If it's possible I think it's always good to have options. If it's too difficult I think the two 60x25 fans would be enough.

I am keeping it so far. Thanks a lot for the feedback.

 

[dragon50305]

Quick question! Have you tested any coolers in the case yet? And do you have any recommendations for a cooler in the case?

 

[Marwan]

Quick question! Have you tested any coolers in the case yet? And do you have any recommendations for a cooler in the case?

So far the noctua L90i the one I have tested (and my main cooler) and it works excellent. Intel standard box cooler also works. My CPU is 6400 i5 and hovers around 45 degrees with heavy load.

 

[dragon50305]

Awesome thanks. Seems the l9i is always king.

 

[Marwan]

Hi all,

new update .... the biggest yet. details coming soon.

So ... what do you think?