Prototype The world most flexible SFF case? LOUQE Ghost S1

[Nosuchthing]

I have to say that this case looks like a dream come true. It's absolutely beautiful, tiny, and comes with the option of using 240mm rads.

That said. I can't find any clear information on storage before the addition of top hats. Does it take anything other than an M.2? I've read in this thread that there might be space for a 2.5 inch but there doesn't seem to be any confirmation anywhere that this is the case.

Can this case use both a 240mm rad and a 2.5 SSD? Can it use more than one SSD?

 

[PaChalski]

Hi, there is room for SSDs under the GPU sticking out through the opening in the spine where the PSU sits, two will fit actually. However we firmly believe people will shortly convert to m.2.

 

[Nosuchthing]

Hi, there is room for SSDs under the GPU sticking out through the opening in the spine where the PSU sits, two will fit actually. However we firmly believe people will shortly convert to m.2.

Maybe people will convert in a year, maybe it will be two years, but that doesn't change the fact that M.2 drives are expensive. Many people (myself included) will be transferring existing hardware into a new case, especially if they are building on a budget. Anything you don't have to buy is more money you can spend on something you have to. While promoting M.2 is great, it doesn't seem sensible to do so at the cost of alienating those people who can't afford the standard or need more storage than one M.2 can provide. It would make sense if your case had no room for those drives, but it does. The number of possible storage mounts really shouldn't be so hard to find that I had to comb through your website, three different forum threads and finally post a question just to get a definitive answer.

The NCase M1 and the Dancase A4SFX, which you will be compared to, make it quite clear on their websites how many storage options are available. I fail to see a reason why you have not done the same thing.

 

[PaChalski]

Maybe people will convert in a year, maybe it will be two years, but that doesn't change the fact that M.2 drives are expensive. Many people (myself included) will be transferring existing hardware into a new case, especially if they are building on a budget. Anything you don't have to buy is more money you can spend on something you have to. While promoting M.2 is great, it doesn't seem sensible to do so at the cost of alienating those people who can't afford the standard or need more storage than one M.2 can provide. It would make sense if your case had no room for those drives, but it does. The number of possible storage mounts really shouldn't be so hard to find that I had to comb through your website, three different forum threads and finally post a question just to get a definitive answer.

The NCase M1 and the Dancase A4SFX, which you will be compared to, make it quite clear on their websites how many storage options are available. I fail to see a reason why you have not done the same thing.

You are right, we will make this clear

 

[Mackan]

Hi, there is room for SSDs under the GPU sticking out through the opening in the spine where the PSU sits, two will fit actually. However we firmly believe people will shortly convert to m.2.

Agree with this. M.2 is very convenient for SFF builds. So nice to get rid of cables.

Some other things.

• I wonder if you will be able to buy more than one TopHat on kickstarter? I can imagine some people wanting to experiment with using all the TopHats. But you mention that you will offer them for separate purchase later on the website, if I am correct? Even if you buy a TopHat on kickstarter, I assume it's an addon, and that you still get the case unmodified with the original "glossy grill cover"?

• That leads me to another question. Is the case designed flexible enough so that some parts can be swapped out to support something entirely else? For example, the bottom plate, can it be swapped out to support a pedestal? (just an example) Or if another design for the Creative Platform pops up, can we swap it out? Even if you give us CAD files (which is great), it could be a problem to find someone able to manfacture certain parts, if you are using some state of the art manfacturing right now.

• I am also curious about the case feet and dust filters. Will we be able to fully dust proof this case? Filters on the sides and bottom? Are we supposed to add our own case feet, since I don't see any on your pictures? The perforated bottom needs space underneath to let the flow through.

• Also, there are still some pictures showing solid bottom on the homepage. The same with the logo. Last thing I heard the logo was entirely gone, but some pictures still show it on the home page. When getting on kickstarter, I think it's important to be consistent in showing what the users will get. Especially since the aestethics can immediately turn people off. I know you said that homepage is undergoing changes, just wanted to point it out.

Hope all goes well with the kickstarter.

 

[PaChalski]

Agree with this. M.2 is very convenient for SFF builds. So nice to get rid of cables.

Some other things.

• I wonder if you will be able to buy more than one TopHat on kickstarter? I can imagine some people wanting to experiment with using all the TopHats. But you mention that you will offer them for separate purchase later on the website, if I am correct? Even if you buy a TopHat on kickstarter, I assume it's an addon, and that you still get the case unmodified with the original "glossy grill cover"?

• That leads me to another question. Is the case designed flexible enough so that some parts can be swapped out to support something entirely else? For example, the bottom plate, can it be swapped out to support a pedestal? (just an example) Or if another design for the Creative Platform pops up, can we swap it out? Even if you give us CAD files (which is great), it could be a problem to find someone able to manfacture certain parts, if you are using some state of the art manfacturing right now.

• I am also curious about the case feet and dust filters. Will we be able to fully dust proof this case? Filters on the sides and bottom? Are we supposed to add our own case feet, since I don't see any on your pictures? The perforated bottom needs space underneath to let the flow through.

• Also, there are still some pictures showing solid bottom on the homepage. The same with the logo. Last thing I heard the logo was entirely gone, but some pictures still show it on the home page. When getting on kickstarter, I think it's important to be consistent in showing what the users will get. Especially since the aestethics can immediately turn people off. I know you said that homepage is undergoing changes, just wanted to point it out.

Hope all goes well with the kickstarter.

Many good questions, great!

1) The TopHat option is the exact same case as the SX + the additional Extension of your choice (S,M,L). M and L also come with a bracket that extends the IO-panel vertically. The glossy cover goes on top of any model and is always included. Additional TopHats will be available as shipment the starts.

2) We will allays strive to standardize the platform as much as possible and not do pointless adjustments that are there to make parts incompatible. Let's say we develop a "BaseHat", then it will be designed to fit the Spine for sure!

3a) The side dust filters are designed and the sourcing process of them is ongoing. Injection molding will be used for the production of these so they will not be costly, we are not promising anything at this point but we hope to include them for all backers free of charge.

3b) Bottom filters are still being designed and we are looking at one of three optional solutions where one is inside underneath the spine, another one is attached from underneath and the third is a two-piece solution that is snapped to the bottom from the inside.

3c) Case feet are included, small 4.5mm high round rubber pads that sit under the bottom plate. Will make this clearer

4) Yes, the page is being updated and we will do the last QA run tonight.Thank you for these pointers!

 

[Kmpkt]

I have a question about the marketing and awareness building you've done in the lead up to your Kickstarter campaign as I am planning to do something similar in the next year or so. Looking at other successful campaigns like the DAN-A4 and Zaber Sentry, they had years of development logs and community engagement to get their products to the point of being Kickstarter/Indiegogo ready. Obviously as a result of so many people seeing their products over a long period of time, they built up a lot of pent up demand and made a lot of sales as a result. You guys on the other hand have seemingly popped up in the last month or so (at least on non-Swedish forums). What have you guys done to ensure you have enough interest to have a successful Kickstarter campaign? Also I love your product and were I in the market for a case right now, I'd definitely buy one. Also will be watching your campaign with tremendous interest.

 

[Sicaris]

snip

... TopHat ... "BaseHat"

BassDrum? Just a thought.

 

[PaChalski]

I have a question about the marketing and awareness building you've done in the lead up to your Kickstarter campaign as I am planning to do something similar in the next year or so. Looking at other successful campaigns like the DAN-A4 and Zaber Sentry, they had years of development logs and community engagement to get their products to the point of being Kickstarter/Indiegogo ready. Obviously as a result of so many people seeing their products over a long period of time, they built up a lot of pent up demand and made a lot of sales as a result. You guys on the other hand have seemingly popped up in the last month or so (at least on non-Swedish forums). What have you guys done to ensure you have enough interest to have a successful Kickstarter campaign? Also I love your product and were I in the market for a case right now, I'd definitely buy one. Also will be watching your campaign with tremendous interest.

This is obviously a concern of ours. we are confident in the product but not sure about the reach it has gotten so far. If any of you feel like spreading the word and helping us in realizing this by posting something on reddit etc. we would greatly appreciate it!

We are a big team, many have left their jobs to do this based on a conviction that the industry deserves more. Even though we have many investors that want in we are saying no and doing this organically to stay independent. It is tough and a race against time - is it enough? we will see in the coming 30 days.

 

[Kmpkt]

What I would personally recommend doing (although it might be too late now given your timeframe seems somewhat set) is get your case out to one or two of the bigger vloggers like Linus Tech Tips, Hardware Canucks, Bitwit or Paul's Hardware. At this time of year (pre-Computex) they are all obviously starved for content and would likely welcome something as unique as your case to review (I can't even believe some of this shit Linus has been putting out this month to keep the content flow going. Oh my God). Linus did two videos on the DAN A4-SFX which got 1.8 million and 400K views respectively. Their video on the Sentry got 1.5 million views while the Hardware Canucks video on the case got 400K views. If you look at the pent up demand for the DAN A4-SFX, it's massive. I personally sold my two for 500 and 550 USD each (not trying to scalp, just got S4 minis while I was waiting for the DAN cases).

The flip side of the A4 and Sentry cases would be the Indiegogo launch for the !nverse case by Rational Bananas. Let me preface this by saying I am not trying to pick on Esplin, just using their launch as an example. If you look at the case it is beautifully designed, fills a similar niche to the Sentry and has a significantly lower price point (129-149 USD vs. 195 USD). That being said, its funding goal was only half met at 40K while the Sentry sold over 220K in units and exceeded its funding goal by 11 times. What seems like the obvious problem to me with their marketing strategy is they did some early stage community engagement on the case then one day they were like "HEY GUYS CASE ON KICKSTARTER" with no lead up or pre-warning. They also released their campaign within three weeks or so of the Sentry which probably eroded their market significantly.

 

[Mackan]

Hm, to be honest, you could definitely benefit from more exposure. Kickstarter campaigns can fail due to not enough people knowing about it. Others (most notably Ncase and A4) developed their cases on the forums over years, and even had exposure on youtube by famous reviewers (as pointed out by kmpkt). Granted, I think no one wants to wait years for a product, but they built up their crowd. They also were 1 or 2 guys, that didn't have to make profit, which I think you must do in the longer run since you are a dedicated team.

However, with that said, quality often speaks for itself, and I am sure some of us recognize that a quality product like your case doesn't come around often, and will try to grab one on kickstarter immediately. Hopefully it is enough to get your company going. Given that you can also deliver in 3-4 months (if I recall correctly), is also a big plus in my opinion.

 

[Mackan]

What I would personally recommend doing (although it might be too late now given your timeframe seems somewhat set) is get your case out to one or two of the bigger vloggers like Linus Tech Tips, Hardware Canucks, Bitwit or Paul's Hardware.

Perhaps too late to send out a prototype to them, but they could try to get some youtube reviewers to mention the kickstarter. Some of them do weekly shows, where they mention these kind of projects. I would drop some of them an email, and hope they are sober enough to say something nice about it.

 

[PaChalski]

Hm, to be honest, you could definitely benefit from more exposure. Kickstarter campaigns can fail due to not enough people knowing about it. Others (most notably Ncase and A4) developed their cases on the forums over years, and even had exposure on youtube by famous reviewers (as pointed out by kmpkt). Granted, I think no one wants to wait years for a product, but they built up their crowd. They also were 1 or 2 guys, that didn't have to make profit, which I think you must do in the longer run since you are a dedicated team.

However, with that said, quality often speaks for itself, and I am sure some of us recognize that a quality product like your case doesn't come around often, and will try to grab one on kickstarter immediately. Hopefully it is enough to get your company going. Given that you can also deliver in 3-4 months (if I recall correctly), is also a big plus in my opinion.

Honestly, this would defiantly be a safer way to go. The PC community is very specific, it is well informed, it has loads of knowledge within the area and related. The problem is that they know better than most what they are buying and make sure they do, the upside is that they understand and recognize details others might miss. We don't need a huge number of backers to move to the next phase, if this works we will know that the group of individuals that's supporting us are doing so based on insight rather than hype. This will be a more valuable relationship for everyone involved and hopefully lead to a better product now and in the future! Also, time to market is significant in this specific niche.

If this doesn't work we will have to take a slower route in order to realize this but then other threats become apparent.

We will contact reviewers and see what they can do.

 

[Nikko]

I would really like to see a hands on video of the case.

 

[PaChalski]

We are live in 2h!

Pledge levels:

Super Early Birds GHOST S1 XS: 1 650 SEK ($180)
Early Birds GHOST S1 XS: 1 750 SEK ($195)
Kickstarter Special GHOST S1 XS: 2 000 SEK ($220)
Kickstarter Special GHOST S1 S, M or L: 2 200 SEK ($245)

Will post a link to the campaign once we are live here as well.

 

[Ceros_X]

Good luck!

 

[PaChalski]

We are live, link to campaign:

 

[Ceros_X]

Damn, that was a quick jump to 8% - nice!

 

[Fenderman]

45 usd shipping inside Europe, what is going on? Thats extremely high....

 

[fminus]

Why is the goal 280K USD?