Hey good people of the SFF community!
A long time lurker, first time poster here. And with this first post of mine i would like to introduce you to my hearts creation: HUMBLE!
HUMBLE is yet another take on the SFF case genre as a whole but something i have not seen in other cases yet.
And that is the freedom to customize, modify or recolor your case without having to disassemble the hardware or dramatically change/modify one or more of the case's vital parts to the way where is no turning back.
This has birthed an idea. An idea with the smallest PC case possible for mini ITX hardware, without using extension cables for graphics cards or special power supplies, but still having the option to mod the hell out of it if i wanted to. Just to have an idea the final product measures 160x207x230 millimeters with 6.6-litre inner capacity.
Now let me share with you briefly the work and design process i have gone trough in the past few years to be able to present you HUMBLE.
For years i have been looking and searching, and this forum was one of the best places to get ideas and further develop an addiction to ITX PCs. Yet when i started my case design it was only for myself and never thought i would open to the world with my idea.
But i figured that i must not be the only person on this planet who have not found the perfect case for herself/himself, so here we are!
The design process itself started something like 3-4 years ago. I used SketchUp as it was more then enough for the complexity of the case. Yes, i wanted it to be as simple as possible. That means no bends and no inserts. Only sheet material.
For connections i used cube joints, which i have been working with since a long ago. They greatly helped me building different amplifier enclosures in the past so it was a no-brainer to use them in this project. The only backdraw is cost. They are not cheap to manufacture, but they are replaceable if something goes wrong during a modification process. After all none of us likes unreplaceable, ripped screw threads eh?
Anyway these principals allowed me the kind of freedom i needed to create a -semi simple- case that is highly customizable with detachable side panels.
So sheet material it was, but what? The first prototype was made out of plexiglass. The cutting process is laser as cnc routing is not widely available where i live and it's much more expensive. Don't even mention small quantities for protos..
So i made 2 prototypes. One with 2mm thick plexiglass and one with 4mm. I used these cases for almost a year. And they were great but the thinner one was a bit flimsy for my taste and the thicker one was too thick. And both of them had a bend on the side panels as they were not rigid enough to give a smooth connection.
Besides these visual/structural defects the price is what made this a no-go. It was horrendous to have them lasercut.
After a small search i have found that even stainless steel sheets were cheaper then plexiglass where i live. From this forward plexiglass was forgotten and the only way was stainless steel.
After few design iterations i settled with 2mm thick side panels as they were visually stunning, gave much more rigidity even compared to thicker plexiglass and was widely available.
I looked for a metal manufacturing company who were willing to cut the small quantities i needed and did not charge extra.
So i had my parts, assembled the case and i was satisfied finally. For a while at least.
Stainless is awesome, even without bends the sheets were so strong. But there was a backdraw. It was freaking heavy! The empty case was like 5 kilos and quickly a situation jumped in to my mind where it is not sitting on my desk, rather i want to take it with me to my dudes to play some games together. Oh boy..
What then? I did not want to sacrifice any of the goals i reached at this point but yet i had a new one: to be a bit lighter. So the baseplate which holds the motherboard and the backplate were left stainless steel as these parts were the core elements, the spine of the design.
The only material i knew was widely available, had more the enough rigidity although much weaker than steel but with this it is much lighter as well was aluminum.
A year passed with work, some flat renovation and whatnot. During this time i redesigned the cut outs on the side panels to be fully symmetrical and universal and quickly reached out to the laser cutters to make my parts. I was in love with the design! i wanted it to be my last proto. And so it was.
The case became much lighter although it was still darn rigid assembled. Even without the side panels on it's not wobbly at all. It radiated strength and quality.
The last part to a complete project was finding a suitable finish, but before that the parts had to be sandblasted as the laser cutting leaves an edge which has to disappear before applying anything to the surface.
So after some research i found that powder coating is what i need as it is very durable and available in almost any color and even some degree of textures. I figured the folks would love this. A coloring of your liking! So i reached out to a company who does powder coating and they were more than happy to help me out.
I asked them to coat the cases in the more standard colors for presentation purposes which you can check out on the website: theezdesigns.com
This was in last fall and i was indeed overjoyed with the final products. The only thing left is to create a website so i did.
And now ladies and gentlemen let me invite you to theezdesigns.com where you can read some more technical information about HUMBLE and even check out some shots and make orders if you like.
With questions, orders, anything really please do find me and ask away either here in this forum post, PM, on the site via email, or even on instagram and facebook.
I hope that HUMBLE will reach many like minded SFF enthusiasts as myself.
And please stay tuned as i will just start tinkering with the different accessories in the near future and i also encourage my future buyers to do the same!
I do apologise for my english as it is not my native and of course for the wall of text!
Tom@theezdesigns
!!! EDIT !!!
I managed to find another company to do the metal work with. This brings the total cost down by 40USD, so that is represented in the price as well.
Also, there are a few build logs now uploaded on the site which although are with dated hardware but representative enough to have an idea about clearances and whatnot. There are some mods with plexi side panels and RGB going on so check it out!
And check out our Instagram and Facebook profile too where i try to upload some nice shots every few days! Ryzen build log coming soon as well!
Cheers!
A long time lurker, first time poster here. And with this first post of mine i would like to introduce you to my hearts creation: HUMBLE!
HUMBLE is yet another take on the SFF case genre as a whole but something i have not seen in other cases yet.
And that is the freedom to customize, modify or recolor your case without having to disassemble the hardware or dramatically change/modify one or more of the case's vital parts to the way where is no turning back.
This has birthed an idea. An idea with the smallest PC case possible for mini ITX hardware, without using extension cables for graphics cards or special power supplies, but still having the option to mod the hell out of it if i wanted to. Just to have an idea the final product measures 160x207x230 millimeters with 6.6-litre inner capacity.
Now let me share with you briefly the work and design process i have gone trough in the past few years to be able to present you HUMBLE.
For years i have been looking and searching, and this forum was one of the best places to get ideas and further develop an addiction to ITX PCs. Yet when i started my case design it was only for myself and never thought i would open to the world with my idea.
But i figured that i must not be the only person on this planet who have not found the perfect case for herself/himself, so here we are!
The design process itself started something like 3-4 years ago. I used SketchUp as it was more then enough for the complexity of the case. Yes, i wanted it to be as simple as possible. That means no bends and no inserts. Only sheet material.
For connections i used cube joints, which i have been working with since a long ago. They greatly helped me building different amplifier enclosures in the past so it was a no-brainer to use them in this project. The only backdraw is cost. They are not cheap to manufacture, but they are replaceable if something goes wrong during a modification process. After all none of us likes unreplaceable, ripped screw threads eh?
Anyway these principals allowed me the kind of freedom i needed to create a -semi simple- case that is highly customizable with detachable side panels.
So sheet material it was, but what? The first prototype was made out of plexiglass. The cutting process is laser as cnc routing is not widely available where i live and it's much more expensive. Don't even mention small quantities for protos..
So i made 2 prototypes. One with 2mm thick plexiglass and one with 4mm. I used these cases for almost a year. And they were great but the thinner one was a bit flimsy for my taste and the thicker one was too thick. And both of them had a bend on the side panels as they were not rigid enough to give a smooth connection.
Besides these visual/structural defects the price is what made this a no-go. It was horrendous to have them lasercut.
After a small search i have found that even stainless steel sheets were cheaper then plexiglass where i live. From this forward plexiglass was forgotten and the only way was stainless steel.
After few design iterations i settled with 2mm thick side panels as they were visually stunning, gave much more rigidity even compared to thicker plexiglass and was widely available.
I looked for a metal manufacturing company who were willing to cut the small quantities i needed and did not charge extra.
So i had my parts, assembled the case and i was satisfied finally. For a while at least.
Stainless is awesome, even without bends the sheets were so strong. But there was a backdraw. It was freaking heavy! The empty case was like 5 kilos and quickly a situation jumped in to my mind where it is not sitting on my desk, rather i want to take it with me to my dudes to play some games together. Oh boy..
What then? I did not want to sacrifice any of the goals i reached at this point but yet i had a new one: to be a bit lighter. So the baseplate which holds the motherboard and the backplate were left stainless steel as these parts were the core elements, the spine of the design.
The only material i knew was widely available, had more the enough rigidity although much weaker than steel but with this it is much lighter as well was aluminum.
A year passed with work, some flat renovation and whatnot. During this time i redesigned the cut outs on the side panels to be fully symmetrical and universal and quickly reached out to the laser cutters to make my parts. I was in love with the design! i wanted it to be my last proto. And so it was.
The case became much lighter although it was still darn rigid assembled. Even without the side panels on it's not wobbly at all. It radiated strength and quality.
The last part to a complete project was finding a suitable finish, but before that the parts had to be sandblasted as the laser cutting leaves an edge which has to disappear before applying anything to the surface.
So after some research i found that powder coating is what i need as it is very durable and available in almost any color and even some degree of textures. I figured the folks would love this. A coloring of your liking! So i reached out to a company who does powder coating and they were more than happy to help me out.
I asked them to coat the cases in the more standard colors for presentation purposes which you can check out on the website: theezdesigns.com
This was in last fall and i was indeed overjoyed with the final products. The only thing left is to create a website so i did.
And now ladies and gentlemen let me invite you to theezdesigns.com where you can read some more technical information about HUMBLE and even check out some shots and make orders if you like.
With questions, orders, anything really please do find me and ask away either here in this forum post, PM, on the site via email, or even on instagram and facebook.
I hope that HUMBLE will reach many like minded SFF enthusiasts as myself.
And please stay tuned as i will just start tinkering with the different accessories in the near future and i also encourage my future buyers to do the same!
I do apologise for my english as it is not my native and of course for the wall of text!
Tom@theezdesigns
!!! EDIT !!!
I managed to find another company to do the metal work with. This brings the total cost down by 40USD, so that is represented in the price as well.
Also, there are a few build logs now uploaded on the site which although are with dated hardware but representative enough to have an idea about clearances and whatnot. There are some mods with plexi side panels and RGB going on so check it out!
And check out our Instagram and Facebook profile too where i try to upload some nice shots every few days! Ryzen build log coming soon as well!
Cheers!
After the introduction post it only felt right to share with you an in depth look and some key information about HUMBLE.
The case is now in production and available to order at www.theezdesigns.com
Clearance diagram:
You can get HUMBLE in any color you wish, even differently colored side panels are possible.
With any type of question please ask away either in a post or PM or alternatively you can contact us on Instagram as well or visit the site theezdesigns.com
Cheers!
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