Stalled Z-CASE P50 v1.1: Innovative console-style SFF PC case

[BernardoZ]

Just a suggestion, but I think if you modified the Flex ATX mounting cage to take either a Flex ATX power supply or a pair of HDPlex 160W/300W AC-DC units you'd have a significantly more appealing unit. I was amongst the first to get my hands on the FSP 500W 80-Plus gold close to three years ago (after pretending I ran a serious PC development company to get a sample lol). It was so loud that I ended up just giving it away to iFreilicht who was super into Flex ATX at the time. Additionally I wouldn't even consider myself a sound Nazi like a lot of people here.

Along these same lines, I think one of the things you perhaps haven't considered in your design is that while the big gap in the front will be great for letting air in, it will also be awesome at letting noise out. I foresee the sound from the 40mm fan channeling through the Flex chassis and puking out right where the glass and metal are furthest apart. If you're using the case correctly with the glass facing you so you can see your 1500 dollar GTX 1070, odds are the fan noise will be reaching your ears virtually unobstructed.

I think the other thing to consider is allowing for a push/pull fan configuration whereby you can intake air with a 60mm fan in the bottom right corner and exhaust out the top, again using 60mm fans. The advantage here would be significant airflow across the motherboard and particularly the area around the heatsink. I think if you had this implemented properly you could have a max supported cooler height of 40ish mm and keep your tempered glass side panel intact.

Hey Craig, great seeing you here! First, thanks again for all your private feedback before reveal
To be honest, I never had a Flex-ATX before, so I didn't know it was so loud lol.
I wonder how those custom psus from Geeek will end up like, we will order one of them to test if this is a possible solution (read my last post before this). Adding HDPLEX as an option ( but not the only option) is indeed a possibility we are considering, as it would easily fit in the current layout, and we would just have to add extra screw holes for it. So we may test this, thanks for the advice.
About the bottom right fans you suggested, I'm not really sure it would do much for the whole airflow, as its air intake would be all sucked by the GPU. It might be good for gpu temps, but maybe not much for cpu. Also, we would have to enlarge the case a bit to make them fit there.
I don't know why, but since the start I put in my head that the best option is passive air intake and active outtake. Maybe its just the experience I had before with other types of air-cooled enclosures lol.
Cheers!

 

[DocH]

This definitely has caught my attention I will keep an eye on it.

 

[Mortis Angelus]

For last, orange was actually our 4th color choice after the 3 shown on the pics, so consider it a possibility! I'm not really sure about white, because I was looking at Zaber Sentry updates, and he claims it's really hard to get a perfect white finishing, so we'll see.

Sorry for the long post, hope all your doubts are clarified. Any other questions, feel free to ask.
PS: we might have an exciting update in a few days, so keep an eye
Cheers!

Thanks for a thorough reply. Will be really exciting to see how this ends up. 250 dollar price sounds good on paper, but considering I live in Sweden, the price will be close to a PC-O5 before I would have it here with shipping and custom fees.

Regarding the color, remember there is orange (i.e. dull orange) and then there is orange (https://colorshiftpearls.com/shop/candy-pearls-metallic-pigment/bright-orange-candy-pearl-paint/)
Xp

But I know PC community wants a matt color finish. I just love orange candy pearl.

 

[BernardoZ]

This definitely has caught my attention I will keep an eye on it.

Hey DocH, I'm really glad that you liked it! Thanks for the post, we have some exciting news in a few days. Cheers

Thanks for a thorough reply. Will be really exciting to see how this ends up. 250 dollar price sounds good on paper, but considering I live in Sweden, the price will be close to a PC-O5 before I would have it here with shipping and custom fees.

Regarding the color, remember there is orange (i.e. dull orange) and then there is orange (https://colorshiftpearls.com/shop/candy-pearls-metallic-pigment/bright-orange-candy-pearl-paint/)
Xp

But I know PC community wants a matt color finish. I just love orange candy pearl.

Hi Mortis.
Unfortunately, i don't think the price will get much lower than 250$. Me being from Brazil and Kevin from China, we will have to create a US-based company and bank account to be eligible for Kickstarter. What this means is that we will end up having to pay US taxes, which can get up to 30%. But the good news is that, if we do very good on the crowdfunding campaign, we will have the "power" to make some sweet deals with a mail delivery company, so prices might be a bit lower than usual. Remember we are planning to ship the cases from the US.
About the color finishing, thanks for adressing that. I also love that orange candy pearl, just because it reminds a luxury sports car paint, so I will study the possibility!
Cheers

 

[HeroXLazer]

I like it a lot, it's a smaller, cooler version of Lian Li's case.

 

[BernardoZ]

I like it a lot, it's a smaller, cooler version of Lian Li's case.

Hi! Thanks bro, I apreciate the good feedback. Lian Li was indeed one of the many inspirations.
Cheers

 

[BernardoZ]

Hello guys, I have great news!

First of all, the prototypes we ordered last month got ready yesterday, and they look awesome! We still have to mount them, so you will have to wait a few days to see the pics.

Second, I spent the whole day talking to some big companies (Noctua and Cryorig mainly), and we are getting free samples of some hardware to test in the prototype. For now, we will have: Cryorig C7; Noctua NH-L9i, NH-L9a, NH-L9x65 and NF-A6x25. We will also try getting other products in the next weeks, like other CPU Coolers and some Flex-ATX psus.

Third, I've been thinking a lot on all the problems and suggestions you guys have given, and I already got a solution for most of them! I will share it with you in a few weeks too.

Last, for the anxious people, I would like to leave here a 5k render pic and a video preview of the case. I know you guys value much more prototype stuff, but i thought this would be a good tease while we get it ready.

5k render pic:

Video preview (youtube compression kind of screwed the quality, but it's still good enough in 1080p):

So I'm pretty glad everything is going as planned. Keep an eye on this thread, we will show some prototype pics in a few days!

Cheers

 

[HeroXLazer]

Hello guys, I have great news!

First of all, the prototypes we ordered last month got ready yesterday, and they look awesome! We still have to mount them, so you will have to wait a few days to see the pics.

Second, I spent the whole day talking to some big companies (Noctua and Cryorig mainly), and we are getting free samples of some hardware to test in the prototype. For now, we will have: Cryorig C7; Noctua NH-L9i, NH-L9a, NH-L9x65 and NF-A6x25. We will also try getting other products in the next weeks, like other CPU Coolers and some Flex-ATX psus.

Third, I've been thinking a lot on all the problems and suggestions you guys have given, and I already got a solution for most of them! I will share it with you in a few weeks too.

Last, for the anxious people, I would like to leave here a 5k render pic and a video preview of the case. I know you guys value much more prototype stuff, but i thought this would be a good tease while we get it ready.

5k render pic:

Video preview (youtube compression kind of screwed the quality, but it's still good enough in 1080p):

So I'm pretty glad everything is going as planned. Keep an eye on this thread, we will show some prototype pics in a few days!

Cheers

That's even cooler now.

 

[BernardoZ]

Th

That's even cooler now.

Thanks for the support bro

 

[BeerNsoup]

This is really nice! I'd love to see a dark blue colour too . Looking forward to thermals from the prototype, especially since you'll have a decent collection to test in it!

 

[BernardoZ]

This is really nice! I'd love to see a dark blue colour too . Looking forward to thermals from the prototype, especially since you'll have a decent collection to test in it!

Hi! Im glad u liked the case dude, thanks a lot.
Ok, we will see if the prototype manufacture can do blue too.
Speaking on thermals, what other CPU Coolers (<50mm height) should i get for the tests? The only ones that come in my mind now are the AR05, LP53 and CNPS2X. Any other good performance ones i should get?
Cheers

 

[eiselx86]

The design is looking great with functionality in mind. This case in industrial/space gray would be perfect and easy to decorate with.

For testing temps you should establish a baseline with Intel stock cooler compared to Noctua/cryorig/lp53 and other common LP coolers. It gives the potential buyer a good understanding of the product capability.

Hope your ideas become reality, GL

 

[BernardoZ]

The design is looking great with functionality in mind. This case in industrial/space gray would be perfect and easy to decorate with.

For testing temps you should establish a baseline with Intel stock cooler compared to Noctua/cryorig/lp53 and other common LP coolers. It gives the potential buyer a good understanding of the product capability.

Hope your ideas become reality, GL

Hey bro, I really apreciate the good feedback!
I also think the space gray/silver will look beautiful, hope my manufacture can do a good color finishing.
About the temp tests, it's a must do for us, so don't worry. We won't sell the cases before making sure temps will be ok. Thanks for the tips on what cpu coolers i should test.
Cheers

 

[Mortis Angelus]

@BernardoZ Sorry if I spam this thread somewhat, but I realized now that I have missed a few details in the pics, which raises these questions and feedback:

1) Will you enable wall-mounting? I would love to hang a case like this on the wall. Please make this a thing! **Puppy_eyes**

2) Front IO is a bit sparse. I would love to see front headphone and mic inputs and USB-C port. Maybe switch one Type-A to Type-C. Icing on the cake would be a full-size SD-card reader furthest to the back edge, or beneath USB-ports.

Something like this:

 

[BernardoZ]

@BernardoZ Sorry if I spam this thread somewhat, but I realized now that I have missed a few details in the pics, which raises these questions and feedback:

1) Will you enable wall-mounting? I would love to hang a case like this on the wall. Please make this a thing! **Puppy_eyes**

2) Front IO is a bit sparse. I would love to see front headphone and mic inputs and USB-C port. Maybe switch one Type-A to Type-C. Icing on the cake would be a full-size SD-card reader furthest to the back edge, or beneath USB-ports.

Something like this:

Hi Mortis! Don't worry man, all suggestions/feedback are welcome
Actually, I'm glad you mentioned those features, cause we thought about both possibilities during the design. So here is the thing:
Both addons are possible. If you check the "POSITIONS" pic, I mentioned a plan of doing a VESA mount for the case, which would also work as a wall mount. We also thought about doing a Custom Front IO (Kevin already knows someone from China who can do this for us), so we are studying.
BUT, here is the problem. Both things would add lots of cost and time for us before the crowdfunding campaign, which we don't know if we can afford right now. So I thought about a clever solution to add new features like those on the case. That would be setting "goals" on the campaign. For example:
- If sell more than 200 cases: make a VESA/wall mount;
- If sell more than 400 cases: make a Custom Front IO;
- If sell more than 600 cases: add other colour options;
- If sell more than 800 cases: include a hard-plastic transport case for free;
etc

This is just an example of a way we could add lots of improvements on the case, without spending much time and money before the campaign. What do you think of the idea?
Cheers

 

[Marwan]

I like the design language of your casing, its neat.

 

[BernardoZ]

I like the design language of your casing, its neat.

Thanks Marwan!
I'm still a newbie on graphic design, but I'm trying to improve slowly.
Glad u liked it, we are working hard on this.
Cheers

 

[Marwan]

I have to ask, at a volume of, 7.9L, you have ample amount of space to consider sfx power supply and an AIO. Why the flex psu? I read other posts that you are considering an update.

 

[BernardoZ]

I have to ask, at a volume of, 7.9L, you have ample amount of space to consider sfx power supply and an AIO. Why the flex psu? I read other posts that you are considering an update.

Hey Marwan. I will take this reply as an opportunity to elucidate some important things. We gave lots of thought on the design, so I will try to explain it. Here comes a long post, read all if you are interested:

First, since the start, we tried to do something unique, and not just a Sentry with flipped gpu and an acrylic side panel. With that in mind, we decided prioritizing its looks and quality, and use a tempered-glass side panel, something very few people in SFF have tried. The tempered-glass is actually the main thing that is making this a challenge to us, because you can't really do vent holes on it (you can, but it end up looking a lot worse, and its complicate). Afterall, if we had chosen an acrylic side panel, things would be MUCH easier and guaranteed (we wouldn't need the front gap hole, airflow would be 100% fine because of the vent holes, and we could easily use SFX as the psu option).

Let me try to explain a bit more. Since the tempered-glass has no vent holes, all the air intake for the hardware comes from the big front gap. If we changed the psu to SFX, it would certainly fit, but than come 2 problems: being 2,5cm taller than Flex, it would block the front gap, leaving no air intake for the CPU; and also, if there was any space left on the gap, the SFX fan (if used upwards) would suck all the air coming in on that spot, leaving none for the CPU.
We also considered using HDPLEX, but that only goes up to 400w, not allowing people to install the best hardware (i7 + 1080ti or Ryzen7 + Vega64, for example, probably woudn't be safe).
We know Flex can get very loud, and we are currently working on a solution for it (we will probably end up doing something similar to Geeek's custom psus)

About AIO, we have also considered elarging the case a bit to give support to a double or triple 60mm radiator (those are 45mm thick + the thickness of the fan, so it woudn't fit on the current design). BUT, those radiators need a custom looping, which I think 90% of the buyers won't care doing. Because of that, it might be a bad compromise adding support for AIO, since very few people may try it.

In conclusion, we know we will have lots of challenges on this project (mainly because of the "flat" tempered-glass), and that's the beauty of it. But I can guarantee you one thing: we won't sell it before doing lots of extensive tests, and making sure we have a solid and safe design. We know we might have chosen a hard route, but if it works, I think this will be indeed a unique case. Just time will tell.

Hope most things are cleared. If you have any other question/feedback, don't hesitate to post more. Cheers!

 

[Marwan]

Hmmm ... OK, thanks for the explanation.