It was this one with the premium silver wire option: ATX 3.0 PCIe 5.0 600W 12VHPWR 16 Pin to 16 Pin PCIE Gen 5 Power Cable - modDIY.com
Production Z13 14.6L One-piece molded aluminum housing Powerful compatibility
- Thread starter COOJ
- Start date
I ordered March 17, and it has not been shipped yet. No communication from Cooj. It's a bit frustrating, but I am trying to exercise a fraction of the patience of @DASBOOT . Waiting wouldn't be half as bad if there was some indication of when it would actually ship.
Yes, indeed.
I think Ncase M1EVO is supposed to be released either in April or May, as said in the product page. Now, it is end of April and so it is likely to be a May release now.
Not sure about Dan C4-SFX. If I buy, I will have to use Newegg. The Dan's store there has no listing of the C4 yet.
And I understand the next batch of Acat x2 'should' come in June.
Just contacted the seller of Z13 as he once said Z13s will be ready for shipment last week. So, naturally I expect him to tell me that units are ready for sale now as of today.
Unfortunately, he told me the units are still not ready as there is a factory delay due to 1st May holiday 'week'. And, units should be ready after the holidays.
I accept this explanation (or excuse, as 1st of May holiday 'golden week' is well known ahead of time and is not an unexpected event) and so, perhaps, units will be ready for sale shipment by next week (ie 8th May).
As 1st of May holiday 'golden week' is a national event in China, I would think this will also affect NCase M1EVO as well.
Maybe, M1EVO will be ready for sale some time this month?
Unfortunately, he told me the units are still not ready as there is a factory delay due to 1st May holiday 'week'. And, units should be ready after the holidays.
I accept this explanation (or excuse, as 1st of May holiday 'golden week' is well known ahead of time and is not an unexpected event) and so, perhaps, units will be ready for sale shipment by next week (ie 8th May).
As 1st of May holiday 'golden week' is a national event in China, I would think this will also affect NCase M1EVO as well.
Maybe, M1EVO will be ready for sale some time this month?
Today is 11th May and the Z13 is still not ready for shipment.
I contact the seller in Taobao/QQ and he does not even reply!
Frankly, this is not acceptable. When date(s) are promised but keeps on 'delaying' (due to various reasons which are foreseeable) for more than once, this is lousy and bad sales tactics but good in tarnishing a good professional image.
Just be frank and transparent upfront with the customers. Come on!
Edit: I must add that in the COOJ Taobao store, it specifically says the chassis is 'in stock' and will be shipped out within 48 hours after receiving payment.
I contact the seller in Taobao/QQ and he does not even reply!
Frankly, this is not acceptable. When date(s) are promised but keeps on 'delaying' (due to various reasons which are foreseeable) for more than once, this is lousy and bad sales tactics but good in tarnishing a good professional image.
Just be frank and transparent upfront with the customers. Come on!
Edit: I must add that in the COOJ Taobao store, it specifically says the chassis is 'in stock' and will be shipped out within 48 hours after receiving payment.
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Mine has been shipped and arrived locally. But I have not yet picked it up due to my being sick.
Hopefully sometime this week I will be able to.
I will give a report in due course. But do not expect too soon as I have lots of errands that I must do.
But it will be asap.
Finally picked up the package today. I could have picked it up 9 days ago but, due to my sickness, I was confined at home.
The package is now safely in my hands now. Cannot wait to open it up, hopefully sometime tomorrow.
Stay tuned!
The package is now safely in my hands now. Cannot wait to open it up, hopefully sometime tomorrow.
Stay tuned!
I look forward to your thoughts on this case, been on my radar and really curious on build quality and overall impressions.
OK. I am going to break down my 'box opening' into a couple part.
The 1st part will focus primarily on the ordering, delivery, and packaging. I need to do this quick as I need to ascertain that no part is missing or damaged during the transit.
The 2nd part will focus more on the case itself, material quality, construction quality, workmanship...etc.
Part 1 will be the next post. Will be ready in an hour, with some pics.
The 1st part will focus primarily on the ordering, delivery, and packaging. I need to do this quick as I need to ascertain that no part is missing or damaged during the transit.
The 2nd part will focus more on the case itself, material quality, construction quality, workmanship...etc.
Part 1 will be the next post. Will be ready in an hour, with some pics.
'Box-opening' of COOJ Z13 (Part 1)
Ordering:
I ordered via the COOJ's Taobao front (vs their international website: https://cooj.cc/) on early April.
Should have shipped out after 2 days of payment receipt but learned that stock is actually not ready but will be ''soon in 10 days or so''. However, there was the ''1st of May Labour Holiday'' and subsequent attempts to communicate were not responded.
After some more waiting (patience is a virtue), shipment was out on the 2nd week of May and the package arrived Hong Kong on the 18th May.
One benefit is that the shipment is free within China!
Delivery and Packaging:
The package is one 41cm x 24cm x 34cm double walled carton box.
Edit#1 The weight of the entire package carton is 5.95kg.
Opening the top reveals a black thick foam, containing a plastic box of parts and screws and an accessory bracket for mounting an ATX PSU.
Note the four black hard plastic 'cones' to protect the corners of the package.
The parts box has everything needed, including a screw driver.
Beneath the thick black foam are the User Manual and two washable dust filters (for top and bottom of the case).
Quite high quality.
I found thick rubber bubble wrap all around the waist of the carton.
Z13 sits inside a silky smooth bag.
At the bottom of the carton is the same protective foam setup, including the 4 hard plastic corners.
Summary:
I am pleased by the high level of protection of the packaging. My worst fear is the case being damaged due to rough handling by the courier. Even a slight scratch will be very disappointing. Claiming insurance or returning the case (if possible, IDK) just brings in a lot of aggravation instead of having pure joy of meeting a dream case.
My very brief inspection of the case shows perfection. The one-piece aluminum outer body demonstrates CNC quality perfectly. (I will comment more when I do the Part 2 review some time later. My body is still weak and needs more rest for recovery from Covid. You can tell some of the pics are a little blurry because of my hands not steady enough!).
PS
If you cannot see a pic in Imgur, you can click the pic and it will bring you to the pic address.
Near the end of the address, you will see a # sign followed by a series of numbers/letters. Delete that string, beginning and including the # sign. Then, you should see the pic. Somehow, that string was attached mysteriously, preventing the pic to be shown.
Ordering:
I ordered via the COOJ's Taobao front (vs their international website: https://cooj.cc/) on early April.
Should have shipped out after 2 days of payment receipt but learned that stock is actually not ready but will be ''soon in 10 days or so''. However, there was the ''1st of May Labour Holiday'' and subsequent attempts to communicate were not responded.
After some more waiting (patience is a virtue), shipment was out on the 2nd week of May and the package arrived Hong Kong on the 18th May.
One benefit is that the shipment is free within China!
Delivery and Packaging:
The package is one 41cm x 24cm x 34cm double walled carton box.
Edit#1 The weight of the entire package carton is 5.95kg.
Opening the top reveals a black thick foam, containing a plastic box of parts and screws and an accessory bracket for mounting an ATX PSU.
Note the four black hard plastic 'cones' to protect the corners of the package.
The parts box has everything needed, including a screw driver.
Beneath the thick black foam are the User Manual and two washable dust filters (for top and bottom of the case).
Quite high quality.
I found thick rubber bubble wrap all around the waist of the carton.
Z13 sits inside a silky smooth bag.
At the bottom of the carton is the same protective foam setup, including the 4 hard plastic corners.
Summary:
I am pleased by the high level of protection of the packaging. My worst fear is the case being damaged due to rough handling by the courier. Even a slight scratch will be very disappointing. Claiming insurance or returning the case (if possible, IDK) just brings in a lot of aggravation instead of having pure joy of meeting a dream case.
My very brief inspection of the case shows perfection. The one-piece aluminum outer body demonstrates CNC quality perfectly. (I will comment more when I do the Part 2 review some time later. My body is still weak and needs more rest for recovery from Covid. You can tell some of the pics are a little blurry because of my hands not steady enough!).
PS
If you cannot see a pic in Imgur, you can click the pic and it will bring you to the pic address.
Near the end of the address, you will see a # sign followed by a series of numbers/letters. Delete that string, beginning and including the # sign. Then, you should see the pic. Somehow, that string was attached mysteriously, preventing the pic to be shown.
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OK, today is a hot day (35C ~ 95F) to do serious work but I am determined to write up Part 2.
I need additional energy and so enters this cup of delicious ice cream. This should give me enough motivation to finish the review.
Part 2 should be ready by tonight or tomorrow morning.
PS I contracted the Covid virus last month and, though I am virus free now, I still have severe fatigue. Maybe this is Long Covid? IDK.
I need additional energy and so enters this cup of delicious ice cream. This should give me enough motivation to finish the review.
Part 2 should be ready by tonight or tomorrow morning.
PS I contracted the Covid virus last month and, though I am virus free now, I still have severe fatigue. Maybe this is Long Covid? IDK.
Here is the Part 2 of my box-opening of the Z13. This focus at the material quality and design.
Top cover is a vented plate of CNC Aluminum CNC. It is advertised as 6mm thick and is confirmed by my digital caliper. Quality is very good.
To achieve a screwless exterior appearance of the case, this cover sits on the top and is held in place by 4 pieces of magnet embedded on the cover bottom.
Rear IO is an aluminum CNC one-piece. The spec says it is 13mm thick and is confirmed again by my caliper to be so. No false advertizing here as well. The look and feel are both solid and of high quality.
The case shell is made of 4mm Aluminum. This figure is checked and passed. This is perhaps the main selling point of the Z13. The housing is an one-piece aluminum unit. No screw. Visually very appealing.
Internal frame is a black steel frame of good quality too.
Surface treatment is anodized silver, grey or black. Mine is the grey one as I have too many silver and black cases in the past. It looks very nice and the touch is very smooth.
I think this grey of the shell contrasts well with the top cover in black (whose colour cannot be changed).
Material quality wise, it is impeccable.
All the cables (USB-A, USB-C , power etc) are of good quality.
Both material quality and workmanship are top notch, which meet my expectation and the price is fully justified, IMO. The quality matches and even exceeds the quality of my streacom BC1/Mini Open Benchtables.
Having said all the pros, I need to mention one 'cons'. I would not call it a design flaw but perhaps a 'weak' design. I might be nit-picking but let me explain.
This concerns the power button mechanism.
The lower portion is a spring-loaded button which is attached to the internal frame. It is a little white plastic push button.
The upper portion is the triangular shaped power button at the corner of the top aluminum cover. You press this triangular button to turn on the system. This is not spring-loaded and just rests naturally on the white spring-loaded button below.
The 'weakness' is that the 'travel' of the power button is very small, perhaps 1mm (or 1.5mm max). There is a 'click' which is quite welcome. But the short travel does not generate enough 'feel' to feedback to my finger. To my personal liking, I would prefer the button to have a longer travel. The current design is OK and works, of course. And I admit, this is quite subjective.
May I suggest the designer to improve on this power switch in the next version.
Of course, I have not actually built in this Z13 yet. Actual building will likely reveal some more pros/cons of the case. But until then, this is what I have noted so far.
Future plan:
Z13 is a traditional layout case with GPU at the bottom. I plan to buy one more case (either Ncase M1EVO or Dan C4-SFX, with Ncase FF-01 as a wildcat entry to my list of selection) with inverted layout (ie GPU at case top).
Two largely hardware identical systems will be built and then, the cooling of the 2 layouts. Hopefully I will be able to acquire the 2nd case by year end and begin the build next year.
Top cover is a vented plate of CNC Aluminum CNC. It is advertised as 6mm thick and is confirmed by my digital caliper. Quality is very good.
To achieve a screwless exterior appearance of the case, this cover sits on the top and is held in place by 4 pieces of magnet embedded on the cover bottom.
Rear IO is an aluminum CNC one-piece. The spec says it is 13mm thick and is confirmed again by my caliper to be so. No false advertizing here as well. The look and feel are both solid and of high quality.
The case shell is made of 4mm Aluminum. This figure is checked and passed. This is perhaps the main selling point of the Z13. The housing is an one-piece aluminum unit. No screw. Visually very appealing.
Internal frame is a black steel frame of good quality too.
Surface treatment is anodized silver, grey or black. Mine is the grey one as I have too many silver and black cases in the past. It looks very nice and the touch is very smooth.
I think this grey of the shell contrasts well with the top cover in black (whose colour cannot be changed).
Material quality wise, it is impeccable.
All the cables (USB-A, USB-C , power etc) are of good quality.
Both material quality and workmanship are top notch, which meet my expectation and the price is fully justified, IMO. The quality matches and even exceeds the quality of my streacom BC1/Mini Open Benchtables.
Having said all the pros, I need to mention one 'cons'. I would not call it a design flaw but perhaps a 'weak' design. I might be nit-picking but let me explain.
This concerns the power button mechanism.
The lower portion is a spring-loaded button which is attached to the internal frame. It is a little white plastic push button.
The upper portion is the triangular shaped power button at the corner of the top aluminum cover. You press this triangular button to turn on the system. This is not spring-loaded and just rests naturally on the white spring-loaded button below.
The 'weakness' is that the 'travel' of the power button is very small, perhaps 1mm (or 1.5mm max). There is a 'click' which is quite welcome. But the short travel does not generate enough 'feel' to feedback to my finger. To my personal liking, I would prefer the button to have a longer travel. The current design is OK and works, of course. And I admit, this is quite subjective.
May I suggest the designer to improve on this power switch in the next version.
Of course, I have not actually built in this Z13 yet. Actual building will likely reveal some more pros/cons of the case. But until then, this is what I have noted so far.
Future plan:
Z13 is a traditional layout case with GPU at the bottom. I plan to buy one more case (either Ncase M1EVO or Dan C4-SFX, with Ncase FF-01 as a wildcat entry to my list of selection) with inverted layout (ie GPU at case top).
Two largely hardware identical systems will be built and then, the cooling of the 2 layouts. Hopefully I will be able to acquire the 2nd case by year end and begin the build next year.
I received my case today, and mostly agree with the assessment of @tinyitx . The case is well built, the machining is very good in most spots. While the exterior is flawless, I noticed that the finish is not quite as nice on the interior bends of the recessed IO (I might add some pics on the weekend) and there are some minor burrs on the inside of the shell from machining the side air holes. The included screws and the connectors for the USB ports are a little beat up, but in no way do I expect their functionality to be impaired.
I'll be building either this weekend or next - some photos will follow.
Overall I am happy with the case and think it is acceptable value. That being said, if I has been following/aware of the Dan C4-SFX development I probably would have gone with that.
I'll be building either this weekend or next - some photos will follow.
Overall I am happy with the case and think it is acceptable value. That being said, if I has been following/aware of the Dan C4-SFX development I probably would have gone with that.
I admit that I did not look carefully enough for the interior of the shell as that part is not going to be exposed visually. Maybe I should and will in the near future as the case is now packed up in storage and not easily accessed.
If you have gone with the C4-SFX route, I am not sure if you would have a case on hand right now. As you must know by now, the first batch is already sold out. Even pre-ordering is not 100% guarantee. You will have to wait until early 2024 for the v2 to start your build. 9 more months to wait.
One major superiority of the Z13 is its screwless and free-of-joint-line exterior look of the 1-piece shell. This appearance is visually very appealing, projecting a solid and high quality impression. This is a major reason why I picked it over the Acat x2.
I look forward to your build.
90x25 fan should fit at the rear without problem when using SilverSoul 135.
Watch this video, beginning at 4:28, where a Noctua NF-A9(x25) Chromax is fitted with SS135 installed.
I used a Loki 750w with the PSU bracket mounted in the top position (can’t use a 120x15mm above if doing this).
The 8 pin was 50cm and routed around the PSU to the front of the chassis (where the ssd would go) and then up and around (this is better than going direct imo as the 24 pin is in the way)
The 24 pin is 20cm and just reaches, may be able to get away with 15cm if using SFX but 15cm would not have reached with my setup.
the GPU is 20cm going straight from the PSU to the GFX or 25cm if wrapping underneath
This is using an Asus B650e-i mobo.
The 8 pin was 50cm and routed around the PSU to the front of the chassis (where the ssd would go) and then up and around (this is better than going direct imo as the 24 pin is in the way)
The 24 pin is 20cm and just reaches, may be able to get away with 15cm if using SFX but 15cm would not have reached with my setup.
the GPU is 20cm going straight from the PSU to the GFX or 25cm if wrapping underneath
This is using an Asus B650e-i mobo.
Finally managed to finish my build, after a long wait for some parts from AliExpress (blind threaded standoffs... they're very cool I highly recommend getting some to mount your fans). I'm in the process of undervolting the GPU and CPU so I will post temps over the coming weeks when I have the chance to work on it a bit more. If there are any specific benchmarks you'd like to see let me know. So far I have the GPU peak consumption at 220W down from 310W, with much more modest improvements with the CPU (-20W), I'm still learning how to use ThrottleStop though.
The build was really fun, I have no real complaints about the design. I wish the ribbon cables for the front IO were more flexible to allow for easier routing, but that's about it. In general I had a bit of difficulty with routing the PSU cables and the AIO tubing. Not a problem with the case design though. I had to be very careful that the 24-pin and the 3x8 12VHPWR cables did not interfere with the exposed 4080 FE fan. I think right now it only has a couple mm of clearance... I should have ordered a longer 12VHPWR cable, it basically has to go straight from the PSU to the GPU, and could have had better routing if it was 5 cm longer (keep in mind I am using a slim 180 degree adapter). But it reaches, and doesn't seem to put undue stress on any of the connections.
I made a rookie mistake and did not connect the antenna to the motherboard and wondered for over an hour why my mouse and keyboard wouldn't work
Happy to answer any questions if I can.
Cheers,
Specs for the computer are as follows:
The build was really fun, I have no real complaints about the design. I wish the ribbon cables for the front IO were more flexible to allow for easier routing, but that's about it. In general I had a bit of difficulty with routing the PSU cables and the AIO tubing. Not a problem with the case design though. I had to be very careful that the 24-pin and the 3x8 12VHPWR cables did not interfere with the exposed 4080 FE fan. I think right now it only has a couple mm of clearance... I should have ordered a longer 12VHPWR cable, it basically has to go straight from the PSU to the GPU, and could have had better routing if it was 5 cm longer (keep in mind I am using a slim 180 degree adapter). But it reaches, and doesn't seem to put undue stress on any of the connections.
I made a rookie mistake and did not connect the antenna to the motherboard and wondered for over an hour why my mouse and keyboard wouldn't work
Happy to answer any questions if I can.
Cheers,
Specs for the computer are as follows:
- Motherboard: Asus ROG STRIX Z690-I
- CPU: Intel i5-13600k
- CPU Cooler: Phanteks Glacier One 240 mm AIO Gen 2
- CPU Cooler Fans: Noctua A12x25 (side intake) x2
- Memory: G.Skill Trident Z5 2x32GB DDR5
- Storage: SK Hynix P41 2TB NVMe, Samsung 980 PRO 1TB NVMe
- GPU: NVIDIA RTX 4080 FE
- PSU: Corsair SF750
- Case Fans: Noctua A9 (rear intake), Noctua A12x15 (top exhaust) x2
- Cables: Cablemod 24-pin ATX (200 mm), 8-pin EPS (500 mm), 3x8 12VHPWR (15 mm)
- Accessories: Moddiy 180 degree 12VHPWR adapter, SFF Noir Shadowlink Antenna, braided 120V power cord
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