why are these cases $600+? Who would fell for it?

Aluminum cases are always more expensive than cheap sheet metal ones.

I imagine once you saw one side by side with another similar branded one you could tell the differences.
 
LoL honest question? Who is caselabs? One of (probably) the best case manufacturer in the planet. .

All of their cases can be ordered fully customized to fit the needs of the costumer,made with the best available features materials and components. Most of the "innovative" features you see in popular brands as corsair,cooler máster,thermaltake, etc etc are all mostly imitated and sometimes even copied from caselabs. Stackable/reversible/modular/totally interchangeable sides/repositionable bays and a large etc of features comes mostly from caselabs.

Any serious water cooling person always have caselabs as default choice due their flexibility and quality.

About prices idk where you got that 600$+ they have even sub 200$ cases.
 
Happy Hopping said:
but to cut to the chase, does the material Al justify the price?
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They are well designed and well built. I myself would never pay that much for a case, but to each their own. Its like the differece in a ford mustang and a porche, they both go fast but one is a lot cheaper.
 
Happy Hopping said:
but to cut to the chase, does the material Al justify the price?
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The material itself isn't really what's driving up the cost. It's the hand-crafted nature and the quality of the coatings and such. There's virtually no plastic (except the windows and grommets), and there's a huge list of custom mounts and pieces. Nothing is stamped sheet metal or plastic, it's all thick cut and bent sheets of aluminum.
 
you can get a case for 100+ bucks and it'll be fine.

Or you can get a case like these and never want to replace it in your life.

Take your pick.
 
trentchau said:
How another person spends their money is how they spend it. I have a $1000 cpu and I play a video game on it built on the unreal 3 engine. I'm not one to judge what people spend their money on.
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Why would anybody need a $1000 cpu?!

That INWIN case is pretty dam sweet! I would not pay for what they want. The Case Lab ones are very nice and sleek, but since I don't do custom water cooling, it would not be worth the $$.
 
Not all cases are equal. As stated, these are heavy duty cases that will last your life time, they are all metal and there are a number of CM and the like cases that are close to the same price range but filled with plastic and cheap feel. You are also talking about the top of the line side by side case with pedestal at $600+, maybe I should post some photos to put that case you are talking about into perspective....

Cxnacydh.jpg


20ud0yah.jpg
 
CaseLabs cases are amazing. I'll probably never buy another case for my main rig, unless I happen to want to switch form factors. If I do, it'll be another CaseLabs model.
 
Happy Hopping said:
http://www.caselabs-store.com/?gclid=CNKrs6v78tICFUO4wAodVGYMfg

what makes these cases at $600? are they crazy?

who is case labs?
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I think what most people are getting at here, is that what you are paying for is the customization. Most of the cheaper PC cases are all mass produced, and don't come with a lot of options to adjust the case. Case labs allows you to customize the layout of your case, and the price is based on being able to produce whatever customized case you request. I almost got a Case Labs case in the past for a heavy watercooling design I did, but ended up with a Mountain Mods case instead (Which I later sold). I don't do the OC competitions anymore, so I haven't needed a heavy duty custom case in a while, but there are certainly reasons why people would shell out some money for them.

My previous build:
blackbox.png
 
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to be fair, I have no objection to mass production of anything, if you mass produce Ferrari, and the car price dropped to $60K, count me in
 
Happy Hopping said:
but to cut to the chase, does the material Al justify the price?
Click to expand...

Small volume and Al together kind of does. They have cases closer to $200 as well. I like the Bullet BH4 at $189. Still too much for me though.

But I hope they are successful. The more players, in more niches, the better.
 
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Happy Hopping said:
but to cut to the chase, does the material Al justify the price?
Click to expand...
Does aluminum justify that price? No.
The engineering, design and quality work that went into it, however, does.

You can pick up a 50$ case if that's your bag, and be happy.
If you want a nicer case, then you're gonna have to pay for that, though.

Last summer/fall I built two computers:

One in a Phanteks Enthoo Evolv for 200ish bucks. (Steel and Glass, no aluminum)
One in a Coolermaster mATX case that I bought for 33$. (All steel)

Guess which one was more enjoyable to do all the work inside of?
 
Happy Hopping said:
to be fair, I have no objection to mass production of anything, if you mass produce Ferrari, and the car price dropped to $60K, count me in
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It's not possible to mass produce something that is completely custom. That is the price you pay. When you want a case tailored to your exact needs, you pay price for that. Just like getting tailored clothes.
 
BlueFireIce said:
Not all cases are equal. As stated, these are heavy duty cases that will last your life time, they are all metal and there are a number of CM and the like cases that are close to the same price range but filled with plastic and cheap feel. You are also talking about the top of the line side by side case with pedestal at $600+, maybe I should post some photos to put that case you are talking about into perspective....
Click to expand...

I knew those cases were big but HOLY CRAP! That's just unreal. That's the perfect case for a micro-ITX.
 
Eric1285 said:
CaseLabs cases are amazing. I'll probably never buy another case for my main rig, unless I happen to want to switch form factors. If I do, it'll be another CaseLabs model.
Click to expand...

I did exactly this. I used to run my main rig out of an S8, but switched to an S3 when I switched to mITX.

Snowdog said:
Small volume and Al together kind of does. They have cases closer to $200 as well. I like the Bullet BH4 at $189. Still too much for me though.

But I hope they are successful. The more players, in more niches, the better.
Click to expand...

I'm fairly certain CaseLabs makes their bank on government contracts. What they pour into the enthusiast market is probably just to even out the lulls.
 
face2palm said:
I knew those cases were big but HOLY CRAP! That's just unreal. That's the perfect case for a micro-ITX.
Click to expand...

It is easy to get that feeling, because most of the photos are of just the case, nothing to put a scale to it all. In the best case they might have a mobo inside, and a lot of the time its an E-ATX or some kind of server board and they still look like a Micro-ATX inside. When people see that they are really closer to a half server rack and build quality, they start to understand the reason for the prices. The amount of water cooling you can do inside of one of these cases is just insane.
 
premium products are allowed to charge a premium margin because people will pay. you're also getting good quality
 
NoOther said:
It's not possible to mass produce something that is completely custom. That is the price you pay. When you want a case tailored to your exact needs, you pay price for that. Just like getting tailored clothes.
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Yeah, but if they would just mass produce tailored clothes! Oh wait...
 
Dullard said:
Yeah, but if they would just mass produce tailored clothes! Oh wait...
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?

They mass produce clothes with slightly altered fits, because with 7 billion people on earth, chances are good that someone's body type is very close to that, but that's not "tailored" - Tailored clothes are made to fit not just a "similar" body type, but "your" body type.

It's the same in guitars - there are thousands of combinations of spec, build quality and finish out there to suit the needs of the vast, vast majority of players. But there are also companies that still specialise in offering custom, made-to-order instruments. And despite the longer wait times and higher prices, those companies do a relatively brisk trade, because a lot of people are willing to pay for a guitar that is exactly what they want, rather than save money and get something very close, but no cigar.

Could you then argue that "custom" guitars aren't worth it? Sure. And some people do waste their money on them, getting "custom built" guitars that are nigh-on identical to production guitars they could have spent less for and enjoyed just as much. But most of the trade in these extremely expensive, one-off, personal customisable items isn't about people trying to get value for money, or a certain set of mass-market features.

It's about people knowing that no mass-market product exists that fulfils their needs or desires, and then paying a price premium to have someone make a product that does. Much like Caselabs.

I'd say the attitude to take is this:

The fewer you make of something, the more of your cost you have to recoup per sale. The more of something you make, the more discount you can offer to your customers.

That's what both custom guitar builders, and extremely niche-market, low-volume, customisable case makers like Caselabs, are doing. They're not price gouging. They're just charging a cost that justifies their time, effort, materials, etc, on a per-customer basis.

They don't get to split R&D costs across thousands of customers, so they're charging those as part of the price of the product. They're not buying extremely discounted quantities of parts, so they're charging their own costs as part of the price of the product. Their workers are better trained and more highly skilled, so they're paid more and that affects the price.

A company that builds thousands of cases from raw alu stock, can buy tooling and machines to do that work and have it pay for itself across thousands of sales. A company that has to outsource some of that work due to it's size, is also paying a labour charge to another company that has to be accounted for in the cost of their product.

etc etc.

Are there companies out there that price gouge? Yes, of course there are. But I really don't think Caselabs is one of them, because I can see a lot of perfectly good reasons why their cost would be much higher per unit sold, and I expect companies to operate in a manner that recoups their costs and turns a profit.
 
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If you want the best and it costs, so be it.

In 2001 I bought the Coolermaster ATC201 aluminium case for £270, there was nothing like it at the time.
I still use it for my spare PC, its a great looking case, its been worth the money.
Car quality painted/lacquered panels and a lovely brushed aluminium front.
 
GlacierNine said:
That's what both custom guitar builders, and extremely niche-market, low-volume, customisable case makers like Caselabs, are doing. They're not price gouging. They're just charging a cost that justifies their time, effort, materials, etc, on a per-customer basis.
Click to expand...

It is more small volume than custom built.

It isn't like a tailored suit or customer built guitar here. They are not custom building to the individual, any more than Ford customer builds cars to the buyer.

They have a case, with a choice of colors and a few options. But if I buy a Bullet BH4, it's essentially the same as your Bullet BH4 outside of color and one of us having a window and the other not.
 
GlacierNine said:
It's the same in guitars - there are thousands of combinations of spec, build quality and finish out there to suit the needs of the vast, vast majority of players. But there are also companies that still specialise in offering custom, made-to-order instruments. And despite the longer wait times and higher prices, those companies do a relatively brisk trade, because a lot of people are willing to pay for a guitar that is exactly what they want, rather than save money and get something very close, but no cigar.

Could you then argue that "custom" guitars aren't worth it? Sure. And some people do waste their money on them, getting "custom built" guitars that are nigh-on identical to production guitars they could have spent less for and enjoyed just as much. But most of the trade in these extremely expensive, one-off, personal customisable items isn't about people trying to get value for money, or a certain set of mass-market features.
Click to expand...

Custom instruments are sometimes more than just tailoring to specific needs. Take for instance violins. There is a reason why Stradivarius violins are so expensive. There is something about the wood, chemicals, and time that makes them have a unique sound unmatched by any other violin. The same thing occurs with other instruments as well. Craftsmanship is important.
 
Snowdog said:
It is more small volume than custom built.

It isn't like a tailored suit or customer built guitar here. They are not custom building to the individual, any more than Ford customer builds cars to the buyer.

They have a case, with a choice of colors and a few options. But if I buy a Bullet BH4, it's essentially the same as your Bullet BH4 outside of color and one of us having a window and the other not.
Click to expand...

They are not a Ford, that is a terrible comparison. They are more like Ferrari. They have the spec already engineered, but they still custom make each car and tailor the colors and comfort for the user.

Plus if you look more you will see the BH series is the base, then there are specifications of different build outs for that listed as BH2, BH4, BH7.
 
NoOther said:
They are not a Ford, that is a terrible comparison. They are more like Ferrari. They have the spec already engineered, but they still custom make each car and tailor the colors and comfort for the user.

Plus if you look more you will see the BH series is the base, then there are specifications of different build outs for that listed as BH2, BH4, BH7.
Click to expand...

Those are different sizes for ITX, mATX and ATX. No different than what other case makers do.
 
NoOther said:
Custom instruments are sometimes more than just tailoring to specific needs. Take for instance violins. There is a reason why Stradivarius violins are so expensive. There is something about the wood, chemicals, and time that makes them have a unique sound unmatched by any other violin. The same thing occurs with other instruments as well. Craftsmanship is important.
Click to expand...

Sorry, but I can't possibly take the example of a Stradivari here. The vast, vast, vast majority of the value in a Stradivari violin is intangibles, not the physical quality of the product. It is simply age, rarity, status and the fact they're no longer produced. Same goes for any antique instrument.

Yes they're excellent instruments, but even among Stradivari, there is a variation in quality - particularly, violins made towards the end of his life were not of equivalent fit, finish and quality, to violins produced during his "Golden Period". There have also been endless studies as to why they sound the way they do, and the consensus I have seen in terms of *actual research*, has essentially been that while there are many small factors that go into the whole, none of those factors is impossible to reproduce or even particularly difficult to reproduce.

The only other aspect of the tone that people point to is "time" - and quite frankly, that's a black magic voodoo science sort of area - While newly produced instruments do "settle" for a period of time, it has never been identified over how much time or to what degree that affects the sound. Also, much like the idea of aging wine, the general consensus even among followers of the voodoo, is that after a certain point, further "settling" of the instrument achieves nothing. (An interesting thing to note here is that, typically, extremely well dried wood, with a moisture content of around 7% or so, is considered to be ideal to build an instrument with, yet the average humidity of many climates is significantly higher than this, resulting in older instruments containing as much as twice the moisture they did when new, after only a couple of decades, having equalised their relative moisture with that of the environment around them)

There have also been many attempts to "artificially" age materials by subjecting them to vibration, but the mechanisms themselves have never been identified or even hypothesised - it's easy to claim that the glue joints become tighter as the materials settle together - it's rather more in the realm of fancy to claim that the grain of the wood could be changing.

Additionally, Joseph Nagyvary has made, for several decades now, his own violins that are chemically treated to replicate or surpass Stradivari, and while the jury is out on whether the tests that have been done can be called empirical, the tests that have been done so far *do* seem to show that he's achieved his goals. Cost of a Nagyvary? A "mere" $10-16,000, as opposed to the many millions of your average Stradivari.
Snowdog said:
It is more small volume than custom built.

It isn't like a tailored suit or customer built guitar here. They are not custom building to the individual, any more than Ford customer builds cars to the buyer.

They have a case, with a choice of colors and a few options. But if I buy a Bullet BH4, it's essentially the same as your Bullet BH4 outside of color and one of us having a window and the other not.
Click to expand...

Sure, but this is as close as PC Case Building comes to that level of customisation short of paying a modder for hours upon hours of their labour. That doesn't in any way invalidate my broader point, that the cost of producing a product goes up, as the quantity produced goes down and the quality of product improves.

Caselabs cases are a very small quantity, somewhat customisable, extremely high quality product, with extremely high material, production, and development costs per unit sold, that must be recouped by Caselabs at a greater rate per individual sale, in order for their company to not fold. All the same factors of pricing are in evidence when buying a custom guitar.
 
GlacierNine said:
Sure, but this is as close as PC Case Building comes to that level of customisation short of paying a modder for hours upon hours of their labour. That doesn't in any way invalidate my broader point, that the cost of producing a product goes up, as the quantity produced goes down and the quality of product improves.

Caselabs cases are a very small quantity, somewhat customisable, extremely high quality product, with extremely high material, production, and development costs per unit sold, that must be recouped by Caselabs at a greater rate per individual sale, in order for their company to not fold. All the same factors of pricing are in evidence when buying a custom guitar.
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People keep banging the customization drum, but it really isn't that different than what you get from other case makers. Outside of the more color options (which they charge extra for).

They look like nice cases, but from my perspective, I see cases with no dust filtering and no sound dampening, thin aluminum walls full of openings. They look like noisy, dusty cases, something not acceptable to me.
 
Snowdog said:
People keep banging the customization drum, but it really isn't that different than what you get from other case makers. Outside of the more color options (which they charge extra for).

They look like nice cases, but from my perspective, I see cases with no dust filtering and no sound dampening, thin aluminum walls full of openings. They look like noisy, dusty cases, something not acceptable to me.
Click to expand...
They are made for ultra high end builds with custom water cooling in mind. You know dust filters are a thing you can install right ? Noise dampening isn't an issue either, you can get that stuff for cheap and cut it to fit easily. Honestly would not be a problem without it because your rad fans would probably be running at a level that would not be that noisy.
 
GlacierNine said:
Sorry, but I can't possibly take the example of a Stradivari here. The vast, vast, vast majority of the value in a Stradivari violin is intangibles, not the physical quality of the product. It is simply age, rarity, status and the fact they're no longer produced. Same goes for any antique instrument.

Yes they're excellent instruments, but even among Stradivari, there is a variation in quality - particularly, violins made towards the end of his life were not of equivalent fit, finish and quality, to violins produced during his "Golden Period". There have also been endless studies as to why they sound the way they do, and the consensus I have seen in terms of *actual research*, has essentially been that while there are many small factors that go into the whole, none of those factors is impossible to reproduce or even particularly difficult to reproduce.

The only other aspect of the tone that people point to is "time" - and quite frankly, that's a black magic voodoo science sort of area - While newly produced instruments do "settle" for a period of time, it has never been identified over how much time or to what degree that affects the sound. Also, much like the idea of aging wine, the general consensus even among followers of the voodoo, is that after a certain point, further "settling" of the instrument achieves nothing. (An interesting thing to note here is that, typically, extremely well dried wood, with a moisture content of around 7% or so, is considered to be ideal to build an instrument with, yet the average humidity of many climates is significantly higher than this, resulting in older instruments containing as much as twice the moisture they did when new, after only a couple of decades, having equalised their relative moisture with that of the environment around them)

There have also been many attempts to "artificially" age materials by subjecting them to vibration, but the mechanisms themselves have never been identified or even hypothesised - it's easy to claim that the glue joints become tighter as the materials settle together - it's rather more in the realm of fancy to claim that the grain of the wood could be changing.

Additionally, Joseph Nagyvary has made, for several decades now, his own violins that are chemically treated to replicate or surpass Stradivari, and while the jury is out on whether the tests that have been done can be called empirical, the tests that have been done so far *do* seem to show that he's achieved his goals. Cost of a Nagyvary? A "mere" $10-16,000, as opposed to the many millions of your average Stradivari.
Click to expand...

So you go on to say there ore more intangibles, yet your entire arguments seem to rest around quality and treatment. To answer your post, I have done a fair bit of research on this topic in the past, and scientists have determined that it is indeed a mix of chemicals, time, and materials that make the unique sound of the Stradivarius. The problem is they cannot quite replicate it. This is similar to how wines evolve based on seasons, weather, and region. It is not a simple task to truly replicate something even with advanced science. Thus the reason for the high value of these specific instruments.
 
drklu said:
They are made for ultra high end builds with custom water cooling in mind. You know dust filters are a thing you can install right ? Noise dampening isn't an issue either, you can get that stuff for cheap and cut it to fit easily. Honestly would not be a problem without it because your rad fans would probably be running at a level that would not be that noisy.
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So we are supposed to spend high end prices for a supposedly customized case, and then we have to mod it ourselves with shoddy dust filtering and noise suppression.

No Thanks, I would just get a Fractal Define series, with better dust filtering and noise dampening than some retrofit hack.
 
Snowdog said:
So we are supposed to spend high end prices for a supposedly customized case, and then we have to mod it ourselves with shoddy dust filtering and noise suppression.

No Thanks, I would just get a Fractal Define series, with better dust filtering and noise dampening than some retrofit hack.
Click to expand...

You can choose to do whatever you want. No one is forcing you. If you don't care about build materials, craftmanship, and quality, choose whatever case you want. Dust filtering and noise dampening are preferences. You can add both to your heart's content if you wish.
 
NoOther said:
You can choose to do whatever you want. No one is forcing you. If you don't care about build materials, craftmanship, and quality, choose whatever case you want. Dust filtering and noise dampening are preferences. You can add both to your heart's content if you wish.
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There is nothing wrong with the Fractal craftsmanship/quality.

A quiet case is not just dampening materials, it's about design. So you can't just hack it on later.

You can get some little fan filter that you can attach to your fans, and need to disassemble your case to clean. Not as good as big surface area filter that easy to remove/clean from the outside like on FD cases, so again not as good.

Really this is more about paying for something that looks different. It's more of an expensive fashion choice.
 
Snowdog said:
There is nothing wrong with the Fractal craftsmanship/quality.
Click to expand...

That is a matter of opinion.

Snowdog said:
A quiet case is not just dampening materials, it's about design. So you can't just hack it on later.
Click to expand...

Not true, I have dampened many a case like these.

Snowdog said:
You can get some little fan filter that you can attach to your fans, and need to disassemble your case to clean. Not as good as big surface area filter that easy to remove/clean from the outside like on FD cases, so again not as good.
Click to expand...

Again, not specifically true, I have also gotten fan filters that are incredibly easy to install, remove, clean etc. No internal dust filter is going to be perfect, which is the reason they haven't found a solution for their products. If you read the FAQs on their site, they even mention that.

Snowdog said:
Really this is more about paying for something that looks different. It's a expensive fashion choice.
Click to expand...

No, its not, its about materials, build quality, and craftsmanship. You just don't value that as much as others do, and that is fine.
 
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