World First Carbon Fiber Case

I'll never buy an Ultra product again

I ordered their 120mm fans and they didn't cut the fan precisely so it couldn't fit my case.
 
Love everything except the butt ugly side "ultra" fan grille. Man that thing looks so cheesy on an otherwise sleek case.
 
Reading some of the comments about carbon fiber. It's not all that expensive, as long as the parts do not become all that intricate. Seeing as most of the panels are flat, I don't see this case costing more than $300. You can easily drop that price, by making the front panel plastic with a carbon fiber design. Doing so, they could drop the price down to $200 or less.

Carbon fiber is lightweight and very strong. Making a computer case out of it makes absolutely no sense, cept for looks. It's only real benefit would be having a lighter case. Course aluminium cases are already pretty light. Then there's the fact that carbon fiber is an insulator. If you want to keep heat in, make your case out of carbon fiber.

This by far was one dumb idea. The only good idea is that power distribution piece. Course, they probably had to design that, so they could get decent airflow, so the internal components don't overheat from the fact that the case is made of carbon fiber.

I'll stick with aluminium. Shoot, I'd buy a case made of copper, before I buy a case made of aluminium.
 
That Power Distribution system is a very excellent idea as long as it can hold up in the long run.
 
If the power distribution system supports multiple rails, I'd buy one myself. If not, that could be very taxing on a single rail.
 
krotch said:
Then there's the fact that carbon fiber is an insulator. If you want to keep heat in, make your case out of carbon fiber.

This by far was one dumb idea. The only good idea is that power distribution piece. Course, they probably had to design that, so they could get decent airflow, so the internal components don't overheat from the fact that the case is made of carbon fiber.

I'll stick with aluminium. Shoot, I'd buy a case made of copper, before I buy a case made of aluminium.
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None of this is relevant.
PC cases do not (with the exception of the Zalman TN series) depend on radiation/convection to dissipate heat.
Thus, a case made of copper, one of aluminum and one of steel would all have identical temps assuming the design was the same.
 
PC cases do not depend on it, but they do radiate heat out. As you add in more devices, the airflow in the case starts turning to crap. Any help a person can get on cooling, is a benefit in my book, regardless of how small.

Also to clear up, I meant to say "Shoot, I'd buy a case made of copper, before I buy a case made of carbon fiber." Sometimes my hands type faster than my mind thinks.
 
now wouldn't the power distribution allow for better air flow negating the ambient heat transfer gainer or loss vs cf and metal?
I like this idea. It's time we get some more advanced materials to make cases lighter. It only takes one company to start a trend and others to copy and improve on it.
 
The power bar is somewhat gimmicky, or as I like to say - Mickey Mouse - and to me only provides potential for more problems. Especially if it's not high quality. Would you buy a $200-$400 high end PSU and hook up a super cheap power distro bar? I've never had an issue cleanly running cables in a standard tower case like that.
 
sprocket said:
Thus, a case made of copper, one of aluminum and one of steel would all have identical temps assuming the design was the same.
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I have to disagree with you on that, some of the heat does get disapated by the material the case is made out of. the Temps will not be the same, however the differance will be small enough that it will not matter in most cases. Hard Drives and other items are hard mounted to the case, The case will draw heat out of these components and disapate the heat into the air. a case made of Plexiglas will have alot higher internal air temps as the only way heat can get out is thru airflow, as the heat from drives and such will not have any conductive cooling! the better the material cunducts heat the better it will tranfer that heat to the outside panels and the better the CASE will disapate that heat to the outside. also lets not forget that the insides of the case thats getting the airflow will act as a large heatsink for your drives and such.
 
seanmcd said:
The power bar is somewhat gimmicky,
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Ever since I bought an ancient rack-mount-based mini computer decades ago ($300) with a builtin power bar, I've been arguing for a similar thing in PCs. Properly done, they are a great idea. I'm in the process of building a new machine right now and the cable mess would practically disappear if there was a powerbar instead of a rat's nest of power cables.
 
What a waste of carbon fiber...

They shouldn't be allowed to make a case out of it, it should be used for things that will show an improvement over using metals.

Cars for example, or bikes, unicycles, skateboards possibly.
 
Yashu said:
Love everything except the butt ugly side "ultra" fan grille. Man that thing looks so cheesy on an otherwise sleek case.
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Nobody really liked the Ultra grill, so it was changed to a black mesh:

http://www.jonnyguru.com/images/carbon_fiber/new_sample/DSC01424.JPG

seanmcd said:
The power bar is somewhat gimmicky, or as I like to say - Mickey Mouse - and to me only provides potential for more problems. Especially if it's not high quality. Would you buy a $200-$400 high end PSU and hook up a super cheap power distro bar? I've never had an issue cleanly running cables in a standard tower case like that.
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The Power Bar works very well and is thoroughly engineered. In fact, one of the reasons this case isn't in retail still today is because they sent the Power Bar back for more engineering. They exhibited a 2% drop in voltage at 1000W that could be contributed to the Power Bar. They plan to make the traces wider and the PCB thicker.

It is single +12V rail, though. But since the current Ultra PSU's are single +12V rail, it made no difference to them.

Borgschulze said:
What a waste of carbon fiber...

They shouldn't be allowed to make a case out of it, it should be used for things that will show an improvement over using metals.

Cars for example, or bikes, unicycles, skateboards possibly.
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I have to somewhat agree. I used to own a bike shop and had sold and used my share of USEFUL carbon fiber. The carbon fiber here is strictly for looks. If the case was lighter, ok. But the carbon fiber here actually makes the case heavier because it's all carbon fiber, not carbon fiber reinforced aluminum. In a tubular form, like a handlebar, carbon fiber can be used, be as light or lighter than aluminum, but much stronger because of the tubular structure. In a flat panel, the carbon fiber has to be made very thick and dense to maintain it's shape. The case is VERY heavy.

Personally.. well... let's just say there's one with black annodized aluminum panels with my name on it. It's much lighter too, and with black painted "Exo frame" (that's what they call it) it looks pretty slick and doesn't need a constant polishing. :D
 
Damn you Johnny, I had all but forgot about this case, and here you go bringiing it up out of its grave.

Has anyone heard anything new on this case, is it going to become a reality or not?
 
It's a reality.

Like I said, they set it back to get the Power Bar beefed up, but there will be a couple on display at Maximum PC's two Showdown LAN's. That's how I got my hands on them. I've got to build them up for display.
 
only thing on this case thats carbon fiber is the side panels.. everything else is just a vinyl sticker
 
LogitechFreak said:
only thing on this case thats carbon fiber is the side panels.. everything else is just a vinyl sticker
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LOL... No. I'm sure you're joking, but in case you're not, all of the panels are in fact carbon fiber. On the prototype that went to CES, even the motherboard tray was carbon fiber. That was changed to a black annodized aluminum in the final production model. But trust me, all six sides are actual carbon fiber through and through, and not even just a carbon fiber sheet stuck on aluminum either.
 
It's been awhile, so I could be wrong, but isn't carbon fibre a pretty poor conductor of heat? In which case, wouldn't it be a horrible idea for a case, as the last thing you want to do is trap in heat? Just a thought.
 
silentcoercion said:
It's been awhile, so I could be wrong, but isn't carbon fibre a pretty poor conductor of heat? In which case, wouldn't it be a horrible idea for a case, as the last thing you want to do is trap in heat? Just a thought.
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As was mentioned earlier in the thread, the material a case is made from has a negligible impact on temps. The difference between this case and an identical one made from aluminum would probably be less than a degree Celsius.

Personally, I'm not a fan of the carbon fibre look for this case. If they released a version in aluminum with the power bar thing included, I might consider it. The power bar is the only really interesting feature of the case, aside from that it's pretty average(disregarding the carbon fibre, which I think is a waste anyways).
 
I think it looks stupid.

Not sure what's up with all these case manufacturers putting feet on their cases..
 
i would like to know how the "power bar" is patented technology since they have been doing the same thing with disk backplanes and servers for years...

but personally i would never buy anything from ultra, mostly becuase they are primarily sold from tiger direct... which is a company i will personally never deal with again becuase i have known waaaayyyy too many people that worked there and told me horror stories... and like, real horror stories...

i also found this amusing

January 9th, 2006 – ...The new Ultra Carbon Fiber case ... available for individual purchase later this month.
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uhh, that over a year ago and the website sais coming soon! doh! lol
 
silentcoercion said:
It's been awhile, so I could be wrong, but isn't carbon fibre a pretty poor conductor of heat? In which case, wouldn't it be a horrible idea for a case, as the last thing you want to do is trap in heat? Just a thought.
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Yes and No. Yeah its a poor conductor of heat, how ever as long as you have good airflow it wont matter. Only thing that benifit from case conduction is Hard Drives, and as long as there mounted to aluminum frams and the case strucrure it will get plenty of cooling assistance. The choice of Side panel Materials wont make any differance.

I cant wait to get my hands on one of these, I got some mod plans for it already! it would be realy cool if they offered Carbon/Kevlar panels in differant colors, if they dont, i will just make my own!
 
FLECOM said:
i would like to know how the "power bar" is patented technology since they have been doing the same thing with disk backplanes and servers for years...
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The patent office let you patent anything, the real test is when you decide to take someone to court & then its tested (prior art) etc.
This probably means only the dimensions are patentable (so effectively copyright), rather than the concept itself
 
Well.. I think it has more to do with design, purpose and application...

What I mean is, you can't just say "this does this" and then patent it. You have to say, "this does this, goes here, and the does this and here's why." So any prior art that may appear similar in any way shape of form but doesn't not apply to the same usage isn't considered the same thing.

On that same note, if someone took the power bar out of the case and used it for something completely different that nobody else has considered using it for, you could essentially patent the device all over again because there may not be prior art for your particular application of that device.
 
Carbon fibre has been used in many modern computers. Laptops placing a premium on strong but lightweight construction, as well as good asthetics will use it. Many high quality laptop builds will use carbon fibre.

Although it can crack more easily than metal, it is strong as well as lightweight, and dampens sound and vibrations better than metal, making it suitable for silent PC enthusiasts.

It will be a while before PC cases use more modern materials; the PC case industry has always been very conservative, a bit cheap (not much R&D here), and always slightly behind modern trends. It's only been recently that most computer cases were beige cases.
 
echn111 said:
Carbon fibre has been used in many modern computers. Laptops placing a premium on strong but lightweight construction, as well as good asthetics will use it. Many high quality laptop builds will use carbon fibre.
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Can you show me some of these modern computers that use REAL carbon fiber? :D
 
seanmcd said:
Can you show me some of these modern computers that use REAL carbon fiber? :D
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The laptop lids you see on Acer and Asus laptops is actual, real carbon fiber. The same company that makes that carbon fiber is the same that makes the panels for the Ultra case.

But that carbon fiber needs no structural integrity. There's an aluminum frame that holds an LCD behind that panel, so the carbon fiber used on the outside of the laptop lid is very thin and light.
 
seanmcd said:
Can you show me some of these modern computers that use REAL carbon fiber? :D
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There are alot of differant types of Carbon fiber. Theres the type everyone thinks of with the Woven cloth then theres also some that are lesser known, Graphite Composites where short fibers are placed into a resin and molded to form complex shapes. These have been used in laptop chassis to save weight and for there exceptional strength and durability. Granted that not alot of any type of carbon fiber has been used in any computer for anything other than decoration. I would guess that as the cost of the differant processes lessens that it will be used more and more.

From looking at this new case, I am sure that almost any type of panel may be used and have acceptable strength therefor it is being used more for decoration than anything it still is a very good under used material.

I would really like to hear some news on this cases release date!
 
Aluminum is still the best case material IMO. Light and easy to cut and modify, looks great and cheaper. Steal frame is fine if you need strength.

I won't be racing my PC down the street anytime soon, thanks.
 
Was wondering if anyone had any news on this case, still interested in it!
 
seanmcd said:
Can you show me some of these modern computers that use REAL carbon fiber? :D
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Old thread but didn't realize someone actually questioned the use of carbon fibre in modern computers. Just go to any conference or business trip and look at the computers people are using... 'nuff said.

It will be a while before PC cases for enthusiasts use more modern materials (i.e. composites, alloys, carbon fibre etc.)

Case manufacturers for enthusiasts don't need to do any R&D because most enthusiasts are quite conservative and don't care much for serious innovation when it comes to case design anyway which is a bit of a shame. They'll leave it to the Mac's and Vaio's (and now HP's) of the world to innovate while we get another cookie cutter aluminium case that looks like it's been designed by an engineering/computer geek.
 
They have a BUNCH of these cases they can sell, but they're waiting for that stupid Ultra Gaming PC to get built so they can launch the two together,

Stupid.

If the damn PC isn't ready for mass production, to order, to get supported, whatever the hold up is, Ultra should just say "screw it" and release the damn case.
 
I thought it looked pretty cool. Not a fan of the hole in the side panel, but the interior looks well-managed.
 
Patented Power Distribution System
This strip runs vertically along the side of the motherboard. It connects to the power supply at the top and gives several different connections along its side. Using short cables (Included) it is a quick snap from the unit to the video cards, hard drives, and other devices. Thus, cleaning up the interior of the case and allowing an increase in airflow


that is a DAMN Good idea!
 
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