New SFF gamers case: presentation and advices

I like LG01, haha Think silverstone would get mad? Haha Thank you! And I also like Deception, its pretty funny and it explains the concept.
 
This case doesn't really stand out too much. I've always wanted to design a microATX case or Mini-ATX case but obviously don't have the skills to build one.

Want to stand out? How about putting the CD ROM and the HD on the bottom while the removable motherboard tray is above the two? This would free up the whole top section for ventilating. Hell with SSD's starting to come into play, power and heat wouldn't matter if these are mounted underneath the motherboard.

Just a thought. If you are going to design a case, you might as well think outside the box and take a route no company will. The "me too" is sticking to me on this case. It's not different enough. just my two cents.
 
Aesthetically I like the front and overall design. I also really like that you are using all aluminum and slightly thicker guage. My thin 1.0mm aluminum case isn't really holding together well.

That's a creative position for the PSU, but you block most of the front airflow and waste the space above the cards. It looks like only half of one 92mm fan is open.

As is, I think the biggest risk in your case is making the exterior asymmetrical and at the very least you should consider making the other side windowed. I would also either put mesh over the top blowhole, put in a second or get rid of it entirely.

If you widened one or both sides to allow for dual 120mm fans, that would also make a world of difference in cooling. Biggest flaw in cases in general is that they lack significant active intakes and that will be a moderate problem on this case design.

Here are three ideas I had for an ideal SFF cases. These have the ability to add watercooling, ATX motherboards or both without wasting much space:
#2
Dimensions: 389 x 305 x 229
Setup: Dual 120mm rad in the front / 120 mm fan on each side

#1
Dimensions: 389 x 300 x 253 OR 350-336 x 300 x 291
Features:
-ATX Mounting (sideways)
-Support for Dual 120mm Radiators or large size heatsinks
-Support for oversize power supplies
Setup: 2 x 120mm intake fans (top left side)

#3
305 x 254 x 254 (243 width only leaves 9mm for cables)
Setup: ATX mounting sideways, PSU sideways, dual 120mm rad on the right, CDROMs moved left, hard drives bottom right, bottom right rear 120mm fan

Anyway, good luck with your case. It's good to see some still trying to innovate out there.
 
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How about the "Lan Gear Pandora XS" for the m-atx and "Lan Gear Pandora XXS" for the m-itx?

Can't wait to see your itx design!
 
mattinv said:
I just wanted to add that we are having a bag custom design for this case (designed in Italy by an Italian designer). It will come as an option but that might be of interest for some of you.
Keep suggesting names for the case!:D
Click to expand...

Before the recession hit, I used to travel with my Micro Fly just about monthly. I'm currently using a Sugo Bag to carry it around in. If someone (hint, hint) made a bag that would fit the majority of your SFF cases like the Sugo/Micro Fly's or smaller, and it had a collapsable handle and wheels like your typical luggage set, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

It would be nice to have a hard shell and would have to fit in the overhead compartment of a commercial jetliner or underneath the seat of a commuter plane. Inside would have to be thickly padded just in case you were forced to check it. A seperate accompanying monitor carrying case OR even an integrated LCD screen built into the top of the case (as an option) would be nice as well.

I am in a position that proposes demo-solutions for our salesforce. The demo consists of running 3-4 VMwares (more as we integrate more modalities). Previously our salesforce had to have full tower Dell servers shipped to the demo-site and the whole demo scheduled. I have been able to condense the VMwares down a bit and using a dual core laptop with 4 gigs of RAM and an SSD, they are now able to demo the solution on their laptops and do a demo on-the-fly. The demo barely runs as it maxes all the resources out.

I'm not the one who chose the model of laptop, I was given the task of making it work on one. They are balking at getting quadcore laptops and 12 gigs of RAM with 3 hard drive bays because they are so used to the limited capacities of the overpriced, "high-end" Dells they order. The long story-short of this is that mATX rigs are the solution. They have to haul around 22" monitors anyways.

We're doing our budget next year and I have been pushing mATX rigs. The cost savings over a Dell tower server is immense. The only problem I have with my Micro Fly is that the material is thin and it has to be modded to fit the components I have put into it (minor mods, but if you have to build 30 of them, it becomes a PITA). That, and I get a good workout hauling it around in my Sugo bag. I've tried the folding wheeled carriers, but that's one more thing to carry around.

Don't make your bag proprietary to your case.
 
MassiveOverkill said:
We're doing our budget next year and I have been pushing mATX rigs. The cost savings over a Dell tower server is immense. The only problem I have with my Micro Fly is that the material is thin and it has to be modded to fit the components I have put into it (minor mods, but if you have to build 30 of them, it becomes a PITA). That, and I get a good workout hauling it around in my Sugo bag. I've tried the folding wheeled carriers, but that's one more thing to carry around.

Don't make your bag proprietary to your case.
Click to expand...

Thank you for this very instructive feedback.
The bag is not proprietary to our case. We want you to be able to use it with the most common SFF case (there is a system of removable hard protective foam that can be added or removed to adjust for each case). It will just have a designer touch to it, and it will be designed more like a fashionable bag, rather than a "I'm going to the gym" type bag. I work mostly on the design of the case and I haven't seen the latest design yet, but I can tell you, it's going to be a good looking SFF case carrier. We are shooting for a December release for the bag. I'll post pictures online as soon as we get the first prototype made.
 
sleepeeg3 said:
Aesthetically I like the front and overall design. I also really like that you are using all aluminum and slightly thicker guage. My thin 1.0mm aluminum case isn't really holding together well.

That's a creative position for the PSU, but you block most of the front airflow and waste the space above the cards. It looks like only half of one 92mm fan is open.

As is, I think the biggest risk in your case is making the exterior asymmetrical and at the very least you should consider making the other side windowed. I would also either put mesh over the top blowhole, put in a second or get rid of it entirely.

If you widened one or both sides to allow for dual 120mm fans, that would also make a world of difference in cooling. Biggest flaw in cases in general is that they lack significant active intakes and that will be a moderate problem on this case design.

Here are three ideas I had for an ideal SFF cases. These have the ability to add watercooling, ATX motherboards or both without wasting much space:
#2
Dimensions: 389 x 305 x 229
Setup: Dual 120mm rad in the front / 120 mm fan on each side

#1
Dimensions: 389 x 300 x 253 OR 350-336 x 300 x 291
Features:
-ATX Mounting (sideways)
-Support for Dual 120mm Radiators or large size heatsinks
-Support for oversize power supplies
Setup: 2 x 120mm intake fans (top left side)

#3
305 x 254 x 254 (243 width only leaves 9mm for cables)
Setup: ATX mounting sideways, PSU sideways, dual 120mm rad on the right, CDROMs moved left, hard drives bottom right, bottom right rear 120mm fan

Anyway, good luck with your case. It's good to see some still trying to innovate out there.
Click to expand...

The "front" airflow is composed of 2 x 92 mm fans (aspiration- not blocked) + 1 x 60 mm fans. For the exhaust, we have 2 x 120mm fans @ 68 SCFM each, 25 dBA. I believe from the first test this is going to work quite well but we will post some results when we get the second prototype done.
We discussed about using the ATX motherboard for a while but we opted for a Micro ATX because of size restriction. Maybe we'll have an ATX version if the demand is there.;)
Also, make sure you check revision N2, it is quite different from the first prototype.
 
Look forward to seeing that new prototype!
As far as names go, I agree with keeping it simple and easily memorable.
Something like The Lan Gear Cage (to go along with caging the beast inside, as you mentioned). "Box" just sounds too generic and doesn't paint a good picture of the ideals you're trying to get across.
 
Haha box is very generic, but Da Boxx is just sweet, explains that its da shit. Ya digg?
 
A few suggestions for the names:

#1 Evolution 800C
#2 Precision M200
#3 Original 400
#4 Quality VP10
#5 TinyPower 400D
#6 BlackPower 100

Anything that sounds good to you?
 
sleepeeg3 said:
Aesthetically I like the front and overall design. I also really like that you are using all aluminum and slightly thicker guage. My thin 1.0mm aluminum case isn't really holding together well.

That's a creative position for the PSU, but you block most of the front airflow and waste the space above the cards. It looks like only half of one 92mm fan is open.

As is, I think the biggest risk in your case is making the exterior asymmetrical and at the very least you should consider making the other side windowed. I would also either put mesh over the top blowhole, put in a second or get rid of it entirely.

If you widened one or both sides to allow for dual 120mm fans, that would also make a world of difference in cooling. Biggest flaw in cases in general is that they lack significant active intakes and that will be a moderate problem on this case design.

Here are three ideas I had for an ideal SFF cases. These have the ability to add watercooling, ATX motherboards or both without wasting much space:
#2
Dimensions: 389 x 305 x 229
Setup: Dual 120mm rad in the front / 120 mm fan on each side

#1
Dimensions: 389 x 300 x 253 OR 350-336 x 300 x 291
Features:
-ATX Mounting (sideways)
-Support for Dual 120mm Radiators or large size heatsinks
-Support for oversize power supplies
Setup: 2 x 120mm intake fans (top left side)

#3
305 x 254 x 254 (243 width only leaves 9mm for cables)
Setup: ATX mounting sideways, PSU sideways, dual 120mm rad on the right, CDROMs moved left, hard drives bottom right, bottom right rear 120mm fan

Anyway, good luck with your case. It's good to see some still trying to innovate out there.
Click to expand...

Your ideas seem like they might be decent ones.. but, no offense intended, if you're talking about ATX mobos, you're not talking about SFF anymore.
 
mattinv said:
A few suggestions for the names:

#1 Evolution 800C
#2 Precision M200
#3 Original 400
#4 Quality VP10
#5 TinyPower 400D
#6 BlackPower 100

Anything that sounds good to you?
Click to expand...

I don't really like any of those personally, only because the numbers are nonsensical, and the names don't exactly describe what the product might be. As corny as it may be, a LanBox needs a ricey name to describe what it is. Or, if you wanted to do a combo of something sophisticated and descriptive, you could try something like "Lan Gear LanPerfect 100"
 
What about Lan Gear Precision, sense this is exactly what we want in a matx case, its precise! Anyone?
 
These names were just suggestions and I have no idea what to pick for this case yet. Later, I will make a summary of all the suggested names. At the end, you guys are going to decide, not me.
Black Power referred to the fact it was going to be all black inside and out (we are thinking to have the interior all black since the price difference is not excessive).
The number after each name was just an exemple.
It can be called LG01 Precision, LG perfection, LG Lanperfect, .... or anything else you can come up at this point.:D
Please, keep on suggesting!
 
What about
Inception
Synergy
Micro

and you can add any appropriate suffix (XS or MATX or whatever)
 
I like LG01 Precision, thats sick. And if you make the black interior on some of them than there could be a BP after the name for the all black one, Haha I can see some people getting mad for writing out black power. Haha.
LG01 Precision BP
LG BP01 Precision.
Idk something tight!
 
lillimon04 said:
I like LG01 Precision, thats sick. And if you make the black interior on some of them than there could be a BP after the name for the all black one, Haha I can see some people getting mad for writing out black power. Haha.
LG01 Precision BP
LG BP01 Precision.
Idk something tight!
Click to expand...

Since I'm white, I can probably afford to call it that:p. A dedication to our president?:D
 
It's certainly looking interesting feature-wise, many features I've often wondered about why they are missing on currently available products. I've had some rough plans and ideas about a case of my own for that reason, but given I don't have the means or engineering skills to ever actually produce one, it never went beyond that phase :p

That said, regarding the style of your case. It's nice, definitely reminds me of some of the Sugo cases in outward appearance. One thing that bothers me is the power (and I assume reset?) buttons, they seem distracting. But that's just my opinion of course :)
 
Been looking at the front, not pretty anymore, I like the old one except for the grill. My idea would be to make the dvd drive stealth with a regular 5.25 cover, and with the usb and extra ports under it, then with the power buttons in the same place but different buttons, these ones, http://www.frozencpu.com/products/8...using_-_Ring_Illumination.html?tl=g44c341s875. Green would be a plus! And then for the grill, do like this, http://www.lian-li.com/v2/en/product/product06.php?pr_index=336&cl_index=1&sc_index=25&ss_index=61 or http://www.lian-li.com/v2/en/product/product06.php?pr_index=147&cl_index=1&sc_index=25&ss_index=63 with that line around the holes all the way around the grill, ya know? And that light behind it makes it look sick!!
 
Oh, forgot to comment on the drive cover. I've never been a fan of those. My SG03 build now uses a 5.25" Scythe Kama Panel 2 with an attached slim optical drive. Serves a couple of functions. Seems like a waste to have a full-sized 5.25" bay and then "block" it from special uses, if you know what I mean :)
 
Registered.
It will be designed with a bezel so that you can use the 5.25" bay any way you'd like.;)
 
Did you like anything that I said? I think it would look hella sick if it was like that.
 
Lilli, I appreciate every feedback.
To make it quick. We will offer a version with a slightly modified front, where the 5.25" bay is open (too many different wants and needs we cannot fulfill in time). But as of today, we are in the process of making the prototype and we cannot make any more modifications. Fortunately, this is something that can be added (/changed) to the finalized case.
We are planning to be done by the middle of next week with prototyping.
 
I've been a long time lurker but I created an account just to give a name suggestion =)

What about "BlackBox" ? Like the flight recorders!
And if you're really looking for version numbers, just give something simple like:

BlackBox 1

Having words like power/precision/evolution may sound more childish than you want

Great job with the case so far, I'd definitely pick one up for my next SFF build
 
Thank you all. I'm glad to hear you are liking the case. Wait to touch the 2mm thick brushed aluminum finish. It's a beauty!:D

I will recapitulate all the name that have been suggested. Maybe we should have a vote?

Also, regarding the paint color. Painting the interior all black is nice but quite spendy. Would you be interested in an anodized aluminum, yellow or red maybe (yellow is fairly common so not expensive. I don't know about red)???

Please, let me go if any of these suggestions sound good.
 
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In random order, the list of all the suggested names so far:
BlackBox 1
LG01 Precision BP
LG BP01 Precision.
Inception
Synergy
Micro
Lan Gear Precision
Lan Gear LanPerfect 100
Evolution 800C
Precision M200
Original 400
Quality VP10
TinyPower 400D
BlackPower 100
The Lan Gear Cage
Da Boxx
Da Box
Lan Gear MaxPak
Lan Gear Pandora XS
Lan Gear Lanbox
Lan Gear SFF Case or Cube
Massive Overkill Mobile
Lan Gear Ultimatum

Anything that you like more than the other?
 
mattinv said:
In random order, the list of all the suggested names so far:

Massive Overkill Mobile
Lan Gear Ultimatum
Lan Gear Pandora XS

Anything that you like more than the other?
Click to expand...


My top 3, in order.
 
Black interior would certainly be nice, but of course it's tricky if it's expensive for some reason. The biggest annoyance (looks-wise) with the SG06B is the gray interior, and even in the SG06B the gray is visible in the side panel seams for example, and of course in the back.

What comes to the names, a good name is hard to come by. Trying to be too "cool" with the name usually ends up in a negative mental image, yet many don't like too plain names either. Lose-lose situation :D
 
You can count me in or at least one of these cases when they come out.

I like:

Lan Gear MaxPak
Lan Gear Pandora XS
Massive Overkill Mobile
 
To solve the problem of the interior paint color and the impact on the cost of the case, we are going to offer 2 versions (maybe 3). This will let people choose which one they want and not cost us any extra.
 
Damn I like this case. But I am almost done modding my Lian Li V351.

Looks like I gotta donate it to the family as an excuse to pick up this case!
 
LG01 Precision
Lan Gear Lanbox
Lan Gear Da Box(or Boxx)
Lan Gear Micro
Lan Gear BlackBox (Would be weird if it came in different colors)
Lan Gear Precision M200( Dont know where the M200 came from, its cool! But maybe M100 since its the first version?)
 
mattinv said:
Thank you for this very instructive feedback.
The bag is not proprietary to our case. We want you to be able to use it with the most common SFF case (there is a system of removable hard protective foam that can be added or removed to adjust for each case). It will just have a designer touch to it, and it will be designed more like a fashionable bag, rather than a "I'm going to the gym" type bag. I work mostly on the design of the case and I haven't seen the latest design yet, but I can tell you, it's going to be a good looking SFF case carrier. We are shooting for a December release for the bag. I'll post pictures online as soon as we get the first prototype made.
Click to expand...
Nice, I would probably be interested in that, too. :cool:

mattinv said:
The "front" airflow is composed of 2 x 92 mm fans (aspiration- not blocked) + 1 x 60 mm fans. For the exhaust, we have 2 x 120mm fans @ 68 SCFM each, 25 dBA. I believe from the first test this is going to work quite well but we will post some results when we get the second prototype done.
Click to expand...
Since you free up one of the 5 1/4" bays, if you were to tilt the PSU sideways and raise it up, you could fit 3 unrestricted 80mm fans in the front. Then move the hard drives back to where MO was talking about. There is an idea...

The N2 revisions should help airflow. I would drop the 60mm fan because they don't do much for airflow and tend to be noisy. I would not waste money on painting the interior black.

Yuritau said:
Your ideas seem like they might be decent ones.. but, no offense intended, if you're talking about ATX mobos, you're not talking about SFF anymore.
Click to expand...
I don't want to get off topic, but consensus on "what is a SFF" basically was that it had to be a certain size. Probably should take a look at whatever you are running, because almost every SFF case could fit one with modding. It's all about design. ATX in an X-Qpack has been done before. ;)
 
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The bad news first.
Because of the cost of having the case all black inside, we are looking at $25-$30 difference:( between the case all black and the one without this treatment. So you guys will be able to decide. This price difference will also include a window.
The good news is that we might be able to drop the price of the cheaper model.
Also, we might be able to post some picture of the latest prototypes in 2 weeks from now.
Any more questions?
Any more names suggestions?
 
I think

Lan Gear Precision
Lan Gear Micro

would probably be good bets. I would hate for Lan Gear to use really bland flashy names like BlackStorm XXS LG1001 or something. The case is classy- the name should reflect this.
 
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