NCASE M1: a crowdfunded Mini-ITX case (updates in first post)

Phuncz said:
Ah ok, I see now Wahaha360 is the one that wants the silver/unpainted and black/painted.
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This is what I want (laser cut panels):

1. Silver Brushed & Anodized Exterior Panels, Unpainted Raw Interior, Black I/O Port
2. Black Brushed & Anodized Exterior Panels, Unpainted Raw Interior, Black I/O Port
3. Black Brushed & Anodized Exterior Panels, Black Painted Interior, Black I/O Port
 
wahaha360 said:
This is what I want (laser cut panels):

1. Silver Brushed & Anodized Exterior Panels, Unpainted Raw Interior, Black I/O Port
2. Black Brushed & Anodized Exterior Panels, Unpainted Raw Interior, Black I/O Port
3. Black Brushed & Anodized Exterior Panels, Black Painted Interior, Black I/O Port
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Personally, and I'm sure a lot of people don't agree with me but you should instead go with the original black brushed exterior and interior for at least the first run. The main reason being that it's going to be you're first run and any problems you run into like you've said will only cause financial damage, with only a single product at least it'll be much easier to resolve and to control whatever issues arise. Then depending on how that goes you can adjust according to peoples needs.

Whichever method you choose to take, I hope you go with one that begins the production campaign as soon as possible.
 
wahaha360 said:
This is what I want (laser cut panels):

1. Silver Brushed & Anodized Exterior Panels, Unpainted Raw Interior, Black I/O Port
2. Black Brushed & Anodized Exterior Panels, Unpainted Raw Interior, Black I/O Port
3. Black Brushed & Anodized Exterior Panels, Black Painted Interior, Black I/O Port
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Having scratched both my SG06 and PC-Q18 leaving silver streaks along the surfaces, I'll probably be one of the few choosing silver. And dust particles tend to be whitish which is more visible on black.
 
This is the least risky in terms of QA among the options - 1. Silver Brushed & Anodized Exterior Panels, Unpainted Raw Interior, Black I/O

Obviously people want black color, which makes option 2 ideal - 2. Black Brushed & Anodized Exterior Panels, Unpainted Raw Interior, Black I/O

Option 3 is most complex and expensive, I would prefer this to be a limited quantity - 3. Black Brushed & Anodized Exterior Panels, Black Painted Interior, Black I/O
 
Please laser cut the panels, but painted or raw interior doesn't matter to me personally, either will be fine.

I prefer black exterior though.
 
wahaha360 said:
This is the least risky in terms of QA among the options - 1. Silver Brushed & Anodized Exterior Panels, Unpainted Raw Interior, Black I/O

Obviously people want black color, which makes option 2 ideal - 2. Black Brushed & Anodized Exterior Panels, Unpainted Raw Interior, Black I/O

Option 3 is most complex and expensive, I would prefer this to be a limited quantity - 3. Black Brushed & Anodized Exterior Panels, Black Painted Interior, Black I/O
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I like Option 2 and that is what I would buy. The exterior anodization is what is important. I don't care if it is painted inside or not. If I get it and decide it would look better painted inside, I will paint it myself.

I am sure Option 1 will look sweet also but I would need to see some good pictures,

Judging by the pre-production sample laser cutting is a must.

..............

For people saying $300 is fine, I disagree. Even though this case may be "worth it" a lot of people are not going to want to pay(or be able to pay) that.

I think $160 would have been awesome - I might have bought 2. I will most likely still pay $200 for 1, mostly because I want to support these guys and I have a lot of respect for what they have done. (and the case looks cool) :)

As they approach $300, I will not buy one.
 
laser cut seems necessary.

option 2 is what i'd prefer. as others have said, interior color isn't so important to me after it's all sealed up. =)

i agree that as cost approaches $300 total, i think the drop off will be quite steep.
 
wahaha360 said:
This is what I want (laser cut panels):

1. Silver Brushed & Anodized Exterior Panels, Unpainted Raw Interior, Black I/O Port
2. Black Brushed & Anodized Exterior Panels, Unpainted Raw Interior, Black I/O Port
3. Black Brushed & Anodized Exterior Panels, Black Painted Interior, Black I/O Port
Click to expand...

What exactly is a Black I/O Port?
 
Before this gets out of hand:
300$ was NEVER mentioned by Necere or Wahaha360.

Necere said:
With laser cut panels and interior paint: $200 before shipping, give or take. I believe we're looking at $25 US shipping, $65 international. I was really hoping to keep it under $200 w/shipping, for our domestic backers at least.
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It might lead to being 300$ with shipping & VAT, but the case itself won't cost that much.
 
Phuncz said:
Before this gets out of hand:
300$ was NEVER mentioned by Necere or Wahaha360.



It might lead to being 300$ with shipping & VAT, but the case itself won't cost that much.
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I dont even see where someone suggested $300 would be acceptable. I just said $225-$250(including shipping) would likely have less drop off than silver only.
 
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Honestly, since I'm already willing to shell out $200 for a premium ITX case, I definitely wouldn't mind paying an extra $20 for the interior black paint (Laser cutting is a bigger priority, of course). At this price range, I'd rather go all out than to cut corners on the finishing. That's just my opinion, of course.
 
wreckem said:
I dont even see where someone suggested $300 would be acceptable.
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I didn't say that. I saw a few people mentioning $300 and I know how stuff like this blows out of proportion if people don't read. Really read, not look at the words.

wreckem said:
I just said $225-$250(including shipping) would likely have less drop off than silver only.
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I didn't quote you or mention you, so I don't why you responded like I did.
 
Phuncz said:
I didn't say that. I saw a few people mentioning $300 and I know how stuff like this blows out of proportion if people don't read. Really read, not look at the words.


I didn't quote you or mention you, so I don't why you responded like I did.
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I was refering to the people who said stuff about $300.
 
Lunaray said:
Honestly, since I'm already willing to shell out $200 for a premium ITX case, I definitely wouldn't mind paying an extra $20 for the interior black paint (Laser cutting is a bigger priority, of course). At this price range, I'd rather go all out than to cut corners on the finishing. That's just my opinion, of course.
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I feel the same. Having the interior unpainted makes it hard to get nice looking 'guts'.. :)
 
Some one mentioned it earlier, but it seems to have gotten glossed over because of the black/silver debate.

What about selling these on your website instead of an igg campaign?

You could have a disclaimer explaining to people that inventory is not on hand, and once a minimum number of orders is placed on the site, a group buy will be sent to Lian Li.

People could place an order and pay for it, then when you reach 300, you call Lian Li and tell them to make another batch.

To alleviate any fear, maybe give people the option for a full refund before you order them from Lian Li. But once the order goes in to LL, all purchases are final.
 
people might balk at that but it has been done before.

one recent example is 120hz.net which was started by a couple guys that wanted to build custom overclocked monitors. essentially they had to outsource the parts, but from what i remember they took preorders beforehand in order to get an idea of how many to order. hypermatrix is on this site, http://hardforum.com/member.php?u=248369 maybe he could give some pointers. i forget the name of the other guy but it was hypermatrix and someone else who set everything up basically by themselves.
 
illli said:
people might balk at that but it has been done before.
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An IGG campaign is basically the same thing. People pay up front, wait till its over, and either we have enough to do a group buy or people get refunded.

All im talking about doing is cutting out the middle man.
 
werzinator said:
You won't be able to see the guts anyway unless you plan on keeping the side panel off or modding it with a window :p
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That may be the majority opinion, but there's a fair number of us who do a lot of work to the inside of our cases without bothering with any window.

In my SG05 I have rewired, shortened and sleeved the cables; painted my optical drive black; changed all bolts to black anodised button-head; removed all stickers with warranty void / barcodes / serial numbers; put vinyl on exposed PCBs; polished capacitors; etc. Next step is de-riveting and replacing with black rivets. Nobody sees any of it when the cover is on, but I know what's underneath.

Lack of option for black interior is not a deal breaker for me, but hassle to have to paint it myself. Would rather pay $20+ extra for factory quality anodising, but can understand if for the sake of the project the majority would consider it an unnecessary feature.
 
wahaha360 said:
This is what I want (laser cut panels):

1. Silver Brushed & Anodized Exterior Panels, Unpainted Raw Interior, Black I/O Port
2. Black Brushed & Anodized Exterior Panels, Unpainted Raw Interior, Black I/O Port
3. Black Brushed & Anodized Exterior Panels, Black Painted Interior, Black I/O Port
Click to expand...

I'm leaning towards having all 3 options for IGG campaign.

Different price points for different people. I'm pretty adamant about keeping M1 <= $180. We told you guys during IGG prototype campaign $160-$200, it's worth fighting for.

Screes said:
An IGG campaign is basically the same thing. People pay up front, wait till its over, and either we have enough to do a group buy or people get refunded.

All im talking about doing is cutting out the middle man.
Click to expand...

I spoke with Necere about launching a campaign on our website without IGG, but Necere feels that we need more street credit before asking people to just trust us, which I'm ok with.
 
Well, I never did think the case could be made for under $200 so I'm not suprised by the new pricing option. Luckily for me I'm financially able to go for Option #3 and get Black Brushed & Anodized Exterior Panels, Black Painted Interior, Black I/O Port. Given the options this is what I will order. I still may order two in case I need an extra down the road at some point. :D
 
My preference is for a fully-painted unit. I don't intend to open the hood often, but when I do, I want the engine bay to look good.

I can appreciate wanting to deliver a black unit at or under $200, though, and why some may not wish to pay more. I think, though, that given the boutique nature of the product, $220-$240 is still a perfectly manageable price.
 
WiSK said:
That may be the majority opinion, but there's a fair number of us who do a lot of work to the inside of our cases without bothering with any window.

In my SG05 I have rewired, shortened and sleeved the cables; painted my optical drive black; changed all bolts to black anodised button-head; removed all stickers with warranty void / barcodes / serial numbers; put vinyl on exposed PCBs; polished capacitors; etc. Next step is de-riveting and replacing with black rivets. Nobody sees any of it when the cover is on, but I know what's underneath.

Lack of option for black interior is not a deal breaker for me, but hassle to have to paint it myself. Would rather pay $20+ extra for factory quality anodising, but can understand if for the sake of the project the majority would consider it an unnecessary feature.
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I am exactly the same way. The inside of my PC's are immaculate, but no one can see it.
 
wahaha360 said:
I'm leaning towards having all 3 options for IGG campaign.

Different price points for different people. I'm pretty adamant about keeping M1 <= $180. We told you guys during IGG prototype campaign $160-$200, it's worth fighting for.
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That would be great. So do you get to that price by excluding internal paint? I thought the cost for chassis paint (internal and backplate) was estimated at $12-$14. Necere's guesstimate was $200 for the full deal plus $25 for US shipping. Paint was the least of the costs, and removing it brings the cost down to around $187, plus shipping $212. I don't see how you get there with the numbers that have been provided so far. Maybe the majority wants silver and an unpainted interior now. Personally I want black and will pay $12-$14 for a finished chassis.

So does it cost to split production three ways? I understood from one of your other posts that there was an assumption of 500 units to split production two ways without additional cost. What happens if you don't make the order goal?

You probably need to gather some stats in order to determine if three options are needed, especially if they increase cost rather than decrease cost.

wahaha360 said:
I spoke with Necere about launching a campaign on our website without IGG, but Necere feels that we need more street credit before asking people to just trust us, which I'm ok with.
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I think that is wise. You probably loose a lot of orders if there is no guarantee of a refund in the event the minimum order isn't met. You need a third party to hold the money until the information is gathered and a decision is made. This is what an escrow company can do for you for a fixed cost that is probably less than 4-9% of total sales. Maybe that could be investigated as an option. Of course 4% of a $200 purchase only amounts to $8. I'll pay $8 just to simplify things.
 
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If you're now thinking of options anyway (Silver/Raw, Black/Raw, Black/Painted) why not stick a poll up to see if people prefer black or silver? The black/raw option would still be there for those that want it, and the majority gets catered to. Just a thought.
 
Phuncz said:
I agree, unpainted interior is not an issue for me. I personally would prefer the black annodized exterior with the unpainted interior. My current Lian-Li V352B is also like that and I've never had an issue with the interior not being painted.

Necere, Wahaha360 are talking about two models apparently:
- a silver annodized exterior and unpainted interior
- a black annodized exterior and painted interior

I didn't know silver was really an option ? Not that I want it, I prefer a black one.
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I also would like the black anodized exterior with the unpainted interior. Well, mainly I want the black anodized exterior, and would be of if the interior is either painted or not. I will probably end up painting the interior myself anyways, so might as well save costs by not having it come pre-painted.

EDIT: Now that I have read that the Silver version would also be anodized I may go for that. Just as long as the outside is anodized, and then I will paint the inside how I want. Might be cool to do silver... Usually the problem with going silver is getting a matching optical drive/etc, but that is not an issue in this case. Especially if the Silver anodized/unpainted interior is the cheapest option... I would prolly go that way.
 
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No way am I willing to spend $300 for one case, no matter how nice it is. I'm for unpainted interior and laser cut edges. After following this thread for what seems like forever now, and donating to the initial IGG campaign, I'd hate for this case to end up outside of my price-range at the very last minute because of some paint...
 
I would not select the unpainted interior. This didn't used to be the case 10 years ago, but even the cheaper(est) cases today have painted interiors; Though that's likely the economy of scale. It's worth the extra $20 to me for this niche product. I think the perceived quality difference will hurt the reputation more than the price difference.
 
I'm looking at SFX PSUs for my planned M1 build.. should I get the modular or non-modular 450W Silverstone SFX PSU?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256063
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256084

Besides modularity, is there any difference in noise when under load (e.g. gaming)? Noise is my biggest concern.

Planned components: CM Seidon 240M (CLC), MSI Z77IA-E53, i5-3570K (stock clock), 2x 4 GB DDR3-1600 RAM, Samsung 830 SSD, Zotac GTX 660 (stock clock)
 
werzinator said:
I'm looking at SFX PSUs for my planned M1 build.. should I get the modular or non-modular 450W Silverstone SFX PSU?
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The short answer is that the non-modular is supposedly louder under load and quieter at idle than the modular version.

The long answer is that there is a big thread all about the modular PSU and how it compares to the non-modular version and so on. And there is now a new version of the modular PSU that might be better, but I'm not sure if it's easy to distinguish which one you will get when ordering.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1707073
 
imode said:
No way am I willing to spend $300 for one case, no matter how nice it is. I'm for unpainted interior and laser cut edges. After following this thread for what seems like forever now, and donating to the initial IGG campaign, I'd hate for this case to end up outside of my price-range at the very last minute because of some paint...
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Who said anything about $300?

The highest estimate ive seen is $225.
 
I don't understand the mentality of someone who is willing to spend at least a couple of hundred dollars on a limited run, boutique pc case and yet is not willing to spend an extra 20 dollars for a better finish. Maybe that's why I generally don't lose ebay auction's, 'cause if I'm willing to pay 18 then I'm willing to pay 20, or if I'd pay 180 then I'd also be willing to pay 200. It's a small percentage of the total price. In this instance the case isn't really that inexpensive to start with (I don't mean that to sound disingenuous by the way, the M1 isn't overpriced obviously it just costs what it costs) and it's kind of a high-end, luxury item, so what's an extra $20 or so?
 
imode said:
No way am I willing to spend $300 for one case, no matter how nice it is. I'm for unpainted interior and laser cut edges. After following this thread for what seems like forever now, and donating to the initial IGG campaign, I'd hate for this case to end up outside of my price-range at the very last minute because of some paint...
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Well Necere said paint would probably be around $12-$14. If the case were to be $300, I don't think the lack of paint would help you out too much :/
 
I'm not saying the case will be $300, just kind of in shock of certain people who are willing to spend that kind of money for a case. For what it's worth, am not, and I'm sure this case will sell more if it manages to come under the psychological price point of $200 rather than over it.

I'm used to paying premium for quality, but I don't mind sacrificing in a few areas of form when the functionality remains unchanged.
 
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