DAN A4-SFX: The smallest gaming case in the world

Regarding "I choose startnext.com as crowdfounding platform ..." - please reconsider using IndieGoGo.
 
It will be kickstarter or startnext because I don't want to go with paypal. Paypal freeze often the money of projects and this would be very bad for the A4. Furthermore the fees of paypal are high so the product will be more expensive.
 
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I'm fine with anyone as long as they are reputable and accept US dollars. Is there a crowdfunding platform that accepts money being thrown at the screen? :D
 
I'd like to have the comfort of using paypal, however I do understand that that is an issue with the A4. Furthermore, I appreciate the decision of not using it, since there are fees, and they will raise the product price one way or another. btw Happy new year everyone and may 2016 be the year of the A4 sitting on our tables :D
 
Ordered myself a new rig composed of the optimum components to transplant from the temporary case into the A4-SFX as soon as it becomes available!
 
Looks brilliant, but if you had an R9 290X, or something similar with a really hot PCB, won't that arrangement also heat up the backside of the motherboard? I mean, I guess the R9 290X graphics card is a stretch for such a small case, but the concept still stands.
 
Curiositie said:
Is anyone else planning on using their A4 build as a VR rig? :)
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I'm waiting for Oculus preorder as well as the A4. I also have a naked PC with 4670k and GTX 970 waiting on my table, should be enough to start with, but I will probably need to upgrade soon if I want to get a smooth experience in maximum settings.
 
Yeh, I hope to use it for VR.

I went for:-

EVGA 980ti (with a backplate)
Intel 6700k (I'll end up running at stock speeds I expect, so wanted a strong base clocked 95W cpu)
Asus Maximus Impact VIII M/B
16gb of 3200+ Corsair DDR4
Also ordered a Cryorig C7 fan (it took ages to find one online!).

Just need the case now and I'm golden. Going to use a cheap Cougar QBX for now, but the intention is to lift and shift the guts as soon as I can get my hands on the A4, hence not going for a hybrid cooler GPU, and going for the C7 fan etc now.
 
Wonderdog said:
Yeh, I hope to use it for VR.

I went for:-

EVGA 980ti (with a backplate)
Intel 6700k (I'll end up running at stock speeds I expect, so wanted a strong base clocked 95W cpu)
Asus Maximus Impact VIII M/B
16gb of 3200+ Corsair DDR4
Also ordered a Cryorig C7 fan (it took ages to find one online!).

Just need the case now and I'm golden. Going to use a cheap Cougar QBX for now, but the intention is to lift and shift the guts as soon as I can get my hands on the A4, hence not going for a hybrid cooler GPU, and going for the C7 fan etc now.
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Great choice of components =D but what PSU do you pretend to use ?
 
Can somebody with very good english skills help my with proofreading of the user manual? If yes please send me an PM.
 
Great choice of components =D but what PSU do you pretend to use ?
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I'm going to be using a Silverstone SFX-L 500w Gold-plus unit. Going for the -L was important due to the fan noise of the smaller versions. I was considering the forthcoming 700w version, but I hear that the 700w has had design/quality issues which have delayed its release - and I should still be well within the power envelope of a good quality 500w anyway, even with the the 980Ti and 6700K running at stock speeds.
 
Wonderdog said:
I'm going to be using a Silverstone SFX-L 500w Gold-plus unit. Going for the -L was important due to the fan noise of the smaller versions. I was considering the forthcoming 700w version, but I hear that the 700w has had design/quality issues which have delayed its release - and I should still be well within the power envelope of a good quality 500w anyway, even with the the 980Ti and 6700K running at stock speeds.
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Right now i have a similar Rig as yours except for the PSU and GPU, my GPU is still a GTX770 i will be waiting for the Pascal generation, seems really promising :) If the 700W doesn't come i will probably get the 500W one but i'm still a bit worried if it will handle the Pascal generation, i know power consumption should be lower but you never know :p
 
Very ambitious project - kudos to you for getting the feedback here and moving forward using the best design decisions. Consider me interested!
 
I may well replace the 980ti if the Pascal stuff is a significant upgrade, but 4k isn't high on my agenda (I bought a 27" 1440p IPS Asus Gsync monitor with the rest of the machine, which I plan to run for a couple of years!).
 
With the current plan of using crowd funding in Februrary - what are realistic expectation time frames for shipping of these products to say EU/UK - assuming everything goes to plan?

Obviously won't hold you to any dates or anything, I know a lot of spanners can come in the works which you will have no control over.
 
Hello Guys,

here comes a new status update of the project. Today I uploaded the brand new user manual of the A4-SFX on my side.
I am very happy that the work on it is now done, because I spend so many hours in it. Every case includes a DIN A5 printed version in landscape format of the manual.




You can download the user manual here: https://www.dan-cases.com/downloads/a4sfx_manual1.0.pdf

What are the next steps?

- Creating a Quality-Guide for LianLi
- Founding DAN-Cases
- To register with EAR ( German WEEE agency)
- Creating the product side on crowdfunding-plattform
- Start Crwodfunding

I wish you a great weekend

Daniel
 
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First of, the manual looks great and it's a good idea to include a printed version with every case! I really like the usability you're going for and it must've been a lot of work to position all those cables for the separate steps of assembly.
I got a few remarks, however:

The screws on the advice page are oriented differently. Some have their cross aligned with the Y-axis, some are angled a little bit. I think it would look better if they were consistent, the angled ones look better in my opinion.

There seems to be no mention of the front HDD not being decoupled and being non-replacable once the PSU and GPU are installed. Maybe that should be emphasised, so people that only have a single drive will install it in the cage at the bottom, where it can be removed, even if everything else is installed.

There also seems to be no mention of the possible compatibility issues with SFX-L PSUs and the drive on top of the drive cage. Under the "advice" section, it would make sense to state that thick HDDs might cause problems in that area.
I'm not sure whether 15mm HDDs can be installed in the front, too, but it should be noted if such a limit exists.

Found a typo in the german text on page 4:
Stellen Sie sicher, dass Sie geerdet sind um die Komponenten vor eine elektrostatischen Entladung zu
schützen.
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There's a missing "r" behind "eine".

A final point that isn't directly regarding the manual: Why did you use flathead screws for mounting the motherboard? What benefits did they offer compared to the domehead screws you used for mounting the graphics card and HDDs?
 
Great work, I really like the style. I thought the side panels mounted toollessly, similar to the M1 case. If I don't screw them in at the bottom, will they still be relatively secure?
 
QuantumBraced said:
Great work, I really like the style. I thought the side panels mounted toollessly, similar to the M1 case. If I don't screw them in at the bottom, will they still be relatively secure?
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I believe Dan said due to the push pin layout, the panels sag a bit. The screws are there to make it nice and square, but if you don't care about that you don't have to use the screws.
 
I think you should include another page for SFX-L PSU because it doesn't allow 2 hard drives to be mounted below as you indicated in earlier posts. Otherwise - very nice.
 
I think the costumer should know problems like this before looking in the manual.
 
iFreilicht said:
There seems to be no mention of the front HDD not being decoupled and being non-replacable once the PSU and GPU are installed. Maybe that should be emphasised, so people that only have a single drive will install it in the cage at the bottom, where it can be removed, even if everything else is installed.
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Maybe I will add an infotext for it.

iFreilicht said:
There also seems to be no mention of the possible compatibility issues with SFX-L PSUs and the drive on top of the drive cage. Under the "advice" section, it would make sense to state that thick HDDs might cause problems in that area.
I'm not sure whether 15mm HDDs can be installed in the front, too, but it should be noted if such a limit exists.
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Do you look in the manual of your case before buying your components? I think problems like this should know before buying it. I point on this problem on my webpage. ;)

iFreilicht said:
Found a typo in the german text on page 4:

There's a missing "r" behind "eine".
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Thank you, I correct it.

iFreilicht said:
A final point that isn't directly regarding the manual: Why did you use flathead screws for mounting the motherboard? What benefits did they offer compared to the domehead screws you used for mounting the graphics card and HDDs?
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I think your are right, I will change the special MB-screws to the pinhead ones.
 
You have to expect that future customers might not be that educated about SFF like the people you find on [H] or other forums. I have to agree with promaty on this. You might not need it for the first batch and the people that support your crowd funding, but I would at least add it to your second batch/revision.

Something as simple as an asterisk and a small piece of text noting that using a SFX-L PSU limits HDD placement would do the trick.
 
I'm not 100% sure, but I think CE mandates a some kind of manual/quickstart guide. Don't quote me on it though.

But raising the price? By 0,50ct or so. Kill the forest? True but it's a small manual. No a 60 page motherboard manual that is 90% the same for every motherboard.
 
dondan said:
Ok I will reconsider this :)
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Also take into account how many people came to this post asking questions that were answered on the website. One more place to find that sort of information doesn't hurt, and maybe some will have a look at the manual online before buying the case.
 
What is the difference between Pinhead screws and Flathead screws? Any reason to use different ones? Also why not use C6-32 for the motherboard as it is standard for all other PC cases? (at least ones I had in the past)
 
Hello, first time poster, but I had a small question, would the Zalman CNPS2X?

I say this because Zalman claim that a 120mm fan is required, but the A4 SFX seems to have a small enough gap between the cooler and the perforated wall that it would intake directly out side the case.

Can someone please elaborate on this?
 
Yes it would fit in the A4 and it would intake enough air from the side panels, however I doubt such a tiny cooler with an 80mm fan will be able to deliver decent cooling performance, definiately not 120W TDP at an somewhat acceptable temperature as they claim. Considering the price tag of ~$40 here in germany I would strongly recommend going with Silverstone AR-05, Cryorig C7 or Noctua NH-L9i in the A4-SFX, since they are all in the same price range and will deliver considerably better cooling performance than the Zalman. If you only run a <65W TDP cpu however it will not really matter what you choose (even Intel stock is good for the purpose). Please correct me if i am wrong and this 27mm cooler in fact beats the other ones :D
 
promaty said:
What is the difference between Pinhead screws and Flathead screws? Any reason to use different ones? Also why not use C6-32 for the motherboard as it is standard for all other PC cases? (at least ones I had in the past)
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I think he meant to say 'panhead' screws. The difference is the shape of the head. They both probably use Phillips drive.

Heads and drives:
http://freakify.com/encyclopedia-of-screws/
Although curiously they have missed out Pozi-drive.
 
QinX said:
Something as simple as an asterisk and a small piece of text noting that using a SFX-L PSU limits HDD placement would do the trick.
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I update the manual. Now it is included (Page 2.: Responsibility: and Page: 11)
Also I add information to the screw types so you can how many are included.

Hermit2001 said:
I think he meant to say 'panhead' screws. The difference is the shape of the head. They both probably use Phillips drive.
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Yes I made a error I wrote pin instead of pan but also pan is wrong the right one is trusshead, I changed it.
 
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