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

dondan said:
Today I can't give you a 100% guarantee because I only phoned with my local costoms office and tomorrow I need to phone with the collection office over this topic. But it looks like that every none EU costumer have luck and you don't have to pay the 19% German VAT because you have to pay your country specific VAT. So the price for none EU costumers will not 230€ but rather 185-190€. If the collectionoffice gives me green light for it there will be extra tiers in the campaign with shipping options only outside the EU for none EU costumers.

(I higlighted this comment because it could be very important for other users!)
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Although it is not a 100% green light on this, it makes me happy that you're looking into this! Very awesome.
 
jb1 said:
I hope so! I bet we will see some 1070 minis, but they won't be reference PCBs. Thus, we probably won't see a custom water block for the a 1070 mini, just as there is no water block for the 970 mini. Correct me if I'm wrong though, is there a water block for the 970 mini? I think the best bet will still be the R9 Nano for this. Rumors are that AMD may be releasing Polaris 11 cards this year to compete with Nvidia at the upper end. If so, maybe we'll see a new R9 Nano Q3-4 or Q1 next year.

EDIT:
There is the shorter GTX 970 that's not quite mITX:
EK-FC970 GTX - Acetal – EK Webshop
Any idea on the length of this card?
Click to expand...


I bet we will see a compact version of both amd and nvidia! But ye for now the best buy Would be the R9 nano and it will be Way cheaper now :)
 
dondan One question: Right now you plan on having multiple tiers with specific limits (950 black, 350 silver, ...). If you now need to add more tiers for non-EU shipping, this will be a real problem. Don't get me wrong, the 1500 case limit is absolutely fine, but what if like 800 people want a silver case and only 700 a black case? After a sucessful campaign you'll have to send out backer surveys to get shipping adresses and so on IIRC. You could have the user select their color choice and shipment region in this survey, therefore only having one tier. You then wouldn't have unnecessary limits apart from the absolute case maximum and a potential backer wouln't have the hassle of looking at which of the 20 tiers is the correct one for them. Anyways, can't wait for the campaign! Great luck! :D

@all Edit: Just out of interest, here is a strawpoll about what tier everone will pick:
Poll
I hope you are fine with this poll, Dan :) Otherwise, I'll delete it!
 
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But already the tendency is massively going towards black. Dan absolutely made the right call on that, for some reason people just like black cases better, and LianLi probably had quite a lot of sales data to confirm that. Necere could probably shed some light on this as well.
 
iFreilicht said:
But already the tendency is massively going towards black. Dan absolutely made the right call on that, for some reason people just like black cases better, and LianLi probably had quite a lot of sales data to confirm that. Necere could probably shed some light on this as well.
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Black is the new beige, man. Besides, it's slimming and matches everything.
 
I think I am probably gonna get the silver one - so that it matches my macbook... :D
Although I agree that black is universal and works with everything, I personally think the silver one has more of a "wow" factor to it.
 
HopkinsTea said:
I think I am probably gonna get the silver one - so that it matches my macbook... :D
Although I agree that black is universal and works with everything, I personally think the silver one has more of a "wow" factor to it.
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I'm in the same boat.
 
HopkinsTea said:
I think I am probably gonna get the silver one - so that it matches my macbook... :D
Although I agree that black is universal and works with everything, I personally think the silver one has more of a "wow" factor to it.
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That and silver hides dust better. :p
 
Getting both, the silver one is going to be my newest build that'll be paired with the PG348Q, and the black one is going to be my HTPC
 
Aircoookie said:
dondan One question: Right now you plan on having multiple tiers with specific limits (950 black, 350 silver, ...). If you now need to add more tiers for non-EU shipping, this will be a real problem. Don't get me wrong, the 1500 case limit is absolutely fine, but what if like 800 people want a silver case and only 700 a black case? After a sucessful campaign you'll have to send out backer surveys to get shipping adresses and so on IIRC. You could have the user select their color choice and shipment region in this survey, therefore only having one tier. You then wouldn't have unnecessary limits apart from the absolute case maximum and a potential backer wouln't have the hassle of looking at which of the 20 tiers is the correct one for them. Anyways, can't wait for the campaign! Great luck! :D

@all Edit: Just out of interest, here is a strawpoll about what tier everone will pick:
Poll
I hope you are fine with this poll, Dan :) Otherwise, I'll delete it!
Click to expand...


The poll is fine for me, but I think the result out of it will be nearly the same as the color proportion that I got from LianLi and my old reseller partner. I think I will get the shipping addresses directly from Kickstarter.
 
dondan said:
The poll is fine for me, but I think the result out of it will be nearly the same as the color proportion that I got from LianLi and my old reseller partner. I think I will get the shipping addresses directly from Kickstarter.
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Aren't these cases built to order? What's behind setting the ratio of black and silver?
 
mathijs159 said:
Aren't these cases built to order? What's behind setting the ratio of black and silver?
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"…built to order…"

Oh man, that's a good one…

Do you seriously think that the manufacturer is just gonna sit around waiting for individual orders to crank out one single unit at a time…?!?

SMH…
 
Boil said:
"…built to order…"

Oh man, that's a good one…

Do you seriously think that the manufacturer is just gonna sit around waiting for individual orders to crank out one single unit at a time…?!?

SMH…
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Well they are built to order in a way. DAN can only start purchasing the cases from the manufacturer once the campaign is at least 100% funded. Normally, you don't have to pay upfront, but at the time of placing the order, DAN will know the exact amount of each case he needs, so in theory he could offer exactly as many of each case as everyone wanted, even if they are all produced at the same time.
The problem is, less cases of a variant give you a higher unit price for that variant, and for ordering an exact amount, he needs to get an exact quote, but he can only get a quote for steps of units (so 500, 550, 600 and so on), and this quote is already containing the amount of silver and black panels that will be ordered. Because there is a maximum limit of 1500 cases produced in this run, he has to make sure the the limits on kickstarter somwhat mirror the amounts of cases that will be purchased. If that is not the case, he could end up having sold out all black cases while 400 silver ones are still left that nobody wants. And if he had previously gotten a quote for 800 black cases and 700 silver ones, but ends up selling only 750 black and 200 silver ones, the unit price will be much higher, so he might end up losing money on every silver case he sells.
 
I have no MOQ for a color. This mean it doesn't matter if I order 1499 Black and 1 Silver or 1499 Silver and 1 Black.

This is the important part:

"Because there is a maximum limit of 1500 cases produced in this run, he has to make sure the the limits on kickstarter somwhat mirror the amounts of cases that will be purchased. If that is not the case, he could end up having sold out all black cases while 400 silver ones are still left that nobody wants."


Kickstarter don't work like a Webshop. On an Webshop you enter the product page, choose your color and your quantities and place the order.

On Kickstarter I have to make for every combination a own product(reward). One in Black one in Silver, 2x Black, 2x Silver and Black+ Silver.
The next Problem is that I defined a personal Max. quantity of 1500 units to be able to do the shipment. So now I have to calculate how to split the units on the rewards.
 
jb1 said:
I hope so! I bet we will see some 1070 minis, but they won't be reference PCBs. Thus, we probably won't see a custom water block for the a 1070 mini, just as there is no water block for the 970 mini. Correct me if I'm wrong though, is there a water block for the 970 mini? I think the best bet will still be the R9 Nano for this. Rumors are that AMD may be releasing Polaris 11 cards this year to compete with Nvidia at the upper end. If so, maybe we'll see a new R9 Nano Q3-4 or Q1 next year.

EDIT:
There is the shorter GTX 970 that's not quite mITX:
EK-FC970 GTX - Acetal – EK Webshop
Any idea on the length of this card?
Click to expand...

There actually is a water block für the DCMOC version of the Asus GTX 970 Mini, it's called "Alphacool NexXxoS GPX GTX 970 M07" (Compatibility List here)
 
Hi,

Been lurking here for a while, really looking forward to the Kickstarter for this case, looks amazing Dan.

Quick question: I've already started planning my build, are there any particular constraints to be aware of apart from CPU cooler height and graphics card size? In particular is it reasonable to assume almost any mITX motherboard and SFX PSU (modular or non-modular) should fit okay?

Cheers

Tomsk
 
Tomsk82 Bottom of the page: DAN Cases
dondan Is there anyway you could put an anchor name on the Compatibility section of your webpage so it can be directly be hyperlinked to, hopefully solving these constant dimensions questions?
You would just need to add <a name="Compatibility"> <b>Compatibility &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</b></a> to the Compatibility element allowing the hyperlink DAN Cases to link directly to the section.
 
Yes I know I have such an Anchor for the subscription. I will add it for the compatibility later today.
 
Sebbie said:
well the card is 30,8cm and the case support 30,6cm it could be done.... but it were just an example. you get my point.
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Dondan, i know a while back i asked about the asus strix 980ti if it will fit at its 305 mm long. And the official is 295. So no.
Now is 306 mm ? True? or did i missed something .

Thank you.
 
Rorschach said:
Dondan, i know a while back i asked about the asus strix 980ti if it will fit at its 305 mm long. And the official is 295. So no.
Now is 306 mm ? True? or did i missed something .

Thank you.
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DAN Cases
Graphics Card
Note: All manufacturers measure their cards differently, because there is no standard defined!

  • Max. Height
    • From bottom of the PCIe-Slot to top: 144mm
  • Max. Width:
    • Without backplate: 40mm
    • Including backplate: 45mm
  • Max Length:
    • Complete card incl. bracket: 306mm
    • Without bracket: 295mm
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So in my opinion, it wouldn't fit, unless you bend the case with a protrusion for the card.
 
Ah yes i remember now when he said that manufactures measure differently their cards.
Thanks.
I will wait for the 1070 and if not maybe get a MSI 980ti.
 
jb1 said:
There is the shorter GTX 970 that's not quite mITX:
EK-FC970 GTX - Acetal – EK Webshop
Any idea on the length of this card?
Click to expand...

That block is for a reference model of the 970. Now, I just checked the EKWB website; it USED to say that the block would only work with Revision 1.1 versions of the card, but that is no longer mentioned anywhere on the product page, nor the compatibility list or installation instructions…

This is a pic of an EVGA version of the card in question, minus the blower/cooler assembly; by my rough eyeballing, it looks like it should be just a bit longer than a mITX MB, I would say it is maybe about 180mm or so…?

evga970pcb.jpg
 
Boil said:
That block is for a reference model of the 970. Now, I just checked the EKWB website; it USED to say that the block would only work with Revision 1.1 versions of the card, but that is no longer mentioned anywhere on the product page, nor the compatibility list or installation instructions…

This is a pic of an EVGA version of the card in question, minus the blower/cooler assembly; by my rough eyeballing, it looks like it should be just a bit longer than a mITX MB, I would say it is maybe about 180mm or so…?
Click to expand...

I've had this GPU watercooled, I measured the PCB as 173mm, excluding the PCIe IO Bracket. So it goes past an ITX motherboard by a couple of millimeters and it's normal height even!
 
I think I made a mistake because I thought the Asus strix GTX 980ti has the same cooler as the 980 and 970 strix. Maybe someone can measure the card because without these values the card is too long. If the Slot Bracket is included in the length of 305mm the card can fit.

To be on the save side use the MSI GTX 980ti gaming
 
dondan said:
I think I made a mistake because I thought the Asus strix GTX 980ti has the same cooler as the 980 and 970 strix. Maybe someone can measure the card because without these values the card is too long. If the Slot Bracket is included in the length of 305mm the card can fit.

To be on the save side use the MSI GTX 980ti gaming
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:(
Can someone measure the card :)?
 
Don't know if I should get the "reference" GTX 1080 or AIB cards.. Only reason I'm thinking about buying the reference model is because of the A4-SFX case, but the temps for the reference model seems quite bad.
 
I'm guessing there will be compatible AIB cards given the A4 can fit some 980Ti's. If not, reference cards will still be available after AIB's come out.

Personally I am waiting until the kickstarter is successful and I have a case en route before buying any components. By that time we should be in full swing with Pascal and there should be lots of options, maybe even "big" Pascal will be out by then. The timing is actually pretty good if you figure we should have these cases by late summer early fall.
 
While I'm excited for this case and will hopefully have the money for one when the kickstarter begins, I'm thoroughly peeved by the decision to only include one USB port. Two ports stacked would've made it closer to the size of the power button, I feel like it would've made it look more symmetrical.
 
illram said:
I'm guessing there will be compatible AIB cards given the A4 can fit some 980Ti's. If not, reference cards will still be available after AIB's come out.

Personally I am waiting until the kickstarter is successful and I have a case en route before buying any components. By that time we should be in full swing with Pascal and there should be lots of options, maybe even "big" Pascal will be out by then. The timing is actually pretty good if you figure we should have these cases by late summer early fall.
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I'm stuck with Intel HD4600 right now, so will buy the GTX 1080 at release. Hopefully there will be some reviews of AIB cards before the 27th.
 
I am looking to get a custom length 24PIN Psu cable. My motherboard is similar to the one in the photos on the Dan Case site. What length would you guys reccomend? I have a Corsair SFX600 and the included 30cm cables are a nightmare to work with.
 
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