New Case Company?

Hi All,

I have been considering starting my own computer case company for quite some time now. It has been a back and forth thing in my mind because it will definitely take money (duh) to get moving on it and get prototypes made etc. I have my own design in my mind, but wanted to reach out and ask you all if there is anything that you have wanted to see in a case design that you never have, or multiple things you've seen in many different cases that you would love to see all in one case - any form factor is an option. My current design I have in mind is a Full Tower but that could change depending on what the votes finally decide would be best. I have posted this on multiple forums to include the input of as many enthusiasts as possible. My initial design from the current input given is going to be CAD designed starting next week (8/7)

Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you all!

i've given up on full towers because i've kind of given up on multi gpu. both of my personal machines are mid towers no taller than 19". they're rip-offs of the fractal define r5. short but long if that makes any sense. enough space for a couple of dual fan radiators and that's it. it seems that in the market that i serve, only small form factor gaming pcs sell quickly so that's what i build.

OK. I will bite. How about a case made of aircraft grade lite ply and balsa wood. Like what you would use to build an R/C Airplane.
Also handles. Cases need handles.
Hot swap 2.5" & 3.5" drive bays.
Better filtration and vibration/dampening.
Universal remounting points for front/side USB port access.
Access panels that don't require getting all four flapping corners to line up before it latches.
Make one that is 3-D printable and charge for the download. That's all for now.

rennyf77 said:

i've given up on full towers because i've kind of given up on multi gpu. both of my personal machines are mid towers no taller than 19". they're rip-offs of the fractal define r5. short but long if that makes any sense. enough space for a couple of dual fan radiators and that's it. it seems that in the market that i serve, only small form factor gaming pcs sell quickly so that's what i build.

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What market is that? Are you considering mid towers to be small form factor?

DrLobotomy said:

OK. I will bite. How about a case made of aircraft grade lite ply and balsa wood. Like what you would use to build an R/C Airplane.
Also handles. Cases need handles.
Hot swap 2.5" & 3.5" drive bays.
Better filtration and vibration/dampening.
Universal remounting points for front/side USB port access.
Access panels that don't require getting all four flapping corners to line up before it latches.
Make one that is 3-D printable and charge for the download. That's all for now.

Click to expand...

That would be incredibly interesting to make a case out of something like that, although wood imo has risks that I am not to keen on taking responsibility for issues. Would you even want handles on something like an atx mid? Hot swap bays are pretty awesome I would agree and will look into that. Air filtration I assume is what you are talking about correct? If you don't want the panels to have to line up, then you would end up with ugly gaps n such, unless I am misunderstanding.

The 3-D printing idea is unique but overall and insanely small market would be able to truly use it, and it would mean companies can pay a small amount to steal my case design which I am not up for having be an option. Super unique though.

Insanely small markets can be an area for growth if prodded properly. Gotta find the hook.

Yes, air filtration... Seems it gets overlooked or only half-assedly implemented IMHO. I shouldn't have to blow out my CPU/GPU fans if crap wasn't getting in the case to begin with.

The handle didn't necessarily have to be on the wooden case. I just thought some kind of light wood case would be cool. The handles are for the metal cases that are hard to hug and carry for us old, back back owning farts.

The 3D printing thing can be accessories for branding etc... Sometimes free advertising can pay off when establishing a name.

Yes and no. Insanely small segments of a market are not the best way for growth as a company. Can't really build a case company if the only thing you produce is a CAD render because 3D printing something of that size would be so insanely expensive you'd be better off as a company just making it out of aluminum and saving people the cost. That's just me. Could be something to do in the future when 3D printing a case wouldn't cost an arm and 2 legs. I do like the idea of creating some designs for accessories to be 3D printed would be cool. That is something pretty easy in comparison to manufacturing all the accessories.

I understand that, ultimately all it would do is reduce the amount of times you would have to blow them out though because the only way to completely stop dust at such a microscopic level would be to make it so tight that the airflow would be significantly restricted. Of course, there is a middle ground and I will work to find that middle ground to address this issue, thanks for bringing that up.

The handle idea I understand haha for mid towers more than full because full is just...don't carry it lol if mid ends up being the form factor, there is a decent chance there may be some handles that are easily attached and detached in order to transport it.

i've left the sf bay area and moved to central oregon to do of all things, wild land fire fighting. in the process of earning my emt license but still building on the side. the burgeoning pc gaming community here seem to like more compact machines. i've sold full tower builds but the bulk of the requests are for compact systems. recently built with an inexpensive sharkoon t3w in the red painted mobo tray. the case is light when filled with parts which the user really liked. not overly tall and fairly thin; about 7.5-8in wide. mid towers can be as small as the sharkoon case or closer to full tower size like the corsair c70. the clientele here prefer the smallness of something like the sharkoon.

rennyf77 said:

i've left the sf bay area and moved to central oregon to do of all things, wild land fire fighting. in the process of earning my emt license but still building on the side. the burgeoning pc gaming community here seem to like more compact machines. i've sold full tower builds but the bulk of the requests are for compact systems. recently built with an inexpensive sharkoon t3w in the red painted mobo tray. the case is light when filled with parts which the user really liked. not overly tall and fairly thin; about 7.5-8in wide. mid towers can be as small as the sharkoon case or closer to full tower size like the corsair c70. the clientele here prefer the smallness of something like the sharkoon.

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Just to clarify, you mean in Oregon correct? I understand where you are coming from. With a mid tower I would be pushing the size a little bit to be around the c70 size I think or slightly smaller. That one would change the current design I have going slightly but not too much I don't think. I would most likely set it up like an S340/H440 situation where it is offered in mid and full tower version, but not literally the same of course. I actually hadn't heard of sharkoon before so interesting to see that company. Thanks for that info/input.

yes oregon. specifically from klamath(border of ca/or) to madras(last town northward until you hit civilization again). there's at least one of my builds in each of the little towns that make up central oregon. the folks around here are outdoors people. the nerds here are like nerds in salem, eugene, or portland except they hunt, rock climb, and drink craft beer. pc gaming occupies a small portion of their leisure activities so the gaming pcs are preferable when they occupy a small portion of their space. something the size of the nzxt s340 would do well here if people were inclined to spend more than $50 for a computer case.

Personally, I would say the case market is not worth the cost of entry. It has very established players that have it all covered from designing, manufacturing, shipping, and customer service.

Just to simply powder coat your parts will require a large enough sand blaster (which also at a minimum requires a 2 phase 80 gal compressor), spraying rig (couple thousand $$), oven to bake, and drying/cleaning equipment + space. You can't just spray paint everything. You're going to need a CNC router/mill/laser cutter which really can range in price depending on size and abilities from a few thousand to $200k. Also time needed to learn the machine and program.

Then you may need to rent a space to fit it all, cost of an electrician to wire it, and then there's still the shipping & customer service to setup. There will also be other miscellaneous crap you will have to buy as well.

Your best bet would be to contract it all out, assemble, and ship. That won't leave a lot of profit unless they're really expensive cases, and I personally would never spend more than $200.

Sorry to be a davey downer! But I've been down a similar road having owned a manufacturing business making stainless steel turnings. Good luck!

rennyf77 said:

yes oregon. specifically from klamath(border of ca/or) to madras(last town northward until you hit civilization again). there's at least one of my builds in each of the little towns that make up central oregon. the folks around here are outdoors people. the nerds here are like nerds in salem, eugene, or portland except they hunt, rock climb, and drink craft beer. pc gaming occupies a small portion of their leisure activities so the gaming pcs are preferable when they occupy a small portion of their space. something the size of the nzxt s340 would do well here if people were inclined to spend more than $50 for a computer case.

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Ahh I gotcha. Very interesting those hipsters haha

King Icewind said:

Personally, I would say the case market is not worth the cost of entry. It has very established players that have it all covered from designing, manufacturing, shipping, and customer service.

Just to simply powder coat your parts will require a large enough sand blaster (which also at a minimum requires a 2 phase 80 gal compressor), spraying rig (couple thousand $$), oven to bake, and drying/cleaning equipment + space. You can't just spray paint everything. You're going to need a CNC router/mill/laser cutter which really can range in price depending on size and abilities from a few thousand to $200k. Also time needed to learn the machine and program.

Then you may need to rent a space to fit it all, cost of an electrician to wire it, and then there's still the shipping & customer service to setup. There will also be other miscellaneous crap you will have to buy as well.

Your best bet would be to contract it all out, assemble, and ship. That won't leave a lot of profit unless they're really expensive cases, and I personally would never spend more than $200.

Sorry to be a davey downer! But I've been down a similar road having owned a manufacturing business making stainless steel turnings. Good luck!

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I have to respectfully 100% disagree with you. Not only do I think there is plenty of room for another company to come in and change some things up in the market, but I also don't plan to get all the equipment to manufacture it in-house. I am assuming you don't know so I will explain; There are still some of the computer case companies that do not manufacture their own cases. NZXT, Ncase (obviously, they came from here, but good to note they are still under $200 and full aluminum), and in my research there are a few more that I can't remember atm. Also with Ncase, they aren't doing large run production and assuming first run goes well that is what this company would do. Ncase was founded with the main founder from the start of his thread on here saying he doesn't intend to make a business or profit from his idea to make the SFF aluminum case. I do. The difference is massive just on approach, and I will not be limiting myself by making an ITX case, at least not initially because they do not sell to SI companies which make up a massive amount of sales. I have worked for iBUYPOWER which if you didn't know is literally in a connected warehouse to NZXT and they are very connected in other ways that I don't believe need to be shared but allowed me some amazing insight into a case company. I am not blindly attempting this, I have done plenty of research and worked at iBUYPOWER where they get their cases manufactured elsewhere as well.

Granted, from the start our margins may be smallER, but they will be significant enough to make $$ and grow. I plan for the price to be around $100-150, and assume all goes remotely close to planned, longer term would consider creating a manufacturing facility of our own for production purposes and to gain a better margin, but for the most part, if you do big enough runs, and create a good enough relationship, you don't HAVE to have your own facility.

I hope that did not come off rude, that was not my intention.

So, do you have some particularly compelling feature that you're going to offer? The market already has tons of matte black boxes (with or without windows) in various sizes. I'm not convinced that it actually needs another brand to make them.

Especially if system integrators like iBuyPower (worst PC brand name ever, IMHO) are your target market, I'd imagine that whatever size they sell in the greatest volume is the size you should start with. I'm no expert, but I'd strongly suspect that that's micro-atx. Your buddies at iBuyPower and NZXT can probably provide better advice in that regard than we, as enthusiasts, can.

Yes I do. If everyone didn't start their business because there were "ton of" a competitor, you would have never seen most of the things you see today. IBP and Cyberpower would never exist. NZXT was started in '04, there were already "tons" at that time as well. It is not about being one of many, its about being one that does things right, among the many. There are maybe 4 brands I would ever consider buying a case from and imo thats not many at all. I consider more brands for a plain white t-shirt than that and those are literally the exact same design.

Btw iBUYPOWER was named in the 90's, doing lowercase i in front of things was the craze, hence iPod. Just happened to move into more products for Apple, but still yeah I'm not a huge fan of it either. I don't really think any SI company has a particularly amazing name. Since I worked there I already know what they build in most, especially since I planned the systems that went into some of their e-tailers. It's not micro-atx btw. But the reason I am asking for enthusiast opinion is because ultimately both are the target market since enthusiasts will be buying from the retailers like Fry's, Newegg, Amazon, etc. it is important to look at both aspects and not solely focus on one. Appreciate the input

Caselabs is slammed with orders and the community recommended them to stop taking orders and they did.
They are a US company and are doing very well, even with Thermaltake ripping off their designs.

There's room for you because if you build something we haven't seen before, the market will listen.
The key is, don't outsource to Asia. Make it here in the USA.
Some will still moan about $150+ cases, but that's not your customer so it's a wash.

If you develop some cookie cutter nonsense from Asia, you will become clones of other companies. Cooler Master and Corsair met this fate.
Also it will take them longer to rip your design making it here and don't ship orders to Asia (this is how Thermaltake ripped Caselabs). The ITX Ncase that was started here on the forms was ripped by Lian Li before they could get it the first batch in customers hands. The company that helped them make their case ripped off their design. That's how the case market works in Asia so beware.

I can totally understand where you're coming from. Caselabs are amazing, but their market is slim because their price point isn't just higher, it's extremely higher haha which limits who you can sell to. I'm not saying its not awesome, love their cases, but I don't really want to build a case that I wouldn't be able to afford. Yes Caselabs has a great business, but I don't want to only have my customer be someone who can afford a $400 ITX case.

In the same respect, I would love to source from the US for the manufacturing. Now granted I don't think that Corsair has become just another clone since I would consider them to be one of the only case companies I would ever buy from. I can't say that the exterior will be revolutionary, but the interior I actually just struck quite an interesting idea that will not have been seen before, at least nothing I've ever seen other than a scratch build buildlog. I will definitely do everything I can to source it in the US and still make it doable to sell to the SI companies and retailers that I have planned to sell to in the business plan. When it comes to designs there are always going to be extremely tight similarities because really, you build what the people want, if something is working, build it without breaking copyright laws. Now, that seems to be what you are talking about with Lian Li unless I am just missing something on their site because there are proprietary (correct me if I'm wrong) components to the Ncase M1 that are not in any of the Lian Li designs. Yes, they are few, but they are distinctive. I still would not want my overall design taken either of course, but if I can get a patent on it, they have no choice but to stay away from it, hoping that never has to happen though like I said. I also will not be shipping orders to Asia haha I would also point out that the rips that Tt did to Caselabs are the most poor excuses for a case I have ever seen and Tt as a company I would never buy from because, well in the industry lets just say they are known as ThermalFake since all they do is steal ideas and designs as long as they are not proprietary and call them theirs, but they are cheap hunks of junk imho.

Thanks a ton for your input, always good to have strong opinions in the mix.

As someone involved in manufacturing high end laser systems from pure CNC, making high end cases costs $$$$. Especially with western wages and costs. Sorry to burst the bubble but the margins for you will not be sustainable long term for a low price market like this. There is no high volume in high end cases. My long term PC supplier has had one of those big ass inwin transformer cases sitting in their showroom for nearly a year without selling... their cheaper cases do sell though and these guys mostly build high end rigs for customers (water cooling/mgpu etc etc).

I concur with above. Going full quality may require you to have a money-bleeding halo product supported by well-designed, affordable and competitive products.

I personally would love to see som nice, clean designs. Too many case manufacturers try to make their products look like spaceships, when really, a nice, clean, well-thought-out design is just SO DAMN RARE. This is probably why the Phantecks Evolv ATX is such a popular case right now.

What are you considering "high-end" - caselabs or corsair? I am not trying to build a small volume company. I am building a company to compete in large volume which is why I plan to sell to retailers and SI companies not just through the company website. Their cheaper cases...what price range are you talking about for "cheaper"? If I have to outsource to Asia or elsewhere then I will because I don't want to only sell to people that can afford a case that I myself cannot afford atm lol I can't buy caselabs so I don't want to make a company that would be something I couldn't buy myself before making the company.

I plan on going high quality, but not high end price. Personally I think that Corsair makes high quality cases at a price point that is reachable by the general population and that is what I want to do. I agree that Phanteks has great cases. I am going for what you are talking about, super clean, well manufactured, and meticulously laid out, that is the plan for this first case, and the company as a whole in everything that is produced. If that means outsourcing than so be it, I do not want to limit my customers based on a price point out of being stubborn to the manufacturing options around the world. I will, however, make sure to patent any of the unique systems that I add to the case. Anything that isn't patented by us will be something used by others already so it's not like I really care if they "steal" it because I won't have been the first to use a non-proprietary piece of the layout. Of course, I would still love to keep it in the US, but I also know that the likelihood is super low with wages obviously being much higher and operating costs etc.

Seeing that Phanteks and Lian Li (select models for both) are the only case manufacturers I'd consider buying from nowadays given utility/aesthetics/material quality, I would love to see the birth of a new case company. While I am merely a hobbyist, I have also thought about how cool it would be to design cases for a living. I will be rooting for you, good luck!

rastaban said:

Seeing that Phanteks and Lian Li (select models for both) are the only case manufacturers I'd consider buying from nowadays given utility/aesthetics/material quality, I would love to see the birth of a new case company. While I am merely a hobbyist, I have also thought about how cool it would be to design cases for a living. I will be rooting for you, good luck!

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Thanks so much. Means a lot. You do CAD design?

A case design that I have been longing for would be a mITX or mATX case that is somewhere in-between the Fractal Design "Nano" S and Jonsbo/Cooltek U2/U3 (mITX/mATX) but designed for good air-cooling and placement on top of a desk. Desk placement requires (for me) a small desk footprint (depth being the critical dimension) and ports in the front at mid-height.
I have been considering getting one or the other and modding it. Eventually I got the Jonsbo only because I did not have to make it smaller but I am wary about drilling more ventilation holes as I would risk damaging the aluminium finish.

The FD case has: Dust filters accessible from the front or top. Sound dampening in front of intake fans and inside. Cable management behind the motherboard tray with rubber grommets. Motherboard tray with cut-out for easier CPU cooler installation. These features are considered must-haves in larger cases these days but are still uncommon in smaller cases.
The FD case also has the I/O panels recessed, which I prefer. I think that internal expansion cards' mounting screws should be internal.

I do not like it when audio ports (headphone and mic) are separated with other ports in-between. It looks ugly and both plugs are often on the same Y-cable and you should not have to fight that if you want to insert a USB plug. I think care should also be taken to make sure that audio and USB ports are well placed in a visually pleasing straight line with even spacing.

Aesthetics-wise, I like the clean minimalistic Japanese design of Abee and Sony VAIO.
I'm not a fan of brushed aluminium anodized black, and especially not of it emulated in plastic. (I consider brushed black aluminium to be emulating stained wood, anyway) The typical grainy plastic finish is timeless. Blue LEDs should also be avoided: they are harmful to eyes and sleep and more out of date than gloss black.
Please do consider white editions (or other colours) early in the design process, not afterwards.

BA Tech said:

Thanks so much. Means a lot. You do CAD design?

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Unfortunately I do not. I work in the medical field. Computers are just a hobby.

Findecanor said:

A case design that I have been longing for would be a mITX or mATX case that is somewhere in-between the Fractal Design "Nano" S and Jonsbo/Cooltek U2/U3 (mITX/mATX) but designed for good air-cooling and placement on top of a desk. Desk placement requires (for me) a small desk footprint (depth being the critical dimension) and ports in the front at mid-height.
I have been considering getting one or the other and modding it. Eventually I got the Jonsbo only because I did not have to make it smaller but I am wary about drilling more ventilation holes as I would risk damaging the aluminium finish.

The FD case has: Dust filters accessible from the front or top. Sound dampening in front of intake fans and inside. Cable management behind the motherboard tray with rubber grommets. Motherboard tray with cut-out for easier CPU cooler installation. These features are considered must-haves in larger cases these days but are still uncommon in smaller cases.
The FD case also has the I/O panels recessed, which I prefer. I think that internal expansion cards' mounting screws should be internal.

I do not like it when audio ports (headphone and mic) are separated with other ports in-between. It looks ugly and both plugs are often on the same Y-cable and you should not have to fight that if you want to insert a USB plug. I think care should also be taken to make sure that audio and USB ports are well placed in a visually pleasing straight line with even spacing.

Aesthetics-wise, I like the clean minimalistic Japanese design of Abee and Sony VAIO.
I'm not a fan of brushed aluminium anodized black, and especially not of it emulated in plastic. (I consider brushed black aluminium to be emulating stained wood, anyway) The typical grainy plastic finish is timeless. Blue LEDs should also be avoided: they are harmful to eyes and sleep and more out of date than gloss black.
Please do consider white editions (or other colours) early in the design process, not afterwards.

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I agree with much of what you said and unfortunately have to say that mITX or mATX will not be the first case we design. I will of course keep these notes for when we go that route hopefully down the line after successful launch. The audio ports will definitely not be separated haha so no worries there man. Those aesthetics aren't bad and are a style that i like, however there will be spots for top fans as well as the ability to put a 360mm rad up top and either a max of 280mm or 360mm in the front as well. I am going to be focused a good amount on airflow as well as aesthetics which is why those decisions listed in the previous sentence were made. Personally I don't really see brushed aluminum emulating stained wood, but either way I am not really a fan of brushed aluminum because it grabs fingerprints like CRAZY and when I build a PC I wanted to show it off which means not having to wipe it down every 10min.

Thanks for your input its much appreciated.

CAD designs have been started but the possible partner I am working with who also happens to be my cousin, works full-time and goes to school full-time so it will take some time. Hope that you all stay tuned for when that is uploaded as I would love input from you all. Thanks in advance!

I just posted on this but the case market needs some serious options to service people with cases that are not strapped down with legacy parts.

Most people who are not your average hard forum goer, build or buy computers all at once, then they rebuild or buy new. These people are often looking for a gaming rig that can hold the main parts. 1 CPU, 1 GPU, 2 drives at most, and the PSU, they might throw in sound cards. And when they are done they dont sell the parts individually they sell the whole system and buy all new parts. So they don't need all these legacy parts.

With the advent of M.2 drives and SSDs there is no need for 3.5-inch drives. There is also no need for 5.25-inch bays. And the need for 2.5 inch drives is going to start falling but that really doesn't take up much space. The problem is the ATX form factor, PSUs, and big GPUs make it hard condense things. But I really think in a couple of years we are going to see some new case class based on this concept that will still have the space for full ATX mobos and powerful GPUs and PSUs but will lack most of the front accessories that define the mid ATX case.

So what about business? Well yes, there are many case makers, but the best time for any new company to come into a market is when a new product cycle is happening. And IMHO that time is right now, we can finally shed our computers of a lot of bulky items like optical drives and hard drive bays. So who will step up to the plate in this area?


Also this is any idea, but its not something you build a company off of.

USB port for charging phones which is powered, even when the computer is off, but does not actually connect data. That way you can charge devices without having them auto detect.

rudy said:

Also this is any idea, but its not something you build a company off of.

USB port for charging phones which is powered, even when the computer is off, but does not actually connect data. That way you can charge devices without having them auto detect.

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Motherboards do this already, or at least mine does. I routinely charge things via the front USB ports (which are connected directly to the motherboard) while the PC is off.

I think cube cases & AIO CPU's & GPU's are the future. Notice how Corsairs most popular case is the Air 540 (Cube case) stated multiple times as their best selling case. The Thermaltake X9's & X5's aren't doing too bad themselves. Most of the more popular Caselabs cases are cubes as well.

Cube cases work best with AIO GPU's & CPU's but all the options out on the current market are missing something very important or chose form over function (like the new Corsair Air 740)

Cube cases are also a "new" form factor while the tower case has been around for decades so they all feel old and outdated. I feel like cases are getting smaller too with new changes such as no more 4 way SLI for Nvidia gaming and more power efficient components. Cube cases allow a smaller case/footprint.

The biggest issue with cube cases right now is 90% of them are for MATX or smaller. Normally this is fine but it allows very cramped room to work with and sandwhich stacked GPUs. Some cube cases only need to be a few more inches on each side to accommodate an ATX and make it a lot more pleasant to work with. 90% of cube cases that are ATX have limited intake and exhaust fans that aren't optimal (Lian-Li's, Air 740, ect.). Then you have the monstrous Core x5 & x9 that are WAY too big.

This is currently an untapped market and I know because I look almost weekly for udpdates;

An ATX cube case that supports at least 4 radiator exhaust and 4+ fan intakes without being ridiculously large. The 4 radiator exhausts is essential to have 2x120mm GPU AIO's & 1x240mm CPU AIO which is pretty much the maximum amount needed due to 2 way SLI only now for Nvidia and no benefit having a 360mm radiator versus a 240mm for just the CPU alone. Preferably you'd have 1+ intake per 1 exhaust.

The perfect case and the one I use right now is the Thermaltake Core V21. It's a small MATX case with 13 fans total. 13 FANS ON AN MATX CASE. Not even 90%+ of EATX cases have this many fans. There's 2 fans on the front, 2 on bottom, 2 on side 1, 2 on side 2, 1 in back, 4 on top. I use the 4 top fans as exhaust and the rest intake. The only issue is I had to buy 2 of the cases to cannibalize the mounts and side panels to make 1 perfect case and it's unfortunately an MATX case when I'd die for an ATX one. You can also put a window on any panel you want but you'd have to sacrifice 2-4 fans depending on the panel and how many panels you want windows on.

I'd personally build an ATX version of the V21 while using more premium materials & components such as Brushed aluminum & tempered glass.

Seyumi said:

Cube cases allow a smaller case/footprint.

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That's not actually true. You save some height and depth in exchange for a lot of added width, which typically results in a larger overall footprint and volume. The Core V21 you give as an example of a "small" mATX case is 46L, which is larger than the Corsair 350D (42L), and significantly larger than the Silverstone TJ08-E (30L), both of which are more conventional mATX tower cases. The footprint is likewise larger, with the V21 coming in at 320 x 424mm (W x D), compared to the 350D at 210 x 440mm and the TJ08-E at 210 x 385mm.

A non-full size / super tower that can fit an entire loop in it easily. I dont need DVD or Optical drives anymore ... I dont need space for 3.5" drives. I'd rather have a dedicated internal area for a radiator / pump etc. I'd sell my 900D in a heart beat and downsize if I could get everything internal (Rest of rig in sig).

Necere said:

Motherboards do this already, or at least mine does. I routinely charge things via the front USB ports (which are connected directly to the motherboard) while the PC is off.

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The motherboard option is OK but each time people plug an item in it detects it and does stuff. I am talking about just a charger.


I would also be cautious of claims about cube cases, they have their place in the market for sure. But lots of players are already doing them. They don't actually save space either volume or in dimensions most people need to save.

So why are corsairs best-selling case a cube, maybe because it's the best cube or maybe because people who want mid ATX have tons more options to choose from. I think corsair has roughly 30 tower cases vs 4 cubes. If you have a great cube idea I am not discouraging you, though.

So, I'm not sure as to the experience of the various people here, so I'll only speak for myself. I have a LOT of experience building PCs professionally. here are some random thoughts:

I REALLY respect a case that uses space efficiently, but is not a pain-in-the-ass to work with. The Antec 900 is an example of what NOT to do. I like my PCs dense with parts. I don't like to see someone have a massive 900D with one or two drives and a single GPU. The PC is mostly air at that point. That's why the craft ITX cases are so appealing: the machines feel dense and well-crafted with little wasted space by design.

I absolutely hate plastic, and I don't like plastic on ANY part of the case, not even the bezel or buttons. Rubber is fine, dampening foam is a plus, but plastic can just die in a fire.

Tool-less caddies for SSDs and HDDs are 50/50: when done well, they are really fun and look great. When half-assed, they make the build look cheap and the process frustrating. No professional builder complains about having to screw HDDs and SSDs into place.

I have yet to build into a case with a 'basement' PSU compartment that was done wrong. In truth, I will no longer consider a case without a closed-off PSU compartment for my own builds. PSUs are ugly and cables are worse: being able to hide them in the basement of my build is a luxury I never want to give up.

So many cases have too many vents. I mean it: look at some of the best cases out there: you will only see vents/fan mounts where they would be useful. Classic example is the vent/intake mount on the starboard side door: not needed in most ATX systems and when not in use just screws up airflow. In through the front, out through the top and back. Simple.

CABLE. MANAGEMENT. BEHIND. THE. MAINBOARD. Seriously. If you cant fit a wadded-up 24-pin mainboard cable behind the mainboard tray without bending the port side door, what's the point of having the space? Give me a solid inch of working room behind the mainboard, even on a small case.


Plexi is fine, tempered glass is better, but the REAL way to make a case pop with a starboard side window is to make sure the window ONLY sees the mainboard tray area. Nobody cares about your hard drives, nobody cares about the power supply. Some 'pretty good' cases could have been 'wow' cases but messed up because the side window shows off a ton of empty drive trays and empty cable grommets, taking focus away from the real reason people want to show off their PC's guts.

Thats all I can think of right now. Take this as rambling or advice, up to you.