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

dondan said:
Big Update in the first post.
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That's some amazing news. I'm definitely interested in the SFX option.
Would you consider a position for the power socket on the back of the case? Maybe with smaller start button...
 
I will made a cutout at the position for the dc-jack. Than everybody can decide, dc-jack or ac-inlet at this position.
 
dondan said:
I will made a cutout at the position for the dc-jack. Than everybody can decide, dc-jack or ac-inlet at this position.
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The AC inlet would not fit in the DC-jack hole though; anyone who wants the SFX psu would need to enlarge the hole themselves.

Though I don't really see any reason to use the SFX psu over the HDPLEX.
 
Yes i know i made a big hole for ac and a adapter to reduce to dc ;)
 
dondan said:
I will made a cutout at the position for the dc-jack. Than everybody can decide, dc-jack or ac-inlet at this position.
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Thank you, I think it's the best solution to have a choice.

But now as my interest in this case is growing, I have some more questions :)
1. Is there enough space for a second 2.5" drive behind the front panel? Looking at the renders - there should be. Or at least a little modification of the PSU cage should allow it.
2. Are there any supports for the video card, besides the back plate mounts? Is it resting on the MB stand-offs? It's not very clear from the pictures.
3. What's the purpose of the cut-outs on the top of the frame?

ZXZ7deb.jpg
 
I forgot to add mountpoints for a second 2,5" drive in the front. Yes it will work and i add it.
The 4 holes on the top and in the button is a part of the mounting solution of the U-formed-side-panel.
It works like the Lian Li HDD skrewless mounting. You put the U-side in the big holes and slide it to the back and add 2 screws (button/top) to fix it. And for a better holding at the frontarea there are four push-pins, they have the same function like for the sidepanels (left/right). The backside of the gpu will secured by a special isolatet mat that is glued to the right-sidepanel. It will look like the material of an plastic binder.

20140831_223748fijso.jpg
 
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Thanks for the second 2.5" drive :)
I'm not familiar with Lian-Li cases, so I didn't recognize the mounting.

But I think my bad English led to a little misunderstanding. I was talking about the mounting plate. Is this the only thing that holds the video card in place? As the A4 case will work better with longer video cards, their length should be somehow supported, so they don't hang in the air.
 
dondan said:
Thank you so much :) I hope so much that this project become real.
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It looks good, but it will be a hard sell without a power supply and power adapter. ESPECIALLY if it requires both a power supply and power adapter from two more different sources. Requiring further purchases to make something work is a sure-fire way to kill a kickstarter.

But the good news is, selling customizable choices on kickstarter is also a good way to make money. I suggest you only sell this with the parts needed to run it. And ALSO offer it without any extra parts (for less money of course).

If you want to sell a lot of parts, I wouldn't go to kickstarter until you have a bunch of power supplies and power adapters to sell as well.
 
bAMtan2 said:
It looks good, but it will be a hard sell without a power supply and power adapter. ESPECIALLY if it requires both a power supply and power adapter from two more different sources. Requiring further purchases to make something work is a sure-fire way to kill a kickstarter.

But the good news is, selling customizable choices on kickstarter is also a good way to make money. I suggest you only sell this with the parts needed to run it. And ALSO offer it without any extra parts (for less money of course).

If you want to sell a lot of parts, I wouldn't go to kickstarter until you have a bunch of power supplies and power adapters to sell as well.
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That's not a bad idea. Have two tiers and in the cheaper one, stress that you have to source the HDPLEX and the adapter.
 
This is not a good idea because i have to give warranty for each part the case come with. Iam actualy a 1. Person company so it is impossible and too dangerouse doing this. But i can give you links to the shops with the he best price for this parts.
 
Why should i try the chieftec? I only try the hdplex and pico-box dc-boards. Sfx is only supported with modding for the users which can't live with the external psu solution. And i think the dc solution is the best one. Very silent and enough power. I know much more expansive as the Chieftec but this case is not for user who wants it cheap. Everythink is expensive (Riser, Noctua Fans, DcBoard, Dell 330w brick, Case) :)
 
dondan said:
Why should i try the chieftec? I only try the hdplex and pico-box dc-boards. Sfx is only supported with modding for the users which can't live with the external psu solution. And i think the dc solution is the best one. Very silent and enough power. I know much more expansive as the Chieftec but this case is not for user who wants it cheap. Everythink is expensive (Riser, Noctua Fans, DcBoard, Dell 330w brick) :)
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Sure. From what I understand, dc bricks are lagging behind in terms of efficiency, plus, my daughter has this nasty habbit of pulling the plug :mad:
Wether you go with chieftec or not, I would love it, if you could include an already built in stripped psu in the final product. There should be plenty of options on the asian market for good sfx power supplies.
 
qwerkus said:
Sure. From what I understand, dc bricks are lagging behind in terms of efficiency, plus, my daughter has this nasty habbit of pulling the plug :mad:
Wether you go with chieftec or not, I would love it, if you could include an already built in stripped psu in the final product. There should be plenty of options on the asian market for good sfx power supplies.
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I don't think that would be possible because those would have to be all done individually by hand. Dondan would also have to provide warranty for the violated power supplies as well.
 
Have been reading most of the post, and have to say that this is awesome. Congrats dondan, I share your feeling that there is great potential here.

Yet I also feel that the target marketing segment might not be the ideal one, when you write that "everything is expensive". I sure understand a genuine wish to produce the best possible case. Nevertheless, methinks an enthusiasts willing to pay for the upper class stuff would want more horsepower, the possibility of mounting rads..etc. A bit more like the Ncase.

Now with a little tweaking, your stuff could come out as the next hp slimline rig, provided it's cheap enough. And cheap it could be: one could use sturdy steel instead of aluminium, a stripped psu directly from the factory, and a bit lower quality fans, and still get an awesome case.

Don't get me wrong. I don't want to hijack your efforts: it's already quite an achievement as it is. I just have this feeling that this could be the raspberry pi of itx cases. Now that thanks to ssds and ongoing miniaturisation a gaming/high end pc is actually not much more than a laptop with a full fledged gfx card and better airflow, you sir did it, and showed how it could fit within a tolstoi volume. Let's mass produce, and show ms/sony/nintendo how overprice and lousy their products are.

Should you be interested, you can pm me if you could use some help finding cheap industrial partners. If not, count me in anyway to order one of your samples.

keep up the good work,

qwerkus
 
Qwerkus, there are plenty of options already for people who want to fit in radiators or SLI/X-fire configuations (such as the Ncase that you mentioned). The problem is that enthusiasts who are willing to put down the cash needed for a custom case like this are also very demanding in terms of quality and wouldn't settle for the cheapest option available, or they would have gone with a commercially available case.
 
Alted4 said:
Qwerkus, there are plenty of options already for people who want to fit in radiators or SLI/X-fire configuations (such as the Ncase that you mentioned). The problem is that enthusiasts who are willing to put down the cash needed for a custom case like this are also very demanding in terms of quality and wouldn't settle for the cheapest option available, or they would have gone with a commercially available case.
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I think there is room for both a high quality version and a mass produced version.

Basically I think that the main problem with the cheap ITX cases that exist now is not that they are made of cheap materials, but rather that they are ugly as hell. I mean, I don't get why most of them got ugly plastic fronts, space for ODD and 3.5" hdds, who wants that in their ITX case?

E.g. Chieftec's BT-02B or BT-04B.

How hard is it to make something simple and cheap?
 
qwerkus said:
Have been reading most of the post, and have to say that this is awesome. Congrats dondan, I share your feeling that there is great potential here.

Yet I also feel that the target marketing segment might not be the ideal one, when you write that "everything is expensive". I sure understand a genuine wish to produce the best possible case. Nevertheless, methinks an enthusiasts willing to pay for the upper class stuff would want more horsepower, the possibility of mounting rads..etc. A bit more like the Ncase.

Now with a little tweaking, your stuff could come out as the next hp slimline rig, provided it's cheap enough. And cheap it could be: one could use sturdy steel instead of aluminium, a stripped psu directly from the factory, and a bit lower quality fans, and still get an awesome case.

Don't get me wrong. I don't want to hijack your efforts: it's already quite an achievement as it is. I just have this feeling that this could be the raspberry pi of itx cases. Now that thanks to ssds and ongoing miniaturisation a gaming/high end pc is actually not much more than a laptop with a full fledged gfx card and better airflow, you sir did it, and showed how it could fit within a tolstoi volume. Let's mass produce, and show ms/sony/nintendo how overprice and lousy their products are.

Should you be interested, you can pm me if you could use some help finding cheap industrial partners. If not, count me in anyway to order one of your samples.

keep up the good work,

qwerkus
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Like Alted4 has said, those cases exist, and this case is not meant to compete with them. This is a case for a different kind of enthusiast. Those who are willing to sacrifice a bit of something else for the best graphics cards.

And to be fair, building in this case would not be that expensive. The $120-150 dondan is aiming for is very reasonable, especially for an aluminum. There are plenty of cases on the mainstream market today at those price points.

The riser ribbon is about $30, so really not too much of heavy purchase.

The power supply comes out to about $170 (HDPLEX + ac adapter). Although this is quite steep, there are plenty of enthusiasts who would happily drop that much on a power supply.
 
make the psu 600w or higher and I'd feel comfy with something like this
 
Well, point me to a sturdy mini itx case below 7-8L supporting a full sized video card ? I sure couldn't find one. As shown in the other post, I got the chieftec bt 04 (which is no THAT ugly btw), but am struggling with proper cooling and gfx cards <220mm.

I do like and respect enthusiasm, but also think the best stuff does not always has to be that expensive. 150$ + 30$ + 170$ is a lot of money for the family guy I am, not counting shipment and taxes to Europe - if it ever happens. A few years ago, In win had a riser case (though single slot) for about $60 including a 180W psu.

So hear the voice of the poor guy, when he says: go for it as a premium product, and when it's done, maybe contact in win, chieftec or whatever company, and try to mass produce at low cost. I do think that this segment (mini-box + full sized gfx card) is currently empty, and would have great potential. An m350 case with riser card on the back would indeed be awesome.
 
rawrr said:
Well you could have a go at stripping an SFX 600w and mounting it.
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Know of any resources detailing how to strip a silverstone SFX power supply?

From what i've gathered, it's not easy and potentially dangerous before and after. But it seems like the only option if I were to buy a case.
 
yolostrats said:
From what i've gathered, it's not easy and potentially dangerous before and after. But it seems like the only option if I were to buy a case.
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Yes, yes and yes. :)

The AC parts of the psu are not to be trifled with, and that's the main reason I'm staying away from such an adventure.
 
yolostrats said:
Know of any resources detailing how to strip a silverstone SFX power supply?

From what i've gathered, it's not easy and potentially dangerous before and after. But it seems like the only option if I were to buy a case.
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Why not just use the hdplex?
 
yolostrats said:
Know of any resources detailing how to strip a silverstone SFX power supply?

From what i've gathered, it's not easy and potentially dangerous before and after. But it seems like the only option if I were to buy a case.
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I've done it, and moved the AC line filter elsewhere in order to make my SFX less tall and fit it onto a 120mm rad. But I still put it back in an enclosure to ensure a little safety.

But SFX PSUs are so dense, you don't really win anything by opening them. You can remove the fan, move the inlet / line filter, move or remove the modular connector PCB. Then you are still left with something that is around 120x80x50mm.
 
As a reference, I ran Kombustor + Linpack simultaneously on my i7 4770K + GTX 780 Ti (both at stock clocks) rig a while ago just to check the peak power consumption with 100% cpu and 100% gpu load (using an NZR SEM). It turned out to be 377W on the DC side (428W AC at the wall, 88% efficiency). Also note that in real life situations, the cpu and gpu will probably never run att full tilt simultaneously, so 377W is an extreme.

Since the peak load of the HD Plex and Dell power brick seems to be 420W DC, I'm not worried.

But it's best to be a bit careful with overclocking, of course.
 
WiSK said:
I've done it, and moved the AC line filter elsewhere in order to make my SFX less tall and fit it onto a 120mm rad. But I still put it back in an enclosure to ensure a little safety.

But SFX PSUs are so dense, you don't really win anything by opening them. You can remove the fan, move the inlet / line filter, move or remove the modular connector PCB. Then you are still left with something that is around 120x80x50mm.
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Yes and this is the reason because a striped sfx will work. The room is 160x120x50 :)

@backedfeed: Thank you for makin this clear. But to ran save i would prefer a normal gtx 780 or gtx 980 (less power consumtion because of maxwel)
 
dondan said:
Yes and this is the reason because a striped sfx will work. The room is 160x120x50 :)

@backedfeed: Thank you for makin this clear. But to ran save i would prefer a normal gtx 780 or gtx 980 (less power because of maxwel)
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Still, that's really good information to convince people that HDPLEX will work. Just say that an i7 + GTX 780 ti is 428w at wall
 
rawrr said:
Why not just use the hdplex?
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Because of the external brick and the combined price brick+hdplex. And if you're thinking outside of US, the price will grow even more.

Also I don't like to work outside of specs. You cannot be sure that each and every HDplex 250W will do 420W. Same with the Dell AC adapter.
 
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Hello all,

Sorry to see your thread on OCN got deleted dondan; I asked the moderators for an explanation, and they suggested that the deletion was necessary due to some sort of paid affiliation/promotion by the thread's OP and the project creator.

I'll follow this thread to hear back regarding the graphed results of the HDPlex's Vreg and Ripple Suppression.
 
This is the answer of hdplex:
The ripple value is coming from the ATX spec. The real value of the 250W is a lot lower. It costs around 1k to do serious test for ripple noise.

I have done this for linear PSU. But I have not done this for 160W nor 250W.

Computerbase.de is doing a review of this using chroma6000 machine. Hope the review will shed more light.

For cooling, passive cooling is ample since it has high efficiency.

Also for the power rating, I think the 250W rating is underated a little.
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Computerbase said they will offer a review early october and they ask me if they can test the A4 Lian Li prototyp. This could be very helpful to make a successful crowdfounding campaign :)
 
fleetfeather said:
Hello all,

Sorry to see your thread on OCN got deleted dondan; I asked the moderators for an explanation, and they suggested that the deletion was necessary due to some sort of paid affiliation/promotion by the thread's OP and the project creator.

I'll follow this thread to hear back regarding the graphed results of the HDPlex's Vreg and Ripple Suppression.
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Hey, I was the OP. I have no idea why as well and I've sent an appeal through.
 
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