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

jamaicanpi said:
Necere, case width question? Have you tested if the case is wide enough for 3 slot GPU coolers? The Arctic twin turbo and Asus 3 slot coolers are extra wide, can this case accommodate them?
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The 3rd slot is limited to 11", which excludes most of the triple slot ASUS cards, which are 11.8". They have a triple slot 7970 that's exactly 11", and while the cooler looks like it should fit, the PCB is wider than normal which pushes the PCIe power connectors further out, and I'm not too sure there's enough space for it.

The Accelero Twin Turbo II may or may not fit. It depends exactly where it sits on the card.

Basically, if you have a standard-width card, the most any cooler or waterblock can extend past the edge is 29mm before it hits the side panel (assuming Lian Li executes the design exactly to spec).

Without physical parts in-hand, or very precise models of everything, it's impossible to know for sure if things are going to fit or not (unless we increase the size enough to where there's no longer any question).

In short, I wouldn't really count on wider than normal cards/coolers fitting.
 
Once you folks get that quote, figures out shipping costs, and set up a Kickstarter (or IndieGoGo or whatever), I'm down for one, regardless of price. I was considering buying a Prodigy and modding it before I found this thread a week or two ago. Now I want to support a community project! :)
 
M4rk said:
Once you folks get that quote, figures out shipping costs, and set up a Kickstarter (or IndieGoGo or whatever), I'm down for one, regardless of price. I was considering buying a Prodigy and modding it before I found this thread a week or two ago. Now I want to support a community project! :)
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Well, within reason. If this costs as much as a Caselabs STH10, I might have to decline, but even if it is, it's sure to gain popularity!

How are things going with Lian Li?
 
Nick0matic said:
Well, within reason. If this costs as much as a Caselabs STH10, I might have to decline, but even if it is, it's sure to gain popularity!

How are things going with Lian Li?
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We are end-buyers of this product as well and prefer not to burn a hole in our wallets. I have my fingers crossed on the price quote. For those that are religious, add this product to your prayers.

Lian Li is validating the design, we will follow up with them in a few days.
 
I still vote for a ATX power supply. There is simple too little choice when buying a SFX power supply. But I'm still following the project.
 
a 600w sfx psu should be powerful enough to drive most systems. I have a 600w in my silverstone sff right now powering an i7 2600k and a gtx 680 with no issues. I know there are setups that will draw more power but for sff, the 600w sfx psus should be more than sufficient
 
Klrgoten said:
a 600w sfx psu should be powerful enough to drive most systems. I have a 600w in my silverstone sff right now powering an i7 2600k and a gtx 680 with no issues.
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That's an ATX PSU though, not SFX. The 450w Silverstone is the most powerful SFX currently available. Still, it's powerful enough for pretty much any single GPU card out there.
 
I ended up buying a silverstone SG08 and for some reason thought the psu was an sfx, now that I look at it... realize its just a custom 600w by silverstone. My mistake :(

Necere said:
That's an ATX PSU though, not SFX. The 450w Silverstone is the most powerful SFX currently available. Still, it's powerful enough for pretty much any single GPU card out there.
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The 450W Silverstone is enough for 2500K @ 4,5Ghz and GTX680 @ 1300. So there's no need for Full-ATX-PSU. Only thing is the fan. I would mod it.
 
Yea 450W is enough for most SFF builds. I do wish there was more variety in SFX PSUs though
 
SIlverstone does sort of have the market cornered on SFF appropriate power supplies. With the 450W SFX and the 140mm ATX power supplies in their arsenal, they are go to for SFF power supply.
 
This case looks like it was designed by people who actually builds and use their computer.

There are a couple questions I have (hopefully they are not repeated)

1. Will it come in Black? (I know that might make the cost go up...)

2. Distribution? (I'm in Canada, will this be an issue?)

3. Ideal/Possible release date? (Q2'13, Q3'13?)

Price wise, Lian Li cases are never cheap. So I would expect a custom case to be more costlier. I'm praying they will like this design and actually add it to their line up and call it HardForm Community Edition (HCE).
 
After trawling around for a good SFF case, i chanced upon this forum. The design is nearly perfect! 2x120 radiator, small reservoir, space for 2x 3.5" HDDs/SSDs, full-slot GPU and SFX PSU.
I am ready to buy two of these casings. When will it be ready?
 
TenzoR said:
1. Will it come in Black?
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Maybe. We'll probably only do one color, so we may run a poll or something to decide.


TenzoR said:
2. Distribution? (I'm in Canada, will this be an issue?)
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I don't believe we have the answer to that right now (wahaha may, not sure). Canada's more likely than outside North America though, I'd think.


It's been a week since we submitted the files to Lian Li and no word yet. It's a more complex design than the first one so it may take longer to evaluate. Still, if we don't hear from them in the next couple of days we'll follow up.
 
Reckie said:
Yes, most itx boards only have room for half height m-pcie so its still tricky. As others posted, mini-DTX in z77 would be nice.
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Amfeltec has a half-height mPCIE to PCIE adapter... Seems to be the nicest one I've found online.

To the design crew: Really great job finalizing the case guys, hope everything with Lian Li works out.

If I can afford one, I'm most definitely ordering one from you all (In Canada).

Good luck!
 
This is a great design concept but honestly I would rather see something that goes just a little further for the enthusiast crowd and increase the height and width of it more to accomodate easy install of a 240mm rad CPU cooler like the Corsair H100i AIO, a full size ATX PSU up to around 160mm or so like the Corsair AX850, and then extend the space behind the motherboard tray to mount the SSD's and HDD's back there like what CaseLabs does.
 
burningrave101 said:
This is a great design concept but honestly I would rather see something that goes just a little further for the enthusiast crowd and increase the height and width of it more to accomodate easy install of a 240mm rad CPU cooler like the Corsair H100i AIO, a full size ATX PSU up to around 160mm or so like the Corsair AX850, and then extend the space behind the motherboard tray to mount the SSD's and HDD's back there like what CaseLabs does.
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then this might be more along the lines of the type of itx case (size-wise) that you're looking for :p
 
burningrave101 said:
This is a great design concept but honestly I would rather see something that goes just a little further for the enthusiast crowd and increase the height and width of it more to accomodate easy install of a 240mm rad CPU cooler like the Corsair H100i AIO, a full size ATX PSU up to around 160mm or so like the Corsair AX850, and then extend the space behind the motherboard tray to mount the SSD's and HDD's back there like what CaseLabs does.
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Check out the Fractal Node 304, it may be more of what you are looking for.
 
Kaos_Drem said:
Pretty sure that was a joke...

But they have already said the case as it sits now is about as big as they want to go and if you looked at the pics you can see that it would easily fit the 240mm radiator of the h100.
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Yeah but my concern was just that it looks pretty crowded in there once everything gets installed and will there be enough room for the tubing and cable routing and still be able to get good airflow. Also if you install the 240mm rad that leaves the only place for a mechanical drive underneath the graphics card which limits the type of card you can use since it can't be anything but a dual slot blower style cooler. Mechanical drives can also get pretty warm, especially if you're going to sandwich one up against the GPU with no airflow.

I don't know, maybe what I'm after is just larger than what you guys are wanting, but if it was me getting Lian Li to custom design a SFF case any way I wanted, and if it's going to be geared towards enthusiasts with real watercooling potential, then I'd want to make sure there's more than enough room to work and route everything neatly for a 240mm rad loop, cable management, and install an SSD and a couple of mechanical drives preferably behind the motherboard tray or some place other than right under the GPU so that you can have that area open for installing the 120mm fans for the GPU cooling. With the design the way it is you have to give up something in order to have placement for everything.
 
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Since you guys have finalized this design, you should definitely check with our OEM/ODM team to get a price quote:

[email protected]

I believe the OP misunderstood our USA office's response earlier. They quoted that for custom project the minimum required quantity is 200 pieces, not $200 (there was no way to give price quote with those earlier ID drawings).
 
burningrave101 said:
Yeah but my concern was just that it looks pretty crowded in there once everything gets installed and will there be enough room for the tubing and cable routing and still be able to get good airflow. Also if you install the 240mm rad that leaves the only place for a mechanical drive underneath the graphics card which limits the type of card you can use since it can't be anything but a dual slot blower style cooler. Mechanical drives can also get pretty warm, especially if you're going to sandwich one up against the GPU with no airflow.

I don't know, maybe what I'm after is just larger than what you guys are wanting, but if it was me getting Lian Li to custom design a SFF case any way I wanted, and if it's going to be geared towards enthusiasts with real watercooling potential, then I'd want to make sure there's more than enough room to work and route everything neatly for a 240mm rad loop, cable management, and install an SSD and a couple of mechanical drives preferably behind the motherboard tray or some place other than right under the GPU so that you can have that area open for installing the 120mm fans for the GPU cooling. With the design the way it is you have to give up something in order to have placement for everything.
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That's sort of the compromise with making cases this small. The very existence of small ITX cases defines compromise geared towards minimizing case size. The larger and larger a case of this type gets, the less a purpose it really serves.

While I'd love to see hundreds of more varied choices in the ITX market, the reality is that it's a niche sector, so not everyone can get everything. I, too, would like an ATX power supply and more space for things in an ITX case, but I prioritize size, and am therefore willing to pay for an SFX power supply and sacrifice some expansion and airflow.

Size is the basis of this design, and Necere and the OP have already designed a case which has made plenty of size compromises for compatibility and is unlike any other case on the market.

Also, OP, I'd take up Silverstone's offer up there. Who knows, maybe they'll bundle you a power supply, too.
 
Tony Ou said:
Since you guys have finalized this design, you should definitely check with our OEM/ODM team to get a price quote:

[email protected]

I believe the OP misunderstood our USA office's response earlier. They quoted that for custom project the minimum required quantity is 200 pieces, not $200 (there was no way to give price quote with those earlier ID drawings).
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Thanks Tony.

Trying to get a hold of Necere right now, will touch base with you guys soon.
 
I been sort of following this thread. I'm curious what is the final dimensions (HWD)?
 
Yeah, we're working out some of the engineering details with LL's engineers now. I expect we should get a cost estimate once we have those pretty well nailed down.
 
Necere said:
The dimensions in the first post are current.
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So it comes out to about 12.5 or 12.6 inches in length? If so I could use it for a build right now. :D

Good luck with this product idea.
 
Necere said:
Yeah, we're working out some of the engineering details with LL's engineers now. I expect we should get a cost estimate once we have those pretty well nailed down.
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Awesome.

This project seems a little similar to MurderMod's MurderBox 2 to me, meaning a group of folks wanted something specific and got a manufacturer to work with them to make their dream a reality.

http://www.murderbox.com/mkii/

Would you guys be interested in building a site like the MurderBox 2's to show off the case and convince people to buy in?

I would love to help build out a CMS-based or hardcoded site, it's my profession at the moment.

We'd need a name for the case first, of course. ;)
 
Skott said:
So it comes out to about 12.5 or 12.6 inches in length? If so I could use it for a build right now. :D
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Actually we've just had to make a change to the front panel that increases the length by about 4mm. Apparently their machines couldn't make the bends the way we had it. So the length is currently ~225mm, but technically, the absolute length, if you include the tab at the back for the PCI cards, is 335mm. Worth knowing if you've got someplace specific it needs to fit into for e.g., transporting. Otherwise, that extra length doesn't matter since you'll have cables coming out the back anyway.


M4rk said:
Would you guys be interested in building a site like the MurderBox 2's to show off the case and convince people to buy in?

I would love to help build out a CMS-based or hardcoded site, it's my profession at the moment.

We'd need a name for the case first, of course. ;)
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We might set something up. I can do the site design, though not my favorite thing tbh. I'll keep your offer in mind, if you want, and if I find myself not wanting to deal with developing a website, I'll drop you a line. Though we're not getting paid for all the time we're putting in, so don't expect to be either :p

And we've had a name for a bit, actually. We'll reveal it in good time.
 
I've been doing site design/development professionally for 10+ years, I also have some professional-grade .NET/MSSQL hosting space I'd offer up :D
 
Necere said:
We might set something up. I can do the site design, though not my favorite thing tbh. I'll keep your offer in mind, if you want, and if I find myself not wanting to deal with developing a website, I'll drop you a line. Though we're not getting paid for all the time we're putting in, so don't expect to be either :p

And we've had a name for a bit, actually. We'll reveal it in good time.
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I don't expect to get paid, heh. My name in tiny 8 pixel high print somewhere at the bottom would be nice, that's all. Yes, send me a message if you guys need anything set up. I specialize mostly in Wordpress but to be honest I can juggle any CMS or raw code. :)

xyexz said:
I've been doing site design/development professionally for 10+ years, I also have some professional-grade .NET/MSSQL hosting space I'd offer up :D
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I stuck to PHP/MYSQL and some Javascript. I'm really rusty though, haven't had to make anything from scratch except scraping scripts for a long time now. Anything I could possibly need seems to have already been built and is just waiting to be implemented however I want. I love the internet.
 
Necere said:
Actually we've just had to make a change to the front panel that increases the length by about 4mm. Apparently their machines couldn't make the bends the way we had it.
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Necere, did you inquire with our OEM/ODM team yet? You may not have to change your design if we were to manufacturer it for you.
 
Tony Ou said:
Necere, did you inquire with our OEM/ODM team yet? You may not have to change your design if we were to manufacturer it for you.
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W360 will contact your people. He's handling comms on that front and has the 'proper' CAD files (as mentioned, I'm working entirely in Sketchup) to send your engineers.

In the meantime though, maybe I can get a quick answer through you regarding our top panel, which is actually more of a problem at the moment than the front.

This our current top panel design (click to enlarge):




Just a simple unbent sheet of 1.5mm aluminum, with ventilation holes punched and studs welded to the underside. The problem the engineers are telling me is that so many holes are going to cause the panel to warp... so we need to come up with some way to avoid that. Adding flanges to the edges is not ideal, and they're saying might not be enough in any case. I'm thinking thicker material might help here, but unfortunately their machines can't punch the vent holes in 2mm+ aluminum.

So the question I have for you/your engineers is, 1.) do you have the capability to punch 2mm+ aluminum (or otherwise economically put lots of little holes in), and 2.) will it prevent warping of the panel in this design.
 
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