SENTRY: Console-sized gaming PC case project

I may have to add this case to my collection......even if i don't build in it...it'll look nice on my desk lol
 
The front USB 3.0 cable will have USB 2.0 adapter too? Like this one? http://reho.st/www.coolaler.com.tw/image/sharkoon/ca-i/16.jpg for the MB's who lacks the USB 3.0 internal connector.

I'll ask the manufacturer when we'll be ordering the cables for that fallback adapter attachment.


I may have to add this case to my collection......even if i don't build in it...it'll look nice on my desk lol

Cool. Can you show-off your collection ? :D
 
This topic's been hanging around for some time now without a proper name for the case since we don't want it to be either something random or duplicate of product name already on the market.

We've researched the topic of naming and among our ideas, ones from familiy, friends and also people on forums we've filtered out names that might be okay for our case.

We've selected 10 names and got our favourites hidden within those but we'd like to know what do you think about all of them. Hopefully Your input will help us choose.

So here's the straw poll for it:

http://strawpoll.me/5199575

Just for the record - the order is alphabetical, there's no hint or subtext in it :)
 
We've got our company name so that's taken into account already with those selected 10 names.
 
I picked Sentry because it gives a subtle nod to Portal's turrets without beating you over the head with "Turret." Sentry just sounds way more premium and sexy imo. Also, "Sentry mode activated" is one of the portal turret's voice lines so I think it still works well.

"Turret" sends a message that you're making a portal turret case (which is fine if that's all you want), but I think "Sentry" gives it more of its own character.

That's my 2 cents anyway :D
 
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I picked Sentry because it gives a subtle nod to Portal's turrets without beating you over the head with "Turret." Sentry just sounds way more premium and sexy imo. Also, "Sentry mode activated" is one of the portal turret's voice lines so I think it still works well.

"Turret" sends a message that you're making a portal turret case (which is fine if that's all you want), but I think "Sentry" gives it more of its own character.

That's my 2 cents anyway :D

I felt like that earlier but we've seen there are people on the forum eager to get this name. I think it's makes more sense to at least let it be in the poll and later choose based on that rather than simply drop it from the start.

Also some reddit user mentioned there's already razor's equipment named turret and I'm not sure if that's not a bad idea to waste time on checking out if that product names protected or not.

How about Apex?

There's already company named Apex that produces pc cases. Do I need to add anything more? :D
 
Can you give us a hint for the company name? It's kind of hard to think about the product name in a vacuum.
 
Can you give us a hint for the company name? It's kind of hard to think about the product name in a vacuum.

Nah, there's totally no hint that would give you the idea of our company name. And our company name isn't anything flashy since it's established in completely different industry than pc hardware so we might need to make a new brand for those types of products.

Anyway lets see how the poll goes. I hope there's going to be at least 100 votes.
 
Cool. Can you show-off your collection ? :D

You asked and you shall receive! :D

Currently waiting for your case, the Kimera Industries "Nova" and the Dondan A4. What the hell do I need with all those cases...I don't know, I think I have a fetish lol:eek:

1fiKgAr.jpg


ROBU6N0.jpg
 
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You asked and you shall receive! :D

Currently waiting for your case, the Kimera Industries "Nova" and the Dondan A4. What the hell do I need with all those cases...I don't know, I think I have a fetish lol:eek:
Heck, I thought I was special just for having an M1. So... what are those other tiny cases (I don't care about the big one), and what GPUs can they fit (if any)? :D
 
Lol...the big one is on its way out....just sold it on ebay actually. The top left is a Jonsbo V2 case, use it as my plex service, the middle one is a custom made mITX case (M3A2)....

purchased it off one of the forums, can't recall if it was from here or another forum.

Using this as my NVR, video surveillance system, and can fit any Low Profile single slot card. The last one is an Streacom F1C EVO WS.

Use that a backup system for pretty much anything else I need done.
 
Lol...the big one is on its way out....just sold it on ebay actually. The top left is a Jonsbo V2 case, use it as my plex service, the middle one is a custom made mITX case (M3A2)....

purchased it off one of the forums, can't recall if it was from here or another forum.

Using this as my NVR, video surveillance system, and can fit any Low Profile single slot card. The last one is an Streacom F1C EVO WS.

Use that a backup system for pretty much anything else I need done.

Purchased off me but over at ocforums! Glad it went to a good home.
 
I agree! More pictures! Don't leave us hanging!

I hope we'll post those pictures today. We just want to discuss one thing with [H]Admin, and as soon as he'll reply You'll get the full 4th prototype's gallery. Please be patient :)
 
I hope we'll post those pictures today. We just want to discuss one thing with [H]Admin, and as soon as he'll reply You'll get the full 4th prototype's gallery. Please be patient :)

I will be right here waiting for you. I love you.
 
Just like we promised, here You have a little gallery of our 4th prototype. There are several things we have to improve before ordering the 5th prototype, but before that we want to know Your opinion about actual design. Please note that our IEC C13-C14 cable, USB extension cable and long PCI-E riser are made only for this prototype and will be different in a production version.

drzaber_sentry_banner.jpg








 
Wow. Just Wow. That looks FANTASTIC. It's definitely worth the wait. I do have some questions though:
If we were to use a SFX-L PSU, how much space do you have between the connectors and GPU? It looks like it would be a really tight fit (but I don't have any measurements so I could be completely wrong).

Doesn't the PSU exhausting into the case cause heat problems? I guess if the intake for the PSU and CPU are close enough to the side panel it might not matter as much, but it's something that definitely caught my eye.

[Strike=1]Is this the final prototype, or are you still thinking of revising some things?[/s]
edit: If possible, can you tell us what you're thinking of changing for the fifth prototype?
 
Wow. Just Wow. That looks FANTASTIC. It's definitely worth the wait. I do have some questions though:
If we were to use a SFX-L PSU, how much space do you have between the connectors and GPU? It looks like it would be a really tight fit (but I don't have any measurements so I could be completely wrong).

Theres 4cm distance between SFX-L's detachable cable connectors end to the gpu. so you'll have something like 2.5 - 3 cm to bend the cables. back to the case for the cpu, motherboard and drives and you'll have to either go around the top if you have a full 305mm gpu to not put cables in front of the fans or do like we did if your card is slightly shorter.

Doesn't the PSU exhausting into the case cause heat problems? I guess if the intake for the PSU and CPU are close enough to the side panel it might not matter as much, but it's something that definitely caught my eye.

Actually we didn't have any problems with this side of the case meaning the cpu wouldn't get any hotter than it normally did in my other cases. Except for the fact that we're not forcibly splitting the exhaust between the PSU and CPU, we've got the same layout as other, bigger cases. IF that were to be a problem we could probably design an attachment screwed to the last PSU thread hole to split the exhaust but I don't think there's any real problem here.

[Strike=1]Is this the final prototype, or are you still thinking of revising some things?[/s]
edit: If possible, can you tell us what you're thinking of changing for the fifth prototype?

We're still fixing stuff, as stated before, those last 5% are quite crucial to make it as good as possible.

I've already made quite a lot of minor changes after reviewing this prototype but we've still got to know the state of cable manufacturing and do some proper thermal testing with a proper power supply so there's still time for other fixes.

So far we've added exhaust vents at the back above the gpu, added four more outlets from the side for the gpu and added another row of inlets below the gpu. We're doing this to increase the airflow for the horizontal/desktop position since it ran a bit hotter than in vertical position. We've moved the gpu and drives a bit lower and lowered the sides of drive support to let the air go more freely throughout the case.

RSA Antena mounts are going to be simply round with plugs instead of breaking them out so you won't break the powder coating.

Also it looks like rubber feet for desktop position are going to be 8-10mm hight rather than 4mm since it's really no difference in looks and may improve the airflow.


As for the temperature tests: We've run some game tests at late hours for room ambient temps around 24 degrees and the effect was quite okay. We've run 3d Mark Firestrike/Firestrike Extreme full with demos, played witcher 3 with full details maybe except for hairworks because it was on R9-270X, and we've run Titanfall on full details for quite some time up to few rounds and all of that on 1680x1050 resolution. GPU temps were up to 76 degrees on horizontal and something around 68 degrees in vertical position.

It looks ok but the hot air would gather around the back of gpu and couldn't escape anywhere, especially with a single slotted card I've got so we're adding a bit more venting for the gpu.

The cpu was running normally in those test, I don't know if it even went anything over 60 degrees under load.

Anyway we'll probably make a proper temperature test session with the next one.
 
Looking good, I've been following this project for some time now. Could I ask whether there is significant warping when the case is fully loaded? I can't really tell from the pictures above so I'd like your perspectives. Any rough numbers for the weight?
 
Can you explain what do you mean by warping?

I think when we fully loaded the case with:
intel mITX board with stock cooler
SFX psu
gigabyte windforce 3X card
SSD + 2.5" HDD
We've had 5.2kg of weight and the case is around half of it.

So it's kinda heavy build in comparison to what you would get with aluminium but it would cost hell of a lot more for us to manufacture it this way.

With aluminium it would be probably around 4kg so its 1kg added.

By the way If anyone was wondering: I've lazily modded the PSU to reach the cpu P4 power connector. That's not what's going to be needed with final version. We've already got the P4 extender in the bill of materials but we'll be looking out for possible P4/P8 combo extenders but that's kind of hard to have the combo on the other end. I'm not sure if we should add both or just assume if you're going for P8 you'll have to have long enough cable or get your own extender. I'm not sure yet.
 
I think he means whether the case stays flat or sags between the feet when fully loaded in the desktop orientation.
 
Thanks for the explanation.

It's not perfectly rigid (it sags a tiny bit) until you screw the cover from the top and sides but when you do it it doesn't sag at all. Also its standing even on all of its rubber feet when on flat surface if that's also what you were wondering.
 
I think he means whether the case stays flat or sags between the feet when fully loaded in the desktop orientation.

Yes that's what I meant, thanks.

Thanks for the explanation.

It's not perfectly rigid (it sags a tiny bit) until you screw the cover from the top and sides but when you do it it doesn't sag at all. Also its standing even on all of its rubber feet when on flat surface if that's also what you were wondering.

Good to hear, I suspected it might work out something like that. At 5kg, the weight isn't an issue for me so that's a relief as well. Good luck with the rest of the project, I'll only be waiting on the final price then.
 
Good luck with the rest of the project, I'll only be waiting on the final price then.

As we said many times before, our target is make a high-quality pc case while keeping the price as low as possible, maybe $149 or something similar (25-30% cheaper, with the same or higher quality than other custom-made pc cases on the market with their starting prices over $200).
 
The only issue I have with this design is the REALLY ugly vents. I know there is no perfect solution to this issue, but the vent holes really detract from the design. They look quite obvious and cartoonishly large... I would like to see something like this:

ventilation-fan.jpg


I think the more subtle, classy lines would make for a much more wide-reaching case.

as for 'take it or leave it': I would think you could make the power button more appealing, really make it unique. I dig the idea of the whole think resembling a valve-engineered sentry (and thats kind of the point) so I say go bold, make the power button even larger, and allow the end-user to adjust the RGB colour value of the button. You have a one-of-a-kind design that is sure to find a place in my living room someday, so I would hope I wouldn't be stuck with a red switch.

Edit: also, maybe for the version 2.0 of this awesome case: 200x200 VESA mounting holes so people can mount the unit on the back of their TVs or large monitors.
 
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I can agree with that the inlet holes are not perfect and we're still thinking about how to solve this problem but we can't use grid of small holes made with punch machine until we place the batch order. We did try this type of line inlets and it really doesn't look classy at all.

Don't consider the looks of inlets final unless we say so. At this point a lot can still happen to them.

As for the power button - RGB? really? We can think of letting you pick one from few colours but RGB colour setting is not an option here since it would mean using totally different and probably a lot more expensive button if such fitting our case even exists. And for the size - we've talked about this - its really really tight in there and fact that there are larger versions of this switch doesn't mean we can use them.
 
I can agree with that the inlet holes are not perfect and we're still thinking about how to solve this problem but we can't use grid of small holes made with punch machine until we place the batch order. We did try this type of line inlets and it really doesn't look classy at all.

Don't consider the looks of inlets final unless we say so. At this point a lot can still happen to them.

As for the power button - RGB? really? We can think of letting you pick one from few colours but RGB colour setting is not an option here since it would mean using totally different and probably a lot more expensive button if such fitting our case even exists. And for the size - we've talked about this - its really really tight in there and fact that there are larger versions of this switch doesn't mean we can use them.

No problems there. Like I said, the power button suggestion was, for me, a low priority change. I'm always encouraging companies to allow customization in all their products, the RGB light switch is just one solution to the issue of people not buying your case because all the rest of their stuff has blue or green features and the colour contrasts too much (Hell, at the moment I'm refusing to buy RAM modules because of colour consistency, so imagine how some people feel about the externals of their machine!). Some cases already implement RGB lighting controls on the front buttons, but the switches used are not anything like this one.

Awesome work so far. I've been waiting for someone to make a case like this.
 
Thing about LED - Available colours from our manufacturer are: Red/Green/Yellow/Blue/White, but the minimum order quantity is 20 buttons(per colour) and that's not for the same price as we get when ordering 100-packs for a batch.

We've got the question about this led colour in the poll we'll be doing when we're ready to manufacture, and there are few possible scenarios for this here:

- There's like 90% of people going after one colour, not specifically red, and we go for it

- There's quite even split but for each colour there's more than 100 people wanting it so we order different colour for each batch. This would mean you are the one to wait longer since you picked the less popular colour or something like that since we would wait if there's more orders for such config for example.

- There's a very low amount of people wanting different colours. We can order those additional switches from the manufacturer with single unit prices but that would mean you would pay additionally something like $5 or $6 and that would be with no "free" return policy for that switch unless the switch was faulty.

So there multiple options how we can tackle this if you want a different colour but RGB is not one of them.
 
Edit: also, maybe for the version 2.0 of this awesome case: 200x200 VESA mounting holes so people can mount the unit on the back of their TVs or large monitors.

I didn't notice earlier that you added this question by editing the post.


We're not going for the vesa mount since the whole build will weight slightly over 5 kilos and that's enough of weight that might tip over the monitor. It's simply not safe.

If you want to put the case behind TV you can easily wall mount it - You'll need remove the rubber feets and put some hooks in the wall for it with distances so the case will be able to pull some air for the gpu from behind.

I'm also not fan of a such idea of putting it behind the TV because you'll want your tv as close as possible to the wall and at the same time you'll have to give some air to the computer. Additionally temperatures behind TV may vary depending on technology you're using.

Rather than that, I'd suggest you doing it like this:

2015-02-24-11.54.06.jpg


It's still a classy way of doing it and you can easily hide all cables behind TV.

I'm not sure yet what type of screws to use, where to find the distances (what type of shop to look for) and whether we should use the rubber grommets to prevent scratching the paint or not.

I'll try to find out where you can get this and maybe test it on my own wall :)
 
Wall fixings depend on the wall you have. It might be as easy as some basic wood screws into a stud wall, rigifix fastenings for dot&dab over breezeblocks, or if you have 200 year old crumbly brick and fibrous plaster, you might need to use caged resin anchors.
 
Yeah, I know. That's not what I meant. The thing is there's no special mounting holes like this:

mounting_hole.jpg


since it would break the looks for the people using it on vertical stand - the plugs are not big enough to cover such hole and if they were it would look worse.

So I'm wondering what happens when you hang it with a round hole on a much smaller surface so it's not sitting there tightly. I wouldn't want make something that would simply break the paint job when hanged on the wall.
 
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