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Cerberus: The 18L, mATX, USA-made enclosure

Aibohphobia

I’m nowhere near being able to afford anything like this, but I’m a massive SFF enthusiast and seeing this compact, beautiful mATX case triggered me. I'm just a bored teenager with a passion for PC building, but no money to go with it. I love just thinking about hypothetical builds and this motherboard choices here just completely stumped me. Hopefully this is of some use to me.

 

Motherboards in mATX form factor are hard to come by and even less so in X99 chipsets, so thankfully, my analysis didn’t take too long… My usage scenario was a spaced SLI configuration for better top card performance/acoustics and some ballin’ M.2 slots (slot in 950 Pro and it’s off to the races). A Wi-Fi card built-in would be a nice touch more me, but that’s up to you. Competitors are Asus X99-M WS, EVGA Micro 2, ASRock Fatal1ty X99M Killer/3.1 and the Gigabyte GA-X99M-Gaming 5 (currently in the prototype AFAIK).

 

First up, the Asus X99-M WS.

 

As a compromise for the lack of a Rampage V Gene, Asus gave us this, it’s still a good board, but with some drawbacks that break it for me, but it’s all up to you, remember. The PCIE configuration is x16, x16, x8 with a 40-lane CPU, giving you all the bandwidth you need for a bottom-mounted card. Also it does have on-board Wi-Fi and USB 3.1 Type A if that’s a feature you’d like. Unfortunately, the M.2 slot is kind of underwhelming, using PCIE 2.0 x4 bandwidth for 10Gbps, something a 950 Pro or even an XP951 can saturate. Overall a great board except for the M.2 slot.

 

Now, the EVGA Micro 2

 

An update to the EVGA Micro with some new features like USB 3.1 Type C and a “revamped BIOS” brings us to this board. Altogether a great board; you can’t really go wrong with any of these, but a major killer for me is that ANY drive in the M.2 slot disables the lower-most PCIE slot, so unfortunately this board is crossed off my list. The M.2 slot itself is good (PCIE 3.0 x4) but just doesn’t mix with spaced SLI. If a non-spaced SLI configuration is your thing, and you don’t want M.2, this is also a good option, especially with the brand new USB 3.1 Type C slot.

 

The ASRock Fatal1ty X99M Killer/3.1

 

ASRock, to me seems like they seem to care more and more about the SFF market, especially with their X99E-ITX/ac board, and this one seems good too. With all things considered, this is yet again a great board; all the goodies you can expect are here (USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type A, Ultra M.2, blah blah blah) and a suitable splitting of PCIE lanes yet again. I’m not sure if this board suffers from a reduction in PCIE bandwidth for the bottom slot if the M.2 drive is NVMe but if it doesn’t, this is one of the better choices for me.

 

Finally, the Gigabyte GA-X99M-Gaming 5

 

Aibohphobia chose to put this in the prototype, and seeing how the X99 mATX board game seems to be full of compromises, this seems like the best option to me. Again, cool features I won’t run through again, you can check them out for yourself, but the M.2 slots here (yes, that’s two) are quite interesting but also kind of a letdown. The M-keyed one (for your storage) has the same sort of limitations as the Asus board (10Gbps) but is has a second E-keyed one for a Wifi/Bluetooth module. That’s a good plus for me, and anyone else who needs a Wi-Fi connection to their PC, but it’s not everyone’s cup of tea I guess. The PCIE slots are also fine for spaced configurations, but I guess you gathered that from the prototype…

 

Overall, I hope that you’ve gathered that this line up of boards is all about accepting compromises (for me anyway) but I hope that you can take some of this away and make a decision of what board, and setup you’ll decide to put in this beauty of a case.

 

P.S. Please leave your feedback for my first LTT post and what I could do next time.

P.P.S. Also, can you fit a 120mm fan in front of the GPUs with an SFX-L PSU?

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Pretty spot on, though all the mATX X99 ASRock boards can only do PCIe 2.0 x4 on the bottom slot regardless of CPU, so it could be used for CrossFire but not SLI.

 

I recently switched to the ASUS. I've wanted to switch for some time but have put it off until I decided to go to Windows 10. The Gigabyte annoys me because only the CPU fan header is PWM and the fan controls aren't very good. Plus both the USB 3.0 headers are not usable without an adapter with a video card in the lower slots.

 

The EVGA suffers from the same problem as the Gigabyte regarding the USB 3.0 header. Also, the CPU socket on it is very close to the top PCIe slot so it limits compatibility with large air coolers.

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  • 3 weeks later...

@Aibohphobia

 

Just wondering, were you planning to send a sample case to LTT or any of the other channels?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Wait no more, friends.

 

lm9V1Z7.jpg

 

On February 11th, Project Nova emerges from the shadows as we unveil the final name, specifications, features, and crowdfunding date.

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3 minutes ago, PlayfulPhoenix said:

Wait no more, friends.

 

lm9V1Z7.jpg

 

On February 11th, Project Nova emerges from the shadows as we unveil the final name, specifications, features, and crowdfunding date.

Well then, I might just get one!

BOINC Setup:
i5 7200U @ Stock

Core2Duo T6600 @ Stock

i3 2330M @ Stock

i5 3210M @ Stock

 

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All this talk about the Nova project makes me want to play OMF again

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8 minutes ago, Aibohphobia said:

OP updated with the new design! I have to run but I'll post more pics later.

Absolutely fantastic work, I will definitely be eyeing this chassis for my next PC. Congratulations on all the hard work, I hope your crowdfunding campaign is a rousing success.

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Oops, thought I had posted it, here's a gallery with more pics: http://imgur.com/a/mnIiE

 

8 hours ago, Cornelious11 said:

Absolutely fantastic work, I will definitely be eyeing this chassis for my next PC. Congratulations on all the hard work, I hope your crowdfunding campaign is a rousing success.

Thanks!

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10 minutes ago, Aibohphobia said:

Oops, thought I had posted it, here's a gallery with more pics: http://imgur.com/a/mnIiE

 

Thanks!

Wow, those are some beautiful pics

BOINC Setup:
i5 7200U @ Stock

Core2Duo T6600 @ Stock

i3 2330M @ Stock

i5 3210M @ Stock

 

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We're conducting a survey to help nail down a few details before the campaign goes live, please fill it out if you're serious about getting a case. Link here.

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Love the final form but sadly Canadians are looking at just shy of $400CDN before shipping and insurance. Way too much for me.

INTEL CORE i5-7600K | ASUS ROG STRIX B250i GAMING | CRUCIAL BALLISTIX SPORT LT 16GB | EVGA GTX 970 SC | EVGA B3 550W
SAMSUNG 850 EVO 250GB | CRYORIG M9i | BE QUIET! PURE WINGS 2| FRACTAL DESIGN DEFINE NANO S

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Yeah, the current exchange rate is rough for Canadians wanting to buy stuff from down here.

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Survey is going well so far, but quite a few people have used the comment box to ask questions which is awkward because we didn't ask for email addresses so we can't directly answer those questions :P

 

So Sunday, Feb 21 at 2pm EST we'll be holding a live Q&A on Discord for everyone to ask us questions and hang out.

 

7gwZTNV.png

 

We'll send out an email as well as update this thread with the link when it goes live.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Cerberus has landed, friends.

cwyXFs9.jpg

Starting today, and lasting until March 31st, enthusiasts can navigate to Kickstarter to read up on the case, our work, and the myriad tiers available to backers.

 

 

...And yes, that's right, we're on Kickstarter - after hearing feedback from you all, we realized that many people felt that it was the better platform to be on, compared to Indiegogo. As such, we've spent the past few weeks recreating our renders in photographs, and producing a video in collaboration with Alexandra Zanca, so that we could refactor our crowdfunding page and launch on the original crowdfunding platform! It's been a grind, to be sure, but we're very happy with the result, and think you all will be too.

---

I'd encourage everyone to look at the page itself to see all the tiers and stretch goals available, and the details for each, but a summary of them is below (excerpted from the Kickstarter page):

 

Our Tiers:

For the crowdfunding campaign, we have a variety of tiers available that provide backers with Cerberus as a reward. However, for those who are interested in supporting our community-empowered work, but aren't interested in receiving an enclosure, we've partnered with local artist Carissa Reynolds, and commissioned a beautiful original watercolor that we'll be emblazoning on a limited run of products.

 

For as little as $5 (plus shipping), you can support our work, while receiving a high-quality US-made item depicting Reynolds' stunning illustration. You can even pledge to a tier whereby you can commission a piece of custom Cerberus artwork by Carissa, just for you!
 
All of these options include the following, and provide healthy commissions to the artist:
  • A pair of stickers, for just $5.
  • A vivid poster, for $20.
  • A comfy t-shirt, for $30.
  • A Cerberus Art Pack containing all of the above, for $50.
  • A Signature Cerberus Art Pack, that contains all of the above and is signed, for $100.
  • A Cerberus Art Commission —which enables backers to receive a 6" x 6" watercolor rendering of a Cerberus, made by Carissa Reynolds and customized to reflect your preferred breed, pose, action, and expression — for just $175.
  • Finally, you can even pledge to receive the watercolor itself, which we'll custom frame and have signed by Carissa, for $499.‌‌

 

m3qBWbv.jpg

 

 

 

For backers that want an enclosure, we have a few tiers available, all of which let you choose between white or black panels, and SFX or ATX PSU-compatible internal frames. Starting at $249 (plus shipping):

  • The base Cerberus, available for a pledge of $249.
  • Cerberus Plus ‌‌— an enclosure with your choice of a carrying handle upgrade, or an integrated side window upgrade — for $279.
  • Cerberus Pro — an enclosure with both a carrying handle and a side window upgrade — for $299.
  • Cerberus Signature Edition — a Pro version of Cerberus complete with a Signature Cerberus Art Pack — for $399.
  • And finally, Cerberus Limited Edition: A Signature Edition Cerberus, with the ultimate in customizability: the ability to paint the exterior any color you'd like (that's available to our manufacturer) — for $999.


Our Stretch Goals
Our funding goal is $150,000, which roughly translates into 500 cases ordered, and at that quantity Cerberus is available in white or black as a default. However, we've also been able to work with our manufacturer in order to provide additional colors as stretch goals, if we reach higher quantities of cases sold.

 

If we reach $225,000 (roughly 750 cases), we can offer Cerberus in a handsome Carmine Red:

fmqydNF.jpg

 

And if we reach $300,000 (roughly 1000 cases), we can also offer Cerberus in a deep Azurite Blue, similar to our very first prototype:

HXTk34g.jpg

Reaching those stretch goals won't be easy, but if we do, all backers will be able to enjoy an even greater level of customization, and pick their favorite color following the conclusion of the crowdfunding campaign.
---

James and I have been looking forward to this day for well over a year, and it's simply crazy to us that the crowdfunding campaign has finally arrived. And although it's been a big push to properly prepare for today, we'll be working throughout the length of the Kickstarter campaign to do all that we can to promote our work, and give the campaign the best possible chance of success. Look forward to some appearances of our prototype with a few channels/publications - as well as some newfound press attention, if we're lucky!

 

Of course, there's much that you all can do to support our work, too, from pledging to receive a case (of course), to pledging to receive one of the art tiers, to even simply posting on social media and letting others know about Cerberus. This project has been a community-based one from the beginning, and as such, every dollar and every mention makes a tangible difference. Furthermore, even awareness that doesn't directly translate into pledges accomplishes one of our most important aspirations: so preach the philosophy behind our work, and show the industry what's possible with the right amount of passion and purpose.

 

Anyways, there's one more section I'd like to except from the Kickstarter page:

 

Finally, our thanks to everyone who made Cerberus possible
Cerberus is a passion product fueled by the enthusiast community we call home, but it’s just one of many ideas and designs we’ve worked on in the past year and a half. Even so, to get Cerberus to this point required that we stand on the shoulders of giants, and utilize a trove of community feedback throughout the development process. As such, we'd like to recognize those who got us here:

 

Finally, our thanks to everyone who made Cerberus possible
Cerberus is a passion product fueled by the enthusiast community we call home, but it’s just one of many ideas and designs we’ve worked on in the past year and a half. Even so, to get Cerberus to this point required that we stand on the shoulders of giants, and utilize a trove of community feedback throughout the development process. As such, we'd like to recognize those who got us here:
  • The HardForumLTT, and SFF Forum communities, which have contributed an unfathomable amount of commentary, criticism and praise over the past year.
  • The NCASE team, and many other creators, for inspiring us and trailblazing the way community-designed products like Cerberus can be made.
  • Protocase and Sliger Designs, for working with us endlessly to develop prototypes and the final design.
  • Rick Trilling, for his superb pro bono legal counsel.
  • Paul Lazarovich, for his assistance with editing our website copy, as well as for all of his advice on promoting and sharing our work.
  • Jeffery Weber, for creating many of the digital assets used on our website.
  • Carissa Reynolds, for offering to do a commissioned work in support of Kimera Industries.
  • Alexandra Zanca, for filming & editing our Kickstarter video.
  • Anyone and everyone that has assisted or contributed to us, in ways big or small — whatever contribution you've made, know that we wouldn't have gotten here without it!
It's through all of our hard work, and the assistance of everyone above, that this project will be successful. Thank you!

 

It's you all that have made our efforts meaningful, and you all that will make production of Cerberus a reality. Thanks again for the feedback, the enthusiasm, and support.

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