FranBunnyFFXII

Phil Schiller's response is a "half-explanation"
 
"We couldn't because the Skylake CPU memory controller we're using doesn't support more than 16GB of LPDDR3..." - he left off the part after that that goes "... and while we could have easily added a a slightly bigger battery to counter the effects of using DDR4, we thought it was more important for our professional line of notebooks to be super super thin than for them to have the hardware specs that power users demand"
 
Apple could have easily offered a "professional" laptop with support for 32GB of RAM. They just didn't think it was as important to their users as size and weight.
 
Edit: And if the sales numbers are anything to go by, they were evidently 100% correct. But I don't have to agree with it.
 
So, bottom line - could we have done a better job of this video? Yes. We outright missed the detail that Skylake's memory controller is limited to 16GB if you're using LPDDR3, and Phil Schiller's statement hadn't come out yet at the time we wrote/shot this video.
 
Furthermore, I'm not aware of any swappable LPDDR3 modules, so YES we were stuck with a non-ideal apples to oranges comparison.
 
But it DOESN'T change the reason we were upset, or the fundamental disagreement we have with Apple's obsession with thin at the cost of better usability and performance. Our conclusion - they did it for space savings - is still correct even if we arrived there without a key piece of the puzzle.

Mrs ALX was so pleased.. Look what she bought Mr ALX
 

 

 
We are now an all Alienware household.

@ALXAndy
 
Heyy, nice rig
 
Here is my area51
 
Specs :
 
CPU: i7 4770k
Mobo: Asus Maximus Hero 7
RAM: 16gb 2100Mhz
GPU: Titan X
Storage: 240gb SSD & 2tb HDD black edition
Cpu cooler : Swiftech H220x
PSU : Corsair RM850
 

Hi everyone, I've been an MMORPG player for over 12 years, and have been using MMORPG mice since 2011, when I first picked up Naga Molten. Over the years I've procured a lot of knowledge and a significant amount of usage into MMO mice and as such I'd like to write a guide to give other MMO players and other games who might be interested in MMORPG mice an idea and premise to build upon.



The main mice I will be supporting in this guide are the 12 button "Naga" style key pad mice.
Primarily the Razer Naga series, Logitech G600, Corsair Scimitar RGB, and Roccat Nyth. There are other 12 button mice alternatives to this such as the Reddragon Perdition, and Utech Venus. This guide should work for them in the same path of thinking.
Supported Mice
(MMORPG Mice that Support keybinding properly)

Razer Naga Molten, Epic, 2014, Naga HEX original, Naga Chroma(Epic).
Logitech G600
Roccat Nyth
Red Dragon PERDITION
 

Importance of Setting up correctly
First things first before getting into keymaps and trying to set things up and adjusting for your play style, lets get your mouse to the correct settings with in windows to make sure you're able to aim and move correctly with the mouse and eliminate issues.

First you need to check your cursor setting in Windows
Follow this path in Windows(Vista,Win7,Win8?, Win10?)
Start-->Control Panel-->Hardware and Sound-->Mouse
Or you can Start-->Control Panel and just search for "mouse" in the explorer search

Go to the Pointer Options tab
The Motion section will have a slider with the text "Select a pointer speed"
Set this to 6/11.
Why? This sets the mouse to a 1:1 ratio within windows, lower and higher settings changethe ratio at which the mouse is being interpreted within windows.
setting it 6/11 will provide a 1:1 imput.

Then uncheck the box that says "Enhance pointer precision."
Turning this off turns off Windows native mouse acceleration.


After this is complete, install your mouse's software, and restart your PC.(Then come back to this thread)
If you've already installed it's software then don't worry about it.

Open the software and make sure your mouse is set to 1000hz polling rate. This puts the mouse at a 1ms latency, which is about as low as you can get it.

Check within your mouse's software to make sure it has disabled acceleration
If you don't know how to use the mouse software yet, then take some time to get familiar with it
Once this is all completed you can move on to the usage aspects.

Two ways of Utilization, and Methods

When it comes to the "Naga" like mice, with 12 thumb keys, you have a significant amount of options, and possibilities.
First let's talk about how to learn and use the 12 Button keypad.

If you're new to MMO mice, then this will be helpful in learning how to use the keypad, if you're already an MMO mouse user, then you'll pretty much be aware of this information already.

Home Row and Natural resting position
Regardless if you're a claw gripper or a palm gripper, you should learn to rest your thumb on the middle row of keys. Particularly the "2" Button.
This will give your thumb a natural point of reference. From here you will learn to automatically position your thumb per key as you become used to the mouse.

1~3, 4~6 key rows will be the most easily accessible by design.
However some players may find 456 to be a more easily comfortable position to rest on. If so then use the reference sheets and information relative to this position, but it is suggested that you try to get used to the "2" key position as your resting position.
From this position it allows you to access 1~6, quickly, 789 with your thumb pulled up a little bit, and 10 11 12 with the first joint of your thumb. Thus making all 12 keys instantly accessible to you.
For the G600, you may want to disable the 3rd mouse button to be able to use it as a counter pressure grip, which will make picking up the mouse easier.


Please Note: If you are a "Clicker" someone who clicks hotbar icons, instead of pressing buttons, you need to learn to use hotkeys fully. One of the primary reasons to get an MMORPG mouse is to no longer need to click any hotbar icons.
Just like keyboard turning. Hotbar icon clicking is extremely inefficient and has massive disadvantages to gameplay.

Two ways of Utilization

Depending on the game you're playing you will have the find which keybind methodology works the best for you when it comes to how you play the game. But there are 2 major ways to use the MMORPG mouse keypad.

We'll call these Naga Hotkey, and Naga Movement.


Both have their advantages and disadvantages.
Naga Hotkey allows a greater access of hotkey ranges with a single modifier.
Naga Movement allows much greater capabilities of hotkey access with a single hand.

Naga Hotkey's drawback is that you are using only 1 finger effectively to use all of your hotkeys. This is where Naga movement's advantage is superior. With Naga movement you have a full hand to hit your hot keys.

Consider boths effectiveness for the game and style of play you use.
Note: I personally use Naga movement for almost all of my MMORPGs. Including WoW, WildStar, GW2, TERA. I use Naga Hotkey with Vindictus.

Keymap Templates



 
Defining the usage of Naga Hotkey keymapping
Generally this is the more naturally gravitated towards progression for MMORPG players when they get an MMORPG mouse.
And it's to be expected because when Razer designed the original MMORPG mouse(Naga), they did intend to allow players to utilize hotkeys on their mouse, so your left hand is free to move around and use your key modifiers.
For many players this seems a nice similarity to the other games they play, such as FPS, and Adventure games that generally use the standard WASD keybinds for movement.
Naga Hotkey keybinds are a good way to free up hand contortion that many MMORPGs cause, and allow more default ready keyboard setups to be used. Less confusion on default settings.

There isn't much to say about said this method as most players fall into it pretty easily, but players can still take a bit of time getting used too these setups.

For the most efficient way of setting these up. Using your Naga 2 key, for your most used ability is the best place to start with arranging your hotkeys. Then find which buttons you tend to use the most and bind them to your naga by priority around that "home row" concept.
 
 
 
Defining the usage of Naga Movement keymapping.

"Won't it affect my Aim?"
Not at all.
The buttons on the naga, and G600, and others aren't easy to accidentally press but are also easy enough to press that they wont cause issues with aiming unless you have poor control of your mouse.
The Naga Hex however, has some rather easy to press buttons and will have a lesser possibility of being an issue with aiming if you are concerned with the issue.


The Utilization of the 12 button keypad for Omnidirectional positioning
The main purpose, as explained in the first infograph, of utilizing naga movement is to allow a player to use their left hand to hotkey freely and centralize positioning and direction to the right hand.
Biologically speaking this separates the commands in the brain and creates less confusion and more natural registration of behaviors.

Omnidirectional or 8 directional positioning with the naga is very useful skill to learn and will easily enhance your quality of life in game.

The QWEASD mirror allows to utilize full 8 direction movement.

with the keys bound in the 2x3 array you can hold MB2 and can press single or multiple buttons strafe move and reposition

For example

if
naga keys
123
456
=
QWE
ASD

Then you can press the naga
4+5 and stafe back to the left, 5+6 strafe back to the right
1+2 Strafe forward to the left, 2+3 strafe forward to the right

ect ect
all 8 full directions of movement in an standard WASDQE based mmo.

It allows omni direction positioning while in combat.


There is an alternative to that, depending on how you want utilize the keys

if
naga keys
123
456
=
QWE
SSS
Which allows similar 8 direction positioning behavior with these key presses
1+4 Strafe back left, 3+6 strafe backright
1+2 Strafe forward left, 2+3 strafe forward right
Then of course.
2 forward
5 back
1 Strafe left
3 Strafe right
 
I have uploaded some demonstration videos showing how Naga Movement works.
Short clip Video

In Raid full fight video
 

I apologize that these aren't higher quality but I don't have a real video camera.
 
 
There are advantages of Naga Movement over Naga Hotkey.
Primarily as mentioned before, you have more fingers to access your hotkeys. A whole hand is better than just one thumb. You can use your thumb on your naga to position yourself in combat with ease. Pressing 2 Naga Buttons with your thumb is easy.
You won't rely entirely on the mouse for movement. You will still be naturally able to go back to WASDQE when in non combat or travel, but WASDQE on the mouse provides another major advantage.
When your movement keys are bound to the mouse, your entire mental understanding of your orientation in the game space is allocated to one hand. Position, and Viewport are under control of one hand, and combat commands are on the other.
This divides left hand right hand apart in the brain, which helps issues with overlapping. The mind theoretically operates more efficiently as commands are distributed to different hemisphere.


Ergonomics of Keymapping and placement.
Most MMORPG players learn very quickly which hotkeys will be utilized the most on their characters.
And as such as a player learns the frequency of keypresses, it is best to map these hotkeys according to their most intuitive ergonomic placement.

Lets look at a Standard 104key keyboard

Note: This is my keyboard and the keycaps are flipped around a bit, but it's otherwise the exact same as any other 104 key

The key placement naturally above the WASDQE by hand movement is 1234.
3 is the centeral most usable key when placing your hands on the number line, 12, 45 extend this home location.
Your hand will naturally shift between 3, W, and S with ease.
Furthering this, ZXC are the next most natural placements afterwards, then followed by F1F2F3. 6, VB, and F4 are keys that are easily accessible outside of these natural ranges without loss of natural placement.(For most hands)
So this is where we would want to place most of our keymap for combat skills.
This is more relevant to Naga Movement, but also applies to Naga Hotkey.

This sense of ergonomics is centralized around WADSQE native key placement, placing keys accordingly increase the optimal positions of keys for mapping.

Lets move to the 12 keys on the MMO mice and how the keyboard is involved.
When utilizing naga hotkey your access to movement with your left hand, is occupied with the WASD keys, and your shift modifier.
When utilizing naga movement, your access to hotkeys is directly ergonomic by placement.
Most MMO players will naturally know how to utilize naga hotkey without much issue.
 
These are ergonomic placements based on Default movement key settings.
 
It is possible to alter your settings even more to allow more comfortable settings and association with keybind usage efficiency.
It's all about finding what's most comfortable.
Some players do find it better to rebind their strafe keys to A and D and open up QE for extra hot key placement. I personally have done this with TERA.

Just be sure that if you're utilizing different movement keybinds, that you set your mouse up to reflect them(Naga Movement) 
I personally keep WASDQE default because out of combat I do like to travel around on my mount and still have keyboard turning an option in case I want to take my hand off my mouse and just relax a bit.(You should never Keyboard turn in combat. Ever)
 
Questions? Comments?

I will be refining and updating this guide as I go along and acquire new advice and insight. So if there hasn't been something explained feel free to ask, and I'll be able to fill you on and give advice.

As I said before, you need to read the guide and learn why it's expressing this particular design aspect.You can't make a judgement without looking into it first.
 
Think about it this way.(with MMORPGs)
You only really need one finger to move, but you have 8~20 abilities and maybe more with pots, and consumables.
WASDQE is just another grid of 6 buttons, not much different from having them on your 1~6 thumb pad.
With WildStar in particular, Naga Movement is superior bar none. WildStar has too many keys that must be pressed in simultaniuous or sequence too quickly. And your left hand having 4 fingers to do it, is far better than having just your thumb on the keypad.
And WildStar is entirely skillshots.
I switched to naga movement around 2 years ago, and I can't really go back to putting main hotkeys on the mouse. Except maybe TERA and Vindictus but even TERA now I'm using naga movement. For most MMOs movement binds for combat on the mouse is going to prove a superior design.
If you've ever played an RTS, or MOBA you'll understand how the natural feel of having all orientation of the game on the right hand, and all skill bases and commands on the left will feel.

Hi everyone, I've been an MMORPG player for over 12 years, and have been using MMORPG mice since 2011, when I first picked up Naga Molten. Over the years I've procured a lot of knowledge and a significant amount of usage into MMO mice and as such I'd like to write a guide to give other MMO players and other games who might be interested in MMORPG mice an idea and premise to build upon.



The main mice I will be supporting in this guide are the 12 button "Naga" style key pad mice.
Primarily the Razer Naga series, Logitech G600, Corsair Scimitar RGB, and Roccat Nyth. There are other 12 button mice alternatives to this such as the Reddragon Perdition, and Utech Venus. This guide should work for them in the same path of thinking.
Supported Mice
(MMORPG Mice that Support keybinding properly)

Razer Naga Molten, Epic, 2014, Naga HEX original, Naga Chroma(Epic).
Logitech G600
Roccat Nyth
Red Dragon PERDITION
 

Importance of Setting up correctly
First things first before getting into keymaps and trying to set things up and adjusting for your play style, lets get your mouse to the correct settings with in windows to make sure you're able to aim and move correctly with the mouse and eliminate issues.

First you need to check your cursor setting in Windows
Follow this path in Windows(Vista,Win7,Win8?, Win10?)
Start-->Control Panel-->Hardware and Sound-->Mouse
Or you can Start-->Control Panel and just search for "mouse" in the explorer search

Go to the Pointer Options tab
The Motion section will have a slider with the text "Select a pointer speed"
Set this to 6/11.
Why? This sets the mouse to a 1:1 ratio within windows, lower and higher settings changethe ratio at which the mouse is being interpreted within windows.
setting it 6/11 will provide a 1:1 imput.

Then uncheck the box that says "Enhance pointer precision."
Turning this off turns off Windows native mouse acceleration.


After this is complete, install your mouse's software, and restart your PC.(Then come back to this thread)
If you've already installed it's software then don't worry about it.

Open the software and make sure your mouse is set to 1000hz polling rate. This puts the mouse at a 1ms latency, which is about as low as you can get it.

Check within your mouse's software to make sure it has disabled acceleration
If you don't know how to use the mouse software yet, then take some time to get familiar with it
Once this is all completed you can move on to the usage aspects.

Two ways of Utilization, and Methods

When it comes to the "Naga" like mice, with 12 thumb keys, you have a significant amount of options, and possibilities.
First let's talk about how to learn and use the 12 Button keypad.

If you're new to MMO mice, then this will be helpful in learning how to use the keypad, if you're already an MMO mouse user, then you'll pretty much be aware of this information already.

Home Row and Natural resting position
Regardless if you're a claw gripper or a palm gripper, you should learn to rest your thumb on the middle row of keys. Particularly the "2" Button.
This will give your thumb a natural point of reference. From here you will learn to automatically position your thumb per key as you become used to the mouse.

1~3, 4~6 key rows will be the most easily accessible by design.
However some players may find 456 to be a more easily comfortable position to rest on. If so then use the reference sheets and information relative to this position, but it is suggested that you try to get used to the "2" key position as your resting position.
From this position it allows you to access 1~6, quickly, 789 with your thumb pulled up a little bit, and 10 11 12 with the first joint of your thumb. Thus making all 12 keys instantly accessible to you.
For the G600, you may want to disable the 3rd mouse button to be able to use it as a counter pressure grip, which will make picking up the mouse easier.


Please Note: If you are a "Clicker" someone who clicks hotbar icons, instead of pressing buttons, you need to learn to use hotkeys fully. One of the primary reasons to get an MMORPG mouse is to no longer need to click any hotbar icons.
Just like keyboard turning. Hotbar icon clicking is extremely inefficient and has massive disadvantages to gameplay.

Two ways of Utilization

Depending on the game you're playing you will have the find which keybind methodology works the best for you when it comes to how you play the game. But there are 2 major ways to use the MMORPG mouse keypad.

We'll call these Naga Hotkey, and Naga Movement.


Both have their advantages and disadvantages.
Naga Hotkey allows a greater access of hotkey ranges with a single modifier.
Naga Movement allows much greater capabilities of hotkey access with a single hand.

Naga Hotkey's drawback is that you are using only 1 finger effectively to use all of your hotkeys. This is where Naga movement's advantage is superior. With Naga movement you have a full hand to hit your hot keys.

Consider boths effectiveness for the game and style of play you use.
Note: I personally use Naga movement for almost all of my MMORPGs. Including WoW, WildStar, GW2, TERA. I use Naga Hotkey with Vindictus.

Keymap Templates



 
Defining the usage of Naga Hotkey keymapping
Generally this is the more naturally gravitated towards progression for MMORPG players when they get an MMORPG mouse.
And it's to be expected because when Razer designed the original MMORPG mouse(Naga), they did intend to allow players to utilize hotkeys on their mouse, so your left hand is free to move around and use your key modifiers.
For many players this seems a nice similarity to the other games they play, such as FPS, and Adventure games that generally use the standard WASD keybinds for movement.
Naga Hotkey keybinds are a good way to free up hand contortion that many MMORPGs cause, and allow more default ready keyboard setups to be used. Less confusion on default settings.

There isn't much to say about said this method as most players fall into it pretty easily, but players can still take a bit of time getting used too these setups.

For the most efficient way of setting these up. Using your Naga 2 key, for your most used ability is the best place to start with arranging your hotkeys. Then find which buttons you tend to use the most and bind them to your naga by priority around that "home row" concept.
 
 
 
Defining the usage of Naga Movement keymapping.

"Won't it affect my Aim?"
Not at all.
The buttons on the naga, and G600, and others aren't easy to accidentally press but are also easy enough to press that they wont cause issues with aiming unless you have poor control of your mouse.
The Naga Hex however, has some rather easy to press buttons and will have a lesser possibility of being an issue with aiming if you are concerned with the issue.


The Utilization of the 12 button keypad for Omnidirectional positioning
The main purpose, as explained in the first infograph, of utilizing naga movement is to allow a player to use their left hand to hotkey freely and centralize positioning and direction to the right hand.
Biologically speaking this separates the commands in the brain and creates less confusion and more natural registration of behaviors.

Omnidirectional or 8 directional positioning with the naga is very useful skill to learn and will easily enhance your quality of life in game.

The QWEASD mirror allows to utilize full 8 direction movement.

with the keys bound in the 2x3 array you can hold MB2 and can press single or multiple buttons strafe move and reposition

For example

if
naga keys
123
456
=
QWE
ASD

Then you can press the naga
4+5 and stafe back to the left, 5+6 strafe back to the right
1+2 Strafe forward to the left, 2+3 strafe forward to the right

ect ect
all 8 full directions of movement in an standard WASDQE based mmo.

It allows omni direction positioning while in combat.


There is an alternative to that, depending on how you want utilize the keys

if
naga keys
123
456
=
QWE
SSS
Which allows similar 8 direction positioning behavior with these key presses
1+4 Strafe back left, 3+6 strafe backright
1+2 Strafe forward left, 2+3 strafe forward right
Then of course.
2 forward
5 back
1 Strafe left
3 Strafe right
 
I have uploaded some demonstration videos showing how Naga Movement works.
Short clip Video

In Raid full fight video
 

I apologize that these aren't higher quality but I don't have a real video camera.
 
 
There are advantages of Naga Movement over Naga Hotkey.
Primarily as mentioned before, you have more fingers to access your hotkeys. A whole hand is better than just one thumb. You can use your thumb on your naga to position yourself in combat with ease. Pressing 2 Naga Buttons with your thumb is easy.
You won't rely entirely on the mouse for movement. You will still be naturally able to go back to WASDQE when in non combat or travel, but WASDQE on the mouse provides another major advantage.
When your movement keys are bound to the mouse, your entire mental understanding of your orientation in the game space is allocated to one hand. Position, and Viewport are under control of one hand, and combat commands are on the other.
This divides left hand right hand apart in the brain, which helps issues with overlapping. The mind theoretically operates more efficiently as commands are distributed to different hemisphere.


Ergonomics of Keymapping and placement.
Most MMORPG players learn very quickly which hotkeys will be utilized the most on their characters.
And as such as a player learns the frequency of keypresses, it is best to map these hotkeys according to their most intuitive ergonomic placement.

Lets look at a Standard 104key keyboard

Note: This is my keyboard and the keycaps are flipped around a bit, but it's otherwise the exact same as any other 104 key

The key placement naturally above the WASDQE by hand movement is 1234.
3 is the centeral most usable key when placing your hands on the number line, 12, 45 extend this home location.
Your hand will naturally shift between 3, W, and S with ease.
Furthering this, ZXC are the next most natural placements afterwards, then followed by F1F2F3. 6, VB, and F4 are keys that are easily accessible outside of these natural ranges without loss of natural placement.(For most hands)
So this is where we would want to place most of our keymap for combat skills.
This is more relevant to Naga Movement, but also applies to Naga Hotkey.

This sense of ergonomics is centralized around WADSQE native key placement, placing keys accordingly increase the optimal positions of keys for mapping.

Lets move to the 12 keys on the MMO mice and how the keyboard is involved.
When utilizing naga hotkey your access to movement with your left hand, is occupied with the WASD keys, and your shift modifier.
When utilizing naga movement, your access to hotkeys is directly ergonomic by placement.
Most MMO players will naturally know how to utilize naga hotkey without much issue.
 
These are ergonomic placements based on Default movement key settings.
 
It is possible to alter your settings even more to allow more comfortable settings and association with keybind usage efficiency.
It's all about finding what's most comfortable.
Some players do find it better to rebind their strafe keys to A and D and open up QE for extra hot key placement. I personally have done this with TERA.

Just be sure that if you're utilizing different movement keybinds, that you set your mouse up to reflect them(Naga Movement) 
I personally keep WASDQE default because out of combat I do like to travel around on my mount and still have keyboard turning an option in case I want to take my hand off my mouse and just relax a bit.(You should never Keyboard turn in combat. Ever)
 
Questions? Comments?

I will be refining and updating this guide as I go along and acquire new advice and insight. So if there hasn't been something explained feel free to ask, and I'll be able to fill you on and give advice.

I feel like this might deserve a sticky, thanks bunches! witcher 3 reference

Getting locked into a job and finding out your character comp doesn't feel right sucks. There was no real downside to the Licience system considering the way the game's story progressed. plus it was a nice exit of every other FF game locking down characters from the start as well.
It was a fun system and I really hope they don't ruin it.

I logged in to post and update and i saw the notif.
 

I logged in to post and update and i saw the notif.
 

I disagree, the Zodiac job system was a step down.
The open licence board job system was a lot better.
I won't be buying the remake if it has only the Zodiac job system. I didn't like it at all.
Defeated one of the best aspects of FFXII in the first place.
 
What I hope is that they do a dual options. Zodiac mode on or off.

It's definitely a cooler I really loved the moment I saw it.
It's not as good as I thought it would be, but it handles CPU gaming overclocks very well, and it handles slightly above stock overclocks for video editing fairly well.
I really like it. 
I could be improved upon by Zalman to make it perform better. Don't think they will but it's capable for an air tower to handle light/moderate overclocking. 

That's a pretty crazy looking CPU cooler!
I love it!

Drinking a lot of coolaid are we?

http://thermaltakeusa.com/content.aspx?id=6195
 

I know Shannon personally and talked with him about this issue.
And personally I don't care what ThermalTake did or didnt do. It did seem like CaseLabs was throwing a fit.

And honestly 
 
They're black boxes. HOW MANY WAYS CAN YOU REALLY DESIGN A STUPID BLACKBOX and call it your own?
 

You're joking with the fans right.
You're trying to compare an LED lighted fan to a solid color edged fan?
Really?

Drinking a lot of coolaid are we?

Because false accusations are illegal, and makes CaseLabs liable for revenue loss at Thermaltake.

Oh you mean this one:
 

I'm glad Fractral Josh was smart enough to realize that they themselves don't exactly have their hands clean so to speak when you consider the Antec P280 and others like this one existed before Fractal Design was even a company: Give it up this happens all of the time, except most companies are not as stupid as to complain without filing patents

http://thermaltakeusa.com/content.aspx?id=6195
 

I know Shannon personally and talked with him about this issue.
And personally I don't care what ThermalTake did or didnt do. It did seem like CaseLabs was throwing a fit.

And honestly 
 
They're black boxes. HOW MANY WAYS CAN YOU REALLY DESIGN A STUPID BLACKBOX and call it your own?
 

The block is an OEM part either by swiftech or another manufacturer:
 

 

 

 
You can clearly see it's just a standard block with a screwed on top plate.
 
As for Fractal, since they outright said there is only so many ways to design a box. They built their success off of copies of Antec designs.

Yeah since there's so many ways to build a circular fan with a red accent. This was as ridiculous when it was first brought up, please drop it.

http://thermaltakeusa.com/content.aspx?id=6195
 

I know Shannon personally and talked with him about this issue.
And personally I don't care what ThermalTake did or didnt do. It did seem like CaseLabs was throwing a fit.

And honestly 
 
They're black boxes. HOW MANY WAYS CAN YOU REALLY DESIGN A STUPID BLACKBOX and call it your own?
 

The hilarious part about this is that Companies do this kind of stuff all the time, and this is not uncommon in the industry.

NZXT Copycatted Alienware's Alienware Aurora for an entire lineup of cases(NZXT Phantoms), and NO ONE GAVE A SHIT.
 
 
Man the fanboiing and hatemongering is absolutely real here.

Look I don't care for ThermalTake products really. They're not bad, but they don't really carry anything that I need. But Shannon is a friend of mine and me being the no bullshit kind of person decided to talk to him directly about it. 
CaseLabs threw a hissy fit over something companies do ALL THE TIME.

CaseLabs made some really overpriced production cases with generic appearances, and when someone came a long and took note, made something cheaper, more accessible and entry level, they freaked out.

Drinking a lot of coolaid are we?