SENTRY: Console-sized gaming PC case project

[Tech Inquisition]

Not bad on pricing... wouldn't mind that

[tsk]

17 hours ago, ZombiPL said:

Snip 

Nice, I'll order one as soon as the campaign launches. Hope this will be an inspiration to large case manufacturers. 

[Okjoek]

I like how you've layed out the division of the cost for the case.

[Midnightblaze]

21 hours ago, ZombiPL said:

During those 2 years we were working not only on the quality of our design, but also to make our production profitable with a small number of  100 units per batch. Average cost of 4500 USD per one prototype can be scary for some, but in mass production we want to lower this price over 20-times (at least). It means, our most probable target selling price for SENTRY should be:

$195 USD + transport costs

I'm a bit confused.

Will there only be 100 units avalible when they go on sale? or will you take orders and then order that number of chassis for manufacturing. 

 

I ask because i am planning on ordering 2 and wont be able to order them the minute you announce the campaign online as i work during the day (Canada) and that's when you guys update my time.

 

TL:DR will the first batch be sold on a limited quantity first come first serve basis? and how will we order multiple chassis? will that be an option in the crowdfunding?

[ZombiPL]

1 minute ago, Midnightblaze said:

I'm a bit confused.

Will there only be 100 units avalible when they go on sale? or will you take orders and then order that number of chassis for manufacturing. 

 

I ask because i am planning on ordering 2 and wont be able to order them the minute you announce the campaign online as i work during the day (Canada) and that's when you guys update my time.

 

TL:DR will the first batch be sold on a limited quantity first come first serve basis? and how will we order multiple chassis? will that be an option in the crowdfunding?

 

Our crowdfunding campaign will work as other campaigns on Kickstarter and Indiegogo. It means we will start it, backers who would like to get sentry will be buying it for probably 3-4 weeks, and after that time we will gather all orders and start the manufacturing process. The number of 100 pcs per batch means only that, we need only (or at least) 100 orders to start the production. There won't be a situation where someone who is faster will get it, and someone slower will have to wait for another round of sales. Don't worry about that. We know that some of you are curious about this number of 100 pcs. Most of pc-case manufacturers need at least order of 1000-5000 pcs to start their production. We spent those 2 years to improve our design, so people who want SENTRY will get it.

 

We have several thousands of subscribers, so we think geting 100 orders won't be a huge problem  If we gather this number, then the SENTRY will be successfully funded.

[Midnightblaze]

37 minutes ago, ZombiPL said:

It means we will start it, backers who would like to get sentry will be buying it for probably 3-4 weeks, and after that time we will gather all orders and start the manufacturing process. The number of 100 pcs per batch means only that, we need only (or at least) 100 orders to start the production. There won't be a situation where someone who is faster will get it, and someone slower will have to wait for another round of sales. Don't worry about that.

So will we be able to order multiple chassis?

[ZombiPL]

2 minutes ago, Midnightblaze said:

So will we be able to order multiple chassis?

Probably we will make an option to buy 1 or 2 pcs, and if You will want to buy more of SENTRY, then You will have to make a multiple order of those numbers. Maybe we will make a straw-poll where we ask if people will want to order more then 2 pcs per order. If so, we will try to make such option available, so people will get cheaper transport (ofc if for example package of 4 pcs will be cheaper then 2 packages of 2 pcs).

[Midnightblaze]

1 minute ago, ZombiPL said:

Probably we will make an option to buy 1 or 2 pcs, and if You will want to buy more of SENTRY, then You will have to make a multiple order of those numbers. Maybe we will make a straw-poll where we ask if people will want to order more then 2 pcs per order. If so, we will try to make such option available, so people will get cheaper transport (ofc if for example package of 4 pcs will be cheaper then 2 packages of 2 pcs).

Okay Thank you. if we order 2 will there be an option to order them unpainted. if not is the case able to be taken apart to parts that can be stripped with either aircraft stripper or an angle grinder with a wire brush attachment?

[ZombiPL]

16 hours ago, Midnightblaze said:

Okay Thank you. if we order 2 will there be an option to order them unpainted. if not is the case able to be taken apart to parts that can be stripped with either aircraft stripper or an angle grinder with a wire brush attachment?

It is possible for us to make unpainted version of sentry, but it will be a little bit more problematic. First quality control is made by our subcontractor (laser-cutting company). They measure everything before painting. 2nd quality control is made by us, after painting. We have to check if everything fits together and if everything is OK, then we are attaching the badge with serial number. Without painting, we won't be able to make some quality checks during 2nd quality control. That is the reason why we are not sure if we want to make unpainted versions of SENTRY. 

 

If You want to use Aircraft Striper, then make sure to use one which won't affect zinc cover (probably most of them will be ok, but as always there can be some exceptions). Sentry is made of several components, but the most problematic will be the bottom side (looking at horizontal position), which has a middle section welded in several points.

Angle grinder can damage the zinc surface. If You will use aircraft stripper, then You shouldn't need a lot of force to strip the paint, even with some brush.

Please remember we didn't test it, because we didn't need to remove the powder coating. 

[Midnightblaze]

4 hours ago, ZombiPL said:

Without painting, we won't be able to make some quality checks during 2nd quality control. That is the reason why we are not sure if we want to make unpainted versions of SENTRY. 

Is that because the paint adds to the size a slight bit?

if so would striping adding 4 layers of paint affect the fit (to the point where stuff doesn't fit)?

thanks will there be an option with the color of the led in the vandal switch?

[The Benjamins]

7 minutes ago, Midnightblaze said:

Is that because the paint adds to the size a slight bit?

if so would striping adding 4 layers of paint affect the fit (to the point where stuff doesn't fit)?

thanks will there be an option with the color of the led in the vandal switch?

Paint can add up to 10+ mils (depends on paint), When i was designing mechanical housing for my past job we would reduce the size of the housing to account for paint thickness. our tolerance was 20 mils for the external dimensions and our machine shop has a 5 mils tolerance.

 

FYI .001" in 1 mil

[Midnightblaze]

27 minutes ago, The Benjamins said:

Paint can add up to 10+ mils (depends on paint), When i was designing mechanical housing for my past job we would reduce the size of the housing to account for paint thickness. our tolerance was 20 mils for the external dimensions and our machine shop has a 5 mils tolerance.

 

FYI .001" in 1 mil

so if i strip and paint it and the powder coating was thicker than the 4 layers of paint (self etching primer, brown, pink, and white) than the only risk is that the panels are lose? if so can i just tighten the screws?

[The Benjamins]

3 minutes ago, Midnightblaze said:

so if i strip and paint it and the powder coating was thicker than the 4 layers of paint (self etching primer, brown, pink, and white) than the only risk is that the panels are lose? if so can i just tighten the screws?

I don't think it would be a issue for you, they just can't guarantee the fit and finish anymore. but It will depend on how its designed. 

[Midnightblaze]

1 minute ago, The Benjamins said:

I don't think it would be a issue for you, they just can't guarantee the fit and finish anymore. but It will depend on how its designed. 

Thanks. by fit and finish you just mean the seams and the places where the panels join right?

[The Benjamins]

1 minute ago, Midnightblaze said:

Thanks. by fit and finish you just mean the seams and the places where the panels join right?

yes

[Midnightblaze]

14 minutes ago, The Benjamins said:

yes

And that just means the seams wont be as tight right its not like the case wont fit back together, and even if it dose i can just strip the paint off the joint faces?

 

and by the zinc coating did he mean the ant rust coating? if so, if i strip with something that damages the coating and clean with paint thinner and then paint within 24 hours that should prevent any rust right?

[The Benjamins]

3 minutes ago, Midnightblaze said:

And that just means the seams wont be as tight right its not like the case wont fit back together, and even if it dose i can just strip the paint off the joint faces?

 

and by the zinc coating did he mean the ant rust coating? if so, if i strip with something that damages the coating and clean with paint thinner and then paint within 24 hours that should prevent any rust right?

It will not rust that fast. so painting with in a day or 2 should be fine. I am not familiar with zinc coating properties though. I have only worked with nickel, gold, and silver plating.

[YourWaifuIsShit]

I was just browsing through the past entries. I saw some concepts that might allow me to mount a 3.5 in HDD in the graphics card slot with a 170mm card. Is that still supported or what's the story on that?

 

There should not be any problem running an open air style cooler in terms of thermal correct?

 

I got impatient and ordered the parts for the build already. I guess I will just run it in a cardboard box for now until I order the case.Go ghetto solutions.

[darksable]

27 minutes ago, YourWaifuIsShit said:

I was just browsing through the past entries. I saw some concepts that might allow me to mount a 3.5 in HDD in the graphics card slot with a 170mm cooler. Is that still supported or what's the story on that?

 

There should not be any problem running an open air style cooler in terms of thermal correct?

No problem with an open air cooler, so long as the case is vertical, but you may have better temps with a blower cooler. (The preliminary consensus has been that an open air card means better gpu temps and worse cpu temps, whereas a blower-style gpu means great cpu temps and slightly worse gpu temps.)

 

The 3.5" drive thing was actually just discussed on the other threat on [H]ard Forum. While there is physical room for the drives, there's the issue of the sata connectors - they either would run into the GPU or the divider walls.

[YourWaifuIsShit]

On 10/1/2016 at 1:37 PM, darksable said:

The 3.5" drive thing was actually just discussed on the other threat on [H]ard Forum. While there is physical room for the drives, there's the issue of the sata connectors - they either would run into the GPU or the divider walls.

Thanks for pointing it out. Just checkout the other side, seems like it was pretty detailed over there. I suppose I will just have to wait for the price for SSD to drop then

 

Now just down to twiddling my thumbs to wait for indiegogo campaign to go up. 

[darksable]

18 hours ago, YourWaifuIsShit said:

Thanks for pointing it out. Just checkout the other side, seems like it was pretty detailed over there. I suppose I will just have to wait for the price for SSD to drop then

 

Now just down to twiddling my thumbs to wait for indiegogo campaign to go up. 

Yep, it does suck somewhat, but what can you do? For that to be the only sacrifice made in a form factor this small is pretty impressive.

 

There are 2.5" 2TB hard drives available for about $100, though. It's probably the route I'm going to end up going, unless SSDs get a drastic price drop. My storage doesn't need that much speed. (But the silence and reliability would be nice...)

[ej24]

I'm now more certain than ever that this will be the best SFF case around. Gather round and listen to my tale. 

 

My nightmare began with a Silverstone SG13b for a home-office/light gaming m-ITX pc I put together with mostly spare parts.

 

The build was originally in a much smaller, lightly modified, Lian Li PC-Q12b, with great temps and nearly silent, I just wanted more than my old single slot low profile hd 7750 could provide. So I got an RX460 and the Silverstone SG13b to house it. Such a mistake in choosing that case. Where do I begin? The front panel audio broke after 24 hours, temperatures are awful even though I got a 140mm Noctua case fan just for this case. It's unbearable flimsy too! The outer shell is a pain to attach, the metal is as thin as a soda can. It took forever to assemble the PC, probably the longest of any build I've done. Worst of all, it's HUGE! This Silverstone case was a real disappointment.

 

The Sentry will be a beacon of light among the disgraceful, so called "SFF" cases. The only other things close are Dan A4 and NFC S4 mini. The latter of which uses non-standard components like Pico psu... And the Dan case is expensive and seems impossible to obtain if you aren't already a supporter, plus it can't really lay horizontally. 

 

Sentry can't come soon enough! 

[YourWaifuIsShit]

A weird question: How much did shipping cost when you guys sent the prototype to Linus?

[knfa.28]

On 10/4/2016 at 2:56 AM, darksable said:

Yep, it does suck somewhat, but what can you do? For that to be the only sacrifice made in a form factor this small is pretty impressive.

 

There are 2.5" 2TB hard drives available for about $100, though. It's probably the route I'm going to end up going, unless SSDs get a drastic price drop. My storage doesn't need that much speed. (But the silence and reliability would be nice...)

If you really want that much storage, you can try out the mini version of the Gigabyte GTX 1070 (which I think is absolutely perfect for this case) so you can have room for the hdd/ssd storage rack on the GPU compartment. You can either run RAID or simply have more storage space that way 

 

Amazon Link:

https://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-GeForce-GDDR5-Graphics-GV-N1070IXOC-8GD/dp/B01JD2OSX0/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1475844058&sr=1-1&keywords=gigabyte+1070+mini

[Jotunn]

I am planning on backing this case or buying one later to build my sister a gaming rig, and I am wondering if this would be a workable GPU for the build: Click here! The main reasoning behind wanting to use this GPU is that it will perform well at 1080p and will allow for use of the HDD mounting system in that chamber of the case. My only concern is how will it affect CPU temperature if the case is oriented vertically due to the cooler type. The TDP of that card is rated at 120W by the way.