SENTRY 2.0: Evolution of console-sized gaming PC case

[ZombiPL]

  


Hello again guys. It's been over a year since the end of our indiegogo campaign and over 2 months since our last pre-order sale. Many of you are wondering why we still did not start retail sale of Sentry. Now is the time for explanation. You probably remember, that DR ZĄBER is a company established a long time before we even thought about this hobby project and its main business is far away from computer cases industry (we do not make Sentry cases for a living). Because of that we could take a different approach than other pc hardware companies, take our time, gather all the feedback you were giving us for the last year, talk about possible improvements and make better pc case.

After encountering issues with production and deliveries we have decided to take a step back and figure out how to resolve them before continuing with the production. We have launched a limited pre-order sale at the end of January to test out few improvements including fast worldwide courier shipments by DHL and few small organisational improvements in the manufacturing/assembling process. While DHL shipping seems like a correct solution for the shipping issues, we still are not happy with the production process to the point where we believe that design updates are necessary. With that said, if we are to update the designs and go over those updates with our subcontractor, we might as well improve the functionality of the case where we can. Thus we think now is the time to start designing SENTRY 2.0.

Like you all know (we are repeating this over and over again) this is a community project. We designed Sentry basing on community feedback and without it we would not succeeded. Because of that we don't see any reason why we should change this approach. Next version of Sentry will be also designed basing on the feedback we did/will receive from you.


PLANNED CHANGES:

 

1. Bigger ventilation area

Spoiler

We will increase the ventilation area up to 65% bigger surface than in rev 1.1 to allow native support of more power hungry graphics cards.

2. Less screws to screw the top cover

Spoiler

We will try to reduce the number of screws needed to screw the top cover from 8 to 4, just like in most of mainstream pc cases.

3. Less types of screws

Spoiler

We will reduce the number of types/sizes of screws used in Sentry from 6 to 3.

4. Torx screws instead of hex screws (if we will be able to find a supplier for black ones)

Spoiler

If we will be able to find a supplier for black m3x6 screws with torx socket, we will switch currently used hex screws with them. Some people reported that with bigger force they were able to damage the socket and they had problems with unscrewing the screw. Torx socket allows to use a bigger force/torque to screw/unscrew the screw. If we will have the possibility to get those screws, we will.

5. Improved Riser Clamping System (RCS)

Spoiler

As you know, Sentry has its own, unique method of riser installation. We were very satisfied with it when we ordered a first batch of 25 prototypes (rev.1.0-1.1), but when we manufactured over 1000 units it turned out this element has some problems with repeatability and with some units our backers had to use a little bit of force to insert riser properly. The installation procedure was also not clear for quite a lot of users. In revision 2.0 we want to solve this problem and use separate element to mount the riser, so the installation will be more straightforward and also improved design will allow us to eliminate one type of screw

6. Redesigned top hdd/ssd holding bracket

Spoiler

We received some photos from our supporters that the current design of top hdd bracket sometimes collides with USB 3.0 cable or even reduces the maximum height of some types of RAM modules. To solve this problem in new version we want to remove two problematic bendings and move the whole element a little bit towards the back of the case, away from the RAM/USB socket area.

8. Kensington lock

Spoiler

If you have a PC case so small that it can be transported in a laptop bag, then we think that having this theft-prevention feature will be a good idea.

9. Wifi antenna holes with improved shape for one-tool assembly and rotation lock

Spoiler

In the past we added those WIFI antennas holes because it was commonly requested feature in various case design threads. After using those for some time we have realised that you need to tighten the antenna connectors really hard from both sides if you don’t want them to get loose when re-attaching antennas multiple times. This means using two wrenches, one of which is in especially cumbersome position on the inside of the case. Because of that we decided we need to improve the shape of those holes to lock connector rotation.

10. Vertical stand rubber feet attached without glue

Spoiler

During assembling process of vertical stand we were using strong industrial glue to attach rubber feet. However we received a feedback from our backers that in some hot environments this glue doesn’t do its job and they had to glue those feet again. Firstly we thought about just switching the glue to some other one, but then we received many questions about possibility of fully detaching those rubber feet to clean them or install some others, for example with different colour. Because of that we decided we need to design them and the stand in the way which will allow an installation without glue.

11. Two additional holes in vertical stand for symmetry of installation

Spoiler

It’s a simple improvement to make life easier.

12. Two 3.5” HDD mounts in the GPU compartment instead of 2.5” mounts

Spoiler

We analysed the feedback from our backers and it turns out that only small fraction of them used 2.5’’ hdd mounting points inside GPU compartment, but also most owners of ITX GPUs would like to install 3.5’’ drive there, if it was possible. Because of that and because we already have a support for two 2.5’’ drives, as well as the fact that M.2 became a standard in itx boards, we decided to drop support of 2.5’’ HDDs inside GPU section, and instead we will allow installation of 3.5’’ drives.

13. 120mm AIO Water Cooling mount in the GPU compartment

Spoiler

Another request from ITX GPU users. We understand we raised such expectations after showing photos of our rev 1.1 prototype packed with a R9-Nano and CPU AIO watercooler. After that we received many questions if we will make a native support for that. Yes. We will try to do that, and Yes, we will allow 120mm coolers!

14. SFX-L not supported anymore due to various issues and for the sake of 120mm AIO

Spoiler

Sentry was designed to be futureproof. It means not only the case should be durable but also peripherals should be easily accessible. When we decided that we will add a native support for 120mm AIO, then we needed to do something with the vandal power switch, because it would collide with it. We do not want to design a non-standard switch, because it would disrupt “future-proof” philosophy, so we moved the current switch to the exact center of the case’s front which solved the problem with AIO, but also made another problem with the cables of SFX-L power supply. We needed to make a decision. After the market analysis we decided we can drop the support of SFX-L PSUs, because there are many standard SFX power supplies which can handle almost everything what you can install into Sentry (there are many 500W+ PSUs with even 650W options). For a price of leaving bigger power supplies we are getting a support for 120mm water cooling. We think this is a good deal in such small volume.

15. Chassis mass reduction where possible

Spoiler

We wanted the case itself to be lighter for both personal-transportation purposes and because of the cost of shipment to clients. To do that we want to reduce the number of some internal structure elements and with others we want to change their shape to make them lighter while keeping their stiffness. Also the denser ventilation will help us in that matter. We expect to get up to 0.5 kg of mass reduction which we think would be a great result (at this point we can’t say exactly how much lighter the Sentry 2.0 will be, because we are just at the beginning of designing stage and a lot of things are still changing.

16. Transport package redesign for reduced shipping cost and packaging time.

Spoiler

We designed the whole new packaging to lower the cost of the transport. Since we picked a DHL as our main transport company, the quality of service and its speed increased, but so the prices did. With the new packaging we predict we should get a 10-15% of shipping cost reduction.

17. Zip tie mount points for cable management

Spoiler

After the campaign we were many times asked to add such mounting points to improve the cable management. We will try to do it where it will be possible.

18. Motherboard IO backplate mount update

Spoiler

Some of our backers informed us that they had problems with installation of motherboard’s aluminium backplate and they needed to use more force than usually to attach it. Since Sentry was made without forms or automatic assembling machines, but with human hands assist, there might be some small misalignments in some of the units. We want to make sure that does not happen anymore.

19. PSU mount clearance improvements for IEC C14 connector

Spoiler

Some of the power supplies released after we were designing this PSU mount had their IEC socket installed in a place which did not allow proper installation in Sentry (Users had to shave off a little bit material in front of PSU or the external part of plastic IEC connector). We will improve the PSU mounting bracket by shaving off some unnecessary material to the point where such situations shouldn’t occur anymore.

20. Online-only manual

Spoiler

We noticed that many users when they have a problem with assembly they do not check the online manual (which is the most up-to-date document), but they prefer to either use bigger force to solve the problem or to modify some elements. We added a simplified quick-start paper manual to help our clients with assembly, but it turns out it made even more problems. Many people asked for help in solving the issues with installation procedures that were already thoroughly explained in the updated online manual. They didn’t know that there is a full, more detailed version of the manual available online, regardless of the link provided in two forms on top of the quick-start manual page. We want to make sure users will know about and read full and most recent version of the manual online. Right now we are thinking about giving our clients only online manual, forcing them to read the newest version of manual on our site, to help them get their answers faster. This is still a thing to debate about.

21. No white colour version until our subcontractor is ready

Spoiler

White colour paint is one of the most difficult to get the equal results from the paints we were working with. It would be easier if it would be applied with automatic machines, but with small scale production it is very hard to find a company who would do that for a reasonable price. Our current steel-elements manufacturer (who is also painting Sentry) still does not have robotic painting arms which would guarantee the quality and repeatability of achieving a white colour surface. Because of that during the indiegogo campaign we used separate paintshop which did a good job, but also we had to reserve a special time for us even before we knew how big the order will be, and even then we had to wait in the line to get our cases painted there. It took us a lot of time and nerves, so we decided we will not be making white Sentry cases until our metal parts manufacturer will get a better painting method for this colour than he has now.

22. No quad 2.5” drive brackets

Spoiler

From the feedback we received and many, many photos of your cases we noticed that less than 1% of backers used those brackets. Most of Sentry users did not even try to install anything different than GPU in the GPU section. Because we are trying to reduce the weight of the case everywhere we can for the purpose of reducing the shipping price, we decided this is a good thing to stop adding those elements to the package. Another reason (than the weight) was leaving the native support for 2.5’’ HDDs in the GPU compartment to support there only 3.5 drives and AIO coolers.

23. PCI slot brackets not included anymore

Spoiler

Most of Sentry users simply do not use those elements and when the shipping price is very high (partly because of the weight), then not adding such redundant elements is an opportunity to reduce it.

24. Economic postal package not available anymore, only DHL courier shipping.

Spoiler

As you know, we did a special test-batch of cases to check how good will be our new shipping company. Cost of the shipping with the economical courier was almost 60% lower than express DHL shipment, but at the same time the time of delivery was significantly shorter. For example, economical packages from EU to USA were delivered in around 2 months while some of those more expensive express packages were delivered even on the next day, and the rest our backers received them within 7 days. This convinced us that is a right way.

25. Relocating internal middle structural element to support slightly bigger ITX GPUs (Gigabyte/MSI)

Spoiler

Since we are aiming to support 120mm AIO inside the GPU compartment, we also have to figure out how to make a balanced build with a reasonably powerful MINI/ITX-sized GPU fitting in the remaining space. In revision 1.1 we could only fit standard ITX-sized GPUs, and within current generation of cards anything above GTX 1060 would not fit. We want to fit at least GTX 1070 or 1080 class MINI/ITX card inside and for that we plan to slightly increase the supported GPU oversize, just by around 2mm. We plan to support Gigabyte Mini ITX and MSI Aero ITX series this way. AIO-induced airflow should also benefit the GPU thermals.

26. Optimised air pocket above the GPU

Spoiler

While allowing more powerful graphic cards we need to reduce the free space above the back side of GPU where the hot air could gather in horizontal position.

IDEAS REJECTED:

 

Motherboard back-side access panel

Spoiler

After many conversations with you guys, we decided it would be good to have this option. Many of our backers had several coolers they wanted to test in Sentry and having a possibility to access to the back of the motherboard without unscrewing it would really help them. We will check the possibility of this feature in the next prototype (we’re still not sure if we have a right solution for this problem).

 

IPOLL 1: Motherboard backside access panel https://www.strawpoll.me/15507008

 

For the last week we were analysing different options of the motherboard backside panel installation. Most of them are doable, but all of our ideas have an influence on the external look of the case and also would increase the time of production (longer manufacturing, bigger possibility of errors and longer quality control) which will end in higher cost and longer order realization time.

Because of the above we were wondering if this function is really worth it, and if it is even such a “must-have”. What is more some voices showed up asking if anyone really needs this panel if usually it will be used only once per one PC installation. That still did not convince us if we should leave this feature. This is why we asked you guys to help us with this decision answering to our straw poll. It looks like only ~25% chose the “must-have” option, while almost 2 times more do not want it at all.

 

We won’t be forcing options or features which you guys do not like while at the same time they would have an influence on price and manufacturing time. Because of that “motherboard backside panel” will not be added in this revision of Sentry. Maybe in the future we will get back to this idea.

 

Internal dust filters

Spoiler

Internal dust filters need additional space and some advanced tooling. We decided we do not want to increase the volume and price of Sentry for the sake of mounting such filters.

Front panel USB type-C connector

Spoiler

Sentry is designed to use industry standard components. There is no standardised type-C front panel yet, only custom PCB based solutions. We will revise this issue when there is a “baffle” type cable that includes both type A and C connectors, similar to the one we are using now.

Front panel Audio Jacks

Spoiler

Audio connectors on the PC cases are most frequently criticised about their low quality audio output. Routing cables to such connectors on the front panel of Sentry without signal being affected, and without front aesthetics being spoiled by the connector location, would be really hard to implement and expensive. Especially when considering our design principle of using standardised components. On top of that, at the current price point and market for such cases, most users in our niche tend to have wireless headsets, use dedicated external audio DAC or have USB-connected headsets.

Permanent screwing for the tool-less vertical stand

Spoiler

We received some questions about the possibility to replace our current Stand Locking System (SLS) with standard screws or to add an option to screw the stand permanently to the side of the case to make this connection even more sturdy. We think our current tool-less design is more than enough to keep Sentry stable in vertical position. We prefer to use and refine one properly working system than to add another option for the same purpose, which will increase the cost and time of manufacturing, while also not being used by most of people.

Chassis external size increase to accommodate bigger GPUs

Spoiler

There are enough graphic card models on the market to fit inside Sentry and there are already many bigger cases that fit bigger graphic cards. We do not want to increase the case size when that is not a necessity.

Case handle on top of the case

Spoiler

Adding a handle for mobility when the case itself is compact enough to fit inside a backpack or many laptop bags isn’t really necessary.

Windowed case cover

Spoiler

There is no place where we could install a proper window without losing venting capabilities and thermal efficiency.

FEATURE GALLERY:

  
  

RENDERS:

  
  

As you see there will be more than just few changes. Please let us know what you think about all of this. Maybe we forgot about something which you think it is important to have? We will appreciate your help. Thanks!

[ZombiPL]

ACTIVE POLLS ON NEW FEATURES

POLL 1: Motherboard backside access panel https://www.strawpoll.me/15507008
 

Spoiler

Improvement 7. Motherboard backside access panel

Quote

After many conversations with you guys, we decided it would be good to have this option. Many of our backers had several coolers they wanted to test in Sentry and having a possibility to access to the back of the motherboard without unscrewing it would really help them. We will check the possibility of this feature in the next prototype (we’re still not sure if we have a right solution for this problem).

 

 

[Okjoek]

Edit: Let me rephrase:

 

Is it more affordable to the consumer? Price was the big issue I had with the original. 200+ USD is unaffordable and highly impractical when you've got a competitor like the Fractal Design Node 202 which is, yes a little bigger, but includes a PSU for less than half the price.

[dizmo]

Looks like a lot of good changes!
Only DHL though? That's a hard pass for me. Easily the worst shipping company I've ever dealt with.

 

It's a shame you didn't adopt a cradle style mount instead of a stand style.

[ZombiPL]

5 hours ago, Okjoek said:

Edit: Let me rephrase:

 

Is it more affordable to the consumer? Price was the big issue I had with the original. 200+ USD is unaffordable and highly impractical when you've got a competitor like the Fractal Design Node 202 which is, yes a little bigger, but includes a PSU for less than half the price.

At this moment I can't say anything about a future price, because this case is still in a concept design (we are trying to make everything according to the feedback we did/will get). If you want to compare Sentry with such cases like Node 202 and the only criterion will be the price, then Sentry will always lose. It's like comparing a car which is being sold in a limited version of 100-1000 units to a car for masses produced in 20 000 -1 000 000 units. You know which one will be cheaper. We can't win with that unless we will be able to get an order for 5 000-10 000 units. As i remember in all of the indiegogo and kickstarter campaigns, all of the SFF cases together (Sentry, A4-SFX, Ncase M1, etc.) did not get this amount of orders. It means that SFF cases are still a niche and we have to deal with different, more expensive type of manufacturing than other mainstream cases, and because of that products like Sentry will always be more expensive than their "off-shelf" competitors.

 

We will do our best to make Sentry 2.0 as affordable as possible, but as I said, at this moment this is still a concept which will be evolving while we will be getting more feedback, so right now we do not know how expensive it will be.

 

4 hours ago, dizmo said:

Looks like a lot of good changes!
Only DHL though? That's a hard pass for me. Easily the worst shipping company I've ever dealt with.

 

It's a shame you didn't adopt a cradle style mount instead of a stand style.

We tested national posts of different countries (like USPS or Poczta Polska) and faster courier companies like DPD, GLS, Inpost, TNT and DHL, and the last one was the only one with which we did not have any problems. Of course this courier is more expensive, but from our experience we know that people prefer to pay more (in our case even 60% more) to get their package in 1-7 days, than pay less and wait for it for 2 or 3 months. What exactly was your experience with this company?

 

And about the cradle style mount: We did not want to use molds and such design might need them. Our current design is in our opinion very stable and rigid, and also easily detachable, so we think it would be very hard to fully switch to something different. Please write what is your idea for this element. Maybe it will be better than ours, so we would be able to improve the current version of our stand.

[Stefan Payne]

Interesting but SFX-L should be an option as well.

[SaperPL]

4 hours ago, Stefan Payne said:

Interesting but SFX-L should be an option as well.

 

It was supported in the first version, but from the 1000+ users just a fraction opted for those. Also that fraction had already problems with modular connectors location. SFX-L keep getting more wattage and to make that vendors push out the modular connectors more and more and even add some size to them. We don't want to support such non-standardised part.

 

For the most users we've seen that corsair SF600 was their go-to choice even for a setup with 1080TI.

 

Anyway that's a trade-off we have to do to support 120mm AIO/3.5" HDD configuration with ITX sized GPUs and we believe it to be a good choice.

[ZombiPL]

In the last week some people spoke negatively about motherboard backside access panel, but we haven't heard many opinions supporting it. We are still in the prototyping stage, so we think now it is the time to talk about things which make some controversy. Because of that we made our first straw poll to check what you guys really think about this improvement.
 

POLL 1: Motherboard backside access panel https://www.strawpoll.me/15507008
 

 

Spoiler

Improvement 7. Motherboard backside access panel

Quote

After many conversations with you guys, we decided it would be good to have this option. Many of our backers had several coolers they wanted to test in Sentry and having a possibility to access to the back of the motherboard without unscrewing it would really help them. We will check the possibility of this feature in the next prototype (we’re still not sure if we have a right solution for this problem).

 

[Tech22]

4 hours ago, ZombiPL said:

In the last week some people spoke negatively about motherboard backside access panel, but we haven't heard many opinions supporting it. We are still in the prototyping stage, so we think now it is the time to talk about things which make some controversy. Because of that we made our first straw poll to check what you guys really think about this improvement.
 

POLL 1: Motherboard backside access panel https://www.strawpoll.me/15507008
 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Improvement 7. Motherboard backside access panel

 

You should make an option for purchasers if they want it or not, and instead of welding/riveting the case, make it all screws and user assemble/disassemble so the buyer can swap the panel if they want to pay extra or choose if they want it. Kind of like how caselabs does it. 

[ZombiPL]

14 hours ago, Tech22 said:

You should make an option for purchasers if they want it or not, and instead of welding/riveting the case, make it all screws and user assemble/disassemble so the buyer can swap the panel if they want to pay extra or choose if they want it. Kind of like how caselabs does it. 

We of course could do that, but it would increase the size of the case. We do not want that. What we want, is to make improvements in the current design and add some features which our supporters asked for, while keeping the external dimensions. AFAIK caselabs makes cases with the internal frame and then they are adding external panels. Sentry doesn't have internal frame. Whole body is a frame that is also why we managed to make it so small.

 

On the other hand, if we would like to look at this problem from the economic point of view, then if we will make 2 options of main body (with and without motherboard backside panel) the price of Sentry would increase significantly. For our subcontractor two different elements would be charged differently and would need the same amount of orders for both versions to keep the similar price. Also assembling, quality control, packaging and shipping preparation time would increase, so on our side also the final cost would be higher and our supporter probably would need to wait longer for his order. We know that clients like to have many options and we understand that, but allowing such possibilities is easier for big PC cases manufacturers who sells 5 000 to over 10 000 units of the same type of PC case every year, while we are not really a pc hardware manufacturer. Sentry is a  niche community project made mostly in our free time, which we are trying to make as affordable to the backers as possible. Making different options for different buyers would make a mess in the whole project. We want to pick one design which we will agree with the community. In the previous campaign we added features which turned out not to be used by anyone (for example: GPU section additional HDD brackets were used by less than 1% of our backers). We do not want it to happen again. We will see at the results of the poll and then we will make our decision. 

 

If you have some other ideas in this matter, please share with us. We are still before ordering our first prototype for this new revision of Sentry, so we still have some time for improvements. 

 

[ZombiPL]

For the last week we were analysing different options of the motherboard backside panel installation. Most of them are doable, but all of our ideas have an influence on the external look of the case and also would increase the time of production (longer manufacturing, bigger possibility of errors and longer quality control) which will end in higher cost and longer order realization time.

Because of the above we were wondering if this function is really worth it, and if it is even such a “must-have”. What is more some voices showed up asking if anyone really needs this panel if usually it will be used only once per one PC installation. That still did not convince us if we should leave this feature. This is why we asked you guys to help us with this decision answering to our straw poll. It looks like only ~25% chose the “must-have” option, while almost 2 times more do not want it at all.

 

We won’t be forcing options or features which you guys do not like while at the same time they would have an influence on price and manufacturing time. Because of that “motherboard backside panel” will not be added in this revision of Sentry. Maybe in the future we will get back to this idea.

[ZombiPL]

I think we are ready to show you guys our concept of SENTRY 2.0 internal design. We made a comparison with revision 1.1 to ease spotting changes (32 images):



Full gallery: [LINK]

[Mnpctech]

Excellent design.

[ShaheAzeem]

I'd really like to make use of HDPlex 400W HiFi PSU.

The reason is that I want to build systems with AMD ThreadRipper and nVidia GeForce 1180 for machine learning. However, due to extreme power breakdowns in my country, I need to rely on Solar power. I intend to connect Solar panel generated DC with DC-DC converters, then DC input power backup system, then DC PSU to supply power to my potentially beloved Sentry case 2.0 servers.

Please, let me know if the current format of segments layout and screw positions within Sentry case 2.0 can take case of the size of HDPlex HiFi PSU?

[BuckGup]

Love what you are doing man. Any ETA on shipment of V2 or when to purchase? 

[ZombiPL]

On 16.06.2018 at 3:22 AM, BuckGup said:

Love what you are doing man. Any ETA on shipment of V2 or when to purchase? 

Last week we sent an order for the 1st prototype of the 2.0 revision. We will have to test it, probably make some manufacturing improvements, made repeatability check and then we will be able to talk about some dates. We planned to make another campaign by the end of Summer holidays, but we will see how long the whole prototyping process will take. 

[TVwazhere]

On 4/1/2018 at 3:46 PM, ZombiPL said:

 

Windowed case cover

Quote

There is no place where we could install a proper window without losing venting capabilities and thermal efficiency.

 

I need to take a moment and applaud you for this. Putting functionality first and aesthetics second. Too many people think Vertical GPU risers in regular cases are great until they try to game with the system and realize their GPU is thermal throttling like a m**************. 

[ZombiPL]

We finally found time to make some photos of the revision 2.0 prototype no1. You can find image gallery here:

 

 

We still have many things to improve, so for sure there will be at least one more prototype before we will be able to check manufacturing repeatability. We will try to make some benchmarks in the middle of this week.

[ZombiPL]

After many requests we made additional pack of photos showing configuration with 3.5'' drives and some without internal components. Link below:

[SaperPL]

We have been stuck on trying to figure out whether we should try to support 52 mm AIO package (27 mm radiator with 25 mm fan) and how to do it for a bit. 

The problem with that is, we would have to move the center rail up above the radiator and fan while making sure the screws holding the riser and 2.5" hdd bracket will not go up as well, because that would limit 2.5" compatibility significantly.

We have spent significant amount of time this year simplifying the center rail to make it easier to manufacture and lighter (as visible in the photo galleries) and modifying it to support 52 mm AIO package would make it over complicated once again.

We also do not want one configuration that is not necessarily going to be a mainstream one to affect whole construction in such significant way. Most likely mainstream configurations will have a full length GPU instead of AIO + itx-sized one.

Because of that, we have decided to figure out first if that 50 mm AIO limit is actually a problem and if using slim fan with 27 mm radiator (which is most common among 120 mm AIOs) will be terrible or not. 

We have done series of tests this week with Corsair Hydro H75 paired up with 20 mm thick DEEPCOOL GS120 SLIM adding up to a 47 mm package. We have tested three AM4 CPUs with different TDPs: R7 1700/R5 2600X/R7 2700X. Tests were done during two cloudy/overcast days with 25~27°C ambient temperature.

We have decided to compile captured footage with temps and clocks tracking instead of compiling data into charts because we feel like it will give you a better understanding how components behave while playing games rather than when looking at raw data.

Here's the video:

 

 

General outcome of those tests is that making support for 52 mm is NOT necessary.

Additional notes on such configuration with 120 mm AIO liquid cooling:

- Using standard profile memory sticks is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED. It is really tight with two RipJaws sticks, USB 3.0 cables, 24-pin connector and the tubes at the same spot.

- It gets really messy with cables between the PSU, radiator and power switch. It is not a configuration recommended to everyone. 

- Modular PSUs have stiff ribbon cables out of the box and those make it really hard to handle around the power switch.

- 2700X with its 105W TDP works okay in games but when fully loaded with video or 3d rendering it gets hot really quick. I think it is not something that should be cooled off with a single slim fan.

[vietchico4life]

Can you post picture of how your aio setup is rigged in the 2.0? 

[vietchico4life]

Btw long time fan. Finally made an acct to better follow newest update n looking forward to finally putting my frankstein parts into a zabee case for first time! 

[SaperPL]

On 19.08.2018 at 9:25 AM, vietchico4life said:

Can you post picture of how your aio setup is rigged in the 2.0? 

It's roughly what you can see in the gallery that Zombi posted earlier.

 

The only differences being the 20 mm deepcool fan, two sticks of ram instead of one that is in the photos (i had it working for some time in another test machine) and that slim 80 mm fan put over the VRMs. AIO hoses were bent the same way as in the photo and that's the most important piece along the way cables are tucked in between the AIO and PSU.

[ZombiPL]

Small update!

- Last month we ordered a batch of 50 Sentry 2.0 cases to check the repeatability of the current design. This week we received those elements and we can say that we are very happy with their quality. Right now we are waiting only for the feet for horizontal installation which we ordered and we will be ready to send our prototypes for first external reviews. 

- With this new test batch of cases we were finally able to check how much weight new Sentry lost compared to the previous design. Sentry 2.0 body will be 0,25 kg lighter then the one from 1.1 revision. 

- We designed a new shipping box for this revision of Sentry. It is a 5-layer cardboard with high quality internal foam which should protect the product a little bit better from the couriers cleverness, than the shipping box from the last campaign (2.5m drop test, 1-floor stairs drop test and 5-minutes football test with one of the new prototypes inside... all passed  ).

- The dimensions of the new transport package are: 40x40x15cm, 4.4 kg. We asked DHL representative for the new shipping offer for our new campaign and we were informed that after next weekend we should get it.

- Right now we are pushing everything forward so we would be able to start the new campaign around the end of March (We do not know how long we will be waiting for the reviews of our prototypes, so March is a safe date).

To sum up: 
We are on the best way to start gathering orders in the next two months. We hope you can wait that long. 

 

[ZombiPL]

Things are getting pretty serious...