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

[e29gr8t]

nice build

[skukza]

Mega!

 

Is it still going to be steel and made in the usa?

[PlayfulPhoenix]

Mega!

 

Is it still going to be steel and made in the usa?

 

We're sticking with steel for the production version, though we've played with thickness to nail the balance across quality, durability, and weight.

 

We'll announce our manufacturer alongside other news in the near future 

[TheGhzGuy]

Awesome news: I'm happy to share that we've signed on with a manufacturer, and greenlit them to make pre-production test units of our final design! This will culminate in a few cases straight off the manufacturing line, that will more or less represent what [REDACTED] will look like in production. It's one of the most important (and final) preparatory steps to make, and it's what we've been waiting to begin for some time now.

 

Beyond giving us an opportunity to test and verify the design and its functionality (as well as perform various quality and other checks), this work also gives our manufacturer the opportunity to actually make the case, and look for places to simplify the design or streamline how they'll produce [REDACTED] at scale.

 

Needless to say, stuff’s starting to get really exciting!

Now the question remains, who is building it?

[PlayfulPhoenix]

Now the question remains, who is building it?

 

People have been speculating as to who our manufacturer is on other threads, but we will announce that (among other things) in the near future.

 

 

Congrats guys

 

Thanks!

[_blackknight_]

what'll be the price?

[Aibohphobia]

We're still working to figure that out. For now I'm pretty sure it won't be below $200 or above $300 (excluding shipping).

[willemdoom1]

Where did your forum go?

[PlayfulPhoenix]

Where did your forum go?

 

SFF Forum's primary host had a hardware failure in their datacenter earlier today, and is currently working on fixing the issue. Unfortunately, that means the forum (and news site) are both down until they figure everything out But it should be back up sooner rather than later.

 

EDIT [3:30 EST]: smallformfactor.net and smallformfactor.net/forum are back online

[willemdoom1]

Nice to see em back up!

[ManOfGold93]

Any more news?@!

Edit: sorry its hard not to be excited haha

Edited July 30, 2015 by ManOfGold93

[ThE_MarD]

Heyyo,

Wow! I've never heard of Protocase. That's awesome there's a place in Canada that does epic custom cases like that! Hmm, I'm not very good at CAD but now I wanna try their software and see what is possible.

$480 design/engineering services

$70 setup fee

$2048.52 manufacturing for one unit

 

Total: $2598.52

Well? I guess you do pay for engineering precision. Still, what you got was something special and it's not like PC cases expire or mATX is going anywhere so it's definitely something epic! It could even become a family nerdy heirloom!

Seriously though, this is probably one of the more interesting builds I've seen to date... sorry LTT! Your shoebox is inferior to this lovely machine.

Albeit? Sometimes I do dream of how hilarious it would be to have a mineral water machine... but the potential pain of maintenance... hmm... unless mineral water dissolves dust? I dunno.

[Aibohphobia]

Any more news?@!

Not yet, but progress is being made.

 

Wow! I've never heard of Protocase. That's awesome there's a place in Canada that does epic custom cases like that! Hmm, I'm not very good at CAD but now I wanna try their software and see what is possible.

Their software isn't that suited for a computer case since it's on the simple side. Autodesk Inventor has a bit of a learning curve but the educational version is available for free and it has very capable sheet metal tools.

SketchUp is easy to use but since it's not a proper CAD program it'll cost more for the engineering time to get the model ready to manufacture.

[PlayfulPhoenix]

Hey all - in lieu of our relative silence, I figured I could share this aside since I found it very interesting: on HF, I joked a day or so ago that we would only be manufacturing Nova in beige - only to have a bunch of people say that they actually like the idea of a "retro" version of the case. 

 

I countered by making a "Nostalgia Edition" of the KI logo:

 

 

Which then expanded to a few more versions, all of which are inspired by logos and styles used by real computer companies in the 1980s (see if you can figure out all three ):

 

 

 

Of course, we won't actually be doing a beige version (at least for now), but it was fun to re-imagine our own insignia in that early era of computing.

[RuKiddin06]

 

Hey all - in lieu of our relative silence, I figured I could share this aside since I found it very interesting: on HF, I joked a day or so ago that we would only be manufacturing Nova in beige - only to have a bunch of people say that they actually like the idea of a "retro" version of the case. 

 

 

I'd love a beige one. would totally buy it, along with some Noctua fans, and a nice colorful motherboard. It'd be awesome.

[emcee cheesums]

So is there an updated eta on this getting to crowdfunding? I've been following your case for months now and just started this account to find out where it's at

[Aibohphobia]

We're making good progress on the new prototype but I'm not sure when the crowdfunding campaign will start. If the prototypes turn out pretty much perfect then we can go to production sooner, if there are unforeseen issues that need fixed then it'll be later. 

[PlayfulPhoenix]

The first cut of our final design...

 

(Moving forward, illustrated updates will be hosted on SFF Forum, though we'll continue to post important updates here!)

[_blackknight_]

what I've learned from building these space efficient cases is you should use reference (blower style) GFX card, or watercooled cards

due to the so limited intake/exhaust fan slots it's hard to keep the internal fed with enough fresh air, and/or evac the hot air fast enough, so if the GPU gets hot, the entire case also heats up with it

This is my case that I build Inspiring by the Nova which have the similar layout, currently have 3 intake fans (bottom and front) and 2 exhausts including the PSU fan, and I gotta tell you it's not nearly enough. My 7950 @ 1100 with 1.17V gets to 80C gaming in the 30C evening

my case doesn't have fan slots on the top but the Nova has fan slots all around so that may not be the case... :unsure:

[Aibohphobia]

Cool looking build there!

I've tested an Asus GTX780 DirectCU and it does get pretty warm. With a few intake fans for positive pressure though the rest of the case didn't heat up too much.

[_blackknight_]

you wouldn't want positive pressure

the case is cool at first but gaming or intensive working for 30min and the case will heat up bc the hot air is not evac quick enough

through all the cases I've used negative pressure usually cools much better in the long run (downside is the dust of course)

although maybe pos pressure works better in cool environment?? (I live near the equator, so ambient temp at most days are over 31C)  :unsure:

[Aibohphobia]

I've done plenty of testing and what I've found is that in such a small volume case the warm air inside the case gets push out pretty quickly by the incoming air from the intakes, even with no exhaust fans installed.

[PlayfulPhoenix]

you wouldn't want positive pressure. the case is cool at first but gaming or intensive working for 30min and the case will heat up bc the hot air is not evac quick enough... although maybe pos pressure works better in cool environment?

I've done plenty of testing and what I've found is that in such a small volume case the warm air inside the case gets push out pretty quickly by the incoming air from the intakes, even with no exhaust fans installed.

 

We've done a ton of thermal testing in order to ensure that our cooling recommendations - and the case itself - perform well from a thermal perspective. We've actually dumped all of our testing data in a Google Spreadsheet that's publicly accessible, too - you can get to that here.

 

Also today, a few more illustrated updates:

 

8/17 - Hard Pressed: An Amada laser-punch combination machine begins work on the main frame section.

 

8/19 - Carved Feet: A hardened blade - cooled with oil - cuts away at a cylinder of aluminum on a lathe, in order to create custom-sized case feet.

 

I've also put a post on the Kimera Industries blog that we'll continuously update with photos from our manufacturer, as they continue to work on the final prototype!

[PlayfulPhoenix]

Today's illustrated update:

 

8/20 - Piercing: A laser penetrates through steel, cutting out openings from a metal sheet that will eventually be bent into individual internal frames.

[_blackknight_]

It's nice that the ambient temp is so low where you are, my room gets to 33-34C at noon and 27-29C at night, so even when I have 3 intakes, 2 exhaust it's not enough

the R9 290 loads it heat up the entire case, I have to move the HDD and SSD down below the card where the intakes are but they still go up to 42-44C when gaming.

I guesss I have to modify the case a little bit further

I'd love to buy the case but it's too much for me