SENTRY: Console-sized gaming PC case project

[SaperPL]

Hello there, fellow hardware geeks

 

For some time now we've been running a small project in order to create a proper console form factor pc case that we could manufacture and sell for reasonable price.

 

There's two of us in "WE": SaperPL and ZombiPL - we're both engineers, hardware geeks, have tons of experience with building and fixing pc's and we have the experience of family company designing and building heavy industrial machinery and renewable energy power plants. ZombiPL is experienced mechanical and automation engineer and I'm a game developer with a few titles credited already which hopefully will help us in marketing the product through different channels

 

The main idea was to get as close as possible to 6.5L volume which is around the size of X360 and PS3 at the same time making it possible to fit full length 305mm VGA's and upcoming SFX-L standard power supplies. Our main focus was on form and function and because of this the case might be a little *different* than all that tool-less stuff you get in enthusiast range cases nowadays.

 

We went with full-metal design without any plastic front or covers because the cost of molding matrixes would mean we have to get big initial order (mass production) to start manufacturing and at this point we'd rather start with something we can do regardless if we get 1000 or 50 orders. Case design was consulted mostly on the hardforum small-form-factor subforum.

 

Original topic is here: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1832126

 

So here's what we've got:

 

 

 

Product page has been updated with newsletter subscription and detailed product information:

http://zaber.com.pl/sentry

 

GPU COMPATIBILITY:

 

 

GPU Compatibility judged according to specification provided by card vendors on their websites

 

USER MANUAL:

Quote

Little update and call for feedback.
I'm currently doing a manual for Sentry and it would be awesome if you could check it out and give us your thoughts, especially about what you may not understand.
The manual is in Work In Progress state so it's still incomplete.
Most recent file will be held here: http://zaber.com.pl/sentry/manual.pdf

 

DEVELOPMENT COST AND PRICING:

On 27.09.2016 at 8:00 PM, ZombiPL said:

There was no bigger update for a while, so i think You all want to know what we are working on at this moment:

***LITTLE UPDATE***

 

Since this is a community project, we decided to reveal the costs of finalized design of SENTRY and its most probable price selling point (we never had anything to hide J).

 

PROTOTYPING COSTS

 

We’ve made 5 prototypes of SENTRY with 5 or 6 pre-prototypes. The average cost of each of those 5 big prototypes calculated by our accountant was over 4500 USD. If we would like to sum up everything, it would be nearly 30 000 USD  per those 2 years of our „small hobby project”. Of course we didn’t pay all of those money from our pockets, because most of them are our development „working hours”, which we treat as spent for our hobby, but it also includes materials,  production costs, checking quality of different manufacturing companies, our travelling between those companies,  checking different types of manufacturing methods,  ordering small batches of many SENTRY components (most of them just for check), etc.

 

SENTRY TARGET PRICE (indiegogo campaign)

 

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

This price includes (at this moment):

- 31% - manufacturing costs of metal parts (galvanized steel, laser cutting, punching venting holes, bending,
           point welding, inserting threaded bushings, structural powder coating)
- 19% - components costs (shielded PCI-E riser, USB.3.0 cable, power extension cable, rubber feet, screws,
           foil bags, plastic plugs, rubbers, printed carton boxes, transport boxes, silica gels, etc.)
- 3,2% - internal transport and storage costs
- 4,2% - cost of renting the facility for assembling purposes
- 7,6% - cost of hiring staff for assembling purposes (probably 3-5 people)
- 5% - indiegogo campaign cost
- 3-5% - paypal cost
- 5% - reserve for future improvements,
- 10% - reserve for handling warranty,
- 10% - our profit

 

You all know that we are not a PC-case manufacturers, but we make wind turbines and other heavy-duty stuff, so we understand that, we won’t be doing SENTRY for ever… and we are OK with that. We wanted to make SENTRY as cheap as possible, so we set our profit on a such low level. In time it can rise up to 20% if there won’t be any quality issues in over 100pcs batches (this 10% reserve for handling warranty can change into our profit), plus another 5% if we will get better prices for SENTRY components (if our indiegogo campaign gather bigger number of orders). Some of you will say it’s still not as profitable as PC-cases made with molds in standard PC-cases factories (often over 100%), but for us it’s enought as for a small hobby project, which we’re not doing for living but mostly for fun and as our company’s promotion.

 

OUR NEXT MOVES

 

1.      Final improvements of SENTRY (according to our external reviewers suggestions)
2.      Waiting for our two more external benchmarks, to get better view if we made everything right
3.      Finishing design of rubber-pads serial cutter for SENTRY vertical stand
4.      Signing a contract for a bigger batch with our metal-parts manufacturer
5.      Getting better prices of SENTRY components from our suppliers
6.      Preparing a promotional intro-video for indiegogo campaign
7.      Preparing an indiegogo campaign
8.      Start of indiegogo campaign
9.      Finish of indiegogo campaign
10.    Renting facilities and hiring staff for assembling purposes
11.    Ordering metal parts and SENTRY components
12.    Production/assembling
13.    Sending SENTRY to the indiegogo backers

 

All of those moves we are making simultaneously, so please do not look at them like this is a straight timeline made point-by-point.  What is more, we are not giving any dates, because we are also waiting for answers from our subcontractors, and we still didn’t get them. Not everything depend on us in terms of time.

 

I hope this update satisfied your curiosity (at least for now ).

[mapegl]

I would order one right away. This looks very nice.

Sold.

Can you take a pic of the inside with some hardware.

[SaperPL]

Can you take a pic of the inside with some hardware.

 

We're not planning to release drawings of interior until we're ready with manufacturing and have the build running and properly tested.

[mapegl]

 

Ah...ok....sorry, I had this open on my cell phone. Still I would LOVE this case.

 

Please keep us updated here. I have my itx board laying around here and are just waiting to pull the trigger on a blower style 960 for this case......would kill any console there is!

[ZombiPL]

We have a little teaser for You. I hope You'll like it

 

(Sorry for quality but my bro (Saper) made those photos with his potato-phone. Please also notice that this is still unpainted prototype without galvanized cover, so it's a little bit rusty. At this moment it's prepared for point-welding and it's only screwed by screws. As You can see, Saper currently put his PC components in it, and he's working on this RIG)

 

 

  

[Deli]

 

We have a little teaser for You. I hope You'll like it

 

(Sorry for quality but my bro (Saper) made those photos with his potato-phone. Please also notice that this is still unpainted prototype without galvanized cover, so it's a little bit rusty. At this moment it's prepared for point-welding and it's only screwed by screws. As You can see, Saper currently put his PC components in it, and he's working on this RIG)

 

 

 

 

I really like the case. Sexy as hell.

 

BTW, please don't use potato-phone to take pictures again.

[SaperPL]

Sorry for using my potato-phone but my old camera can't really take a proper photo of metal object in the dark without ton of reflections and I wanted to showcase how the button ring glows in the dark. We'll have the photo shoot with good camera for the painted prototype for sure

[mapegl]

Sorry for using my potato-phone but my old camera can't really take a proper photo of metal object in the dark without ton of reflections and I wanted to showcase how the button ring glows in the dark. We'll have the photo shoot with good camera for the painted prototype for sure

Do you have any idea when you might be releasing the case? I am still in north america, and could easily order something here now.....but only till September....please.....

[SaperPL]

Does 'you being in north america' matter? We're from Poland, not the US.

 

As for the timing - we're almost ready with the metal parts manufacturing but we're still trying to complete chain of supply for internal required components.

 

We're trying our best to do this ASAP though.

[mapegl]

Does 'you being in north america' matter? We're from Poland, not the US.

 

As for the timing - we're almost ready with the metal parts manufacturing but we're still trying to complete chain of supply for internal required components.

 

We're trying our best to do this ASAP though.

For some reason I thought you guys were from the US.....could have guessed from your username....sorry. My fault.

 

Well, perfect then. This sound really good. And getting something from Poland when I am back in Germany won't be that hard.

Thanks for the swift reply.

[HeyKenGuy]

slot loading drive in future iterations?

[SaperPL]

slot loading drive in future iterations?

 

The case is too tight for the ODD. It would be laying point blank on back of the VGA which isn't a good idea. We might consider it though in the future in combo with itx sized cards, but we don't see it as a popular requirement for steam machine gaming case

[HeyKenGuy]

not so much a gaming/steam machine but a HTPC variant.....would def pick one up as I feel the RVZ01/fortress is stil too bulky

[ZombiPL]

not so much a gaming/steam machine but a HTPC variant.....would def pick one up as I feel the RVZ01/fortress is stil too bulky

 

Maybe You're right about adding ODD, but 4K movies in the future will need higher density disks even than the BluRAY. It means maybe an ODD won't be needed, because USB pendrives will be enough.

 

Our design is similar to what valve did in their "steam machine" prototype (http://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/igi/NNMTaPlL15MGrDP3), but we've made it real and it is almost ready for the production. What is more, our design is smaller (6.95 Litre) than the valve's pc case and You can install in it Your own CPU with standard low-profile cooler. We also alow You to install GPU's up to  305mm long, several additional HDD/SSD drives when using shorter graphic cards and even SFX-L PSU. Our pc case is also designed to fit in lan-party gamers needs. The size of it allows You to insert it into most of 17'' laptop bags, so You can take Your gaming RIG with You.

 

Feel free to tell us Your ideas and wishes about this case. Maybe we can improve something. 

[Kyuubixchidori]

I was going to mod a original xbox case to put hardware in that exact layout.

Looks very nice, should be very popular

[Beeeyeee]

I was going to mod a original xbox case to put hardware in that exact layout.

Looks very nice, should be very popular

Dude! thats EXACTLY what I was going to do too! haha what a coincidence

[Beeeyeee]

 

Hello there, fellow hardware geeks

 

For some time now we've been running a small project in order to create a proper console form factor pc case that we could manufacture and sell for reasonable price.

 

There's two of us in "WE": SaperPL and ZombiPL - we're both engineers, hardware geeks, have tons of experience with building and fixing pc's and we have the experience of family company designing and building heavy industrial machinery and renewable energy power plants. ZombiPL is experienced mechanical and automation engineer and I'm a game developer with a few titles credited already which hopefully will help us in marketing the product through different channels

 

The main idea was to get as close as possible to 6.5L volume which is around the size of X360 and PS3 at the same time making it possible to fit full length 305mm VGA's and upcoming SFX-L standard power supplies. Our main focus was on form and function and because of this the case might be a little *different* than all that tool-less stuff you get in enthusiast range cases nowadays.

 

We went with full-metal design without any plastic front or covers because the cost of molding matrixes would mean we have to get big initial order (mass production) to start manufacturing and at this point we'd rather start with something we can do regardless if we get 1000 or 50 orders. Case design was consulted mostly on the hardforum small-form-factor subforum.

 

Original topic is here: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1832126

 

So here's what we've got:

 

Specs

• sub-7L main body design
• 340 x 310 x 66mm main body - excluding stands, vertical stand and VGA bracket hold
• 340 x 320 x 70mm total outline - including stands and VGA bracket hold
• mITX only motherboard, 7mm standoff's
• generic flex riser, can be replaced, for example with different pci-e lane width generic flex risers
• conditional 48mm or 38mm max coolers depending on cpu socket location and primary 2.5" hard drive mount use
• conditional SFX-L 130mm max or SFX 130mm PSU's depending on secondary 2.5" hard drive mount use, max 64mm height
• conditional use of 3.5" drives or 2.5" drives in VGA bay depending on the card size
• dual slot full size 305mm  VGA cards support
• possible NAS configuration with up to 14 x 2.5" drives
• vertical stand
• possible to carry in some 17" laptop bags and backpacks
• possible to mount the case on the wall
• made out of galvanized steel
• price tag between $99 and $149 most likely closer to the $149

Drive mounts:

• Primary Master 2.5" drive mount, partially above motherboard, collides(unusable) with coolers taller than 38mm when cpu socket is next to PCI-E
• Secondary Master 2.5" drive mount, next to PSU location, collides(unusable) with SFX-L
• Backup drive mounts: 210MM VGA + 4x2.5" or 12x2.5" or 2x3.5" + 4x2.5"

CPU Coolers that should work:

• AMD APU(65W LP)
• Intel stock 1150
• Noctua  NH-L9a/NH-L9i
• Scythe Kodati
• Silverstone AR04/AR05
• Thermolab ITX30

 

Here's the real photo of first prototype to let you know it's real and so you can get a feel of how big/small it is:

 

Drives in VGA bay will be mounted with simple brackets:

 

Renders are of the first prototype and we're currently completing the third one hopefully and probably the last one before ordering initial manufacturing. In the current design there are few tweaks making the manufacturing easier but the looks didn't change much.

 

We've spent a lot of time on finding the proper metal works contractor who would bend the parts with required precision but finally found one that should work.

 

We're not planning to release drawings of interior until we're ready with manufacturing and have the build running and properly tested.

 

We've got a proper way of explaining how the conditional configurations work and what will fit in what configurations.

 

This really looks amazing. Its exactly the layout I had in mind. and with Corsair getting into the SFX PSU market, this is going to be even bettter! though main competition is with the Raven RVZ01, and thats at $80 now, and combined with the increased price of smaller components like SFX PSUs, Mini ITX Motherboards, and such, you will have a harder time selling this case much higher than $99. as someone who has majored in marketing, I SERIOUSLY recommend that you price this at $99 tops $120. Yes you're making it out of metal as opposed to mainly plastic in the RVZ01. at that low of a price, it'll be a steal for a lot of people. Maybe for the first 2 weeks of sale, have it on sale for $99, and make it very clear that it will jump up to $120 soon. people will jump on that bandwagon for days. Get Linus to review it, as i know he had something like this in mind, and have him announce the release date:D

[HeyKenGuy]

Maybe You're right about adding ODD, but 4K movies in the future will need higher density disks even than the BluRAY. It means maybe an ODD won't be needed, because USB pendrives will be enough.

 

 

existing blu ray disks dont stop working when 4K has become the standard

[LinusTech]

Looks awesome

[SaperPL]

This really looks amazing. Its exactly the layout I had in mind. and with Corsair getting into the SFX PSU market, this is going to be even bettter! though main competition is with the Raven RVZ01, and thats at $80 now, and combined with the increased price of smaller components like SFX PSUs, Mini ITX Motherboards, and such, you will have a harder time selling this case much higher than $99. as someone who has majored in marketing, I SERIOUSLY recommend that you price this at $99 tops $120. Yes you're making it out of metal as opposed to mainly plastic in the RVZ01. at that low of a price, it'll be a steal for a lot of people. Maybe for the first 2 weeks of sale, have it on sale for $99, and make it very clear that it will jump up to $120 soon. people will jump on that bandwagon for days. Get Linus to review it, as i know he had something like this in mind, and have him announce the release date:D

 

We're not yet at total liberty of deciding end price with such freedom. We're trying to get it as low as possible but considering that it's our first chassis I'm not so sure we can afford to take time figuring out how to cut cost everywhere.

 

Our target client is someone that wants the smallest possible case fitting top notch components and willing to spent some additional bucks on that at this moment. Also people that want to mod the case for any reason or idea they have since we're making it out of quite thick 1mm metal so you can probably drill some additional holes for mounts and even maybe some water cooling tubing without tearing the metal all around those cuts or you can order the case unpainted and paint it yourself as you wish from scratch. Additionally as the case is almost fully metal you won't have degraded plastics over time especially if you want a white case.

 

Also our case fits into some of bigger laptop bags so you can carry your rigg easier and cheaper without some cubic bags.

 

As for Linus announcing the release date - we'll of course try to send some initial batch units to reviewers but we're not sure if stating that this or that person will announce is a good idea unless we've talked that over properly with mentioned reviewer.

 

At this point we're almost ready to order fully assembled metal parts prototype including the proper galvanized steel, bending, standoff installation, welding and painting. Almost meaning there's some tiny tweaks we'll be thinking about over the weekend. Meanwhile we're trying to get better prices on other required components (cables) and that's the part of cost that probably won't let us start off yet until we figure out how to deal with it.

 

 

Looks awesome 

Thanks

[ZombiPL]

This really looks amazing. Its exactly the layout I had in mind. and with Corsair getting into the SFX PSU market, this is going to be even bettter! though main competition is with the Raven RVZ01, and thats at $80 now, and combined with the increased price of smaller components like SFX PSUs, Mini ITX Motherboards, and such, you will have a harder time selling this case much higher than $99. as someone who has majored in marketing, I SERIOUSLY recommend that you price this at $99 tops $120. Yes you're making it out of metal as opposed to mainly plastic in the RVZ01. at that low of a price, it'll be a steal for a lot of people. Maybe for the first 2 weeks of sale, have it on sale for $99, and make it very clear that it will jump up to $120 soon. people will jump on that bandwagon for days. Get Linus to review it, as i know he had something like this in mind, and have him announce the release date:D

 

Raven RVZ01 isn't our competition. Believe me. It's enough to say that RVZ01 is two times bigger (~14.2 L) than our case (~6.9L). What is more, if everything what You've said about the pricing would be 100% true, than how will You explain Ncase M1 success with its 220$ starting price? Now they are selling it for 180$, but it's 2 times higher than Your 99$. It's of course still an expensive case but they are selling it, and selling, and selling. In such volume range, cheap case is <170$, maybe <150$, and those expensive ones are >200$. We're trying to get in the 1st price range. We'll try to get as low with it as possible, but we're not a pc case factory, but two geeks who want to do something for other geeks We're working with laser-cutting company with ISO 9001:2008 quality control, and as You know, everything costs...  Right now, as my bro said, we're collecting internal stuff like cables. We'll see how it goes. 

 

Thank You for Your support.

[Beeeyeee]

 

We're not yet at total liberty of deciding end price with such freedom. We're trying to get it as low as possible but considering that it's our first chassis I'm not so sure we can afford to take time figuring out how to cut cost everywhere.

 

Our target client is someone that wants the smallest possible case fitting top notch components and willing to spent some additional bucks on that at this moment. Also people that want to mod the case for any reason or idea they have since we're making it out of quite thick 1mm metal so you can probably drill some additional holes for mounts and even maybe some water cooling tubing without tearing the metal all around those cuts or you can order the case unpainted and paint it yourself as you wish from scratch. Additionally as the case is almost fully metal you won't have degraded plastics over time especially if you want a white case.

 

Also our case fits into some of bigger laptop bags so you can carry your rigg easier and cheaper without some cubic bags.

 

As for Linus announcing the release date - we'll of course try to send some initial batch units to reviewers but we're not sure if stating that this or that person will announce is a good idea unless we've talked that over properly with mentioned reviewer.

 

At this point we're almost ready to order fully assembled metal parts prototype including the proper galvanized steel, bending, standoff installation, welding and painting. Almost meaning there's some tiny tweaks we'll be thinking about over the weekend. Meanwhile we're trying to get better prices on other required components (cables) and that's the part of cost that probably won't let us start off yet until we figure out how to deal with it.

 

 

Thanks

 

Oh yeah i completely understand, just letting you know my opinion. I, for one, am definitely geting this case. it looks pretty awesome man:D I wish you only the every best luck, this is going to be a top seller for sure.

[Beeeyeee]

 

Hello there, fellow hardware geeks

 

For some time now we've been running a small project in order to create a proper console form factor pc case that we could manufacture and sell for reasonable price.

 

There's two of us in "WE": SaperPL and ZombiPL - we're both engineers, hardware geeks, have tons of experience with building and fixing pc's and we have the experience of family company designing and building heavy industrial machinery and renewable energy power plants. ZombiPL is experienced mechanical and automation engineer and I'm a game developer with a few titles credited already which hopefully will help us in marketing the product through different channels

 

The main idea was to get as close as possible to 6.5L volume which is around the size of X360 and PS3 at the same time making it possible to fit full length 305mm VGA's and upcoming SFX-L standard power supplies. Our main focus was on form and function and because of this the case might be a little *different* than all that tool-less stuff you get in enthusiast range cases nowadays.

 

We went with full-metal design without any plastic front or covers because the cost of molding matrixes would mean we have to get big initial order (mass production) to start manufacturing and at this point we'd rather start with something we can do regardless if we get 1000 or 50 orders. Case design was consulted mostly on the hardforum small-form-factor subforum.

 

Original topic is here: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1832126

 

So here's what we've got:

 

Specs

• sub-7L main body design
• 340 x 310 x 66mm main body - excluding stands, vertical stand and VGA bracket hold
• 340 x 320 x 70mm total outline - including stands and VGA bracket hold
• mITX only motherboard, 7mm standoff's
• generic flex riser, can be replaced, for example with different pci-e lane width generic flex risers
• conditional 48mm or 38mm max coolers depending on cpu socket location and primary 2.5" hard drive mount use
• conditional SFX-L 130mm max or SFX 130mm PSU's depending on secondary 2.5" hard drive mount use, max 64mm height
• conditional use of 3.5" drives or 2.5" drives in VGA bay depending on the card size
• dual slot full size 305mm  VGA cards support
• possible NAS configuration with up to 14 x 2.5" drives
• vertical stand
• possible to carry in some 17" laptop bags and backpacks
• possible to mount the case on the wall
• made out of galvanized steel
• price tag between $99 and $149 most likely closer to the $149

Drive mounts:

• Primary Master 2.5" drive mount, partially above motherboard, collides(unusable) with coolers taller than 38mm when cpu socket is next to PCI-E
• Secondary Master 2.5" drive mount, next to PSU location, collides(unusable) with SFX-L
• Backup drive mounts: 210MM VGA + 4x2.5" or 12x2.5" or 2x3.5" + 4x2.5"

CPU Coolers that should work:

• AMD APU(65W LP)
• Intel stock 1150
• Noctua  NH-L9a/NH-L9i
• Scythe Kodati
• Silverstone AR04/AR05
• Thermolab ITX30

 

Here's the real photo of first prototype to let you know it's real and so you can get a feel of how big/small it is:

 

Drives in VGA bay will be mounted with simple brackets:

 

Renders are of the first prototype and we're currently completing the third one hopefully and probably the last one before ordering initial manufacturing. In the current design there are few tweaks making the manufacturing easier but the looks didn't change much.

 

We've spent a lot of time on finding the proper metal works contractor who would bend the parts with required precision but finally found one that should work.

 

We're not planning to release drawings of interior until we're ready with manufacturing and have the build running and properly tested.

 

We've got a proper way of explaining how the conditional configurations work and what will fit in what configurations

Please tell me this will fit the Be Quiet: Shadow Rock LP. that thing is my favorite cooler. Very efficient and very quiet. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA68V2TR2312

 

Also, please seriously consider having 4 USB ports on the front, Lots of people will use a PC for factor this small to play multiplayer controller couch games with retro controllers, but no biggy.

[SaperPL]

1) Doesn't look to me like it could fit this cooler - Look at it this way:

 

your cooler is by specification 75mm tall with included fan.

 

our case's height is limited by SFX PSU 64mm height.

 

you need to subtract those 7mm required by the ATX standard for clearance under the motherboard so your board won't touch the metal with soldered ends or additional components such as low profile so-dimm memory or mSATA/mPCIE addon cards underneath the motherboard.

 

Count in the motherboard PCB height, socket and the cpu total offset from the motherboard surface and few construction factors and you end up with 48mm left for the cooler.

 

2) We've had the input about more connectors on the front from the start but there's too many factors making it really hard to do it.

 

For once adding more connectors would break the looks of the case.

 

There's really not much space for the connectors inside hence the space next to it is needed for the power supply which location varies depending on PSU's C14 connector location and rotation.

 

USB front panel cables are really thick and adding more in such cramped space only makes the cable hell even worse.

 

You have to understand that it's this extreme type of case where components fill up the space to its edges and there's no space left around them for special cabling.

 

We've already got a little dilemma with those front panel usb 3.0 connectors since there's not many companies making them up to the reference size and looks like we're going to be overpaying a bit for them to get the correct size.

 

Current controller cables are really long. With those hopefully you won't lack those 30cm of distance from the back to the front or you can go for the wireless pads. Retro controllers - well, if their cables are short then you already have to sit close to the box anyway.

[arundel]

Any estimate on when this case is going to be released/open to buy?