SENTRY: Console-sized gaming PC case project

[Midnightblaze]

ZABER is there a reason you skipped today's update?

 

my order is 118 does that mean its in the next batch (its two white models) (just curious [and a little anxious])

 

Thank you.

[Octagoncow]

9 hours ago, Midnightblaze said:

ZABER is there a reason you skipped today's update?

 

my order is 118 does that mean its in the next batch (its two white models) (just curious [and a little anxious])

 

Thank you.

ZombiPL said this on the [H]ardforum thread:

 

"We used to make an update on Saturday evening or Sunday morning, but this time it will be a little bit late, probably Sunday evening. We got tons of emails which we need to answer and also we are filling shipping forms for the first part of Sentry cases, so we need some time to move forward. In Poland we already have the 30th of April (it's 1:35 am CET when i'm writing this post) which is the last day of this month, so for us, as engineers, it is a deadline to give you an information about sending the packages. Some of you probably noticed 2 days ago (28.04 and 29 04) we have locked their indiegogo shipping change option. In few hour we will send you an update with all the information you would need or expect. We are ready with the first transport of Sentry cases, but there will be some good and bad information. We will explain everything in the update. 

p.s. but don't worry too much "

[ZombiPL]

9th week of Sentry manufacturing process

This is a late weekend update but this is the one everyone was waiting for: shipping process begun!!!

 

As many of you probably noticed, for the last few days we were locking shipping address change option in your indiegogo accounts. This action was taken for the orders from 1 to 300 with black Sentry cases. You will receive email with tracking number when it will be active, after polish "long weekend". In this moment we have to tell you some good and bad news.

 

Good news is we filled most of the shipping forms for those first 150 black Sentry orders and we are waiting for shipping companies to pick them from us. We have also started preparations for next transport of cases in the following weeks.

 

The bad news is we have a "long weekend" in Poland (29.04-3.05, or even to 7.05 for some companies). We mentioned it before and we thought it could be a problem. Many manufacturers simply don't work in this time and we have problems with many things. One of the issues is painting white Sentry cases. This week we sent unpainted steel elements for the another 150 orders to our external

paintshop.

 

 

We still didn't receive them back. What is more, because of this long weekend we predict we won't receive them before the end of next week. Even in case we will be able to pick them on next Thursday or Friday, it still means we won't have enough time to check them and pack them for the next transport this week. What we want to say is that, even if we kept our promise and we started shipping process in April, we predict there will be a delay with sending packages, mostly because of the long waiting time for white cases being painted by our external paint shop. This is an issue we discussed many times in our forums, and this is also a reason why we see white Sentry cases as limited edition.  We apologise for this situation and we hope there will be a possibility to compensate this delay within next weeks.

 

Ok. Now is the time to explain why we had this small delay with this update. On Thursday and on Friday we had online meetings with ladies who were teaching us how to use shipping and customs services software. It takes a lot of time to fill your shipping details and this is why we didn't have time to make this update earlier.

 

Here are some bonus photos:

 

 

 

 

[mrnobody95]

I'm part of the first batch and I ordered a B+W combo. My shipping info isn't locked yet. Should I be worried?

[ej24]

7 minutes ago, mrnobody95 said:

I'm part of the first batch and I ordered a B+W combo. My shipping info isn't locked yet. Should I be worried?

Worried? Worried about what? They will get your sentries to you as soon as they're ready. The small delay is just waiting for painting of the white Sentry. They'll probably ship both at the same time to save on shipping costs so the black one will wait to be shipped with the white one. I'm sure the Ząber guys will update everyone as soon as the white Sentries are painted. 

[SaperPL]

4 hours ago, mrnobody95 said:

I'm part of the first batch and I ordered a B+W combo. My shipping info isn't locked yet. Should I be worried?

We are processing the orders according to the plan with 150 cases in each shipment. Time between those shipments ideally would be something around a week, but as always there are external factors that could delay the process. If your order is one of the first B+W combos then your indiegogo order will be locked when we have both of your cases ready.

 

What we did to keep the promise that cases are shipped according to your order numbers is fairly simple: for each shipment we were picking lowest order numbers matching the shipment (colour of the case) from the perk stacks to use up 150 cases in each shipment. If some order has two cases in the same colour then it's taking two cases from the same shipment, if it has different colours then your cases will be made in production for two sequential shipments (black then white or white then black) but will be shipped with the second shipment of those two.

 

We do not want show off the timetable for fairly simple reason - it's not rock solid because there may be a shipment where we don't have enough cases that we accepted for shipping during quality control, and thus few orders at the end of the list would be shifted to the next shipment of the same colour, which for single cases and double packs of same colour is two weeks of a difference.

[Exprima]

On 4/29/2017 at 9:35 PM, Midnightblaze said:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01I9KDUC2/ref=twister_B01I9KDWH0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

 

the problem with most of these vandal switches is that the led's are 12vDC so what i recommend if you understand hand tools is one of these https://www.amazon.com/Serial-Molex-Female-4-PIN-Adapter/dp/B06Y6JQK8F/ref=sr_1_21?ie=UTF8&qid=1493515337&sr=8-21&keywords=male+sata and cutting off the molex connector, heat shrinking the 3v3 and the 5v5 lines SEPARATELY and wiring the -12v and the +12v lines to the vandal switch, this way when the system is powered on the 12v rail on the PSU will enable, unfortunately this also means if the pc is in sleep mode then your switch will be lit up too. this can be overcome by adding one of these http://www.performance-pcs.com/indicators-led-s-lamps/shopby/led-color--green/? to the front bezel and wiring it up to the front pwr led header. that can be done by neatly covering the front panel with masking tape after removing it from the case and removing the front switch, using a square (i prefer craftsman) and a METRIC ruler in MM measure the edges of the hole for the power switch and draw two lines parallel to the edges to slightly further then where you want to position the led, measure the distance between the lines (it should be 16mm +- 1-3mm and mark the center, then using a center punch CLEARLY MARK the spot and drill with gradually increasing size drill bits.

 

it will be well worth it.

 

im doing this plus an additional two leds for my boot ssd and my storage drive using these https://www.amazon.com/Data-Power-Serial-Cable-Connector/dp/B00HA130CW cables to see when each drive is being accessed 

Yeah that seems like a lot of work that I cba about. I'll just go with a different case unless I find someone that can do it for me lol

[Kevinclon]

On 5/1/2017 at 7:01 AM, Exprima said:

Yeah that seems like a lot of work that I cba about. I'll just go with a different case unless I find someone that can do it for me lol

Or just don't have the led connected to the motherboard.

[ZombiPL]

10th week of Sentry manufacturing process

 

Just like we predicted, this week wasn't as productive as it could be, mostly because of the "long weekend" in Poland. We couldn't contact with our subcontractors, shipping companies or even customs services, but first things first:

Last week we started shipping process of first 150 orders with black cases. We divided the transport into 2 parts: transport inside and outside EU. Worldwide shipping was registered as "Posted" yesterday. Today we have found out that our transport company may not sent you tracking data for your packages, so just in case we sent you those numbers. Now is the time for EU shipment, which is a tricky part.

In EU we have planned faster and cheaper courier shipping than what we have from national post. We are processing those shipments through a single intermediary company that is giving us a batch order discount. We started the shipping process of this 2nd part of packages and yesterday it turned out it was stopped as a batch. The reason is quite simple: in this transport there were 6 people who didn't give us their phone numbers. It shouldn't be a problem, but... we are ordering a transport with insurance. In that case most courier companies require direct phone contact with the recipient of the package. We sent messages to those 6 people with missing phone numbers and when we will get them we will also get new tracking numbers for all of those packages. That is the main reason why some people from first black Sentry cases transport didn't receive their tracking numbers via email. We hope we will solve this problem on Monday. If not, on Tuesday we will send this transport without those 6 packages.

Next subject: white cases. On Friday we contacted our 2nd paint shop to ask if the metal parts are painted. Unfortunately this is one of the companies whose long weekend ends after this Sunday, so they will start painting first 150 white units on Monday. We have no influence on that

On Friday we received 2nd transport of black Sentry body parts.

Finally, we were asked to show some photos from last week how we prepared your packages. Here you are:

 

 

 

 

We also have some bonus photos from yesterday. We didn't want to waste time on waiting and we started the production of stands for 2nd transport of Sentry cases:

 

[Narnash]

Guess what arrived at home for me today 

 

Imgur photo series with some comments, as a hint my inner cardboard box (actual box for the case) was damaged but the case is fine and looks awsome! 

 

PS @ZombiPL: all the different screws in the little bags were pretty irritating you should had marked them somehow and make clear in which situation you had to use which, everything else was a breeze to assemble (taking account of the cables and over all space availability) 

 

[ZombiPL]

48 minutes ago, Narnash said:

Guess what arrived at home for me today 

 

Imgur photo series with some comments, as a hint my inner cardboard box (actual box for the case) was damaged but the case is fine and looks awsome! 

 

PS @ZombiPL: all the different screws in the little bags were pretty irritating you should had marked them somehow and make clear in which situation you had to use which, everything else was a breeze to assemble (taking account of the cables and over all space availability) 

 

Great job with the build. 

And about that "crack" in the printed cartboard... I have no idea how this could happen. Maybe the external box got some big hit in the transport and internal foam couldn't take all of it? For sure we didn't send you this box in such condition (we even have a big tower of printed boxes which we rejected because of our quality control during the packaging). We will see if this will be a common problem. We think we did everything to avoid such situations, but it looks like even adding additional 1kg of packaging could not be enough. At least the goods are in good shape

[ggh1h]

On 2015-6-2 at 0:34 PM, SaperPL said:

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:

 

DEVELOPMENT COST AND PRICING:

Where to buy 

[Brammm]

On 2017-5-11 at 0:21 AM, Narnash said:

Guess what arrived at home for me today 

Imgur photo series with some comments, as a hint my inner cardboard box (actual box for the case) was damaged but the case is fine and looks awsome! 

 

PS @ZombiPL: all the different screws in the little bags were pretty irritating you should had marked them somehow and make clear in which situation you had to use which, everything else was a breeze to assemble (taking account of the cables and over all space availability) 

 

Noice! What cooler is that? I'm still looking for a good one for my build. (My order was in the 500s so I guess I still have some time to find one )

[Narnash]

2 hours ago, Brammm said:

Noice! What cooler is that? I'm still looking for a good one for my build. (My order was in the 500s so I guess I still have some time to find one )

Thermaltake Engine 27, this cooler is a bit on the louder at least compared to a NH-L9i(a) (which I call near silent and the best performer in the low profile category)  but not particularly bad, just don't expect a silent system in a as small as possible formfactor.

It is -at least in europe- 50€ in retail so relatively pricy, overall you pay an extra for the appearance, as for cooling performance more than 65W TDP is not recomanded (and not tested by myself, for me I run it with an I7 4790T 45W TDP CPU it cools it comfortably at 60% max fanspeed on load)

 

As it is performance wise in thes low profile cooler section I would say     Noctua NH-L9i/a (37 mm tall) > Cyorig C7 (47 m tall a bit more overall cooling than the NH but with a louder fan ) > Thermaltake Engine 27 (27 mm tall, smallest in hight can be complicated with very close VRM/coil placement on the motherboard btw but should be compatible with any RAM hight as long the board manufacturer keep it in the regualar specification dimentions)

 

So the Engine is cool looking, makes sense in a real ultra low profile PC (aka on the uncommon Thin-Mini-ITX motherboards with no part taller than 25mm) but in general I would recomand the NH-L9i/a for the Sentry (I have an NH-L9i too but I modded it to fit on my NUC5i5MYBE in a custom made All-in-One PC in my basement for monitoring my 3DPrinter and watching videos and such stuff while working in my small workshop  )

 

 

PS: I plan on building a thin-mini-itx system when I upgrade my main rig with a a costom (maybe printed) case max hight I want to go for is 35 mm

[mach]

21 minutes ago, Narnash said:

Thermaltake Engine 27, this cooler is a bit on the louder at least compared to a NH-L9i(a) (which I call near silent and the best performer in the low profile category)  but not particularly bad, just don't expect a silent system in a as small as possible formfactor.

It is -at least in europe- 50€ in retail so relatively pricy, overall you pay an extra for the appearance, as for cooling performance more than 65W TDP is not recomanded (and not tested by myself, for me I run it with an I7 4790T 45W TDP CPU it cools it comfortably at 60% max fanspeed on load)

This cooler looks so cool What a pity it doesn't perform up to expectation. 

I guess my 6700 (65W) is a bit too much for it. 

With it's higher price the noctua is a no brainer.

[Narnash]

3 minutes ago, mach said:

This cooler looks so cool What a pity it doesn't perform up to expectation. 

I guess my 6700 (65W) is a bit too much for it. 

With it's higher price the noctua is a brainer.

should be able to handle it but it will walk on the edge of it's limits expect temps in the 75-85°C (depending on ambient)

 

Indeed in general the NH-L9i is the no brainer, this or the C7 basicly.

[FosterGuy]

On 5/6/2017 at 6:55 PM, ZombiPL said:

10th week of Sentry manufacturing process

 

Just like we predicted, this week wasn't as productive as it could be, mostly because of the "long weekend" in Poland. We couldn't contact with our subcontractors, shipping companies or even customs services, but first things first:

Last week we started shipping process of first 150 orders with black cases. We divided the transport into 2 parts: transport inside and outside EU. Worldwide shipping was registered as "Posted" yesterday. Today we have found out that our transport company may not sent you tracking data for your packages, so just in case we sent you those numbers. Now is the time for EU shipment, which is a tricky part.

In EU we have planned faster and cheaper courier shipping than what we have from national post. We are processing those shipments through a single intermediary company that is giving us a batch order discount. We started the shipping process of this 2nd part of packages and yesterday it turned out it was stopped as a batch. The reason is quite simple: in this transport there were 6 people who didn't give us their phone numbers. It shouldn't be a problem, but... we are ordering a transport with insurance. In that case most courier companies require direct phone contact with the recipient of the package. We sent messages to those 6 people with missing phone numbers and when we will get them we will also get new tracking numbers for all of those packages. That is the main reason why some people from first black Sentry cases transport didn't receive their tracking numbers via email. We hope we will solve this problem on Monday. If not, on Tuesday we will send this transport without those 6 packages.

Next subject: white cases. On Friday we contacted our 2nd paint shop to ask if the metal parts are painted. Unfortunately this is one of the companies whose long weekend ends after this Sunday, so they will start painting first 150 white units on Monday. We have no influence on that

On Friday we received 2nd transport of black Sentry body parts.

Finally, we were asked to show some photos from last week how we prepared your packages. Here you are:

 

 

 

 

We also have some bonus photos from yesterday. We didn't want to waste time on waiting and we started the production of stands for 2nd transport of Sentry cases:

 

Looks like bundled up bags of the white pony...cocaine that is...booger sugar, the yayo.

[Octagoncow]

I received my Sentry yesterday and figured I'd share a picture of the completed build. Ignore the mess of wires. I was pretty excited and didn't bother to really do any cable management. The build went pretty well. The best piece of advice for everyone else getting their case is to read the instructions. There's definitely an order for how you should assemble everything. I'm super pleased with my case and how well the crowdfunding campaign has been going. This case is pretty much everything I wanted it to be. Hopefully everyone else on this thread gets their case soon.

Spoiler

[ZombiPL]

11th week of Sentry manufacturing process

As you know, because of external factors last weeks weren't good for us in terms of making progress with the production. Because of that, this week we tried to speed up some things. This is what we achieved:

- First transport of Sentry cases, which were sent to countries outside EU, left polish customs zone. We had to fill all the documents 4 times, because your packages are being transported to different countries by different ways of transport and are being checked in 3 different customs services offices (at least this time). Luckily everything ended ok and most of the packages from this part of orders are on their way to you.

- For the last few days we are getting information from our backers (mostly from EU) who already received their Sentry cases. Some of them are posting photos with their builds in our forums topics. We won't reveal you their results. Just go and check them by yourselves (links to our topics as usual are at the end of this update).

- We prepared accessory boxes for the next transport of cases.

- We finally received first transport of body parts for white Sentry units:

 

- We locked editing of shipping address information for first 150 white Sentry orders and we are filling transport forms for those backers. 

- Without wasting more time we started assembling those cases and before this weekend we were in the middle of this process.

 

 

- What is more, this week we received another part of unpainted Sentry body elements and immediately we sent them to our 2nd paint shop. Maybe this time we will receive them faster.

After this weekend we will finish assembling process of first transport of white Sentry cases. We will pack and send them to you. Hopefully this time without any surprises.

[ZombiPL]

12th week of Sentry manufacturing process

 

This week's update we are dedicating to answer your questions about manufacturing and shipping process. We will cover each subject point-by-point.

Ok. Let's start:

1) Do not worry about your order not being fulfilled. We have calculated everything in terms of money and every backer will get his Sentry. Production and shipping process needs just a little bit more time than we estimated.

2) We are processing 150 cases per transport (according to our production scheme), so we could send alternately black and white units.

3) April never was a time of delivery for all the packages, but it was an estimated month when we should start the shipping process. Indiegogo doesn't show it properly as in campaigner back-end, that is why we have shown our production scheme as a graphic in campaign story and explained it several times before.

4) We are very sorry that the whole production and shipping process takes us so long, but paperwork, logistics and quality control of some elements needs more time than we expected. This week to the increasing number of external factors causing delays we had to add dealing with transport companies who do not treat right your packages. It looks like we are able to assembly 150 cases in one week, but we need almost whole 2nd week to do the paperwork and solve problems with previous transports. Because of all that it is obvious we need almost 2 weeks (instead of previously stated 1 week) to manufacture and send each transport of 150 cases. Once again, we are sorry for this situation.

5) We already sent 1st transport of 150 black Sentry cases and this week we will send 2nd transport with white ones. We will try to send 3rd shippment at the turn of May and June, so we could reach efficiency level of 450 units per month. If it will be possible, then it is also possible we could close the indiegogo shippments at the beginning of July.

6) Most of packages to countries outside EU are being sent with economical shipping, so it may take over a month for them to be delivered. Courier shipping would cost more than $100.

7) If you didn't get your package tracking number, it means we didn't process your order yet. Please be patient.

8) We are very short of time, so if it is possible, ask your questions in the forum in the first place.

Bonus photos of assembled and packed white cases:
 

[Tech Inquisition]

On 2017-5-13 at 11:48 PM, Octagoncow said:

I received my Sentry yesterday and figured I'd share a picture of the completed build. Ignore the mess of wires. I was pretty excited and didn't bother to really do any cable management. The build went pretty well. The best piece of advice for everyone else getting their case is to read the instructions. There's definitely an order for how you should assemble everything. I'm super pleased with my case and how well the crowdfunding campaign has been going. This case is pretty much everything I wanted it to be. Hopefully everyone else on this thread gets their case soon.

  Reveal hidden contents

Cool, looking forward to getting mine

 

[ZombiPL]

 

13th week of Sentry manufacturing process

 

Finally weekend Almost all packages from 2nd 150 cases transport sent. Everyone within this range of units should get an email with tracking number.

 

 

We received some information about bad package treatment by the courier companies, so we had to make some improvements:

a) because black stretch foli makes some trouble with verification of the after shipment package condition, we decided we will use it only for those units which might be sent by the sea transport. For other forms of shipment we will pack Sentry without this foil. It means, when you will receive your package, you shouldn't worry that you got the carton box without external black wrap. Just check the external condition of the package.

b) we had one situation when our backer received a package which was damaged by some sort of sharp tool, probably hook. We started our investigation and it turns out, that in some transport companies when the package for some reason is blocked on the transport line workers are using hooks to unstuck it and move forward. We had only one such situation, but we decided we have to protect next transports against similar damages and other connected problems. Firstly we ordered additional stickers with "no hooks" image. All packages will have those graphics on two biggest sides. Secondly, we bought a banding machine for 15mm polypropylene tape instead adhesive tape which we used before. It will provide always the same amount of force for holding the sides of the transport boxes together and it shouldn't extend itself in different transport conditions. We hope this will be enough to prevent future problems.

Meanwhile, when we were waiting for couriers to pick your packages, we started the preparations for assembling next 150 Sentry cases. This time the black ones. 

 

 

At the end we would like to ask for some feedback from everyone who already received their cases. Only few people wrote us an information about the shape of the package they got from the courier. We will be very grateful if after receiving your Sentry you could write us even a short email with notification about the internal and external box condition. We have many more packages to send and if there are some mistakes we make, it would be great if we could avoid them for future transports. Thank you.

[Freeks]

I got mine yesterday and I really love it, especially the hex-screws. Switched from the Node 202 to the Sentry and was surprised that the cable-"management" (you can't really call it that with ITX systems  ) was easier than with the Node. I guess the chamber separation and SSD positioning make the difference. I also got the DEMCi filter kit and although I'm not a big fan of how they look, I hate dusty PCs (and they cost a fortune with shipping and tax...). I tried mounting the GPU-filter on the inside but the fans scraped on it. My next GPU is probably gonna be a blower-style one, so maybe it will fit in there then. With the instructions I had no problem during assembly but I had to unscrew the power socket to get the mainboard installed. The outer packaging suffered the normal delivery abuse but everything inside was in pristine condition (check the spoiler for more images).

Hardware:

Asus Z170 pro Gaming

i5-6600k

Noctua NH-L9i

16GB HyperX 2133

Corsair SFX 450

Samsung 840 Evo

Crucial MX300

Palit Jetstream 970

 

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

[ZombiPL]

12 hours ago, Freeks said:

I got mine yesterday and I really love it, especially the hex-screws. Switched from the Node 202 to the Sentry and was surprised that the cable-"management" (you can't really call it that with ITX systems  ) was easier than with the Node. I guess the chamber separation and SSD positioning make the difference. I also got the DEMCi filter kit and although I'm not a big fan of how they look, I hate dusty PCs (and they cost a fortune with shipping and tax...). I tried mounting the GPU-filter on the inside but the fans scraped on it. My next GPU is probably gonna be a blower-style one, so maybe it will fit in there then. With the instructions I had no problem during assembly but I had to unscrew the power socket to get the mainboard installed. The outer packaging suffered the normal delivery abuse but everything inside was in pristine condition (check the spoiler for more images).

Hardware:

Asus Z170 pro Gaming

i5-6600k

Noctua NH-L9i

16GB HyperX 2133

Corsair SFX 450

Samsung 840 Evo

Crucial MX300

Palit Jetstream 970

 

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

 

From what i see, the package you received was oppened, probably by transport company (different adhesive tape, different polypropylene tape, etc.). Dunno why they did it, but if you think everything is fine, then ok. If you are happy, we are happy  

 

p.s. Nice dogie 

[marsilainen]

Is the faceplate easy to remove or is it part of the chassis?