Phobya water-cooled case design thread - Stage 2

ooh ok hehe

 

Unfortunately you still need 5.1/4" bays for ATX-retail-products these days, as people are somewhat... from yesterday... still using tons of CD/DVDs.

 

I'm with confusis on this one. Sure the average consumer that's buying a factory made pc might care about an optical drive but honestly I feel the modder/overclocker enthusiast doesn't really care.

 

^^ True. you can have an external DVD drive just for installing window. other than that, we use ISO files.

 

I even install windows / linux from a bootable USB mass storage . Plus, external DvD / BD can be put on the desk while the case is under the desk (and you can reuse it with netbook).

To be honest, I'd add only a slim Dvd to actual pc case, no need for more.

 

LOL what's with the linking? But yes it's very true. the only reason why I would want optical drive bays is for fan controllers.

 

Lol, seems like automaticly generated links

 

One of the likely uses of a high powered, watercooled PC is for video editing and not having a means of easy output via DVD/Blu Ray is a minus. I don't know how many cases Phobya plan on building but compromising basic functionality over style is in my view a negative. In addition I personally wouldn't be too keen on not having easy access to a fan controller towards the top of a system.

 

A slim drive is ok and doesn't impact optical drive performances. I think that on this type of case (high end) fans controller should be integrated to the case, and not having a third party controller that takes a lot of place.

The major goal is to have a nice looking, easy to use, able to cool everything in silent, dust free and not too heavy or big case. 5.25 inches drives takes a lot of place (5.25" racks can hold 4 x 2.5" hdds) and to be honest, you don't need more than one DvD burner. A slim one is just perfect.

The more important to me is a nice amount of hdd's for raid configuration (raid 0 for the system and raid 1 or 5 for data)

 

A slim drive, particularly Blu Ray is also a lot more expensive. The problem with integrated controllers is that if anything goes wrong with it how do you fix it? With a standard fan controller at least you know at worst that you can replace it at a reasonable price.

What's important to you isn't necessarily what's important to the people who will buy the case.

 

This is what this thread is made for, but nobody except the finalist are inputing. Your point are good, but again HDD's are cheaper per Go than optical disk and a lot faster. I see DvD drives only as backup (and for those in video / 3D animation to burn their work). Those case would cost a lot, hardware costs a lot, cooling rad, pump and blocks cost a lot ... slim drive are not that expensive, would cost only 20€ more for DvDs.

5.25" bay could be place, but for short device like fan controller, thus leaving the place behind it to hold something else. I just think, and it only involves me, that 5.25 full size optical drives are only a waste of space.

But again, we are all waiting for users input to know what you all are waiting for. Since nobody are giving advises or expectation, we are making what seems important to us.

I'll try to include places for a fan controller, but I keep thinking tht if someone can afford one of those case plus all the hardware to feed it ... then this person can buy a slim drive.

 

I accept what you're saying about cost but I also have in the back of my mind the fact that Phobya seem to cater for dependable and low cost watercooling components.

A lot probably depends on what Phobya plan to do. If they're intent on only building a few for kudos then any one of the finalists cases would deserve to be built. If they're planning on a mass market (inasmuch as there is a mass market for watercooling) TJ07 'killer' then they'll want to make as many as they can and any design compromises that limit the saleability would possibly be rejected.

 

I agree with you Mr Elf, the problem is that we don't have much informations about the final product future life. If you want to help us improving our design, any inputs are welcomed. There're a real lack of non-finalists point of view.

Compromise have to be made since WC hardware take a lot of space if you don't want to have a mammoth case ... or maybe I can make a tardis case ... external size of a match box, internal space twice a mountain mod case

 

Hey!! Look! Iz mad door wif da beeg fan filterz!

Closed


Open!

 

It's strange but the version with the rad holes on the side kind of makes me think "this is the front of the case". I like the outside design a lot, it looks pro and nothing tacky, clean and functional

 

yeah it's true what he said. it looks better without the grill. but it still looks good.


I just chucked it 2 fillports up there...

 

Here are my today's work :

- Added support for 2 fan controller
- Reworked of the "cooling" tray
- New HDD bay

What is still in progress :

- Case internal structure / skeleton
- HDD bay cover
- Vented case bottom with filter
- Bay window
- Slim optical drive integration
- Power / reset button, front usb / headset connectors
- Tubing
- Reshaped feet ?

And now some pictures



















Hope you like the way it is going. As always, any input / comment is welcome

Stay tuned.

 

It wouldn't surprise me to think that a lot of interest has been lost because for 20+ people, the incentive (free case and WC gear) to keep interest in this competition has gone.

nice to see that some of you are thinking about 5.25" optical drives now and their access. Like it or not, Optical media is still going to hang around for a long while, and not a lot of people will want to spend more on a slimline/slot loading drive when a normal 5.25" sized one can be got for less than £15

Plus the plethora of other 5.25" sized devices, such as hard drive racks, fan controllers, remote control units and LCD screens. some of which take up 2 or 3 bays each.


You also need to focus on where these are placed, especially the cases which have a configurable layout. Consider EVERY possible PC user, from the On/Under the desk person to the Hide in a wardrobe/slide into alcove person.



If you are wondering, I'm going to still work on my concepts. Just without the pressure of meeting a target deadline. I'm going to develop 3 cases. all will share the same look, it's just size and cooling power that will be different. a M-atx case that'll be small, but be able to fit 240 rads. a normal ATX sized case that can go up to a 360 rad. and the original contest entry with SR2/OMG-ATX support and even bigger rads (because screw it, might as well forget the self imposed 800D size limit i insisted on for the contest)


I would post here, but I'm not in the contest anymore, no longer obligated to. unless you really want me to

 

It is good to finally see some debate over day-to-day use of the case. We need more!

Myself, only use the optical a few times a month, about equally for reading/burning.

The problem I see, is that we here on the forum are generally enthusiasts, and the main customer base of companies like Aquatuning and Phobya, and as such we usually have no argument with having to buy specific hardware just to achieve a given style or appearance, which renders the optical debate moot.

As for the everyday pc user, I ask them what they expect to use their pc for and how much they have to spend. I'd say about 80% of the people I advise don't even look at the aesthetics of the pc case. They view the pc as a purely functional machine and simply accept whatever it happens to look like when they take it out of the box. If it has to have a slim dvd due to the case design, they could care less.

About 15% will actually care about what the specs are, and what the hardware can actually do, and are willing to open the case and try to work on things themselves. They are also willing to pay for good looks.

The last 5% are us few who are more than happy to thrash their pc's to within an in of it's life. And will most likely change the hardware out every 6 months whether we need to or not .

Back to the question at hand, are we supposed to aim for the 80%? The 15%? or the 5%?

 

I think the 15%