Modding Phobya Case Design Competition - Final Voting Round

Hats of to all the contestants, i've been watching the various stages to see what people come up with eagerly. As much as I like all the designs and I think all of them would make wonderful mod projects, unfortunately I can't really see any going into mass production, why? Because the main focus has been everything but manufacturing and distribution. Take the Black Owl, a beautiful case no doubt and commonly compared to the PowerPC case simply for its styling. However the PPC case is so much more, every fixing, every detail has been considered to the finest degree. Even something simple like side panel fixing the Black Owl renderings show no easy way to fix the side panels. Sure you can use screws on the sides / back / front etc, but that's not the aesthetic being shown. Then again they could employ a retention system like the PPC, but then again that's a very complex retention system, appropriate for this demographic of case?

I certainly hope Phobya make one of these cases as a display systems, but if they want a product to sell employ a professional industrial designers that actually understands how to mass produce and distribute.

 

Yep, that get's my vote too.

 

Razer2007 with Phobya Gladio +1

 

Sure, it stinks of Apple but +1 Black Owl for me... manageable size and moar stylin'

 

I have to admit, despite voting for II, I'll be quite happy to see Black Owl win this. Sure it may be a bit of a G5 rip-off but it is absolutely gorgeous inside and out.

 

Phobya Gladio is the one for me.

 

Proteus by far the best design for water.

 

Because there are no Cases that allow to fit a decent Watercooling in it without modding, unless you turn to Mountain Mods, but outside America they are expensive, plus they are far worse looking that any of the Cases you can vote for here.

Sure there are some Cases like for example from Coolermaster or Corsair that have room for a 360 rad at the top, but thats only if you restrict performance as they don't offer enough room for a proper full thinkness Rad like the HWLabs GTX + Shrouds + 38mm fans, also the performance sucks as they all feed the Rad used Air.

Lian Li did try to do the same with Aftermarket Tops you could buy to add a Rad at the Top, but guess what? no shop ever sold them.

Silverstone? oh wait, they stopped making the TJ07.

On top of all that, being able to fit one 360 Rad is far from enough with the Heat Pcs produce these days, sure we have moved beyond the turns your Room into a Sauna I7 920, but have you recently looked at just how much heat High End Gpus produce?

So those Cases here are the closest we will ever get to a proper WC Case, sure they won't be for everyone, but thats far from the purpose of this Contest, if you want a generic Case that can fit low performance WC after wasting lots of time and money on modding it there are already a Billion and one Cases on the Market for you.

 

Agreed. It cost me an eye and a kidney to "import" an Extended Ascension + Pedestal a couple of years ago, and although it does what it says in the tin is huge and not very sightly, no matter how much "bling" you try to add...

XSPC has recently made an attempt too, but the end result is... crude. Again both models can host watercooling gear without modding, however they're in my opinion less than attractive.

In both cases proper cable management shines by it's absence too

There's nothing quite like the designs shortlisted on this competition in the market right now. Not even close.

Personally I prefer Mick's design, but I think I won't have a chance to cast a vote...

Due to the lack of "proper" WC cases, now that my rig is in the living room (making MM and XSPC a big no-no) I went down the road of using a Mo-Ra3 (nicely out of sight behind the AV cabinet) and first a LL PC-B10 and now a Cubitek Magic Cube.

Maybe my next build will be in the winner's case

 

I'd built my own case for several reasons but what I saw here is on another level.
But in my opinion I've to give it to "Proteus" by mick64.
Best use of space imho with just one slight disadvantage.
So designwise I tend more to "Black Owl" by SnowyOwl

 

I have a Lian-Li PC-V2000 and for me the best design is "Proteus by mick64" because it is a good case for future evolution (modding).

Good Luck Everybody.

Sorry for my English, i'm French.

 

Black Owl is looking to be the most interesting out of this bunch. Aesthetically pleasing, nicely laid out and potentially cheaper than the others.

I will however say I wanted Dominus to win!

 

Although I do like Black Owl, going to give this one to II because of the fan placement.

 

Dominus was withdrawn by the contestant and therefore didn't enter the final voting -> http://forums.bit-tech.net/showpost.php?p=2623536&postcount=94

With the discussions we had during the contest-phases it became clear, that some designs aren't going to be manufactured the way the designers intended them to be and I'd say that the curved design of BlackOwl won't be manufactured this way, but get straightened to look like the G5 from Apple.
Curved surfaces like the front of BlackOwl and complex shapes like the front-grill Dominus had in mind require the capabilities to produce injection molded plastics, or to manufacture parts out of solid block using 5-axis-mills wasting alot of materials, etc. And I don't see this happening tbh.
The easier designs on the other side, the ones that are manufacturable with "basic" tools don't get voted for.

It's an unpleasuring situation for the contestants and for aquatuning/Phobya imho.

 

For me Owl case is ugly, specially the handles... I hope mick64 wins cause that is the best case for water cooling and it looks very nice. I also liked how Razer case looked too but out of all of them mick64 has best watercooling/looking case out of the four.

 

I vote for "Proteus by mick64",
This case looks nice!

 

I voted for "II"

 

black owl for cable management looks good. not sure about the front though.... too much owl - does it need an owl? lol

It'd look good with that front, a curved alu front.

 

Black Owl by SnowyOwl.

 

Voted for the black owl, I personally think the black version of it looks a lot better though.