Competition Phobya Design a Case Competition - Stage 2

all cases in one SU file ... I can already imagine a 1Go file ... but that would be terribly awesome

EDIT : It would be perfect to have a better idea of case size

EDIT² : I tried to merge our 2 files and I thought my computer was dying, II and Monolith is way to heavy for my lil' hard worker

 

If ya guys need mine, just PM me.

 

I can send you my goliath if you want to take a pic of your david next to it

 

haha nah our internet is too slow and limited. If you can take it to about 20Mb then OK.

 

Good Luck Everybody !

 

Given the chance, I would buy Dominus now if it were on the market.

 

for me top 3 are

Black Owl by SnowyOwl
Proteus by mick64
Phobya Gladio by Razer2007

 

Been checking in, but way busy at the mo... voted for my favourites again with the exception of Guille, who has greatly improved from stage 1 and deserves to go through!

Guille
Roboduck
Razer
Subtec



Good luck everyone, I feel honoured to have taken part in this comp.

A big thanks to the people that voted for me...

 

thanks mate .

I will be on vacations started tomorrow and untill monday. I'll be right back for the final result. Good luck to everyone.

 

It is 2 days, 7 hours, 15 minutes, 20 seconds,
until Tuesday, 15 February 2011 at 2:56:00 a.m. (UTC time)

 

It would be great if you would enable us to change our votes up until the deadline. I only voted for three and for whatever reason forgot to vote for Dominus :-(

 

Unless we get a massive rush of votes it seems we have our top 5... With myself being 10 votes behind 5th place, I don't think I'll catch up.. ><

 

256 wasted votes Some people aren't using all 5 votes.

 

No worries, you'll have another chance next round

 

This may be because some people like less than 5 of the cases in the competition.

I personally think that most of the cases in the running are too big, chunky, over the top muscle headed for my tastes, except for dominus - thus I voted once, and for subtec.

I like small, efficient, understated styling so thats what I chose.

It seems the majority of the voters here like bling though, so thats how they chose.

Its all about taste really.

-Ash

 

Ashtefere -

If you look through the forums, I think you would find that a lot ( maybe 70% ) of the builds are just about bling and muscle. A much smaller number ( maybe 25% ) take style or taste into consideration. And an even smaller number ( that last 5% ) are actually successful in applying style and taste.

Subtec kind of pulled the rug out from under everyone ( with the exception of Guile ) with how well the understated style came through on his design.

Confusis has about the smallest case in the running, and the styling is right in line with some of the most highly praised designs in these forums.

In reality the 5 designs at the top right now are all about the same overall dimensions/volume, with the exception of Guile being slightly taller. My own design is by comparison an absolute behemoth, but then I come from XS, and that is perfectly acceptable over there - if not an expectation.

In my eyes, the top 5 all have their own style and are tastefully done. But they are all competing on the basis of how to lay out the components, in what amounts to the same big square box.

 

I would have to agree with you, but I do believe until the hardware starts to change (which it is starting to) case design will largely remain the same. With ITX mobos and small compact liquid cooling systems like the H50, case designs can get a bit smaller and more creative with the layouts but for the most part people are still buying the same basic cases. Mobo at the back, PSU under or above, HDD/Optical drive bays at the front. I personally love Guillie's idea with the upright motherboard and cooling components mounted behind, subtec also has a very creative layout. Its hard to really get creative without having custom hardware, or do it while keeping the end product affordable. Good example of this would be the new TJ11. Brilliant looking case, very nice layout and lots of cool features but at $600 it is a bit of a bank buster. I'm not saying its impossible to be genuinely creative, but it is very difficult.

Edit: Taste and Style is another thing that can be very hit or miss. Its hard to compare a sleek, shiny sports car with a rusty, muscled out rat-rod, but both are "cool" in their own ways. Some people love the super clean, tidy cases (Murder Mod TJ07) and some love the dirty, worn look (Bill's District 9 case). Its hard to quantify just what constitutes "tasteful" or "stylish" because it can mean very different things to different people. The best you can do is make something that make YOU happy and hope others like it too.

(Warning: The following is a personal opinion, some may not agree )
My biggest gripe with most case designs is the front mounted optical bays. It seems like such a waste of space having 5, 6, even 7 drive bays. Ive only ever used 1 optical bay and I only ever use the drive in that bay once every 2-3 months. Even if you want fan controllers they don't need to be external, once you set them you can pretty much leave them alone. Ok sorry, my optical-drive-rant is over.

 

Re: Drive bays:

I fully agree roboduck.

Gimme a slot load lappy drive slot, and I'm happy. Its all I need, for the extremely rare cases where steam doesnt have the game I want. (I even reinstall my OS with a thumbdrive).

A nice clean, simple slot to slide a drive into that doesnt detract from the lines of the case would be perfect for any occasion.

-Ash

 

One thing that I think some of the participants in this competition, as well as some of the voters, are missing is that this is to be a production case (though perhaps limited); the examples you gave are mods, which to me don't make sense to put into production. The District 9 case might look great to some people, but it's really not something that's likely to sell to a broad audience.

My approach has always been to create something understated, flexible, and functional while leaving the modding and aesthetic "enhancement" to the end user's discretion [edit: and to add - a design that also stands on its own as good industrial design without any "enhancement"]. I think this approach appeals to a much broader market, vs. a case that has tank treads or looks like rusty scrap metal or steampunked out or something (not that there's anything wrong with that if that's your thing).

 

This exactly.
This competition is not about a cool looking case that we'd like to see in the Project Logs section of these forums, but about a manufacturable case that attracts lot's of people who'd actually spend money for it later on once it's crafted.
That includes the the drive-bay-discussion aswell, as most people still use an optical drive or buy fancontrollers, LCD-displays, reservoirs that are mounted in the front there.
A case that you like to sell to a broad audience needs to be flexible, offer alot of options to please the customers and should have a fairly basic design that allows people to work with later on, instead of being designed in a way that doesn't allow for custom builds.

All this wasn't very well communicated in my oppinion, and therefore this is more like a freestyle-competition now, rather then an industrial design competition.

Most of the designs are still very good, not to get me wrong there, but they don't exactly match the initial idea of the competition in my oppinion and the manufacturer didn't do anything to help there at all.

I voted for subtec (and only for subtec, wasting my other 4 votes), allthough I don't like the PSU in the front there, but it is the only design that caught the general idea of this contest in the end.