Modding Phobya Case Design Competition - Final Voting Round

This case looks so much like a Apple Mac Pro - handles, proportions, design, mesh front and back - it really looks like a heavily modded Apple Mac Pro!

 

Just over a year ago we teamed up with water-cooling and modding manufacturer Phobya to ask for "their" help in designing the perfect case for water-cooling.

 

Well, the case looks nice for a prototype. I'm not a watercooler myself, but I'm sure that by the time they start production, it'll look a fair bit more polished and even better. Personally, i'd veer more towards the black version of the Black Owl, given a choice between the two, but Silverstone seems to have that kind of look covered, and while there is a comparison to the G5, the same was applied to the Prodigy when it came out and AFAIK, everyone loves the prodigy.

My only wish is that they had actually built a system inside to see how all the parts fit inside. But I'm guessing since this is still at prototype stage, we won't get to see such a thing until they release a semi-final version.

 

You never know! This is the reaction that I had hoped for when I released my SketchUp files!

 

Any more news on the case development? It would be nice to see an article in the magazine that describes the process. What problems there have been and the solutions, etc. When can we expect to see a production model, when will it be available to purchase, and how much will it cost? Now that we have seen the prototype, I was hoping that it wouldn't be long before Phobya produced the finished product. Are we in for another long wait? How much more development is required to turn the prototype into a saleable product? Is it even financially viable?

 

We think the Beta model will be about 4-6 weeks away, at which point Bit-tech will get a sample to give a first look / test and from the results we will then make the final changes and the production model will be made.

 

Any news?

 

4-6 Phobya weeks = 8-12 Earth weeks

 

We should have a reply and maybe some new pictures this week.

 

Another month has past.

 

That's 8 weeks folks!

 

This isn't on their Priority List?

 

Well, to be quite honest, they shouldn't make any promises about when they will show the next steps if they don't have it on their list of priorities.

 

Actually guys you have to understand that a project like this is a massive under taking, especially for a company like ours. We are not primarily a case manufacture, we do not have access to massive case production plants and simply re-brand any old case. We build them from the ground up.

Although it is a fun challenge its is very hard to effectively reverse engineer a case design. Firstly we have to take that design and work with our design team to put it into a format for our machines. At this point we will meet with the first headaches if the machines struggle with a particular part. Then it has to go back to the designers to find away of altering it while staying true to the design.

From here is the prototyping where we make the case, ship it to our offices at great costs and review it here we have to go over making sure every thing fits, identify weaknesses and problems then send it back to the designers. We have done this process several times up until the beta case you saw recently.

The current problem we encountered was quality, sure we could knock this out rapidly from china and it would have been here months ago. Then you would have moaned that the quality was not fitting for this type of case. So we have moved production in to the EU to a company well know for producing high quality bespoke cases. Problem being is they now have to tool up there machines and plot a efficient build process for the case. This takes time.

Good things come to those who wait.

 

I'll repeat my question...

 

Sadly we are still waiting for the beta case from the new producer.

I have asked again for an update so if i hear anything i will post it here.

 

Tick tock tick tock Snowy, have you heard anything?

 

Let me just put these here:






Current status:

The case you see here is the complete Beta case at a MUCH higher quality then the first case. This is coming to the UK and will be at the i49 LAN party for people to take a look at next week. Pre-orders will be opening after i49 as the case goes into mass production.

Of course bit-tech will get there hands on this for review.