Modding Alchemy Case Design Contest Closing

Due to time constraints on us and the majority of prototypes not being able to be built within the time frame we needed to have a case put into production we have decided to utilize the final 5 images and information given to us by each of the designers to determine the winner for our design. Much thought and work was put into this decision. We had a staff of production specialists working in great detail to determine production costs and aspects of each case design. We also had each system reviewed carefully based on the design for performance in noise levels, thermal levels and overall performance levels.

While each design had its own very appealing aspect and approach we had to determine as a company what is best for us. Costs of production came in as the largest number for scoring on this basis with preliminary results (w/o a prototype) for thermal, noise and performance levels following shortly behind. Aesthetics was another scale for points in each design.

First, I want to thank each of the participants in the contest! All of you had some very interesting ideas and designs. Unfortunately only one clear winner could be determined. The winners are posted directly below this paragraph and our reasoning and a brief explanation will go in immediately following the list.

1st place = Geno from boxgods.com
2nd place = J.Laeret from bit-tech.com
3rd place = Dutchcedar from bit-tech.com

Each of these designers came out in the top as far as aesthetics, performance, noise, and heat dispersement. I am going to post our reasining for our decisions in reverse order.

Dutch, a beautiful rig any gamer would be proud to own. Unfortunately production costs are high for a few reasons. Primarily multiple moving parts. Some issues were small concerns with the removable optical drive dock. We love the options included and again it is an extremely nice design and layout, performing exceptionally well in thermal, noise and performance. If not for the minor issues had w/ the case design it very likely would have placed higher. Still this design was an excellent one and again any gamer would be hardpressed not to fall in love with it.

J.Laeret, another beautiful case. Heat dissipation is a minor concern w/ the “dual layer” panels on the side, but that was one of only a few minor issues. Consumers like a clean look and it was definately nailed, but they also like a “clean” environment and w/ the mirror finishing etc… fingerprints, dust could be another minor issue with it. Overall production costs were very acceptable and performance levels high. We really got a good chance to admire the overall case and design as you did some excellent work in the details. It is an absolutely gorgeous case all around with lots of flexibility and options to it. Congradulations on making second place here among all of the fine entries submitted.

Geno opted to follow his own advise from his case study on modding contests in that he kept the company sponsoring the contest in mind from start to finish. His art work was not nearly as polished as the others but included with his design was 5 pages of industry data he has acquired running a Hardware review and modding site. (http://boxgods.com). He also included a LOT of math. He passed on a lot of flashy concepts and designed a case for ENTHUSIASTS that is very high performance oriented with the highest heat dissipation of the group, best in class noise dampening, and the lowest production costs. It also offered a clean, classic design mantra that offers several finish choices...good for differing "price points”. In short, he put himself in our shoes and designed a lower cost, higher performance machine with a clean classy look. It is for this reason along with the costs of production being the lowest, with the overall performance being absolutely magnificent. This will indeed be a welcome addition to the Alchemy line of computers.

Congradulations to ALL of the designers whom gave us a big challenge in deciding what would be the best for our needs and use. A BIG congradulatiosn to the top 3 designers here!

**Edited for clarification of rules and guidelines** 03/08/06
Each winner needs to contact me with a mailing address or fax number so they can be sent a design release granting us the use of their design. They also need to let me know how they would like to be paid (PayPal, money order etc)

 

I think it's kind of lame this contest has to end this way. I think this shows little respect to the people who put a whole lot of time in their designs.
I understand that as a company you need to make money in the first place, but perhaps you should also spend some time thinking about how you should make that money. Not as in how can we make as much as possible as fast as possible, but how can we build a company with a good reputation in all aspects of business. Making profit is one of those, but also trying to achieve mutual respect with the people who work for you and the people and companies that work with you. And achieving quality, not only in your products, but also in relations with your partners and mostly with costumers. That might not get your company profitable in the first year, but it will ensure you can build a solid base and reputation, wich will make our company stand out of the lot through the years...

 

I agree. It seems like the voting was unnessisary, because Joungne obviously got the most votes, and the winning case was the one with the LEAST amount of physical detail (it doesn't even have any internals!) Not to mention is beige and unattractive. I honestly think that unless your going to completely change that design to make it 1000X better nobody will buy it. Also, some of the people who entered poured hours of time into their designs, and you pick the one that probably took 6 minutes to make. Just because it has the math to back up its performance stats, and can dissapate heat effectively, doesn't mean it will be purchased by the average joe who doesn't care how well it works, or how its the most mathematically efficient design, as long as he can play his games and it looks good.

 

I think that it's risky to choose a winning design without having a look at any prototypes. Who's to say that Geno's case will be cheaper without actually having one built.

Admittingly some of the case designs look labor intensive and costly to produce, but nobody will know unless prototypes are constructed. Zalman offers a silent heatsink case if that's what you guys are thinking of. Their current offering is $600+. I know that's not a production cost model, but with water cooling, a heatsink case is going to cost a fortune.

I feel that the top 5 should have been given their fair chances to prototype their designs. If I were Geno, I'd refuse to accept the victory and withhold the design until the contest played out completely.

 

Why do they need a heatsink case (which weigh like 100 pounds btw) if they have watercooling? Is it going to be a custom water cooling system built into the heatsink fins of the case or something? That certainly won't be cheap.

 

well, i think its time for me to react and tell a bit more about how the contest was played.
I just dont know where to start. So many things were said, so many promises...

It is obvious the contest hasnt been played as layed out by Static L. and his socalled compagny ACS.

Over the course of the contest i was in contact with Dutchcedar and Gnu and we were all having our doubts and concerns. I really think our side of the story needs to be told, and i will get togheter with Dutch and Gnu on how we can tell it. I'm afraid my english isnt that good enough to express all the things that happened over the course of a week. But I am sure Dutchcedar will come to the rescue and speak about what we have experienced.

This been said, I want to make clear to everybody I am not dissapointed in anyway that I wasnt in the top three, and I hope those guys get what they have been promised by Static L.

Actually this "contest" made me think about casemodding again, and inspired me to make a design. After Hypercube, casemodding for me was as good as over. Now I have a place to start again , a new design to make another casemod, and it will be made, i promise you that

...reading my post again, i see that i dont tell anything about how the contest was played, but I will try again later on

greetz,
Joungne

 

I am going to answer each of these one at a time so that it is made very clear on why our decision was made and what occured during the course of this contest. Also will be made clear the rules and guidelines set forth in the original post, which were ignored by the designers.

The contest rules clearly stated. Designers will be REIMBURSED for their prototype builds if they choose to build a prototype. Also clearly stated in the rules were the guidelines for that reimbursement.

We had designers not abiding by these rules which were clearly set forth in the original contest posting. "HERE" I am not going to name names as I respect each of the designers whom entered this contest. I also respect them very much for the work they have done in the past and the work they did in their designs here. However, they chose to either not build their prototypes or make attempts to demand money up front for their prototype builds.

While I understand their concern over putting a lot of work and money into a build of this nature, it was already set within the rules and made clear to them beforehand. Money was offered to be put into an escrow account beforehand and was again refused by at least one designer.

Another designer wanted to build an entirely different case from his original entry and then because he did not like the rules which were stated beforehand chose to have his images as his final entry. This was his choice...the rules were clearly stated beforehand and he did not feel he could build his prototype within a reasonable time frame so made that decision.

One designer stepped up to the plate and even offered to build, help build or help with issues on a design for each of the protoypes because of this issue and other concerns over their design.

While I spoke with a few of the designers more often than others, all pertinent information was shared between each of them as it came up. I spent many hours speaking with a few of the designers on MSN and AIM over issues or concerns they had with the prototype builds, in hopes of being able to remedy any issues or concerns. Many different options came forth, but at some point it had to be finalized and finished before it expanded to over a year long contest for a product we would like to have out much sooner.

There is a question about the voting results. The voting was solely to determine the top 5 out of the top 10 entries. It was in no way in place to determine the final 3 or their order. This was made very clear in all of the posts in regards to this contest.

This contest was originally put forth to give something back to the modding communities online, to help us find an amazing design for our branding case, and to be a fun competition for all in the modding communities to be involved in and followed. It is my regret that it did not turn out that way, but we had to do what was best for the company and the community. All of the final entries will be paid according to their placing in accordance with the original guidelines.

 

A team of professionals that do production/ manufacturing analysis for a living said what would be the most cost effecient etc. We had each design along with the preliminary materials list given to us by each of the designers carefully reviewed by such people and rated on a scale.

Asking Geno to resign as the winner and not accept his prize is bordering on an insult. Saying he spent 6 minutes on his design is also completely wrong. His entry may have lacked the 3D polish of the others, but it did include 5 written pages of exceptional industry analysis about modding and case design, as well as production information. It also included 6 full pages of completely rendered 2D CAD drawings that covered every aspect of a COMPLETLY thought out design. In addition to all that, he took the time to source EVERY single part and product in his design...to the penny and after reviewing all the material, I was completely convinced that when he said he could have a fully completed prototype in my hands in 30 days, he could deliver.

I was in constant contact with all the top 5 finalists, and when I informed him several designers were having trouble with aspects of their design, he could have said I told you so, but rather offered to lend his expertise to any who wanted it in resolving their issues. He went as far as offering to build one of the other designers prototypes...

You guys are missing the point. He is fully capable of designing eye popping mods that could hang with the best for one off mods, but he placed himself in the position of a new company and designed the best case for a PRODUCTION PC BUILDER, not a case reseller.

For those interested... here is Geno's Case Study which goes into a bit of detail about where his experience comes from as well as his experience and knowledge in modding and designing.

One of Geno's "eye popping mods" Clearly he could have gone this route, but the route he went was above and beyond the "dream cases" designed.

 

This part of your post refers directly to me and what you say is not at all true. In conversations with you, it was made clear (by you) that your deadline would be no more than six months to have completed prototypes, an obligation I couldn't make. You asked me for an alternate solution. I offered to build a different design to fit into your schedule, because of your comment to me, that "a builder without a protoype won't stand a chance". So don't go into a public forum now saying that I didn't like the rules, because that simply isn't true. There was no deadline in the rules. What I didn't like was your expectation of recieving work from us without any guarantee from you whatsoever. I'm not surprised that you now choose to denegrate the participants.

As to us wanting to be paid up front... please be clear. We were asking for the money to buy materials for YOUR cases up front. That's not at all out of line. Your offer of using an escrow account was not even mentioned until much later and wasn't clearly defined in the least.

Your hours of conversation, that you tout as an example of your hard work, was nothing but confusing. You told us each different things, gave different answers, gave different criteria for the judging, etc., etc. We knew this because we, some of the finalists, talked together, while you chose to talk to us individually. To read the transcripts of your chats with others was mind-boggling. It was as if we were each speaking to a different person.

You might also have noticed that my interest waned right about the time you told me you had no information to share about your Eau Claire, WI based company. You did say you had advertising lined up with major magazines and expected to have 100 employees in a year. But you couldn't afford to front the money for materials to build five cases at once. Five cases that you intended to keep. I was unable to find any information about ACS being registered in Wisconsin... and I did look.

But it didn't end there. You told me of your twenty-two years of experience in the computer business. But... other sources show that you're 28 years old. I'm struggling with the math. I was really trying to find out if you were honest or not. It wasn't looking real good. I'm still not 100% sure... but I learned more than I'm sharing here and that information doesn't look good either.

Then, in the chat we were finally going to have, with all of the finalists and yourself, to discuss things, out of the blue, you said no protptypes would be built, the contest is over. Then you essentially posted in the chat the very post you made here at Bit the next day and followed it by saying, and I'm paraphrasing... "Here's the breakdown... 1st place, etc... sorry the winner couldn't join us in this chat... but I gotta go, because the moving truck is waiting. See y'all later and by the way, thanks." You really had us shaking our heads... like, WTF? I read the transcript a few times... same reaction.

Whatever. If your marketing strategy is similar to your plans for this contest, sales should indeed be good. People would love to have you build them a PC, ship it to them and if they liked it and it was delivered on time... they would pay for the parts. Yes indeedy... sales should be good.

I'm sure the checks are in the mail.

 

Yes, we did that... some of us. How did you know?

Oh wait, maybe you're saying YOU shared all the pertinant information with each of them... Could we take a poll on this?

 

Your concern over any "guarantee" was not expressed in any of the e-mails sent to me, which was our only means of conversation over the course of the last week or so. Outside of you stating that is was "not enticing" to build a case be paid for the materials, possibly win some $ and not be able to keep yoru case was mentioned. Had your concenrn been expresse I would have told you the same as another designer. The funding could have been put into an escrow account.

The comment "a builder without a prototype won't stand a chance" was very accurate @ the time (even though misquoted "unfortunately images alone will be hard-pressed to have a fighting chance against 4 other built machines." were my exact words). With other builders ready to build their prototypes and the fact that images really do not compare to an actual "model". Would make it EXTREMELY difficult for an image of a design to stand up to an actual design.

The rules VERY clearly stated that the funding would be REIMBURSED. I offered to another designer to put the funding in escrow and it was turned down. The offer was made in good faith and your "concern" over that was not clearly expressed in any of the emails sent to me.

I did not intend to say that any of you had specifically intended on breaking the rules, but that it was made very clear to me that you did not wish to build the design you submitted. It was also made clear to me that another designer wished to ONLY be paid UP FRONT for his prototype.

Going through the rules before submitting an entry would have remedied a LOT. By submitting an entry it was understood that EACH of the designers accepted those terms

Chats with others? I only have been in contact "chatting" with two of the designers in the top 5. "different answers, criteria, etc..." Please feel free to email me those "differences". When speaking with one designer over his concerns ideas were put forth to help remedy them etc...NOTHING during those conversations was set in stone. Otherwise it would have been shared w/ and sent to ALL of the designers.

Ever once occur to you that we are not registered in WI as ACS? You could have asked about that and the pertinent information would have become available to you. Advertising lined up with magazines, can be verified as well. I however, not once stated that I could not afford to front the money for materials for the cases. Simply that it was NOT a smart move to hand over $5k a piece (or less) to 5 total strangers in "good faith". I also offered to put the funding in escrow, or wait until the case was built and pay for it before it was sent out.

Most of this conversation was held with one particular designer whom expressed his concerns over the funding for the case the highest. Again, options thrown out there yet not set in stone. It was also CLEARLY stated in the original posting for the contest, that I would be in contact with each of the designers in the top 5 to iron out details, and go over a specific time frame etc...

My words there, to be precise. Where that I have been around computers for 22years. Yes, I am 28 years old, yes I have been around computers since I was six years old. My first programming was done on a Commodore64 @ the age of 7. In fact, I will quote the ONE e-mail I sent you stating I have been around computers for 22yrs. (yes you know you only were told once that information)

Where in there do I say any of what you are claiming here?

I am not going to begin quoting each and everyone of your e-mails (outside of what I had sent to you quoted above) or trash talking ANY of the contestants. However, through you e-mails and my conversation with another designer it was made clear to me that there was NO simple solution to have a prototype built. You even insisting more than once that you build an entirely different case from your original entry. Upon two of the major designs submitted not showing any real desire to build their prototype and the reality that an image is no comparison to a real build. We decided to finalize all of the entries utilizing the images.

Your attitude shows greatly how mature you are in your own handeling of the contest. You were well aware before you even sumbitted and entry that we may request a build, that it was NOT required, and that if it were built, that it would be REIMBURSED. That among with the numerous times you told me you wished to go with your images alone or enter an entirely different ptototype, combined with others refusing to build their design without $ up front and not accepting $ put into an Escrow account finalised our decision to finalize the contest. We did our best to ensure that everyone was satisfied, but it was not able to be that easy and simple as it should have been. Candidly, I wish it could have come to the builds and gone 100% like it was planned out, but it was apparent enough that only a handful of the designers here wished to follow through and abide by the rules set forth when they entered the contest.

 

Again I will state, any concersations I had with any particular designer over their concerns were ideas and NOT set in stone at any point.

 

I'm old enough to be your daddy and regardless of your judgements and expectations of trust from others while offering none in return, my wariness of you seems well founded. Like I said earlier, I'm sure the checks are in the mail. That's your only obligation at the moment.

 

Age doesn't warrant maturity, and if you had of read the rules in the beginning, perhaps you may not have entered the contest. But you did enter the contest and when you did so you accepted the terms set forth. If your age trully warrants wisdom, we would not have had any issues at all.

Oh, and trust was spelled as ESCROW.

I hope you are as eager to post when the check is in your hand.

 

If, as the CEO of Alchemy Computer Systems, you would like to spar with the contestants of your company's contest ln a public forum, please continue. Maybe you hold to the notion that all exposure is good exposure and that makes it worthy, that's for you to decide. If you would choose to continue, I'll gladly take your posts line by line and truthfully counter your accusations and false claims.

I'll peek in later...

 

You have yet to counter a "false claim", and it was FAR from my intentions to bicker over the pettiness of some of the contestants here in a public forum. Rules were stated clearly and it was the designers decisions that violated them. While I was wiling to work to come to a solid solution, some were not so willing.

If you feel you still have further issues to discuss with me personally, feel free to e-mail me or logon to MSN and we can talk.

 

^^^ So you wish to continue but ask for a change of venue? Heh... request denied.

Still talkin' down the contestants, too. That's your choice.

 

This was part of the PM just delivered from Static Lullaby...

I guess the check's not in the mail...

 

Had you read the rules to begin with, there would have been NO question and you would not be here attempting to badmouth me and ACS. I am certain any readers following this thread will be able to see clearly enough for themselves what I mean when I say pettiness.

I would also like to point out rule #9 of the guidelines. 9.) All winning submissions may be utilized by ACS as a case for one of our lines. By accepting winning proceeds you agree to allow ACS to utilize this case design solely, and not sell or accept proceeds for the same case design. You will however, be allowed to keep rights to utilize the design for personal use.

Let me know what format you want the money in, or forfeit. Your choice, but I am no longer going to tolerate your attempts to berate me personally, or ACS.

 

No, the check is DEFINATELY going to be sent out. Read above.