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gsadan

New Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2009
Hello everyone - I am an industrial design student, from UK on exchange for a year in Sweden. My current project is a 'live' (meaning with an actual company).

The project is to design a gaming 'chassis' (their term not mine) which will be put into mass production. I can't disclose who it is for right now, but will be able to later.

If anyone is interested in answering some questions, either via a chat client or on here please let me know - any input you give I will highlight and give credit for in a breakdown of the design process which will be publicized on sweclockers.se which is the biggest site of it's kind in Sweden.

I'd like to know things like opinions about cooling, noise, ports, ammount of optical drives, aesthetics and so on - all based on what you would like in a perfect case (chassis!?).

Thanks in advance for anyone who will talk to me about this - please PM me to arrange a quick interview on MSN. I'm in europe so GMT+1 for me to give an idea of my availability.

Dan
 
My ideal case has excellent airflow designed in. Removable motherboard tray. 2 optical drive bays. Cable Management options build in. It should be wide enough for a 120mm Tower Cpu cooler, Deep enough for extra long video cards.
 
The Antec 300 is the closest to perfection I've seen so far. It looks excellent, has excellent airflow, and is quiet. ]

If you were to build a case, I would say model it as an improved Antec 300

Antec 300 design and build quality with the following:

CPU plate hole
Black interior
Cable management hole
Perforated bottom panel for PSU fan
Dual 120mm top fans rather than 1 140mm
Side panel window
A little bit longer overall for big video cards
rotate the HDD mounting 90* so HDDs look cleaner and don't protrude into the MB area
 
keep em coming coming people :)

Thanks for your input - airflow is something that keeps coming up, as far as I understand water cooling is still a niche but I will be accommodating it to a certain point. I know it seems weird they would get someone with no PC case technical experience but that's exactly what they want to freshen some of the stagnant ideas about the shape and function of most towers.

What doese everybody think of having a NAS built into the tower that runs when the PC is off? does that make sense? it would serve every other device in the household with data.
 
It really, to me, depends on the dimensions of the case. I like small cases. Micro ATX, LAN party cases are my thing. I'm actually building my own at the moment due to a lack of cases that I actually like. I'm sure NAS could be a good feature for a lot of enthusiasts though.
 
LAN party cases

I was interested in the idea of portability because gaming is such a sociable activity now - but I was told some portable cases (smaller ones) wouldn't accommodate the GPU's that everyone needs for these events - so it seems like a catch 22 situation.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Dan
 
Yes. Take for example, the Silverstone SUGO. Great case yes, but it has 2 problems. It cant fit extremely long video cards, and it doesn't have the heatsink clearance that people need, because the PSU is above the CPU socket.

My idea: Move the PSU mounting to in front of the motherboard, and flip the mounting so that the intake fan is facing the front of the case, and it exhausts out the side. Then make the case long enough for large graphics cards, and hang hard drives vertically along the interior front panel of the case. Add fans wherever you can, and it would work quite well. Obviously, you would need to work out the logistics, but it could work.
 
Ive always wondered what it would be like to have the psu in the front of the case, facing down so it brings in fresh air from outside and vents it out of the bottom (or top), then just have a angled plug coming from the bottom of the psu to a aux. plug in the back of the case where you would normally have a psu. If it were me in your shoes, I would look at a totally new way of putting the components in a system. Everything is the same, 5.25/3.5 in the front, mobo in the back. Maybe try switching it around, how? I have no idea, just something to think about though.
 
What ever you decide to do, make sure it works.
For example.
Make sure the motherboard screw holes are the right size.
If you have a 90 HDD bay (ideal) make sure that the case is wide enough to allow the power and data cables to be and stay connected. This only means 5mm wider.
These two things made a case swap into a 2hour adventure.
Thanks thermaltake.
I dotn know about other people but I want atleast 5 HDD slots.
The main thing is just a bit of extra space in the right places, a bit wider, a bit more space for cable management, a bit more space for longer graphic cards.
 
Take an look at antecs p180 p182 and p183 chassis, they put tons of cable managment holes and what not all over. Good fan placement and quality design are what we need. Make sure to design a very good hard drive setup, and take into consideration large video cards.

Keep the case smaller to, microatx is good.
 
I agree with Visibits on the Micro ATX idea. It would be really nice to have a quality, enthusiast MATX case, because honestly, there are none. Sure, there's the Antec P180 Mini, but that case is almost 18" tall. It's about the same size as my Antec 300. It has great features, but it's got a lot of wasted space. Take the features and build of the P180 Mini, but make it about 3 or 4" shorter in depth and height, and it would be perfect.

Another MATX case I really like is the Antec NSK3480. That case is pretty much perfect. I cant find anything wrong with it, other than the fact that it's a bit dated, which reminds me. If you're building any case in this day and age, please, please, include a CPU back plate hole, and internal paint. Those 2 things are getting more and more prevalent, and they are a deciding factor in case purchases.
 
Avoid screws if possible. If not, make sure you only use one type of screws (or as few types as possible).

Though since you are into design you should probably know this already.
 
I agree with Visibits on the Micro ATX idea. It would be really nice to have a quality, enthusiast MATX case, because honestly, there are none. Sure, there's the Antec P180 Mini, but that case is almost 18" tall. It's about the same size as my Antec 300. It has great features, but it's got a lot of wasted space. Take the features and build of the P180 Mini, but make it about 3 or 4" shorter in depth and height, and it would be perfect.

Another MATX case I really like is the Antec NSK3480. That case is pretty much perfect. I cant find anything wrong with it, other than the fact that it's a bit dated, which reminds me. If you're building any case in this day and age, please, please, include a CPU back plate hole, and internal paint. Those 2 things are getting more and more prevalent, and they are a deciding factor in case purchases.


If they removed all the hard drive bay area in front and put a vertical loading 5" bay for the optical drive they could put the hard drives in bottom and get rid of the useless 5" bays there. Shrink the case dept by a few inches. Height could be cut down further by removing the gap above the psu.
 
Antec already did that...

76f96455bad4d634467728cad09ae460.jpg
 
Bottom mounted PSUs are a PITA, if you get one with not long enough CPU power cables. Argh.

Ideally everything mounted BEHIND the Motherboard would give you the most space efficiency and bets cooling optinos, as NOTHING will protrude into the motherboard workspace.

Something along the lines of a benching station but sealed up.
 
i only use one optical and one hard drive

but i have a full case TJ07 and i filled all of the bays up with other stuff for water cooling



so removeable everything is my in put
 
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