ZADS's build in a french newspaper! ASUS contest winner.

[Scaniris]

CONGRATULATIONS TO ZADS!!!!!!!! HE WON THE COMPETITION! SEE THE FRENCH NEWSPAPER ARTICLE IN A WELL KNOW FRENCH ONLINE TECH MAGAZINE ABOUT HIS BUILD!

Zads posted a worklog some days ago on XS, it's here: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=239998 .

I was reading the latest news about CES 2010 in one of my favorite online french magazine and What did I saw: ZAD'S RIG! Immediately I remembered his Worklog here, and I think this is a great success.

Here is the link to the magazine's website with the review:

French version: CES 2010 - Boitier compact watercoolé et incluant 8 SSD ! (http://www.pcworld.fr/2010/01/09/materiel/carte-mere/ces-2010-boitier-compact-watercoole-incluant-ssd/468301/)

English version (google translation): PC World France - CES 2010 - Compact and including 8 watercool SSD! (http://translate.google.be/translate?hl=fr&sl=fr&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pcworld.fr%2F2010%2F01%2F09%2Fm ateriel%2Fcarte-mere%2Fces-2010-boitier-compact-watercoole-incluant-ssd%2F468301%2F)

And a screen shot of the original article (in french, for english click on the link here upper):

http://free0.hiboox.com/images/0110/a871c20f49e2f594a41926bf84ad3ae9.jpg

Congrats to ZADS :clap::clap:

[Serra]

Congradulations Zads! And thanks for sharing your worklog with us. I love the 3D mockups, I really have to learn how to do those one day. It looks like you put a lot of yourself into this project, I'm glad to see it paid off.

[saaya]

congrats! :toast:
no offense but... whats so special about it? :D

[570091D]

congrats ZADS!!! thanks for sharing your work log, and welcome to the forum!

[clayton]

Sff Ftw!

[Aerou]

congrats! :toast:
no offense but... whats so special about it? :D

C'mon :p:

For the size of the case, performance is really uncanny :up:

[Jokester_wild]

C'mon :p:

For the size of the case, performance is really uncanny :up:

:rolleyes: I don't want to see the others based on the winner.

[Humminn55]

Congrats on your win! Looks great!



congrats! :toast:
no offense but... whats so special about it? :D

As for this comment....do you ever say anything positive about anyone or anything without being critical of it/them? It almost seems that you either take great delight in being hypercritical of everything that doesn't involve you or you are simply a small, bitter person with a very dark, pessimistic, and overly selfish outlook on life....probably a bit of both.

But, what's special? Well, he won a competition and you didn't. That's one thing. Second, fitting all that into a quite small case is another.

Oh, and criticizing something beginning with the opening, "No offense but...." is a sure sign there's an offensive comment to follow and you truly don't give one crap about offending at all. If you did, you'd keep your mouth shut and your attempt to belittle someone else and his/her work to yourself.

[tool_462]

As for this comment....do you ever say anything positive about anyone or anything without being critical of it/them? It almost seems that you either take great delight in being hypercritical of everything that doesn't involve you or you are simply a small, bitter person with a very dark, pessimistic, and overly selfish outlook on life....probably a bit of both.

But, what's special? Well, he won a competition and you didn't. That's one thing. Second, fitting all that into a quite small case is another.

Oh, and criticizing something beginning with the opening, "No offense but...." is a sure sign there's an offensive comment to follow and you truly don't give one crap about offending at all. If you did, you'd keep your mouth shut and your attempt to belittle someone else and his/her work to yourself.

I've been reading here a long time, and basically I've found 30,000 posts of Saaya talking a lot and criticizing a lot but never putting up anything that I find better, or even anything at all, than the subject of the criticism.


@OP Awesome :) Always a cool thing to see PC enthusiast stuff getting recognized in not-so-enthusiast media :up:

[Manicdan]

it is a nice compact build, i have a complete atx PC built into a briefcase, took me a few months of playing around with dimensions to get it all to fit. i can see afew areas of improvement for his build, but nothing critical (better mounting of the SSDs, and a dvd/blueray drive would have been nice, and the mesh on the back could be made of something stronger)

as someone whos built a few cases from scratch, 90% of the effort is preparation, and 10% is actually making it.

[zads]

Hey Scaniris, thanks for posting this!
I'm glad the contest and my build got some press coverage!

Like I stated in my buildlog-
The point of this build was never to be the most flashy and pretty case, or the most extreme cooled case,
but rather a rethinking of gaming case design to minimize its bulk.

[Mats]

I think Saaya is right. The layout looks great, but I've seen far better builds. This pic says it all:
1 - That flimsy mosquito net in the back looks horrible.
2 - The SSD's are just lying there, with an angle.
3 - The tank is also mounted with an angle.
Edit:
4 - The plastic parts haven't been polished before assembled, you can see the traces of the cutting machine used, in the corner where the net isn't mounted properly.
If that would affect the mounting in a negative way then a different cutting technique should have been used, like milling for instance.
Edit 2:
5 - Heck even the mobo is mounted with an angle, that or it isn't parallel with the bottom of the case, look at the edge of the board closest to the cam.

No, I haven't done anything similar myself, but I have seen better cases many times, especially contest winners.
http://wd.ch-img.com/1102221-asus-award2.jpg

[Manicdan]

No, I haven't done anything similar myself, but I have seen better cases many times. Duniek is only one example (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=219197).


does that guy have access to CNC machines? i did everything with a pencil, table saw, and a dremel. and for 3d modeling, i used none other than the Source SDK (yes a map builder for counter strike to get layout and dimensions)

some of us dont have access to $20,000 equipment, please consider that when trying to compare.

[Mats]

does that guy have access to CNC machines? i did everything with a pencil, table saw, and a dremel. and for 3d modeling, i used none other than the Source SDK (yes a map builder for counter strike to get layout and dimensions)

some of us dont have access to $20,000 equipment, please consider that when trying to compare.
I never said CNC, I said mill, you don't know the difference? And that was only one example. Anyone can do some polishing without any machines at all, especially if it's plastic.;)
It should be fairly easy to put it all together better than that, well unless you're wearing Picasso glasses or a kaleidoscope.

It won because of the high end specs (water cooling, LGA 1366, SSD) combined with the small form factor (maybe 150 x 330 x 400 mm). An ATX tower built with a similar (lack of) presicion would never have a chance in any contest.

The reason why I'm criticizing like this is because it's the contest winner, I'd never say things like this to someone showing off a DIY case just here at XS for instance.

But if you're in a design contest, you should be prepared for criticsm.

To put it simply:

:rolleyes: I don't want to see the others based on the winner.

[Manicdan]

I never said CNC, I said mill, you don't know the difference? And that was only one example. Anyone can do some polishing without any machines at all, especially if it's plastic.;)

i worked in the machining industry, i know a decent amount about manufacturing.

the link you posted that looks much better, which is the only part i quoted you about, was done with CNC, which is perfect to .001", and what you designed is what you get out of it.

the ONLY thing i asked you to do was not compare two things built in completely different ways, and expect the same results.

[Mats]

i worked in the machining industry, i know a decent amount about manufacturing.

the link you posted that looks much better, which is the only part i quoted you about, was done with CNC, which is perfect to .001", and what you designed is what you get out of it.

the ONLY thing i asked you to do was not compare two things built in completely different ways, and expect the same results.
I have edited my post.

You don't need that kind of precision to avoid #4. Let's say it can be polished to give a better finish.
But what do you think about the other things I pointed out. Don't you think it looks like a rushed job?

I think both you, me and most people here are capable of mounting parts with right angles, and not using a mosquito net.

On the other hand, it's obviously much harder to make a transparent case look good. But this is the contest winner we're talking about!

[Manicdan]

i did alot of work with acrylic, and most tools an average user has access too, do not give the best edges. one trick i herd from an uncle was to simply run a lighter across the edge to melt it for just a second and can clean it up quick. i havnt tried it yet, and im sure theres other options too. what sounds like the easiest way (table saw) may give really crappy results unless you can find the right blade. and since blades go for 10-30$ each, knowing which one gives the best results can cost more than the build itself. they didnt even sell the one i wanted at any of my local hardware stores. so we had to be creative and use a table router to clean it up. worked great too, but cost quite a few extra steps, since we left extra material on, and had to shave off a little at a time with the router.

when your limited with the tools you have, and your still learning the best methods, do not expect perfect results, but expect to learn a few tricks along the way.

[Mats]

when your limited with the tools you have, and your still learning the best methods, do not expect perfect results, but expect to learn a few tricks along the way.
True. But I'm just surprised that he won! :yepp: Four out of five issues can be fixed afterwards.

He may not have access to a CNC machine, but he's in charge of the product lines at a SSD manufacturing company, something that neither I or most people I know are. Besides that first metal-colored Samsung, I never saw where the other came from.
The world is never fair.

[saaya]

As for this comment....do you ever say anything positive about anyone or anything without being critical of it/them? It almost seems that you either take great delight in being hypercritical of everything that doesn't involve you or you are simply a small, bitter person with a very dark, pessimistic, and overly selfish outlook on life....probably a bit of both.

But, what's special? Well, he won a competition and you didn't. That's one thing. Second, fitting all that into a quite small case is another.

Oh, and criticizing something beginning with the opening, "No offense but...." is a sure sign there's an offensive comment to follow and you truly don't give one crap about offending at all. If you did, you'd keep your mouth shut and your attempt to belittle someone else and his/her work to yourself.
i said no offense cause i didnt want people to think i want to bash it, and i didnt expect people to read the opposite into it, silly me ^^

so the competition was about perf/size and not about looks... well my french is a bit rusty, i didnt know that was the goal :P
i still dont think its that special, ive seen very neat custom cases and cubes and shuttle xpc cases...
im not impressed... what do you want me to say? :shrug:
like mats said as well, many parts arent even mounted... at all... and just lie about in the case :stick:

good for him to win the competition though, its def a nice perf/square cm box :toast:


I've been reading here a long time, and basically I've found 30,000 posts of Saaya talking a lot and criticizing a lot but never putting up anything that I find better, or even anything at all, than the subject of the criticism.
*farts at tool_462* :fart: :D

[zads]

I love my case as an achievement and its resulting small case size for what it can fit in there.


My case was definitely not the best LOOKING case in the competition,
there were far better finished and better looking cases in the competition.
I will personally admit this, and I was even told this by the guys at ASUS. :rolleyes:

But the contest wasn't just about building the best or most customized case,
I was picked as a winner because I also did a good job of utilizing and blogging about the ASUS hardware and software advantages in my build.
I'm sure they liked the concept of the density/small form factor, as well.

If ASUS was just looking for the best and most professional display, they would have just paid a professional to build one, as I'm sure they did for the other displays.




I don't have time to respond to everyone's posts, but I will just make a couple general comments:
I wanted to get my pieces laser cut for precision at first, but then the fabrication quote came back at $100 per piece :shrug:

I will admit that it could have been finished better- in retrospect I could have saved myself a ton of time and grief, and just paid to have it fabricated.
But it was good to get experience trying to do it the first time myself, to fabricate it from scratch in my garage.

The mesh material on the rear was flat on there before, but got bent up
(and you can see the rear case wall was actually cracked on the top rear corner from a TSA inspection :shakes:);
I didn't have time to find any better alternative material before the show.
Thought about using those sheet metal vented PCIe slot covers, but I hate those things.

I wanted to actually make 2 brackets to mount the SSDs side by side,
but I just settled on modifying a PSU power cable to take out any slack between the SSDs.

The reservoir is actually meant to be mounted on a bracket at a 45 degree angle to the ground, so you can actually use the case as a horizontal case or as a vertical mini-tower.
I tried to rush and make acrylic brackets the night before I left, but they came out with uneven edges, so I just left them off the case.

[Envy]

The point of this build was never to be the most flashy and pretty case, or the most extreme cooled case,
but rather a rethinking of gaming case design to minimize its bulk.

Congradulations Zads! :up:

[Mats]

zads: Thanks you for posting, it all makes more sense now. I feel especially stupid about that tank comment!:doh:

Even Asus admit its faults, and yet you won.

:party:CONGRATULATIONS!!:party:

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:sofa:

[zads]

zads: Thanks you for posting, it all makes more sense now. I feel especially stupid about that tank comment!:doh:

Even Asus admit its faults, and yet you won.

:party:CONGRATULATIONS!!:party:

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.
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:sofa:

Haha, no problem. I assure you, the case isn't even finished to my satisfaction..
Note that I haven't posted it in the cases gallery yet, only my buildlog :p:

Anyway, for future ASUS contests (which I will post on XS to get all you guys involved),
I know you guys with more experience and more free time during the week will blow me out of the water :p:

Thanks again to ASUS for putting on the contest, and all of my sponsors (in my sig).

[Marco André]

Probably 8x128GB SSDs gave you some boost to the top1 :up: congrats for the coverage! It's nice to see it on paper magazines