WiNDy to start shipping cases worldwide?

[sholvaco]

http://www-online.jp/

Seems like March 2010 onwards non-Japanese residents are going to be able to get their hands on these masterpieces via official channels. Whether this includes local distribution or just worldwide shipping is undetermined at this point. I'm guessing latter but still better than nothing...

...Fricken' finally!

[Bitemarks666]

very nice cant wait till march, I so want a XR-1 Black Knight

[RADCOM]

They truly look the Rolls Royce of cases, well the Bentley at least It will be great to see a review of how they perform re airflow hotspots etc.

[clayton]

The screws in the front ruined it. I prefer clean Lian-Li's or SilverStone's.

[rocket733]

Scheduled to start shipping March 2010 Link

Time to start saving, I'm buying a Windy

[Jokester_wild]

I have always loved these cases.

[sholvaco]

The screws in the front ruined it. I prefer clean Lian-Li's or SilverStone's.

Heh, to each his own I guess. Me? I prefer an abundance of detail in things over the boring "shaven" look.

Who knows, now that they might become slightly more common in the west there is a chance you'll be able to experience one in flesh and get a different perspective on them.

[Deadly]

Yeah, I posted about this first thing I found out over at ocforums earlier today. I've been waiting for this day for some time... suffice to say.

[dctokyo]

Here is the parent company`s website link.

http://www.hoshino-ing.co.jp/

[Frag Maniac]

Does the XR-1 Black Knight only vent well with the front door open? The only pics I've seen of it show a rather air restricting, ventless front door and the thing loses it's nice looks with it swung open. If anyone knows of a site that shows details of the design features I'd appreciate some links.

[Simonzi]

I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't spend the money on one.

[Xiphos]

I wonder how much are they going to sell them in the US.

hopefully not $800+

[Tetrafluorometh]

Bye Lian Li, hello Windy. I've always prefered japanes over chinesse both daily items and women

[Frag Maniac]

Hate to interrupt the small talk guys, but since some of you seem to know these cases well, can someone tell me how the heck they get decent intake flow with a non vented door covering the front fans? Seems this case is geared more toward silent operation than gaming.

[busterben]

Its actually a very ingenious design using de side intake to suck up air
that passes the mid plate and going through the front fans
it doesnt perform less than usual intake

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

$300+ for an mATX case = fail

I don't care how nice the cases look. For this kind of money I could build another computer.

Well, I won't be going with Windy.

[dctokyo]

Does the XR-1 Black Knight only vent well with the front door open? The only pics I've seen of it show a rather air restricting, ventless front door and the thing loses it's nice looks with it swung open. If anyone knows of a site that shows details of the design features I'd appreciate some links.

Check out this link for more details

http://windy-online.com/case/alcadia_xr1/feat_1.html
http://windy-online.com/case/alcadia_xr1/silent.html

ALCADIA XR-1 G1 BLACK KNIGHT will sell for over $600 US dollars
http://windy-online.com/case/black_k...r1/lineup.html

[daseto]

$600!!!!! For that price it better give damn good head and cook me breakfast. They certainty look very stylish, but im a windowed case kinda guy and i dont see any that have a window.

[lkiller123]

They certainly look sweet. I hope the price will eventually go down and Windy will go into the US and Europe market. That will be wonderful.

[Frag Maniac]

Check out this link for more details

http://windy-online.com/case/alcadia_xr1/feat_1.html
http://windy-online.com/case/alcadia_xr1/silent.html

ALCADIA XR-1 G1 BLACK KNIGHT will sell for over $600 US dollars
http://windy-online.com/case/black_k...r1/lineup.html

OK, thanks for the links. I get the design concept except for two things. 1) No dust filtration in such an extravagant case, 2) why does the rear duct exhaust the warm air downward vs upward?

Anyways, I agree, the pricing is insane. I can get a Lian Li PC-A70F from a local distributor for only $184.

[redphil]

Anyways, I agree, the pricing is insane. I can get a Lian Li PC-A70F from a local distributor for only $184.

But that's not produced in Japan.

[dctokyo]

OK, No dust filtration in such an extravagant case, 2) why does the rear duct exhaust the warm air downward vs upward?

Anyways, I agree, the pricing is insane. I can get a Lian Li PC-A70F from a local distributor for only $184.

I have owned this case before, it comes with air filters. the rear duct helps out with noise.

[Frag Maniac]

@ redphil,
Paying a huge difference in price over production in Japan vs Taiwan is much less of an issue than the R&D that goes into it. Hell, the best consumer grade processors are still made in Taiwan. I just don't see the need to dump over $400 more into design concepts that are quite frankly unnecessary and would cost much less were they to have another factory elsewhere build them. I'm not saying all the concepts are useless, I'm just not convinced the XR-1 BK has any better cooling capability than the PC-A70F.

Generally when you use smaller and/or a lesser number of fans AND have the intake air snake through a more closed off shell, it equals more heat buildup, particularly if the interior space isn't as large. It doesn't matter if compartmentalization is used, spacious, direct flow designs have always been superior for cooling. Antec had their hey day with the P180 series, but today's hardware needs more space, fans and direct flow. I'd be willing to bet it's quieter, but anything I get will be quieter than what I have now. My main priority is spaciousness and good cooling for high end gaming hardware.

@ dcTokyo,
Where are the filters placed and why don't any of the pics show them? I was thinking the rear duct was mostly for noise reduction. As I've been implying I think noise is even more of a concern for the R&D team than cooling. Most cases focus more on one than the other because it's hard to do both well.

Bottom line, with features and pricing like they currently have, WiNDy will always cater to the elitist crowd, which is a very small market niche. With the current US and global economy, they really should consider adding some basic case designs to their lineup before going abroad with sales, like Silverstone and Lian Li have done recently. I still think the PC-A70F is one of the best values in an alu case I've seen. WiNDy is coming abroad at a time when the competition in high end cases is tougher than it's ever been, and it's bad timing for boutique brands, unless they change their concepts some.

[Woody-san]

I guess I'm one of the "lucky" ones , since I work & live in Tokyo, and have been buying Windy cases since 2003.








As for Windy Global, as I understand it (from a Nihongo letter sent to Windy Club members, of which I am one), Hoshino have opened a factory in China, and are offering a "value" line of laser-direct cut aluminum cases. Here is their new OEM page. IMO, their pricing is is very competitive (if special pricing offered to Windy Club members is any indication...)


Undoubtedly their Japan-made products are expensive, but you get what you pay for - it's difficult to explain, but really is something to be experienced.

That said, I did go ahead and have my ZR3000 Alcadiia cut up & mod'ded for water cooling. The build log is here (in case you're interested).

HTH...

[Frag Maniac]

Thanks for the info Woody, but good grief, if they're planning to ship to as many locations as they have indicated, they need to get WAY more English friendly on their websites. My guess is even the econo Chinese versions will be hard pressed to compete with brands such as Lian Li on price, features and performance. I've yet to even see any real comparison tests between their Japanese cases vs other ones, and for a company that's been producing alu cases longer than anyone, you'd think there would be such info out there in ENGLISH. That's one of the reasons I'm skeptical much of the oohs and ahs are over aesthetics, features, and quality of materials and construction vs actual end result. I experienced a lot of that when I was deep into bicycling, both road and mountain. The sport is riddled with high end, CAD designed CNC part laden bikes, many of which perform no better than those costing a 1/3 the price.