NFC - S3 Chassis (100% aluminum, ITX, and made in America)

[NFC]

Hey guys, sorry for the lack of updates. I have been obsessing over several projects, including this one, and I let many things fall off my plate...

I face two major roadblocks with this project:

1. Defining my customers.

My goal for the S3 was not to compress extreme gaming hardware into as small a box as possible. I have another project for that, and companies like Digital Storm, Cyber Power, and Falcon Northwest have done this in 2012. I had hoped to beat them to the punch...but oh well. My goal was to find the hardware that pushed out great graphics to 1080p TVs and Monitors--and make THAT as small as possible. The hardware I have been using in the S3 chomps down Skyrim, Civ V, Crysis 2, Far Cry 3, and other modern titles at this resolution. The goal was not to be excessive--but find what was necessary then go over that mark.

...unfortunately the kind of people who are interested in boutique, high-quality chassis are the kind of people who demand excessive hardware. I've met with a bunch of people in 2012 who keep crushing my willingness to invest in this project because they all want huge GPUs or liquid cooling. CES was also disheartening in that regard. From everything I have heard I think I need to re-evaluate everything I have been told and work on something for longer cards and heavier duty PSUs.

2. Controlling Costs

This is what I have been working on in the past several months. I want a chassis that is high quality, but is affordable. When I say affordable I do not mean cheap...but the S3 was looking to scale down to $432 (chassis alone!) in runs of 100 and that is just ridiculous. I have had several manufacturers laugh at this estimate and claim they can make the box for 35 bucks, and then give up a month later or not return my calls. In the meantime I reworked the design to the S3 "mini" which still supports dual expansion cards (although smaller). This really isn't a replacement for the S3, but rather a stepping stone refining the customer (people looking for moderately powerful machines to drive their TVs).

This year I fully intend to launch a mini-itx chassis or bust--likely they will be heavily subsidized (by me!). At this time it looks like the S3 Mini might be what I launch with...and it will disappoint many people I am sure. Hopefully from it I can get some direction and insight, however.

As soon as I have REAL, hard information for you guys I will let you know.


SINCERELY THANK YOU! You all have been great--posting here negatively or positively helps, and to hear so much encouragement about something I am truly passionate about is incredible. <3


Some technical info:

I do indeed have my own Pico Variant built by the engineers at Mini-Box. I can't give specifics because we are still working out licensing, patents, and all that jazz. I can say that the 160XT is incredible and can far exceed its peak load of 200 watts, but heat does become an issue. My hint to people wanting to build their own mini systems is the control heat through custom heat pipes or other soldered sinks. The power brick is what is the real challenge to overcome...so many high voltage bricks are utter crap and cause system crashes and burn up after fifty or so hours. I said this before but I have gone through dozens and dozens of bricks finding one that was going to work for me...and I had to eventually have one modified by the supplier.

I HIGHLY SUGGEST working with the first two generations of the Xbox 360 brick for you custom guys out there! It is extremely well built and can peak at over 300w and run (without melting) at 200-250 continuously (which is enough to run some heavy duty hardware). You can find them on ebay for 12-15 shipped these days. You have to modify the head, obviously, but you can do it easily with Radio Shack parts.

Thanks again!

-NFC

[NFC]

It occurred to me that I never showed you guys the inside:


(Some of the support pieces are not in that photo, please understand why I can't disclose them yet).

S3 Mini:



Comparison (bad shot I know) S3 mini and S3's backs are even:



NOTE that the S3 Mini is unfinished and has some slight changes and standard dressing to go through.

[geo]

Hey guys, sorry for the lack of updates. I have been obsessing over several projects, including this one, and I let many things fall off my plate...

I face two major roadblocks with this project:

1. Defining my customers.

My goal for the S3 was not to compress extreme gaming hardware into as small a box as possible. I have another project for that, and companies like Digital Storm, Cyber Power, and Falcon Northwest have done this in 2012. I had hoped to beat them to the punch...but oh well. My goal was to find the hardware that pushed out great graphics to 1080p TVs and Monitors--and make THAT as small as possible. The hardware I have been using in the S3 chomps down Skyrim, Civ V, Crysis 2, Far Cry 3, and other modern titles at this resolution. The goal was not to be excessive--but find what was necessary then go over that mark.

...unfortunately the kind of people who are interested in boutique, high-quality chassis are the kind of people who demand excessive hardware. I've met with a bunch of people in 2012 who keep crushing my willingness to invest in this project because they all want huge GPUs or liquid cooling. CES was also disheartening in that regard. From everything I have heard I think I need to re-evaluate everything I have been told and work on something for longer cards and heavier duty PSUs.
Thanks again!
-NFC

I've following this for a while now and glad you posted an update. at this point i think you should define your customer and not the other way round.

Start with an Indigogo or Kickstarter campaign - make your case for 1080p gaming machine + HTPC with the smallest footprint that could hide behind TV look part of one's AV equipment. I'm sure there is great demand for such a thing out there. you could also speak to these guys who built a case from scratch and now have a indigogo campaign going on. http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1717132

IMHO this is exactly kind of innovation in form factors Desktop / PC badly needs.

I myself am not looking for a gaming/htpc box, rather a thin workstation running VMs that i can carry around/ through airports for work the S3/S3 mini would be perfect for me with a few minor mods

[NFC]

I love that m1 case; thank you for bringing it to my attention. I'm going to be referring people to now. I'm pretty sure the plan at this point is to make some minor changes to the S3 mini, crowd fund a reasonable run to gauge interest, and follow up with the S3.

I'm going to have my prototypes done at the end of this week and I'll try to post an update.

Thanks.

[geo]

I love that m1 case; thank you for bringing it to my attention. I'm going to be referring people to now. I'm pretty sure the plan at this point is to make some minor changes to the S3 mini, crowd fund a reasonable run to gauge interest, and follow up with the S3.

I'm going to have my prototypes done at the end of this week and I'll try to post an update.

Thanks.

cant wait for the prototypes. looks like you funded the prototypes yourself :/. note that the M1 case funing is for a prototype now not the case.
anyways, start threads on OCN and [H] and see if PC technews sites can provide reporting on Kickstarter / Indigogo campaign.

again, cant wait!!!

[bamtan2]

1. Defining my customers.

My goal for the S3 was not to compress extreme gaming hardware into as small a box as possible. I have another project for that, and companies like Digital Storm, Cyber Power, and Falcon Northwest have done this in 2012. I had hoped to beat them to the punch...but oh well. My goal was to find the hardware that pushed out great graphics to 1080p TVs and Monitors--and make THAT as small as possible. The hardware I have been using in the S3 chomps down Skyrim, Civ V, Crysis 2, Far Cry 3, and other modern titles at this resolution. The goal was not to be excessive--but find what was necessary then go over that mark.

...unfortunately the kind of people who are interested in boutique, high-quality chassis are the kind of people who demand excessive hardware. I've met with a bunch of people in 2012 who keep crushing my willingness to invest in this project because they all want huge GPUs or liquid cooling. CES was also disheartening in that regard. From everything I have heard I think I need to re-evaluate everything I have been told and work on something for longer cards and heavier duty PSUs.

people are stupid. at the maximum, all you need to support is: 10.5" titan, 3770k with aftermarket heatsink, asus z77 itx, 3.5" hard drive, 2.5" ssd, and some margin for external expansion like a usb hard drive. this covers almost all capabilities, and yet it doesn't require very much. it certainly doesn't require pointless water cooling or mutant size video cards. even the dvd drive is a luxury IMO, and I'm switching to using external USB optical drives now, because they are never used.

and even if you supported nothing but the video card, a cpu, and a 2.5" drive, you'd still cover almost everybody. extremists can make their own case... you can't please everybody. the system except the video card uses 150W max, and the video card is 250W max, and this is with margin that is 400W max and there are ways to power that in a small case. and a case that supports this will also make a good 100W system with a picopsu.

you can even get rid of all internal expansion and just add a third PCI-E slot, and let people add their SSD there with a 2.5" expansion bracket. remove all the features you want as long as it gets the job done: fast small computer, or whatever you view your requirements to be.

I hope you dont get discouraged listening to too many people.

[UrbanSmooth]

people are stupid. at the maximum, all you need to support is: 10.5" titan, 3770k with aftermarket heatsink, asus z77 itx, 3.5" hard drive, 2.5" ssd, and some margin for external expansion like a usb hard drive. this covers almost all capabilities, and yet it doesn't require very much. it certainly doesn't require pointless water cooling or mutant size video cards. even the dvd drive is a luxury IMO, and I'm switching to using external USB optical drives now, because they are never used.

and even if you supported nothing but the video card, a cpu, and a 2.5" drive, you'd still cover almost everybody. extremists can make their own case... you can't please everybody. the system except the video card uses 150W max, and the video card is 250W max, and this is with margin that is 400W max and there are ways to power that in a small case. and a case that supports this will also make a good 100W system with a picopsu.

you can even get rid of all internal expansion and just add a third PCI-E slot, and let people add their SSD there with a 2.5" expansion bracket. remove all the features you want as long as it gets the job done: fast small computer, or whatever you view your requirements to be.

I hope you dont get discouraged listening to too many people.

Bat, sounds like you have a few ideas, man.