New Mac Pro Case for PC, is this real?

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gigichan000
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New Mac Pro Case for PC, is this real?

Post by gigichan000 » Sun Feb 21, 2016 5:18 am

A new Kickstarter project, the "Dune Case," is offering up a PC case that looks awfully familiar, closely mimicking the well-known cylindrical design of Apple's Mac Pro. it looks really cool but is it real? https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dunecase/dune-case

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Re: New Mac Pro Case for PC, is this real?

Post by NeilBlanchard » Mon Feb 22, 2016 6:02 am

Welcome to SPCR,

It lacks the core reason the Mac Pro is so elegant: the central heatsink that provides clean, low drag air flow through the case. The high heat CPU and GPU's in the Mac Pro are attached to the heatsink, and everything else builds out from there. This case design used small modular components packed into a cylinder.

So, from the outside it looks exactly like a Mac Pro, but functionally - it is totally different. This kind of mimicry is a major red flag, in my eyes.

I wouldn't go anywhere near this case.

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Re: New Mac Pro Case for PC, is this real?

Post by xan_user » Mon Feb 22, 2016 6:46 am

I applaud the effort, but the apple gestapo would never let that fly. It will be litigated out of existence the moment its funded.

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Re: New Mac Pro Case for PC, is this real?

Post by gigichan000 » Mon Feb 22, 2016 6:57 am

Yeah I have been reading about that but then again be many people are saying can you patent a cylindrical shape? I have been reading in mac forums but wanted to hear comments from the pc community as i am a pc user... what is your thoughts on design of the internals .. the temps and front panel?? its still a grey area for me .. I didn't want to hear from mac users because they are obviously going to be bias as this case is not a mac...

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Re: New Mac Pro Case for PC, is this real?

Post by edh » Mon Feb 22, 2016 7:26 am

It looks like they've entirely tried to mimic the aesthetics but not the thermal design hence I don't see it as a useful effort. If they were to be very clever with integrated heatsinks that then this could have outshone the Mac Pro by being customisable but this is just a knock-off and likely to leave many disappointed. I do wonder if it will be picked up for use in Chinese fakes - they even have complete fake Apple stores in China so they must need some lookalike products to put in them!

I do however like the effort and it is one of a number of similar projects, most notable perhaps being the NCASE M1. If only they had come up with a clever thermal design and then based the aesthetics of this rather than producing a cheap Apple knock-off and then putting in stock cooling. This will NOT be quiet.

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Re: New Mac Pro Case for PC, is this real?

Post by quest_for_silence » Mon Feb 22, 2016 7:31 am

xan_user wrote:It will be litigated out of existence the moment its funded.
Did Apple register the cylinder?

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Re: New Mac Pro Case for PC, is this real?

Post by quest_for_silence » Mon Feb 22, 2016 7:55 am

gigichan000 wrote:but wanted to hear comments from the pc community as i am a pc user
Aesthetically it would be great for an Hackintosh, but it has the same volume of a Ncase M1 with much more limitations and more probably that not an inferior cooling prowess.

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Re: New Mac Pro Case for PC, is this real?

Post by xan_user » Mon Feb 22, 2016 8:23 am

quest_for_silence wrote:
xan_user wrote:It will be litigated out of existence the moment its funded.
Did Apple register the cylinder?
does a bear make dookie in the woods?

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Re: New Mac Pro Case for PC, is this real?

Post by MikeC » Mon Feb 22, 2016 9:27 am

The Mac design could be done only because it was designed around a single set of internal hardware. As soon as you introduce the possibility of many different component options in the build, such an integrated cooling design become virtually impossible. It's the age-old PC vs Mac thing.

But this is not to say the Dune case has no technical merits -- it's much like Silverstone's 90 degree inverted cases, in a cylindrical form for miniITX only, and we already know this configuration can work very well for both cooling and noise. If that single top fan is correctly designed for low noise & good airflow...

As for Apple's likely claim to the shape & style, yeah they'll try & stomp on this but I will be rooting for the underdog. Admittedly, I think Apple is a despicable corporation -- like the rest.

There's nothing patent-able about a cylinder shape or the use of aluminum, tho the US patent office has lost all sense of reason about what is and isn't patent-able for decades now, judging from past patents. Years ago, I was advised to take a patent out on the P180 design -- use of laminate panels, PSU bottom/cooling design, etc. -- and I laughed. Chances are, I probably could have got a PatentPending designation, tho how to protect it without gobs of $$ is always the head scratcher. Still, I just didn't think there was enough unique about it to be patent-able, it was merely another step in PC case evolution.

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Re: New Mac Pro Case for PC, is this real?

Post by gigichan000 » Mon Feb 22, 2016 3:26 pm

So i have been doing some more reading on this and it seems like this case has some decent testing results and had a engineer help with the thermal problems .. the company claims:

"When testing with the equipment listed we used Prime 95 to do 100% stress test on all cores on the CPU. We tested this with outside climate of 30 degrees Celsius and humidity of 80-95%. We constantly got CPU temps between 58-59 degrees’ Celsius left for more than 6 hours of testing. We tested the GPU using Furmark stress test. In the same weather conditions and a 100% stress test on the GPU core we achieved a consistent 65 degrees Celsius. "

While the numbers are quite decent I would like to have one to test my self.

The volume seems to be smaller than the NCase which I love and they claim 9.7 liters. I would really like to see that is true as the Ncase is really small for what it has inside!!!!

What I'm reading is that you cant patent a cylinder and that the Mac Pro is a desktop and the Dune Case is a case .. I'm not an expert but I does make sense.

The question is can they get those temps with the hardware they have with 9.7 lt volume? I love the look of it and it seems like they spent a lot of effort in the internals but how does it work when all put together?

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Re: New Mac Pro Case for PC, is this real?

Post by xan_user » Mon Feb 22, 2016 3:46 pm

I wasnt meaning they literally patented the cylinder, (tho im sure they tried...) if this startup is successful, the cupertino gestapo will come after with everything they have. if they can't beat them in court, they will just buy them out, and shelve the product.

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Re: New Mac Pro Case for PC, is this real?

Post by Vicotnik » Mon Feb 22, 2016 3:51 pm

gigichan000, what do you think about this one?

http://www.fanlesstech.com/2016/02/how-about-no.html

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Re: New Mac Pro Case for PC, is this real?

Post by MikeC » Mon Feb 22, 2016 4:14 pm

gigichan000 wrote:So i have been doing some more reading on this and it seems like this case has some decent testing results and had a engineer help with the thermal problems .. the company claims:

"When testing with the equipment listed we used Prime 95 to do 100% stress test on all cores on the CPU. We tested this with outside climate of 30 degrees Celsius and humidity of 80-95%. We constantly got CPU temps between 58-59 degrees’ Celsius left for more than 6 hours of testing. We tested the GPU using Furmark stress test. In the same weather conditions and a 100% stress test on the GPU core we achieved a consistent 65 degrees Celsius. "

While the numbers are quite decent I would like to have one to test my self.

The volume seems to be smaller than the NCase which I love and they claim 9.7 liters. I would really like to see that is true as the Ncase is really small for what it has inside!!!!

What I'm reading is that you cant patent a cylinder and that the Mac Pro is a desktop and the Dune Case is a case .. I'm not an expert but I does make sense.

The question is can they get those temps with the hardware they have with 9.7 lt volume? I love the look of it and it seems like they spent a lot of effort in the internals but how does it work when all put together?
I'm not sure where you got the thermal testing results, but almost anything is possible since neither power nor noise figures are given (at least not by you). IE, how much heat were they dealing with in the GPU and the CPU? Which ones were they? And what was the noise level when those temps were recorded? I can guarantee you it was not 12 dBA @ 1/2 meter at idle or around 20~25 dB at load (as the Mac claims). One look at the VGA card tells me it'll be well over 30 dBA by itself.

Oh here:
"We tested the Dune Case with the following equipment:
Intel i7 4770k
Intel Stock Fan (50x90x90mm)
Asus P8Z77-I DELUXE
Corsair 16GB DDR3
Silverstone ST45SF-G 450W Gold Certified
Intel 535 Series 2.5" 240GB
GALAX GeForce GTX 970 OC"  


I'm guessing it was 40+ dBA

Also, they state:
"The CPU cooling fan has a potential maximum height of 60MM." Not good unless you have custom cooler.
and
[fan] Rated Speed: 700~1300RPM±15% Noise Level: 30.6dBA(Max.)

If the developers work on one or two board layouts, they could create a dedicated CPU cooler to maximize cool/noise performance. Not sure about the GPU. More of a challenge if the options are wide open.

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Re: New Mac Pro Case for PC, is this real?

Post by baii » Mon Feb 22, 2016 5:01 pm

I am not really familiar with the Mac pro layout, but if just going by look, it had already been done, by the Chinese.

Did not really read through the kickstarter.

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Re: New Mac Pro Case for PC, is this real?

Post by gigichan000 » Mon Feb 22, 2016 8:41 pm

The fanlessech case looks ok but the styling is not as appealing to me ..

Hi Mike you make some really good points .. I got the details on their Kick starter page in there updates I think .. It would be interesting to see the noise levels at the temps they claim. I think you could be right and maybe if they did their own custom CPU cooler could be most beneficial to there case.

I wasnt comparing to the mac pro as that is in a league of its own ...

I am interested in what the Chinese have done .. do you have a link ???

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