Computer case design - feedback

Sounds like a good concept Ingrid but the details are what make a great product imo. You should consider airflow: optical drives, hard drives and the powersupply are big producers of heat sure but the big heat generators in a modern system (especially a high-end one) is the processor and graphics card. How are you planning to get cool air into the motherboard compartment? Some more detailed plans of the box would be great, the pics so far look great though! Keep up the good work.

PS. Don't forget the problem of motherboard backplates and ports. By the look of your ports section one could think your chassi required a custom built motherboard or some sort of extension for all the ports.

We need to see more pictures of the design from another and closer view. Its hard too see how components and chassis will work together to bring the heat out the most effective way possible.
Maybe some schematics or more like "blueprintish" pics would help :3

But what I can understand of the design so far is that the air is coming out from the top. If so, don't put the filter on top. A filter at the output will do nothing but keep the dust in and on top of that hinder the air from escaping easily. Filters should as a rule always be placed by the intake, to prevent dust from entering the system in the first place.

Allso, what's about the big On/Off-button? If it's that big and exposed, well I would be nervous pressing it by accident, or drop anything on it
If you're gonna stick with the big red button, make some sort of housing for it.

This is a good piece of work. I have some suggestions for you: always choose big fans, they provide more airflow to a lower sound level. But if you have designed using 120mm fans you may be good because the market space for that models are bigger than for the bigger ones like 140 or 200mm.

You may also consider making the feet a little bit taller because if there is such a small space between the floor and the chassis, the airflow will be limited. And just like the others say, the dust filter will be better suited by the intake.

Have you thought about placing the swivel outside the box?

That would give you two things:
Better room inside the boxes, currently you have room for 3 120 mm fans, removing the swivel would give you room for 4 fans OR one huge 240 mm fan. That would be a really nice option I think.

It would, I think, give the case a more unique look. Currently at a first glance it looks like most cases with its square shape.

Great design and great idea!

Me and a friend have been discussing the placement of the ports (such as USB, Firewire) but most importantly extension cards need (for a lack of better term) holes for their various connectors on the side of the chassis.

In it's current form it looks like you wouldn't be able to install a seperate graphics card for an example?

Ok, we also thought about just that, a system for routing the ports to the bottom/back would be very nice but then you'd need to route the cables "outside" the chassis since the add in cards ports will be aligned the same way the motherboard ports are.

Another problem is that many videocards use a "PCI-slot" for cooling intake/outtake. Those cards would simply not work without a traditional slot.

We were thinking a modular encasing that you can snap on individually for each port to hide it properly within the design.

If I knew CAD I'd show you how I mean.

I think I still would have preferred to have the swivel outside the box, but that's just a matter of my opinion.

The order of the boxes seems to have changed, I think the drives and optical drives should be at the top since its more important that the main board area with CPU and graphics card gets well ventilated. But I guess the idea is to make it possible to change order of the sections?

The bottoms of the boxes, they must be ventilated somehow to allow for the air to pass through. I guess you already have taken this into consideration but it wasnt mentioned and the pictures made it seem like the bottom of each box was solid.

It also lacks some intakes where the air can be sucked in since the bottom box seems to be pretty flat onto the floor. There should also be somewhere for the air to pass out. Or perhaps the lid on top is meant allow for the air?

This idea is really beginning to look nice. Just do some detail-studying on the backplate and consider that there will be expansion cards as well. Also, don't forget ventilation holes within the chassis, between the boxes. Maybe you have thought of this, but the pictures didn't show it so I mentioned it just in case.

Edit:
As standard you don't want cd/dvd on the same side of the chassi as the backplate. Maybe you could rotate on of these "boxes"?

Keep up the good work!

PS.
Just interested in which motherboard and cpu-cooler you use as referense?
DS.

The air has to pass through all the boxes so both bottom and lid of every box has to have some sort of opening. Assuming ofc that the only intake is the one at the bottom.

An airfilter filters air... In other words air passes thought the filter, otherwise whats the point? Some filters are a bit restrictive to the airflow but it's not enought a reason to not use filters.

EDIT: at the bottom, not in

EDIT no 2: On second thought, maybe the top box doesn't need air from the bottom box. If all the hot components are in the bottom box then maybe the top box could have a solid lid. Ofc then you need vents at the sides instead...

EDIT no 3: And you do have "sidevents", I need to use my glasses...

Your last design is really nice! But shouldn't the motherboard be turned 90 degrees clockwise? To get the cables attached on the rear of the case. Or have I misunderstood something?

The way i found it most attractive was when the motherboard was on top.
So I think of it this way, from bottom up:
1 Small box with "legs" for the airintake.
2 Box for fans blowing upwards. Here the dustfilter should be placed, wont be needed anywhere else.
3 HDD, CD/DVD, PSU section.
4 Motherboard.

Every box needs a perforated bottom for the airflow but no lid since the bottom of the upper box makes a lid for the lower one. The top-box needs a perforated lid for the airflow, somehow.

Also it may be that the motherboard box need extra air-intake from one side to cool all components in this section.

I think that the backplate should be placed att the rear of the chassis and CD/DVD along with extra USB, mic, headphones on the front. Don't forget that the PSU needs to be on the rear of the chassi as the powercord connects to it.

This are my thoughts for the moment. Pretty funny to just say what you want, and someone creates a model for you. Ah, and I'm still interested in knowing what reference motherboard and CPU-cooler you use?

Total and utter crap. No gamer would ever buy that.

Talk about constructive critisism... jeez.

I think this concept looks really cool, it's an innovative idea that makes the computer easier to "break down", if you will, especially for the average user.
I'd be a bit worried about the proportions because it's going to be pretty big, but I understand that you don't have much choice when it comes to the standards you have to meet, which is understandable because for a project like this you kind of need a set of rules to adhere to.
The way it looks right now, it could work for a full scale ATX motherboard, but is probably more suited for the mATX standard.

All in all; I really like the concept, if you get it to work without getting to bulky, i'd definately consider buying one.