Hi All,
Here's a list of the planned revisions for the next case run to help plan your builds. I still have to test the first unit built to confirm that these updates will work but I don't anticipate any issues.
Qv2E-The cage was raised 1/8" so you can now fit the Thermalright Ultra-eXtreme CPU heatsinks. It bugged the hell out of me when that thing came out after we started production on the last run and I'm glad to be able to finally add support for it.
-The rad bracket is going away and the fans/rad will mount directly to the cover. The benefit of this is the fans not interfering with the right side hard drives or monster heatsinks. Furthermore, the window/perf sheet will be on both sides of the cover to improve gfx card cooling. So you should be able to mount 5x120mm fans inside the case in some instances and add things like acrylic windows and/or decorative rad grills. You'll have to add some length to the cooling loop to get the cover off for liquid cooled rigs, but 9 out of 10 customers air cool their rigs so they got priority. I'm also not fond of exposed screw heads on the cover but I'll pick the best looking ones (and easiest to work with) that I can find. Anyway, the case will come standard with the same perf'd sheet, but I'm going to try and offer a window kit as soon as time allows.
-The material thickness has been increased on most parts. This is partly due to the loss of the rad bracket which added some center support to the cage, but it's also because hardware like 1Tb drives, 850+ PSU's, dual monster graphics cards with sophisticated copper heatsinks, etc. are all getting heavier and pushing the limits on the strength of the case. It'll still be all aluminum though so it shouldn't add much weight to an already light case.
-The cage will screw directly to the back of the case instead or relying solely on the PSU to anchor that end down to the base. This is once again due to the newer heavier hardware.
-I'm adding rubber C-strip gasket around the edge of the cover like we did with Qv1. (I choose a type with more grip depth so it won't pop off very easily when removing/replacing the cover.) It was too much of a pain to get the cover to mate with the base perfectly along the edges and the gasket will help to make up for any slight variations. It should also help with airflow as air won't be able to sneak through the edges. Finally, the rubber is more forgiving to modders who custom paint their case as doing this can create fit issues due to the additional paint thickness.
-Speaking of paint, all the parts will now be powder coated instead of just the external parts. I did this in anticipation of adding acrylic windows so I wanted the parts to look pretty inside and out. Also, I'm going to run a few in some custom colors (blue, red, green, etc.) and leave some unpainted for modders to play with. We'll see what demand is like and I'll try to make more if people want them.
There's a few more little things... stuff to add strength, make the case easier to build, reduce assembly times, etc... it won't really be noticeable. I'll post some 3D model pics as soon as the fabricator is done updating them for production.
So thanks again for all of your support and feedback from the last run! You guys cleaned me out of stock (especially the DFI mobo owners!) and we're rushing to get more built as quickly as we can!!!
