$1250 for the BASE model???? hahah i'm sorry but that is retarded., how did they come up with that price????? Why on Earth would you even consider paying half of that for a base model case when a phanteks case looks nicer or even a modded case like this one looks much better....
My experiences with Phanteks are thus:
1) Purchased a heatsink from Amazon that did not come with everything. I returned it.
2) Emailed them several times to inquire about fans, was flat out ignored.
I don't support companies with terrible practices (QC/CS), regardless of how cost effective or well engineered their cases and other products may be. Their whole "Dutch" schtick when their stuff is obviously made in China is also also a source of annoyance.
I'll reiterate what I said in the other thread. I won't deny it isn't a beautiful case. It is flawlessly engineered. But it was engineered for 2009. I also wouldn't compare to a Ferrari but rather a Bentley. It won't be for the fastest machines or the quietest. But it will be beautiful and well equipped.
Enthusiasts with the money to spend on a $1250 - $2000+ case likely have a server/NAS for their mechanical storage needs. SATA SSDs are soon to be a thing of the past. Optical drives, ya no. So the seriously over engineered SATA hot swap cage is IMO completely unnecessary.
There also isn't enough radiator space in it. Lets say you want a quiet system w/ a pair of 290s and a 4930K/5930K. Which if you are buying an $1800 case you'll likely be running at least a pair of high-end GPUs. Sorry but 5x120mm just won't be enough if you want the fans running under 1000 RPM. There is just no way you'll be seeing any quad GPU setups in this chassis. Not unless you are running high speed fans.
I pre-ordered the first two times they attempted to sell. But that was 2+ years ago and the market has changed. I'm not about to spend $1900 + taxes + freight for a chassis that will be IMO outdated within a year. They should have ditched Silverstone from the beginning and designed the chassis from scratch. Then find someone capable of building it. Charles and Callen have been inspirational to me and I hope it works out for them. But for me, the chassis just came way too late.
I think that if one were to lay any criticisms, lowfats post is absolutely spot on.
I think, though, that this project has in part has become a game of catch up that had to stop. They were trying to keep the case relevant by adding new features here and there over time, but the emphasis on attention to detail and perfection runs contrary to the pace the tech industry moves at. The past ~8 months have seen a lot of really good cases that rival this one in terms of feature set, and yes, cost. In terms of fit, finish and attention to detail, this is the top of the heap, but companies like CaseLabs cannot be ignored for the quality of their products and endless level of customization and modularity their cases provide.
I think this case will still appeal to enough people to fill their limited run numbers, and while yes, producing a larger run would lower cost, I'm not so certain enough people would buy the amount of units that would need to be produced for a significant price drop.
