MetallicGear Announces NEO Qube Dual-chamber Chassis

[btarunr]

MetallicGear, powered by Phanteks, today announced the new addition to the NEO series, the NEO Qube. The NEO Qube sports dual tempered glass panels with integrated smooth Digital-RGB lighting making this the perfect showcase to display your system from every angle.

The NEO Qube features a spacious dual-chamber interior that brings a smooth building experience, heat separation for better cooling and supports powerful hardware. Combined with the Phanteks Revolt X power supply, the NEO Qube can even support 2 motherboard installations (E-ATX + ITX), which brings more possibilities for streamers, professionals, and multi-users looking for dual system support.



The NEO Qube is optimized with high-airflow mesh to bring cooling to the next level. It features extensive water/air cooling support with up to triple 360 mm radiators locations. The NEO Qube dual-chamber chassis provides everything you need to showcase your high-end system without the price tag.

Pricing and Availability
Price: USD $99.99 (both variants)
Available immediately.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Th3pwn3r]

011 rip off?

 

[Axaion]

Looks pretty decent, wish it had closed off sides and front personally though.

 

[aktpu]

@Th3pwn3r Dual system is it's new and novel idea, but looks are a ripoff. Though I think that there aren't that many ways to do case with this layout

 

[wheresmycar]

I've been waiting for a long time for a budget version of the Li Lian 011. I'm not as excited with this type of design anymore but it's nice to see Metallic Gear is filling the gap.

Same applies to 7L+ SFX cases (eg. Dan). I'd be interested in seeing someone launch a £70-£80 budget option (regardless of build quality, as long as its built to last).

 

[wolar]

@Th3pwn3r Dual system is it's new and novel idea, but looks are a ripoff. Though I think that there aren't that many ways to do case with this layout

There were plenty of dual chamber chassis in the past and done differently tbh. Some split in horizontally others vertically, others only move the psu to the other size etc.

 

[ZoneDymo]

ctrl C ctrl V

 

[eidairaman1]

Needs breathing holes...

 

[bonehead123]

IMHO, this is an Air540 ripper, with the 2 mobo support added in so they don't get sued by Corsair or other company that has already been there, done that, years ago.........

Nice price though, so there's that....

 

[Totally]

@Th3pwn3r Dual system is it's new and novel idea, but looks are a ripoff. Though I think that there aren't that many ways to do case with this layout

O11 supports dual systems also just not out of the box and you have to buy another $100 in brackets and accessories. This thing isn't a simply a RIP-off anymore and is almost a clone at this point.

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

a Dynamic 011 replica IMO. For it to hold 2 complete systems for $100 is quite a steal. BTW, Tecware also have something similar to this called the VXR for less than $90 I think.

 

[my_name_is_earl]

The only cool thing going on for this is the dual chamber. I luv my Dynamic. If I run dual system to stream video, this is an awesome case for it.

 

[Valantar]

Same applies to 7L+ SFX cases (eg. Dan). I'd be interested in seeing someone launch a £70-£80 budget option (regardless of build quality, as long as its built to last).

"Regardless of build quality, as long as it's built to last" is a rather contradictory statement.

Also, sandwich-layout cases aren't becoming that cheap any time soon simply due to the requirement for a quality PCIe riser cable, which is easily a $30 cost to the manufacturer - which will obviously become higher than that when passed on to the end user. There's also the issue of lack of economics of scale in the SFF space - due to compatibility issues and the sheer number of different layouts possible it's really hard to reach sufficient sales volumes to make cases cheaper - though hopefully we'll see developments of cases like the InWin A1 or Corsair QBX moving to SFX PSUs in the near future for some more space savings. Still, tooling even for a small mass-produced case can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to manufacture. Still, if you're into that sort of thing there are dozens of more affordable options (both copies of more established designs and a lot of original designs) in the 4-15l range on TaoBao - you just have to go through an agent like Superbuy and live with the delays and lead times of small-scale manufacturing. There's a giant thread full of this over on the smallformfactor.net forums

 

[bonehead123]

simply due to the requirement for a quality PCIe riser cable, which is easily a $30 cost to the manufacturer

Maybe in lahlah land, but not in reality....

Last time I checked (a few months ago) the mfgr's COSTS for a high-quality, standard length riser cable was approx. $8.00 US, which, even with a substantial mark-up (typically 30-50%), would only make it about $12 at the retail level, which this is not.....

And this is before any quantity discounts for large orders (500-1000 or more pcs), which any case mfgr worth a crap would be doing simply due to the economies of scale and/or pre-negotiated purchasing contracts....

And before anyone asks, I am privy to this type of info due to my involvement in electrical/electronics design, estimating, engineering, manufacturing, and sales

 

[Valantar]

Maybe in lahlah land, but not in reality....

Last time I checked (a few months ago) the mfgr's COSTS for a high-quality, standard length riser cable was approx. $8.00 US, which, even with a substantial mark-up (typically 30-50%), would only make it about $12 at the retail level, which this is not.....

And this is before any quantity discounts for large orders (500-1000 or more pcs), which any case mfgr worth a crap would be doing simply due to the economies of scale and/or pre-negotiated purchasing contracts....

And before anyone asks, I am privy to this type of info due to my involvement in electrical/electronics design, estimating, engineering, manufacturing, and sales

If that was actually the case, why are there no cheap risers of decent quality available off AliExpress, TaoBao, eBay or similar places? If it was that easy - order 500 of them at $8 or below a pop - you could make a killing just by selling them at $12-15 like you say on one of those places, with near zero overhead costs as most sellers on these sites are tiny stores and have bare-bones warranties etc. And they would sell - it's half the price of the competition, after all. The only risers actually available in that price range are ribbon cable type cables that don't work for anything bandwidth-intensive (believe me, I've tried). So either there's a conspiracy somewhere, or costs are higher than what you're saying.

 

[bonehead123]

Because I was speaking strictly of the base costs of materials & component aquisition.... to those you also have to add shipping, storage, testing-QA/QC, and distribution.

And in the case of retail sales (either online or B&M) you also have to add moar shipping/delivery, space allocations, inventory storage, advertising etc.. This is where a $30+ sales price is/would be reasonable.

But we were originally talking about a case mfgr's costs to integrate a cable into their cases, which is good bit different from a retail sales channel for just the cables themselves.....

And FYI, when I go looking for high-quality, no-worry, no-hassle pc parts that will include a full mfgr warranty & reasonable return/RMA policies, those sites you mentioned are NOT in my top 10 list....

 

[Valantar]

Because I was speaking strictly of the base costs of materials & component aquisition.... to those you also have to add shipping, storage, testing-QA/QC, and distribution.

And in the case of retail sales (either online or B&M) you also have to add moar shipping/delivery, space allocations, inventory storage, advertising etc.. This is where a $30+ sales price is/would be reasonable.

But we were originally talking about a case mfgr's costs to integrate a cable into their cases, which is good bit different from a retail sales channel for just the cables themselves.....

And FYI, when I go looking for high-quality, no-worry, no-hassle pc parts that will include a full mfgr warranty & reasonable return/RMA policies, those sites you mentioned are NOT in my top 10 list....

They aren't for me either (though there's a lot of good stuff on TaoBao if you know what you're doing, and a lot of good deals to be had on AE if you know what you're doing and are willing to take the risk - I've bought an excellent quality ADT-link riser there, for example), but my point was simply that any product in an attractive category such as PCIe risers that is easily and cheaply available from OEMs in East Asia will inevitably be sold on sites like these by dozens of resellers with very slim margins and subsequently very low prices. Thus the absence of such listings is a strong indication that such parts aren't available at those prices.

As for equating BOM costs to what OEMs pay - that only applies if they make their own cables, but in which case they also have labor and the sunk cost of manufacturing equipment etc. that needs to be factored into the sales price. If not (which would be the case for 99% of case manufacturers - most of them don't even make their own internal USB cables) they would be paying what the cable OEM wants, which includes all of the above + margins to cover other expenses + trying to make a profit. And given the need for high quality shielded cabling and relatively complex/fine soldering for a good riser cable I see why they aren't cheap. Saying that a $12 price is reasonable if materials and component acquisition alone is $8 is not a reasonable assumption unless the company is doing direct sales, has loads of free warehouse space and has the cheapest labor available - and even then it sounds like a stretch. I would imagine components + assembly would then easily hit or exceed that price, and any sales price would then also need to cover what you say - storage, shipping, other overhead costs. profit margins, etc.

Besides, you didn't say you were speaking strictly of "base costs of materials & component acquisition", you said "the MFGR's COSTS" - which in any reasonable scenario also includes labor, factory space, equipment costs, etc. Component acquisition costs =/= manufacturer's costs.

 

[wheresmycar]

"Regardless of build quality, as long as it's built to last" is a rather contradictory statement.

i can see how that came across lol I meant cheaper materials and a passable over-all composed design with somewhat decent airflow - and good enough to last in a static environment. I'm just dying to get my hands on a desk pocket sized chassis and refuse to pay anything above 80 quid (i'm just built that way - cheapy cheapers but won't settle for plastic windows)

Also, sandwich-layout cases aren't becoming that cheap any time soon simply due to the requirement for a quality PCIe riser cable, which is easily a $30 cost to the manufacturer - which will obviously become higher than that when passed on to the end user. There's also the issue of lack of economics of scale in the SFF space - due to compatibility issues and the sheer number of different layouts possible it's really hard to reach sufficient sales volumes to make cases cheaper - though hopefully we'll see developments of cases like the InWin A1 or Corsair QBX moving to SFX PSUs in the near future for some more space savings. Still, tooling even for a small mass-produced case can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to manufacture. Still, if you're into that sort of thing there are dozens of more affordable options (both copies of more established designs and a lot of original designs) in the 4-15l range on TaoBao - you just have to go through an agent like Superbuy and live with the delays and lead times of small-scale manufacturing. There's a giant thread full of this over on the smallformfactor.net forums

I bought a riser and vertical mount a couple of years ago for the NZXT s340 - so have one already. It was a pointless and expensive adventure (£45 in total - an impulsive purchase at best). Worst of it, the GPUs belly is ugly but the spinning fans do have some therapeutic effect when i'm lost at sea. The cost of SFX PSUs/hdplex-type on the other hand, thats a bummer.

superbuy/taobao thats caught my attention

Are these sites legit? The search bar is useless in superbuy, any other agent affiliated links for a more user friendly search? It does work when i key in 'SFX'. I'm interested in searching for other/all types of products too. I would love some other tips too (if you don't mind)... anything to grab a bargain!!

Sorry i'm full of Q's. ....."There's a giant thread full of this over on the smallformfactor.net forums"..... can you link the thread. I had a quick look but wasn't sure which one to view.

........ those sites you mentioned are NOT in my top 10 list....

Please share If it's confidential, maybe a one-time single share via PM?? (cheeky me)

I'm totally interested in finding cheaper platforms opposed to Ebay and Amazon. Aliexpress is decent but sometimes either it's limited (to what im looking for), or products are named differently or when you finally find something you want it's hardly a bargain. I'd like to look into more options either buying directly from manufacturers/affiliated agents or newer platforms where the price is more attractive (trusted ones pls).

 

[Nordiga]

Personally i dont care much if they copied the 011.. As long as they did a better job at the details and material wise, why ppl make a fuss about it?
The lian li model has some problems with the glass on the side jumping off the panel in some cases, many complain about that. They must have used low quality glue.

Also thermals may be better on this case versus the lian li original, i hope that a reviewer will make a comparison between them with a same fan setup.
If its on top and ticks all the right boxes, its gonna be my next case, couldn't care less if they gone "ctrl c, ctrl v", thats a problem for the companies to solve.

 

[Valantar]

I bought a riser and vertical mount a couple of years ago for the NZXT s340 - so have one already. It was a pointless and expensive adventure (£45 in total - an impulsive purchase at best). Worst of it, the GPUs belly is ugly but the spinning fans do have some therapeutic effect when i'm lost at sea. The cost of SFX PSUs/hdplex-type on the other hand, thats a bummer.

Isn't the S340 one of those cases that puts vertically mounted GPUs up against the glass, choking them and cooking them? Sounds like a bad idea for performance or longevity.

superbuy/taobao thats caught my attention

Are these sites legit? The search bar is useless in superbuy, any other agent affiliated links for a more user friendly search? It does work when i key in 'SFX'. I'm interested in searching for other/all types of products too. I would love some other tips too (if you don't mind)... anything to grab a bargain!!

Sorry i'm full of Q's. ....."There's a giant thread full of this over on the smallformfactor.net forums"..... can you link the thread. I had a quick look but wasn't sure which one to view.

Here's the thread, currently 64 pages and counting, constantly being updated with new cases and other useful stuff.

You can't really search TaoBao through an agent or in English - agent search is mainly for "searching" for the URL of an already known product, and searching TaoBao itself in English is very hit and miss. Browsing threads where people share their discoveries is far more reliable.

TaoBao is entirely "legit", though I guess that depends what you mean. AFAIK it's one of the world's biggest online retailers, if not the biggest. It's an open marketplace where you buy from independent vendors, not from TaoBao itself, along the lines of Amazon Marketplace. The site is Chinese, and currently is only really open for Chinese customers, as you normally need a Chinese billing address and shipping address - few sellers offer international shipping, and payment can be even trickier. SuperBuy (and others like Bhiner, there are also others) is a purchase agent service for foreign customers that can handle customs and international shipping as well as communication with sellers and other relevant services. They have a stellar reputation for customer service (though I haven't used them myself). If you have questions about a product, you get your Superbuy rep to ask the seller and translate the reply for you. They also offer inspection of purchased products to ensure you don't get a damaged or faulty one before they ship it to you, and they give you a "virtual warehouse" where you can store multiple purchases to have them shipped to you in one go, saving shipping costs. Their shipping fees and service fees are generally reasonable too.

Please share If it's confidential, maybe a one-time single share via PM?? (cheeky me)

I believe that was meant as a general "I wouldn't really trust those sites" type of comment, not as in there being an actual top ten list

I'm totally interested in finding cheaper platforms opposed to Ebay and Amazon. Aliexpress is decent but sometimes either it's limited (to what im looking for), or products are named differently or when you finally find something you want it's hardly a bargain. I'd like to look into more options either buying directly from manufacturers/affiliated agents or newer platforms where the price is more attractive (trusted ones pls).

I think you have a bit of a naive view of what's possible here. You're not going to find cheaper good quality products in low-number sales - buying directly from manufacturers normally means buying in bulk, which is how prices are driven down. TaoBao is a decent middle ground here, mainly due to the proliferation of small-scale case manufacturers in China, but that is also only due to the market there being massive. They wouldn't survive otherwise. And cheap? Not really. It's quite easy to find $200 SFF cases there. Beyond that, AE and Ebay are good for commodity products (with the required caveats that a lot of stuff sold there is of very dubious quality, so be mindful), but not specialty/low volume ones like cases etc.

 

[wheresmycar]

Isn't the S340 one of those cases that puts vertically mounted GPUs up against the glass, choking them and cooking them? Sounds like a bad idea for performance or longevity.

Actually i dropped the S340 to the brother and grabbed a fully tempered glass side-panelled S340 elite. With H500's launched, the 'elite' was pocketed for around 70 quid. Okay that was a pointless mention lol, it's pretty much the same case but with a full internal view. You're correct about proximity concerns with GPU/PANEL kiss-mode. But it's not too bad, mine sees a feasibly sizeable gap between my card and window. I was initially looking for an adjustable mount and something "was" newly available back then (i think from corsair/phanteks) but the asking price was ridiculous. More importantly, I'm seeing only a 3c+ temp difference in vertical mode and whilst gaming I never cross over 78c unless im in the deep-end of the hot summer where fan curve adjustments are called in. I was hoping to reduce temps when going vertical by adding a second fan to the front 280mm rad (push/pull) so it sits closer to the GPU (i read someone benefited with this type of arrangement using one of those hot vega cards) - but 78c max to me seemed reasonable so left it as is (plus, i didn't fancy modding the cable management bar which would require removal/somehow bolting it a little to the left to fit the additional fan).

Actually, this was one of the reasons i've been eyeing up LI LIAN cases for a long time. The cost just put me off. The bottom 3-fan intake has worked wonders for vertical mounts and the case offers plenty of headroom between the glass panel and card. With too many completed builds seen, the enthusiasm has just died down and now it's all about going smaller and RGB-less performance orientated (well just about).

Here's the thread, currently 64 pages and counting, constantly being updated with new cases and other useful stuff.

Bookmarked!! I love a good read... thanks for the link

You can't really search TaoBao through an agent or in English - agent search is mainly for "searching" for the URL of an already known product, and searching TaoBao itself in English is very hit and miss. Browsing threads where people share their discoveries is far more reliable.

TaoBao is entirely "legit", though I guess that depends what you mean. AFAIK it's one of the world's biggest online retailers, if not the biggest. It's an open marketplace where you buy from independent vendors, not from TaoBao itself, along the lines of Amazon Marketplace. The site is Chinese, and currently is only really open for Chinese customers, as you normally need a Chinese billing address and shipping address - few sellers offer international shipping, and payment can be even trickier. SuperBuy (and others like Bhiner, there are also others) is a purchase agent service for foreign customers that can handle customs and international shipping as well as communication with sellers and other relevant services. They have a stellar reputation for customer service (though I haven't used them myself). If you have questions about a product, you get your Superbuy rep to ask the seller and translate the reply for you. They also offer inspection of purchased products to ensure you don't get a damaged or faulty one before they ship it to you, and they give you a "virtual warehouse" where you can store multiple purchases to have them shipped to you in one go, saving shipping costs. Their shipping fees and service fees are generally reasonable too.

I believe that was meant as a general "I wouldn't really trust those sites" type of comment, not as in there being an actual top ten list

useful tips/procedures. It would be rude of me to ask, SHARE MOREEEE LOL

I think you have a bit of a naive view of what's possible here. You're not going to find cheaper good quality products in low-number sales - buying directly from manufacturers normally means buying in bulk, which is how prices are driven down. TaoBao is a decent middle ground here, mainly due to the proliferation of small-scale case manufacturers in China, but that is also only due to the market there being massive. They wouldn't survive otherwise. And cheap? Not really. It's quite easy to find $200 SFF cases there. Beyond that, AE and Ebay are good for commodity products (with the required caveats that a lot of stuff sold there is of very dubious quality, so be mindful), but not specialty/low volume ones like cases etc.

Ah! TaoBao is a sales platform by manufacturers? I was under the impression it's e-retail/other? Are single piece purchases possible? I was interested in this product for a second ITX build alongside my gaming rig https://www.superbuy.com/en/page/buy?url=https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=590456069854&nTag=Agent-product-taobao Since seeing this last night, i've been going nuts with the build possibilities around this art-fully gorgeous open-case for the last 24 hours and have already put together a parts list on PCPP ( Ryzen 2600X + B450i etc). ME WANT GOOD NEWS... or alternative possibility with a similarly priced option.

EDIT: i was meaning to ask, is TaoBao similar to Ali Baba/Dhgate? Or more edging towards single-piece made possible Aliexpress?

 

[Platinum certified Husky]

MetallicGear : Hey, Lian Li, Can I copy your homework?

Lian Li : Sure, Just change it up a bit so it doesn't look obvious you copied.

MetallicGear : *Neo Qube*

 

[Master Tom]

Great Case and very affordable too.
I would even say, this is the best Case available according to Radiator Mounting Positions in my Opinion.

 

[Xzibit]

Anyone want to hear GN Steve rant about Phantek (MetallicGear) Blatant Ripping of Lian-Li 011 Dynamic

 

[Valantar]

Anyone want to hear GN Steve rant about Phantek (MetallicGear) Blatant Ripping of Lian-Li 011 Dynamic

Kinda funny, they just reviewed an Antec case where the premise was "hey, this case looks a lot like an O11, is it just a bad copy?" (which it wasn't really). And now we have this.