A few fancy cases for the Efika:





What do you think?

The top one looks very functional for various server/NAS/Router/NAT/etc kind of applications (with no monitor).

The bottom one looks very classy I must say!

But aren't they kind of, eh ... BIG?

I like the upper one, could be used for a monitorless setup. Can the front panel display and keys used from Linux? What kind of power supply does it have? How much energy the front panel uses? And what is the actual size (looks much smaller than the second one)?

CzP

The black case is approx the size of a CDrom drive. That's enough for an efika + graphics card on a riser. The case also includes an internal AC/DC power supply. And it's probably big enough to squeeze in a 3.5" hd as well.

The white case is probably big enough to fit a pegasos board with a PicoPSU power supply.

Cool!

Yep ! It's quite nice !
Are you going to ship those with the EFIKA boards

And have you seen our project design about an EFIKA case for "Empx" (Ekifa Multimedia Player) project ?


More pix here : http://empx.free.fr/

And do you like it ? (or not ?) ?

Well sure that it's less "concrete" than your case Pieter

Hi Geoffrey,

Your case looks very nice as well

I found http://www.logicsupply.com/ to be an interesting resource for components for cases. It's probably an interesting resource for your project

Pieter

Thank you for the link Pieter !

I've just sent an email to Robert ("AmberInc") about this thread & the link, as the case design of "EmpX" is his task on our project...

Sure that we need to use 3rd party components or it will be very difficult

Does this robert work in specialty case fabrication or something similiar? I'm not intending on asking for my EFIKA developer entry specifically, rather, I'm working on a low-cost computer solution for SymphonyOS. If he isn't a fab, does anyone else have any other suggestions.

Great link! From that site I found my way to http://www.crystalfontz.com/ which I also found interesting!

I loathe the top one but the one below is quite nice.

Problems with the idea of an optical drive, or using ITX cases are

* EFIKA IDE port is an L-shaped attachment as seen in the galleries, it supports a 2.5" hard disk and you'd need one of these;

http://www.mycableshop.com/sku/ZIDE44-GEN.htm

Which precludes the use of the 2.5" mounts for the hard disk.

* EFIKA is so much smaller than ITX you would only be able to secure one screw hole to the case, and that would be the back left hand corner (in most PC cases, next to the PSU)

I'm not sure about internal USB provision but without it you would be connecting the back panel connectors to the front panel leaving an ugly back and zero use of the USB connections for keyboards or mice (unless you consider bluetooth in one of those ports, which is also ugly)

I think trying to shoehorn it into an ITX case or even using an ITX case as a basis is going to be a dead-end solution. That's not to stop individuals doing it.. but it should be kept in mind.

I think the best way right now is to look at project boxes (from any good electronics hobby store) and design around those, or design custom metal frames to secure EFIKA and any peripherals. I am really looking to get the exact dimensions of the EFIKA so those looking to make case designs can start on it, but the final numbers look a little elusive.

Stay tuned