System76 Launches Nebula PC Cases For DIY Builds

[phoronix]

Phoronix: System76 Launches Nebula PC Cases For DIY Builds

For those that have been fans of System76's Thelio desktop computer cases but prefer building your own systems, System76 today officially launched their "Nebula" line of PC cases...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/System76-Nebula-Case

[Phil995511]

They have crazy prices ;-(

[skeevy420]

With those prices I'll stick with Budget Master....Cooler Master. If System76 ever lowers the nebula36 price by $120 while adding front air vents I'd wouldn't hesitate to buy it in another month or two. It's a premium yet minimalist case so I'm trying really hard to see value at my suggested price of $149 let alone its base price of $269. For the record, $149 is 2x the price of my current Cooler Master N200 case (it does the job but I'd like a bit more working room and better cable management).

[raystriker]

Hmm even if prices weren't an issue, the "strategy" for airflow feels laughable compared to all the air-flow focused cases out there (which are most of them now). They need to release more pictures/diagrams explaining their ethos.

[ahoneybun]

Hmm even if prices weren't an issue, the "strategy" for airflow feels laughable compared to all the air-flow focused cases out there (which are most of them now). They need to release more pictures/diagrams explaining their ethos.

We have tech-docs for the products (nebule49 will be updated soon):

https://tech-docs.system76.com/models/nebula19-1/README.html

https://tech-docs.system76.com/models/nebula36-1/README.html

[stormcrow]

The price difference is mostly the difference in labor costs between China and the US, particularly Colorado which is an expensive place to live. Add in the fact they don't move the same volume of product as Asian companies and you get prices like this.

You can't simultaneously decry outsourcing to China, Chinese theft of trade secrets through that outsourcing and other means, bitch about Walmart and Amazon's business practices and the treatment of their laborers then simultaneously bitch about the high prices of locally designed and produced hardware. You can't have local jobs with decent wages without the rise in prices that come with it even if the company executives aren't getting sweetheart deals, and I doubt System76 management are in that category. (That's me being assertive in saying US residents need to shut up about these kinds of price differences if you want livable wages.)

Last time I priced full height, quality, steel ATX cases, Nebula prices aren't that much more expensive on the top end.

[Knghtbrd]

If I know anything about System76, the fit and finish on this thing has to be amazing. It's a boutique product with a boutique product price. I expect it to be a pain in the wallet and I'm not surprised.

Interesting to see System76 bucking the trend of LED all the things bright enough to make the sun seem dim—I don't hate it on those grounds—but too many years watching GamersNexus videos showing me like for like comparisons of case cooling performance … I'd prefer a more airflow focused design.

Hey, System76 guys … if you want to sell me a component of a DIY desktop build, the one I want is an ATX coreboot motherboard built for a home workstation. Room for a big, reliable air cooler such as a big Noctua or beQuiet or other massive slab of fin stack with lots of RAM, easy m.2 installation given a chungus GPU and CPU cooler, at least 2.5Gb/s ethernet (dual?), coreboot on Intel and *mumble* plans for AMD, debug display, an actual serial port because you still wind up wanting one often enough, and plenty of USB.

I know that kind of motherboard is still stupidly expensive for latest gen chips with DDR5 and I know there's gonna be an economies of scale tax… But if you start selling motherboards made for Linux first that target people who aren't looking for LEDs and insane overclocking controls as their first features … I think you'd find buyers.

(Bonus points if there's headers for a couple temp sensors or even SMBus/i²c on the board.

[r1348]

You can get much better cases with much less. Fractal cases are top-notch quality and don't even come close to these prices.

[M@GOid]

Hmm even if prices weren't an issue, the "strategy" for airflow feels laughable compared to all the air-flow focused cases out there (which are most of them now). They need to release more pictures/diagrams explaining their ethos.

Indeed. To me this seems adequate for under 100W CPUs and under 200W GPUs. Anything over that I would search for cases that can move a lot more air.

They would work in my case tough, since I decided to stay below 100W in both CPU and GPU models. My current case is a old Silverstone FT03, which I choose mostly because of easy access to the internals and reduced horizontal footprint, instead of very efficient airflow.

[panikal]

You can get much better cases with much less. Fractal cases are top-notch quality and don't even come close to these prices.

Exactly what you said, the Node 202 is $70 or less. The pictures of the internals look nice but nothing extraordinary at all..https://tech-docs.system76.com/model.../assembly.html
...$200? For that? Hard pass