Dune Pro PC Case Copies Mac Pro Design

[fendersrule]

Count me in as someone who is interested. I do hope that the cooling is sufficient.

Since Apple will not build a Mac Pro for the prosumer anymore, this leads me to get back into PCs and build my own again. As long as the quality of this case is superb, and the cooling and noise is above my expectations then I may be very game for this.

Another cool case is the Thermaltake P3 case w/ tempered glass. It's an open air case, and it seems to be doing very well for my girlfriend's PC that I built. Quality is very reasonable, and most PCs I find lacking. I'm surprised there seems to be less dust accumulation in an open air case vs a sealed case (which makes sense if you think about it). This houses a W3680 that's OC'd to 4GHz and an RX580. Can you say PC Mac-Pro? Low temps and noise is very acceptable. Right now it's wall mounted and looks super cool.

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A long time ago, Lian Li made various knockoffs of the cMP case.

View attachment 869097

My Ryzen PC is in one I tracked down. It looks good, although compared to a real cMP case, the metal is thin and the internal frame is unsophisticated.

Not that those downsides are noticeable after building and putting the side cover on. It's WAY QUIETER than my cMP ever was, thanks to being decked out with Noctua fans and a semi-passive PSU.

I had this case awhile back ago. I think I had it modded to house PowerMac G4 guts. Wasn't a big fan of it back then, and I'm definitely not a fan of it now. It's bulkier/longer than the cMP, and as you mentioned, the quality when you put your hands on it does not resemble high quality like the cMP. The serrated case edges are stupid. The problem is that you're constantly trying to compare it to the "real thing" and it fails in every regard.

As much as we complain about the uncomfortable handles of the cMP, imagine having no handles and lifting this huge brick around.

 

[mac.ross]

Thought some others might find this quite interesting, it's a new case - near enough an exact clone - of the upcoming Mac Pro.

It's called the Dune Pro and it's going to be on Kickstarter as of October 21st, the same team are releasing a clone of the previous trashcan Mac Pro too but I don't really like the look of that chassis myself.

Those that are running a Hackintosh or just prefer a Windows desktop could make use of it, I personally love the look of the new Mac Pro but find it extremely hard to justify the pricing considering I only really use it for games, this looks like it will be dropping for ~$200 which isn't bad at all and I know others will be on the same boat.

 

[Duneld trump]

DUNE PRO CASE looks good though... Looks solidly built for a fraction of the price.... I like the elegance of it.... What do apple execs think about it though? Is this lawsuit material?

 

[Eneco]

There is already a thread about this topic:

Dune Pro PC Case Copies Mac Pro Design

I sent a tip in to the MR team, but just in case it doesn't make the cut I thought I'd post it here as well. The folks at Dune are once again releasing a PC case in the style of the Mac Pro. It's supposed to be available to order through Kickstarter on the 21st of October...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[1146331]

Yeah but this is like every tv show you see, they have an imac or macbook pro on a desk but ‘cover the logo’ then you see a screen shot which is windows............. ?
Everyone wants that ‘cool mac’ look, coz a pc case looks crap, but won’t pay the price.
I personally hope they get sued to hell.......
This is blatant design theft.

Apple only cares about design theft if it's an American company. If the company is Chinese, Apple will just apologize for not providing a design they can copy sooner.

 

[thisisnotmyname]

new account with "Dune" in the name, first post, duplicate of existing thread... welcome to astro turf marketing. No thanks, I don't want a cheese ball replica case, I'll buy the real thing.

 

[slam2019]

Hi All this is Alex Gomez the founder of Dune case. We started this project a number of months ago and designed this from the ground up. The internals of this case is like no other and it has been design to use standard industry parts. I did see some comments that the build quality is sub standard. Let me say that when building this case for the community our goal was to build a case that was high in quality but affordable to everyone. We use high grade aluminum 60xx series that is 3mm thick on the exterior of the case. The surface has been sandblasted with fine beads and after it has been anodize silver. This is the same process and finish to other high quality product offering out there today. We didn't find short cuts to make that cheaper but rather keep the quality to a high standard.

The Dune Pro has two different covers. The standard cover is the normal vent holes through the panel. The other cover is a sound dampening accessory cover that is called the "Dice Y" cover. This cover is mixes complex manufacturing techniques to achieve the exterior out come. This is a patent pending cover and is unique as the front pattern and surface is very different from the back surface the pattern.

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As you can see from the photo's these are not 3D mock ups but very real and the quality is at a high standard.

Here are some video's:

If you have any additional questions please let me know as I am happy to answer

I really wish your company would have done this one instead, with a lightly smoked glass side panel.

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

We have tested with liquid cool system and happy to report that it works quite well.

You can't have a liquid cooled 'system' in your case. You can liquid cool the GPU or the CPU but you don't support two rads. Also, you show an image with a X299 motherboard and two RTX cards. Good luck keeping the noise and temps down with that config if you don't have vents at the top or fitting for a large fan at the back.

 

[orph]

I really wish your company would have done this one instead, with a lightly smoked glass side panel.
View attachment 870109

they cant use the apple icon, maybe a peach
and you do need the case to have differentiation for copyright + with all the G5 cases out there you can make a classic looking case super easy.

i see the new desgine being a good move to capture the PR + mid range builders who dont need a 6K box but a 2-3K box works fine

 

[venom600]

with all the G5 cases out there you can make a classic looking case super easy.

Really? Everything I've seen requires cutting metal and making panels. Linus Tech Tips just did a G5 to PC conversion this week and it required extensive cutting, a special standoff plate for the motherboard, and a custom rear panel for the IO. That isn't easy; it's custom fabrication.

 

[thornslack]

Just emptying out the guts of a G5 requires Apple specific screw drivers and hardware. It is not a fun process. Having done it I then sold the empty case realizing how much of a pain it would be to build a proper pc inside it.

 

[CaliforniaDreamin]

Has anyone looked into transplanting the guts of a cMP into this Dune case? What are the holdbacks on doing so?

 

[majus]

Now live...
Five minutes ago purchases of the Dice Y alternate front were leading 14:7.

Dune Pro: PC Case

Dune Pro is a PC case that gives you limitless ways to personalize for your needs. | Check out 'Dune Pro: PC Case' on Indiegogo.

www.indiegogo.com

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[Berg0]

If it was designed from the ground up, it would not look exactly like a poor mans macpro but somthing else. You have blatantly copied Apples design then worked around a way to make it work with standard components. I tend to believe this is called ‘copying’. I hope you get sued.

It's only OK when apple does it!

 

[fendersrule]

I'm going to wait for this to come out full production and to see final production reviews. This is one of the very few PCs cases worth getting if all is good.

You don't need fans/vents on the top of the wind-tunnel design.

 

[slam2019]

I'm going to wait for this to come out full production and to see final production reviews. This is one of the very few PCs cases worth getting if all is good.

You don't need fans/vents on the top of the wind-tunnel design.

Depends if your system is water cooled or air cooled, if it is water cooled, a radiator placed at the front, will punish the GPU temps, and the other cards that you may want to put in. Previously some cases added a bottom intake fan next to the power supply and also a side 200mm fan to improve this. But the Dune pro never placed enough room at the bottom or allowed any side panel ventilation.

The original Mac Pro design is using semi-passive cooling, but there aren't many passive cooling solutions at the moment in the market. So I guess the only solution is either a fully air cooled system, a custom water cooled system, or just let your GPU temp go up by 10C (if just one card). I wish they changed the Dune Pro design a bit, and allowed a top-mount radiator, that would be a game changer.

I think the CPU temps in the real Mac Pro will suffer, even the future Noctua 1.5kg passive CPU cooler is rated only at 180W TDP (hmmm 28-core processor...) The current one in the Mac Pro looks nothing like the Noctua one. Not to mention the Vega II Duo x2, Apple really like to run their hardware hot!

 

[fendersrule]

I'm an air-cool'd fool. I don't believe in water because I'm not that much of an enthiust for overclocking.

The Noctua D-15 is what I would use, and I would load up Noctua case fans in it. You could still overclock decently I bet with that setup!

 

[slam2019]

I'm an air-cool'd fool. I don't believe in water because I'm not that much of an enthiust for overclocking.

The Noctua D-15 is what I would use, and I would load up Noctua case fans in it. You could still overclock decently I bet with that setup!

I also prefer air-cooling, is a lot less problematic. Unfortunately the current D-15 is probably as good as it gets, Noctua is going to introduce a new D-15: increasing the heat pipes from 6 to 7, and extending the surface area by 10%, but the improvement is only a 1 degree drop.

The problem is with the rate extra CPU cores are being introduced by AMD, and worst still with higher and higher clocked speeds, the current D-15 is already struggling to tame a 18-core CPU with minimal overclock, and Intel themselves are saying that the latest i9 10980XE can potentially be overclocked from 4.6GHz up to 5.1GHz with liquid cooling. It is clear that air-cooling is going to be relegated to the second division very soon. Unless someone comes up with a treble-tower design.

Computer cases usually last much longer than 2 years, especially with people that are using a Mac Pro type system. The current Dune/Mac Pro design is essentially a Fractal Focus G (without the top-mounting radiator). I guess they can always come up with a Mark II in 2 years' time.

 

[DoFoT9]

I am on the market to upgrade my workstation, and would absolutely love this case. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is a KickStarter/GoFundMe/etc type deals right? Chances of it being successful?

 

[fendersrule]

They were not successful last time when cloning the nMP case. AKA, the "Dune case"

However, their kickstarter looks much more polished this time around, with an actual timeline, and the owner has said that he has "learned from his prior mistakes." The fact that they have sent many magazines prototypes kinda makes me think they have their **** together. I'm going to wait until early next year to buy it--they already surpassed their goal so now they "should" be scotch free for production.

 

[fendersrule]

I just backed them. I personally like the basic case, which is more like the 2008-2012 cMPs. It's less of a copycat.

Finally starting the first step towards replacing my Mac Pro since Apple has left me, and many others. Ryzen 3700x if I had to buy now, but the next gen Zen series will over 10% over the current. Planning on a slow-crawl build...probably will wait.

EVGA modular power supply is next, at least a gold-level.

FWIW, Dune Pro is now 4x over it's funding goal, and it's only been a couple days. I just talked to the owner and he's already on his way now to the factory for inspection. I suspect Taiwan or China. It is 100% going to production.

I'm most concerned about quality, but he had some reassurance on that....supposedly PC Gamer was pretty floored. Though, quality is subjective. Apple is king at this. Very few PC cases I have found that comes close.

Kickstarter does not guarantee a product, but this seems legit enough for me to take the dive. You can pull your funds before November 14th.

It's been mentioned before, but I would not use this case for water cooling. For an air cooled solution, it should provide a very adequate wind tunnel design....probably good for some mild-to medium overclocking with a good Noctua system.

If you give a **** about overclocking like me, a Ryzen-level TDP will allow this to be just as good as a cMP case.....

 

[DoFoT9]

I just backed them. I personally like the basic case, which is more like the 2008-2012 cMPs. It's less of a copycat.

Jealous. I'm contemplating my next upgrade, case is a big one for me. Any ideas on timelines when it will be ready to ship?

 

[fendersrule]

January 2020 according to Kick-starter. That's pretty soon.

 

[BillyBobBongo]

I just backed them....

Nice. I was going to back them too, but regrettably my wife's bike was stolen over the weekend so I've donated my money to help her buy a new one. I'll just have to survive with my current PC case for the time being. Perhaps next year, when they have them for sale on their website, I'll have some surplus money again.

Still...you get to QC it for me before I do!

 

[ActionableMango]

A long time ago, Lian Li made various knockoffs of the cMP case.

View attachment 869097

My Ryzen PC is in one I tracked down. It looks good, although compared to a real cMP case, the metal is thin and the internal frame is unsophisticated.

Not that those downsides are noticeable after building and putting the side cover on. It's WAY QUIETER than my cMP ever was, thanks to being decked out with Noctua fans and a semi-passive PSU.

I'll never forget the thread where a Corsair rep familiar with the Mac Pro cheesegrater case said to make a similar case it would take Corsair $1,000,000 in tooling and over $500 per case to make, and then nobody would buy it from them because of the cost.

Any time there's a PC vs Mac comparison they only count commodity items like CPU, GPU, and memory, with the rest being the "Apple tax".

There are a lot of nice cases and functional cases out there, but none quite like the cheesegrater. Even very expensive PC workstation cases use acres of plastic and thin steel sheetmetal with sharp edges. They are arguably more modern and more functional, but the construction seems cheap.