CaseLabs Q&A Session: January 2015 AMA Recap

Questions One Through Five

A big “thank you!” to Jim Keating and Kevin Keating, who took a big chunk of time out of their schedules to come answer the great questions the Tom’s community had to ask. We know it was hard work, but we’re appreciative of their willingness to come chat in the Tom’s Hardware forums.

You can see the whole thread here. Here’s a digest:

Q. Any hints on what we can expect in 2015?

A. For 2015 we are going to release our newest mITX case, the X2, as well as finally get started on Gemini. Gemini is going to be our new flagship case line and should make its first appearance towards the end of this year.

Q. How do you compete with the big players as a family business?

A. Well it's not easy. Coming into the market with a high-end product was a big part of being competitive. There are tons of mid-range cases out there, so if we had started with that, we would have been eclipsed by the larger case manufactures. As we develop our business we will look into less expensive products, but we will always remain in the high-end range. Aside from that, we do our best to offer a level customer service above and beyond our competition and we rely heavily on forums and Facebook.

Q. What makes your cases different?

A. That's a good question with a long answer so I will try and keep it brief. We offer a level of modularity that is not seen by other case manufacturers. The trend over all is becoming more modular, but still not on our level. Our options go well beyond choosing different looking exterior panels. With the exception of the M8/M10, all of our cases are completely screwed together making it easy to change out radiator styles, form factors, ATX layout and color. There is also the Flex-Bay System which is a kind of hybrid rack mounting system for 5.25 devices and much more. In short, you have complete control over the design at the front of the case. There is a much more to say, but it may be easier to refer you to this section of our website. The best description I can think for our cases is one a customer said, "Your cases are like a blank canvas and a your only limitation is your imagination".

Q. How is Gemini going to differ from Merlin and Mercury?

A. Gemini is going to replace all of the MAGNUM lines. So you can expect to see double wide cases with options for dual motherboards as well as updates to the Single Wide MAGNUM design. We are also going to experiment with a different "look", but Jim will touch on that. Because we are so early in development I really don't have much more information on Gemini.

Q. Why not include an I/O panel with the case?

A. We actually get this question a lot and it is addressed in our FAQ section. Here is an excerpt from that page:

• Not everyone wants or needs an I/O panel in the front of the case. If a front I/O panel was standard it would drive up the cost of the case for someone who may not even want it. If we included USB with the case, the case would just be that much more expensive.