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The Dune Case: A Cylindrical PC Case

JahStories

By JahStories

    • Since the beginning of Osx86, many users “updated” their Macs by modding the cases to fit standard PC components, bringing new life to the machines by keeping the precious design of the original products. The name of these FrankenMac's brought back from dead? Hackintosh.

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This was the perfect solution for those who didn’t like standard cases, but still liked fancy ones, but then the new Mac Pro came out. This time it wasn’t in a usual rectangular desktop case but in a completely new form factor. Many users criticized Apple for its switch to a “closed platform”, as it was mostly non-upgradable and definitely strange. But no-one can argue about the incredible ability of Apple’s engineers to put two powerful GPUs and an Intel XEON processor with ECC RAM DIMMs, yet keeping the form factor ultra-compact. Only 25.1cm tall, a diameter of just 16cm and the best possible use of its shape to achieve an optimal airflow to get the best results. In terms of temperature, using just one fan, it’s pretty cool - literally!

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Until a month ago, building a PC with this new cylinder concept was possible only for the bravest of modders, determined enough that they would customise their cylindrical trash cans with heavy modding, bending,and cutting, to fit a standard PC Mini ITX mobo and all the other usual PC components.

Now it’s time for everyone to get their cylinder, [hopefully for a hackintosh], case.

 

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The Dune Case is here: a Mac Pro case that fits a Mini ITX motherboard. It’s doing well on Kickstarter with many backers for this project. We at InsanelyMac are super interested to see how well it can support standard PC hardware, handle temperature, and how strong and tough it’s built.

 

The Dune Case is not made with the usual weak material found in most cases (couple of painted metal sheets), but a solid piece of thick aluminium

that hides all the sections made for the motherboard, the PSU and a large gaming GPU. It even has routes for cable management, a custom made PCI-Express riser card to reroute the GPU from the mobo to a place in the case where it (amazingly) fits. There’s also a PCB for the front panel with various connectors to attach to USB 3, Ethernet, 2x 3.5mm audio connectors (front speakers+mic), dual DisplayPort or dual HDMI and power.

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The original principal behind Apple’s Mac Pro design is intact: the case is splitting the airflow coming from below to reach the components without dead points. The makers made many tests to ensure optimal temperature with the stock CPU cooler, though it could probably be replaced with a low profile one, but likely not a liquid one.

It supports up to two 2.5 HDDs or SSDs and only Mini-ITX components, to be clear, even the GPU must be Mini ITX, but today there are many powerful components that can be used to make it a powerful machine that could challenge the genuine Mac Pro, such as the latest Skylake processors and a Mini-ITX GeForce GTX 970.

 

 

We want to underline that even if it’s without any doubt the closest thing to a Mac Pro, it’s clearly not like it. In fact there is no way to install another GPU even if there are some Mini-ITX XEON mobos as the components, even if well placed, probably couldn't fit the original’s specific design, and even if the video cards were small they're still a little bigger than the original.

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But we have to say that the Dune Case is something fresh for the PC case market, and we want to wish the best for their Kickstarter campaign.

So go check it out and you could be lucky enough to get it cheaper. You don’t want to run out of time!

 

We leave you with some cool pictures exclusively shared with us for you to enjoy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Mr. Xtreme

Great look article, thanks to JahStories who made this article possible and the people who helped with the article who include:

JahStories

Shanee,

Ed,

and myself.

 

It's a great looking case InsanelyMacer's for sure! :)

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JahStories

Yes, it's a sort of clone on the outside, but what's really remarkable about this project is on the inside, I never seen anything like this on a PC case before!

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dune_case

Hi Guys .. This is Alexander Gomez the founder of Dune Case. Thanks for all the comments here .. let me address a few of the concerns .. First thanks for your interest. It has been one year in the making. Using standard parts was a challenge to fit inside a cylindrical case. There were so many suggestions to say "yeah good enough, it works" but it didnt satisfy me. I wanted this to be tidy and easy to access. Ofcourse there are going to be limitations with size. but we were able to create this case the best of our ability and one year later you have dune case.

I have spent a year building this case. When doing this we did do our due diligence and seek professional legal advice. And based on that we spent one year building something for the community.

I hope you all like what we have done. We have had this ready for production and no short cuts have been made in design. This case is made out of high grade aluminum and not sheet metal like many PC cases. This is simply a different take on the PC case. Days of discussion has been talked about from connectors, placement of mobo, gpu, cable management and thermals. 

 

I want to also thank the InsanelyMac community and its members as some of the great ideas originated from forums like this. There was a need for a PC case like this and the community was looking for a solution. I took the initiative to do something about it and sacrificed time away from family to make this happen. I hope the community can support my efforts so far in the Kickstarter campaign and eventually see Dune Case in the hands of this community.

 

Many thanks,

 

Alexander Gomez

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firstmiro

Hi all,

I have only one big concern (in terms of building mackintosh with that case) - how I will fit WIFI/bluetooth card (I am using the original Apple cards through PCIe adapters)? Many of the boards do have PCIe extension slot but the card then is inserted vertically (found only one board from MSI where the card goes parallel to it).

 

The other (smaller) concern is the noise level. I could find any info about that (noise level measured in lab with some test components i.e. that graphics card, that power supply, that CPU cooler, etc.).

 

Anyway - nice idea with providing a slot for graphics card "on the other" side. As an improvement - an Thunderbolt port and USB 3.1 (like type C) slots could be a nice advantage.

 

Best!

M.

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rlf

Hi all,

I have only one big concern (in terms of building mackintosh with that case) - how I will fit WIFI/bluetooth card (I am using the original Apple cards through PCIe adapters)? Many of the boards do have PCIe extension slot but the card then is inserted vertically (found only one board from MSI where the card goes parallel to it).

 

Right angle adapter:  http://www.moddiy.com/products/Gold-Plated-Premium-PCI%252dE-1X-90-Degree-Right-Angle-Riser-Card.html

Extension cable - many to choose on eBay:

s-l500.jpg

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alexander senato

its pretty cool, but can someone now release a full ATX mobo that fits in it, like Mac Pro.

you can not use atx , micro atx , uatx mobo 

its designed just for stadard mini-itx mobo.

and here is many mini-atx mobo .

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&N=100007627%20600009028

 

there is not difference between atx and mini-itx except size and pci slot number

mini-itx jast have 1 pci Express slot.

and you can buy mini-itx and use mini pci slot as second slot then you have 2 slot.

good luck

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alexander senato

No space for serious GPU, need at least 30-32cm (GTX 970)

 

EDIT: That colour looks like facial cosmetics cream.

 

dune case come in 2 color : black + gold .

you can order the black like me .

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ANGGAX

if you want put xeon E5 inside, it’s possible using X99m board from asrock~
 

asrock X99 lineup board are pretty unique compared from 2 famous big brand we knows, they supported xeon and ecc module. even they the first x99 board which allow up to 128GB memory for i7-5xxx without bios update.

with xeon and ecc inside, performance will similar to genuine mac pro (for cpu at least), and don’t suffer from lack of pcie lanes~

the main concern is cpu cooler, can low profile air cpu cooler keep cooling down xeon chip? especially for who want overclock them to gain more performance (only for xeon e5-16xx since it's unlocked)

for powerful serious GPU, probably waiting with nvidia pascal/amd polaris with HBM (HBM tend to have smaller form factor but still powerful, e.g amd nano/fury)

personally, i’m not big fans of MP6,1 enclosure model. but this one quite high-quality compared than similar cylinder case project from various chinese manufacturer.

at least for you guys using MP6.1 definition, it will cosmetically match between about this mac and your physical computer~

good luck guys, i want see one of you finish your hack inside those case.
by the way sorry for my bad english~
 

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sl1fka

 

by the way sorry for my bad english~

 

 

what? your english is perfect!

 

also, i'm not sure if these will even be shipped anymore. they failed to reach their funding goal :/

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