MiSTer FPGA Forum

Hello there,

That's about it. Where can I buy a metal case for my MiSTer setup?
I don't see them available anywhere. I would like to get it from an european store, too.

Thanks!

No one sells them in the EU.

OK, I'll second his question - where can they be found, period? I'm just looking for the bog-standard 'official' Vader case.

Aliexpress

@Duffygag They are all fake knockoffs, same as on eBay unfortunately (in fact, they are the very same sellers on both)

Indeed - it depends on what you expect from your metal case. If you want the passive aluminum case which is sold by misteraddons.com , then only his store has those. While it may be possible in future that he makes them available through other channels in the future, he is very quickly selling through all the stock he can get for his own store.

There are other stores which sell some other sort of aluminum case - these are made in china, and are still based on active cooling with a fan, as they have ventilation holes and no heatsink to put into contact with the FPGA. These are available on AliExpress and other locations, and may be built for different daughterboard designs (i.e. different hole locations), as they are generally sold as a set with such boards.

I'm not sure whether anybody on this forum has purchased any of the Chinese aluminum cases in order to provide feedback on quality.

dshadoff wrote: ↑Sat Aug 21, 2021 4:37 pm I'm not sure whether anybody on this forum has purchased any of the Chinese aluminum cases in order to provide feedback on quality.

@vgesoterica made a video recently about that particular aliexpress bundle (including metal case).

As far as I can tell, cases are also being sold separately, and the addon boards look to be of identical dimensions to the official ones, at least to the naked eye.

still, no love for the BlisSTer even here

Yes, those products appear to be the same as the standard ones, and the aluminum case is modelled pretty closely on the printed-circuit board case, with some nice aluminum-specific improvements.

I had seen a separate seller on AliExpress who had two different variant board designs which combined USB and Analog I/O (variants were VGA and S-Video). These would be different dimensions/layouts.

I am designing one passive aluminium case (connecting the chip with the top case) but it's only for my MINI model

Hey, look what I've found here!

This is from a German seller who's using that same aliexpress metal case for his full build. Doesn't appear to have the case listed standalone; maybe worth shooting him an e-mail?

rhester72 wrote: ↑Sat Aug 21, 2021 2:44 pm OK, I'll second his question - where can they be found, period? I'm just looking for the bog-standard 'official' Vader case.

Just noticed this, sorry; Ricardo has them, albeit bundled with at least the I/O board USB hub. I'm sure if you ask nicely he'll oblige to send you only the bare case parts (we're talking the PCB 'official' one, right?)

@lamarax Yes, thank you very much - this is EXACTLY what I was after! I actually don't (yet) have a hub or I/O board, so this is perfect!

Ugh - backordered (except in white LOL) I got so excited for about 30 seconds LOL

rhester72 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 23, 2021 1:59 pm Ugh - backordered (except in white LOL) I got so excited for about 30 seconds LOL

If I were you, I'd contact him directly. His storefront doesn't always represent what he actually has in stock (I know from personal experience).

lamarax wrote: ↑Mon Aug 23, 2021 5:17 pm

rhester72 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 23, 2021 1:59 pm Ugh - backordered (except in white LOL) I got so excited for about 30 seconds LOL

If I were you, I'd contact him directly. His storefront doesn't always represent what he actually has in stock (I know from personal experience).

I've reached out. Thanks for the tip!