ATCs, and now Windy! Soldam gone bust.

Yewen · 11 Jul 2006 at 19:51

Well score 2 for the gaming cases, Soldam the people who make the Windy Spirits of japan case, the best cases available have gone bust.

That means the best case manufacturer left is Lian Li, and they are not doing brilliant by their share prices.

Terrible news for the case industy, 11 July 2006 one of the biggest players in quality cases has gone the way of ATC-Tek.

RIP Windy cases.

http://translate.google.com/transla...&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=/language_tools

www.soldam.com is also gone.

Yewen · 11 Jul 2006 at 20:03

The scary thing is, you know who is next in line to go don't you?

Lia....

Yewen · 11 Jul 2006 at 20:18

For them making cases its a possibility.

If it is not profitable, they simply wont do it. Speaking to Alu_ATC about this last night, and the market for these cases is declining rapidly thanks to low quality gaming cases.

Yewen · 11 Jul 2006 at 20:29

What you think im doing!

Yewen · 11 Jul 2006 at 20:43

http://www3.soldam.co.jp/

Still working, just.

Only maker to better Lian Li for build quality, the S80 is a direct copy of the Spirits of Japan Limited Edition XR1 they had last year, but with a door.

Yewen · 11 Jul 2006 at 23:34

Yeh, its a bad buisness model.

Make products that just don't wear out for decades, and then once all the potential buyers have them, who else?

Something has to give in either the build quality or scale of Lian Li's operation or they will go the same way.

Although a way off, it is the way the PC is going, giant plastic monster heads that pop in and out when you touch them.

Yewen · 12 Jul 2006 at 00:06

Only cost so much due to having to illegally import them into the EU and US at one stage.

No talk of that though, sadly its against the rules even for nice case talk.

Yewen · 12 Jul 2006 at 22:57

monkeybutt said:
Well, someone will bring out other cases with quality in mind. Just a matter of time.

The market is not nearly as profitable as the light up monster head case market.

PC building has become more mainstream, so more younger kids have gotten into it, and instead of like me buying a £90 Xaser III they can buy a £4 to make £60 gaming case with a giant head on the front thats dire, but will hold a PC.

No market for the high end build quality cases, as you buy one and then it wont ever break.

Yewen · 12 Jul 2006 at 23:02

I can try!

But on a serious note, it is ATCs mentioned in my sig, not Lian Li.

Yewen · 13 Jul 2006 at 00:21

Agree completely with the largest amount of the market uses generic cases, that will be built in once and maybe serviced once.

But subject them to 20 builds, and they wont take it. But they were not designed for that afterall.

Yewen · 13 Jul 2006 at 00:40

I know quite a lot of cases that have had 10+ builds, if you think 1 build per user, and the case being around 10th hand...

Each to their own, but a quality case can improve the overall feel of your pc, from a cheap generic one to one you think is more appealing.

Generic Case = £30.
Lian Li PC7+ = £53.
Antec Super Lanboy = £33.

They are not THAT much more expensive, but I will agree with you that you need more money than sense to buy a case above the PC7+ price bracket for anything but a specialised rig.

Yewen · 13 Jul 2006 at 00:50

Alu_ATC from our talk about Soldam and ATCs and me saying they had a year left in them maybe, I was miles off, only had 12 hours left in them!

Has been a bit of a wakeup for me really, Lian Li and Silverstone are in a slightly better position, but they will either need to improve the profit margin on their cases by reducing quality or upping already comparatively high prices just to make enough money. (Lian Li especially).

I am worried that the case market may have peaked with the v1000 / TJ07 / S80 and the way foreward is more along the lines of the Akasa Eclipse. Sad but could turn out to be true.

Yewen · 13 Jul 2006 at 02:02

Or they will lower their standards to increase profit on each case.

Built poorly, sell more, sell replacements and spares.

Sad, but it would work aswell.

Yewen · 23 Oct 2006 at 13:17

Soldam.com is currently inactive and its service is unavailable.
We are sorry for the inconvenience.

SOLDAM CORPORATION

For all purposes Windy is gone, as it will never have the level of quality again, and will go the way of coolermaster.

Lian Li actually make money on the cases, so I do not see them going bust as yes they do make their wacko cases, but they do sell a fair few of them for OEM manufacturers aswell, especially when you look back over 7 years of PC mags.