In The Electric State, based on a graphic novel by Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag, after a robot uprising in an alternative version of the 1990s, an orphaned teenager goes on a quest across the American West, with a cartoon-inspired robot, a smuggler, and his sidekick, to find her long-lost brother. Adapting this sci-fi adventure for Netflix were Joe and Anthony Russo; their film stars Millie Bobbie Brown, Chris Pratt, Stanley Tucci, Giancarlo Esposito and a cast of CG automatons voiced by the likes of Woody Harrelson, Alan Tudyk, Hank Azaria, and Anthony Mackie.  Overseeing the visual effects, which surpassed what the Russos had to deal with during their halcyon MCU days, was Matthew Buttler, who turned to the venerable Digital Domain. As the main vendor, the studio was responsible for producing 61 character builds, 480 assets, and over 850 shots. “It was one of the biggest projects that I’ve done in terms of sheer volumes of assets, shots and characters,” states Joel Behrens, VFX Supervisor, Digital Domain.  “Our wonderful asset team did the 61 characters we were responsible for and had to ingest another 46 characters from other facilities.  We didn’t do any major changes. It was pushing our pipeline to the limits it could handle, especially with other shows going on. We took up a lot of disk space and had the ability to expand and contract the Renderfarm with cloud machines as well.” In researching for the show, Digital Domain visited Boston Dynamics to better understand the technological advancements in robotics, and what structures, motions, and interactions were logical and physically plausible.  “There is a certain amount of fake engineering that goes into some of these things,” notes Behrens.  “We’re not actually building these robots to legitimately function in the real world but have to be visibly believable that they can actually pull some of this stuff off.”  The starting point is always the reference material provided by the client.  “Is there a voice that I need to match to?” notes Liz Bernard, Animation Supervisor, Digital Domain.  “Is there any physical body reference either from motion reference actors in the plate or motion capture? We had a big mix of that on the show.  Some of our characters couldn’t be mocapped at all while others could but we had to modify the performance considerably.  We were also looking at the anatomy of each one of these robots to see what their physical capabilities are.  Can they run or jump?  Because that’s always going to tie tightly with the personality.  Your body in some ways is your personality.  We’re trying to figure out how do we put the actor’s voice on top of all these physical limitations in a way that feels cohesive.  It doesn’t happen overnight.”  The character design of Cosmo was retained from the graphic novel despite not being feasible to engineer in reality.  “His feet are huge,” laughs Bernard.  “We had to figure out how to get him to walk in a way that felt normal and put the joints in the right spots.” Emoting was mainly achieved through physicality.  “He does have these audio clips from the Kid Cosmo cartoon that he can use to help express himself verbally, but most of it is pantomime,” observes Bernard.  “There is this great scene between Cosmo and Michelle that occurs right after she crashes the car, and Cosmo is still trying to convince her who he is and why she should go off on this great search for her brother across the country.   We were trying to get some tough nuanced acting into these shots with a subtle head tilt or a little bit of a slump in the shoulders.”  A green light was inserted into the eyes.  “Matthew Butler likes robotic stuff and anything that we could do to make Cosmo feel more grounded in reality was helpful,” observes Behrens.  “We also wanted to prevent anyone from panicking and giving Cosmo a more animated face or allowing him to speak dialogue. We started off with a constant light at the beginning and then added this twinkle and glimmer in his eye during certain moments. We liked that and ended up putting it in more places throughout the film. Everybody says that the eyes are the windows to the soul so giving Cosmo something rather than a dark black painted spot on his face assisted in connecting with that character.”  Coming in four different sizes that fit inside one another - like a Russian doll - is Herman. Digital Domain looked after the eight-inch, four-foot and 20-foot versions while ILM was responsible for the 60-foot Herman that appears in the final battle.   “They were scaled up to a certain extent but consider that the joints on the 20-foot version of Herman versus the four-foot version need to be more robust and beefier because they’re carrying so much more weight,” remarks Bernard.  “We were focusing on making sure that the impact of each step rippled through the body in a way that made it clear how heavy a 20-foot robot carrying a van across a desert would be.  The smaller one can be nimbler and lighter on its feet.  There were similar physical limitations, but that weight was the big deal.”  Incorporated into the face of Herman is a retro-futuristic screen in the style of the 1980s and early 1990s CRT panels. “It has these RGB pixels that live under a thick plate of glass like your old television set,” explains Behrens.  “You have this beautiful reflective dome that goes over top of these cathode-ray-looking pixels that allowed us to treat it as a modern-day LED with the ability to animate his expressions, or if we wanted to, put symbols up. You could pixelized any graphical element and put it on Herman’s face.  We wanted to add a nonlinear decay into the pixels so when he changed expressions or a shape altered drastically you would have a slow quadratic decay of the pixels fading off as he switched expressions. That contributed a nice touch.” One member of the robot cast is an iconic Planters mascot.  “Everybody knows who Mr. Peanut is and what he looks like, at least in North America,” observes Behrens.  “We had to go through a lot of design iterations of how his face should animate. It was determined that as a slightly older model of robot he didn’t have a lot of dexterity in his face. We were modelling him after Chuck E. Cheese and ShowBiz Pizza animatronics, so it was like a latex shell over the top of a mechanical under structure that drove his limited expressions. It allowed him to open and close his mouth and do some slight contractions at the corners, leaving most of the acting to his eyes, which did not have as many restrictions. The eyes had the ability to move quickly, and dart and blink like a human.”  The eyebrows were mounted tracks that ran up and down a vertical slot on the front of the face.  “We could move the eyebrows up and down, and tilt them, but couldn’t do anything else,” states Bernard.  “It was trying to find a visual language that would get the acting across with Woody Harrelson’s amazing performance backing it up.  Then a lot of pantomime to go with that.”  Mr. Peanut moves in a jerky rather than smooth manner.  “Here is a funny little detail,” reveals Bernard.  “If you think about a peanut shell, he doesn’t have a chest or hips that can move independently.  We realized early on that in order to get him to walk without teeter-tottering everywhere, we were going to have to cut his butt off, reattach it and add a swivel control on the bottom.  We always kept that peanut silhouette intact; however, he could swivel his hips enough to walk forward without looking silly!”  Other notable robots are Pop Fly and Perplexo; the former is modelled on baseball player, the latter on a magician.  “We decided that Pop Fly would be the clunkiest of all robots because he was meant to be the elder statesman,” states Behrens.  “Pop Fly was partially falling apart, like his eye would drift, the mouth would hang open and sometimes he’d pass out for a second and wake back up.  Pop Fly was the scavenger hunter of the group who has seen stuff in the battles of the wasteland. We came up with a fun pitching mechanism so he could actually shoot the balls out of his mouth and of course, there was his trusty baseball bat that he could bat things with.” An interesting task was figuring out how to rig his model.  “We realized that there needed to be a lot of restrictions in his joints to make him look realistic based on how he was modelled in the first place,” notes Bernard.  “Pop Fly couldn’t rotate his head in every direction; he could turn it from side to side for the most part.  Pop Fly was on this weird structure with the four wheels on a scissor lift situation which meant that he always had to lean forward to get going and when stopping, would rock backwards.  It was fun to add all that detail in for him.”  Serving as Perplexo’s upper body is a theatrical box that he pops in and out of.  “Perplexo did not have a whole lot going on with his face,” remarks Bernard.  “It was a simple mechanical structure to his jaw, eyes, and eyelids; that meant we could push the performance with pantomime and crazy big gestures with the arms.”               A major adversary in the film is The Marshall, portrayed by Giancarlo Esposito, who remotely controls a drone that projects the face of operator onto a video screen.  “We started with a much smaller screen and had a cowboy motif for awhile, but then they decided to have a unifying design for the drones that are operated by humans versus the robots,” remarks Behrens.  “Since the artist Simon Stålenhag had done an interesting, cool design with the virtual reality helmets with that long duckbill that the humans wear in the real world, the decision was made to mimic that head style of the drones to match the drone operators. Then you could put a screen on the front; that’s how you see Tedor The Marshall or the commando operators. It worked out quite nicely.”   There was not much differentiation in the movement of the drones.  “The drones were meant to be in the vein of Stormtroopers, a horde of them being operated by people sitting in a comfortable room in Seattle,” observes Bernard. “So, they didn’t get as much effort and love as we put into the rest of the robots which had their own personalities. But for The Marshall, we have great mocap to start from Adam Croasdell. He played it a little bit cowboy, which was how Giancarlo Esposito was portraying the character as well, like a Western sheriff style vibe. You could hear that in the voice.  Listening to Giancarlo’s vocal performance gives you a lot of clues of what you should do when you’re moving that character around.  We put all of that together in the performance of The Marshall.”   Many environments had to either be created or augmented, such as the haunted amusement park known as Happyland. “The majority of the exterior of Happyland was a beautiful set that Dennis Gassner and his crew built in a parking lot of a waterslide park in Atlanta,” states Behrens.  “We would go there at night and freeze our butts off shooting for a good two and a half weeks in the cold Atlanta winter.  Most of our environmental work was doing distance extensions for that and adding atmospherics and fog.  We made all the scavenger robots that inhabit Happyland, which are cannibalistic robotics that upgrade and hot rod themselves from random parts taken from the robots that they kill.  Once we get into the haunted house and fall into the basement, that’s where Dr. Amherst has his lab, which was modelled off a 1930s Frankenstein set, with Tesla coils, beakers, and lab equipment.  That was initially a set build we did onstage in Atlanta. But when we got into additional photography, they wanted to do this whole choreographed fight with The Marshall and Mr. Peanut. Because they didn’t know what actions we would need, we ended up building that entire lower level in CG.”   At one point, all the exiled robots gather at the Mall within the Exclusion Zone.  “We were responsible for building a number of the background characters along with Storm Studios and ILM,” remarks Behrens.  “As for the mall, we didn’t have to do much to the environment.  There were some small things here and there that had to be modified.  We took over an abandoned mall in Atlanta and the art department dressed over half of it.” The background characters were not treated haphazardly. “We assigned two or three characters to each animator,” explains Bernard.  “I asked them to make a backstory and figure out who this guy is, what does he care about, and who is his mama?!  Put that into the performance so that each one feels unique and different because they have their own personalities.  There is a big central theme in the movie where the robots are almost more human than most of the humans you meet.  It was important to us that we put that humanity into their performances. As far as the Mall and choreography, Matthew, Joel and I knew that was going to be a huge challenge because this is not traditional crowd work where you can animate cycles and give it to a crowds department and say, ‘Have a bunch of people walking around.’  All these characters are different; they have to move differently and do their own thing.  We did a first pass on the big reveal in the Mall where you swing around and see the atrium where everybody is doing their thing.  We essentially took each character and moved them around like a chess piece to figure out if we had enough characters, if the color balanced nicely across all of them, and if it was okay for us to duplicate a couple of them.  We started to show that early to Matthew and Jeffrey Ford, and the directors to get buyoff on the density of the crowd.”    Considered one of the film’s signature sequences is the walk across the Exclusion Zone, where 20-foot Herman is carrying a Volkswagen van containing Michelle, Cosmo and Keats on his shoulder.  “We did a little bit of everything,” notes Behrens.  “We had plate-based shots because a splinter unit went out to Moab, Utah and shot a bunch of beautiful vistas for us.  For environments, there were shots where we had to do projections of plate material onto 3D geometry that we built. We had some DMPs that went into deep background. We also had to build out some actual legitimate 3D terrain for foreground and midground because a lot of the shots that had interaction with our hero characters rocking and back forth were shot on a bluescreen stage with a VW van on a large gimbal rig.  Then Liz had the fun job of trying to tie that into a giant robot walking with them.  We had to do some obvious tweaking to some of those motions. The establishing shots, where they are walking through this giant dead robot skeleton from who knows where, several of those were 100 percent CG. Once they get to the Mall, we had a big digital mall and a canyon area that had to look like they were once populated.”  Modifications were kept subtle.  “There were a couple of shots where we needed to move the plate VW van around a little bit,” states Bernard.  “You can’t do a lot without it starting to fall apart and lose perspective.”  “The biggest challenge was the scale and sheer number of characters needed that played a large role interacting with our human actors and creating a believable world for them to live in,” reflects Behrens.  “The sequence that I had the most fun with was the mine sequence with Herman and Keats, as far as their banter back and forth. Some of our most expansive work was the Mall and the walk across the Exclusion Zone.  Those had the most stunning visuals.”  Bernard agrees with her colleague.  “I’m going to sound like a broken record.  For me, it was the scale and the sheer number of characters that we had to deal with and keeping them feeling that they were all different, but from the same universe.  Having the animators working towards that same goal was a big challenge.  We had quite a large team on this one.  And I do love that mine sequence.  There is such good banter between Keats and Herman, especially early on in that sequence.  It has so much great action to it.  We got to drop a giant claw on top of The Marshall that he had to fight his way out of.  That was a hard shot.  And of course, the Mall is stunning.  You can see all the care that went into creating that environment and all those characters.  It’s beautiful.”      Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer best known for composing in-depth filmmaker and movie profiles for VFX Voice, Animation Magazine, and British Cinematographer. #digital #domain #goes #retrofuturistic #with

The orbits of a potential dwarf planet called 2017 OF201 and the dwarf planet SednaTony Dunn A potential dwarf planet has been discovered in the outer reaches of our solar system, orbiting beyond Neptune. Its presence there challenges the existence of a hypothetical body known as Planet 9 or Planet X. Sihao Cheng at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, and his colleagues first detected the object, known as 2017 OF201, as a bright spot in an astronomical image database from the Victor M. Blanco Telescope in Chile. Advertisement 2017 OF201 is about 700 kilometres across – big enough to qualify as a dwarf planet like Pluto, which has a diameter about three times as big. The object is currently about 90.5 astronomical unitsaway from us, or roughly 90 times as far from Earth as the sun is. Because 2017 OF201’s average orbit around the sun is greater than that of Neptune, it is what’s known as a trans-Neptunian object. It passes through the Kuiper belt, a disc of icy objects in the outer solar system beyond the orbit of Neptune. The researchers looked back over 19 observations, taken over seven years by the Canada France Hawaii Telescope, to determine that the closest 2017 OF201 gets to the sun – its perihelion – is 44.5 AU, which is similar to Pluto’s orbit. The furthest it gets from the sun is 1600 AU, way outside the solar system. Voyage across the galaxy and beyond with our space newsletter every month. Sign up to newsletter This far-flung orbit may be the result of an encounter with a giant planet, which ejected the candidate dwarf planet out of the solar system, say the researchers. “It’s a really cool discovery,” says Kevin Napier at the University of Michigan. The object would go so far outside the solar system that it could be interacting with other stars in the galaxy just as strongly as it interacts with some of the planets in our solar system, he says. The orbits of many extreme TNOs seem to cluster in a specific orientation. This has been interpreted as evidence that the solar system contains a ninth planet hidden in the Oort cloud, a vast cloud of icy rocks encircling the solar system. The idea is that Planet 9’s gravity pushes the TNOs into their specific orbits. But the orbit of 2017 OF201 doesn’t fit this pattern. “This object is definitely an outlier to the observed clustering,” says team member Eritas Yang at Princeton University. Cheng and his colleagues also modelled simulations of the object’s orbit, and how it might interact with Planet 9. “In the one with Planet X, the object gets ejected after a couple of hundred million years, and without Planet X, it stays,” says Napier. “Certainly, this is not evidence in favour of Planet 9.” But until there is more data, the case isn’t closed, says Cheng. “I hope Planet 9 still exists, because that’ll be more interesting.” The candidate dwarf planet takes roughly 25,000 years to complete an orbit, which means it spends only about 1 per cent of its time close enough to Earth for us to detect it. “These things are really hard to find because they’re faint, and their orbits are so long and skinny that you can only see them when they’re really close to the sun, and then they immediately head right back out and they’re invisible to us again,” says Napier. That means there might be hundreds of such objects out there. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, due to go online later this year, will look deeper into space and will potentially detect many more objects like this, which should tell us more about them – and whether Planet 9 actually exists. Reference:arXiv DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2505.15806 Topics:planets #new #dwarf #planet #spotted #edge

CRISPR— the genetic equivalent of a word processor — has received its most powerful upgrade yet: the ability to insert an entire gene at the most potentially effective spot, according to an article in the journal Science.This marks a key step in cell and gene therapy, all of which aim to treat illnesses by making corrections or additions to the “misspelled” genes that can lead to disease.Before CRISPR, delivering genes inside of neutered viruses was thought to be the answer. It sometimes worked, but often the new genetic word would be flooded into the body, inserted at random. Sometimes it would land in the right spot, other times it would miss its target. And worst of all, that approach can lead to a potentially deadly immune response.The Rise of CRISPRWhen CRISPR debuted in 2012, it was thought to provide both more specificity and control. It is essentially the genetic equivalent of a “search and replace” command in a word processor, with the ability to find, then snip out faulty DNA within one gene, using what many researchers call “molecular scissors.” Its innovators were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020.However, despite incredible potential, that approach still has some limitations. The “scissors” can sometimes snip the wrong part of the targeted DNA sequence. This could lead to either incomplete repair or the inadvertent admission of a harmful mutation. It can also only fix one error in a single gene at a time.Despite those “software bugs” and limitations, early versions of CRISPR have shown promise. The approach was used to edit genes in six patients with a rare genetic disorder in 2022. More recently, scientists used the system to deliver for the first time a treatment tailored to a specific patient, a baby boy with a rare metabolic disorder.CRISPR Upgrades The multiple components of the evoCAST gene editor grasping a strand of DNA.)The new version shows promise to be even more effective. Since it doesn’t cut out any existing DNA, it is less likely to inadvertently add mutations or errors. It is much more specific than either virus-based gene therapy or earlier CRISPR approaches. And delivering an entire correct gene is considered a safer, more effective approach than cutting and replacing portions of an existing one.The update essentially involves the addition of guide molecules called “CRISPR-associated transposases.” These bacterial systems “lead” CRISPR to specific sites, so the correct gene is more likely to be integrated and activated. The tool's developers named it “evoCAST.”Also, existing gene therapy strategies, as well as the early CRISPR work in humans, were focused on diseases with errors in only one gene. Although there are many such diseases, each one affects relatively few people, compared to more common diseases that are thought to be the result of multiple genetic mutations.“Hundreds to thousands of different mutations in the CFTR gene can cause cystic fibrosis, for example, so an inordinate number of distinct gene editing drugs would be needed to ensure each patient could be treated,” Samuel Sternberg, a researcher at Columbia University and an author of the paper, said in a press release. “Instead, something like evoCAST could enable a single gene therapy that inserts a complete and healthy gene into the patient’s genome."CRISPR's Future The researchers will continue to test the evoCAST system in animals modelled to exhibit certain human diseases. As they do so, they intend to tweak and debug the system so it can be even more accurate and effective. But their biggest challenge is the same one that faced early gene therapy researchers: targeted delivery.“How do we actually get these tools and their payloads into the cells or tissues of interest?” Sternberg said in a press release. “That’s a challenge that many of us in the field are facing.”This article is not offering medical advice and should be used for informational purposes only.Article SourcesOur writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:The Nobel Prize. Genetic scissors: a tool for rewriting the code of lifeBefore joining Discover Magazine, Paul Smaglik spent over 20 years as a science journalist, specializing in U.S. life science policy and global scientific career issues. He began his career in newspapers, but switched to scientific magazines. His work has appeared in publications including Science News, Science, Nature, and Scientific American. #new #crispr #modification #could #make

Nature, Published online: 14 May 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01339-xA prediction of the gravitational waves produced by interacting black holes achieves high precision and demonstrates the link between general relativity and geometry. #black #hole #flyby #modelled #with

Get your gaming gear primed and wallets at the ready, because today’s lineup of stellar discounts is too good to miss. From adrenaline‑pumping races on Switch to monstrous PC conquests, there’s sweet, economical escapism for all. Nothing but games worth owning. Let's get to it.This Day in Gaming 🎂In retro news, I've baked a cake with a big 16 on it for Pokémon Platinum. Part of the DS Gen IV series, this sprawling Sinnoh shenanigan served as a third version to Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. My memories of it include a gleeful hunt for the 59 extra Pokémon added and dipping into the new M.C. Escher-esque Distortion World to bag a Giratina. It also had some of the best post-game content in the series, and, oh crap—I've just talked myself into a replay...Aussie bdays for notable games- Castlevania (N64) 1999. eBay- R-Type Delta (PS) 1999. Sequel- Ninja Gaiden (XB) 2004. Redux- The Suffering (XB) 2004. Get- Pokémon Platinum (DS) 2009. 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Cases Corsair Remembered How to Make a Case: Frame 4000D RS ARGB ReviewMay 13, 2025Last Updated: 2025-05-13We analyze Corsair’s FRAME 4000D’s design, specs, build quality, and thermalsThe HighlightsCorsair’s new FRAME 4000D case reprises concepts from the company’s 4000D case but completely overhauls its designThe motherboard tray, power supply shroud, and other components are modular and intended to be replaceable with 3D printable componentsThe FRAME 4000D case puts Corsair on a much better path than its other recent casesOriginal MSRP: $95-$110Release Date: January 7, 2025Table of ContentsAutoTOC Grab a GN15 Large Anti-Static Modmat to celebrate our 15th Anniversary and for a high-quality PC building work surface. The Modmat features useful PC building diagrams and is anti-static conductive. Purchases directly fund our work! (or consider a direct donation or a Patreon contribution!)IntroToday we’re reviewing the Corsair Frame 4000D and the case is modular in some interesting ways. For instance, the motherboard tray and power supply shroud/tray can come out. And that’s what gets us to the name “frame.” It’s a frame of a case and it can be reconfigured.It’s actually pretty well built. There’s some really good build quality to the case. The fan rail system at the front comes off with a pull and has what Corsair calls “3D Y-shaped patterns.” While the front panel looks flimsy, it’s actually strong due to its depth. The steel stamping for the cable management shroud area is also relatively high build quality.The reason we’re excited about this case is because Corsair lately has really sucked with some of its cases, but the Frame 4000D doesn’t and that’s encouraging.Editor's note: This was originally published on May 8, 2025 as a video. This content has been adapted to written format for this article and is unchanged from the original publication.CreditsTest Lead, Host, WritingSteve BurkeTesting, WritingPatrick LathanVideo Editing, CameraMike GaglioneCameraTim PhetdaraWriting, Web EditingJimmy ThangIn addition to the case’s modularity, it also has trademarks:The new InfiniRail(TM) fan mount is joined by Corsair’s 3D Y-pattern airflow pattern, and better yet, Corsair says this case is “50 Series Ready,” which is impressive, because not even NVIDIA was 50-series ready.This is the Corsair Frame 4000D, and overall, we like it. It’s an interesting case. The case is the successor to Corsair's long-lived and highly popular 4000D (and its 4000D Airflow and 4000X variants) which we first reviewed back in 2020 and even liked. In spite of the name, the Frame 4000D is an entirely new design, which means we're going to have to say "Frame 4000D" every single time we mention it and can’t shorten it to 4000D as that’s a different case. We suspect part of the reason for the similarity is to enable the classic reuse-the-old-Newegg-listing trick: those 1,000+ five-egg reviews are almost all for the original 4000D, not the Frame 4000D, but it gets to share them on the same listing. Corsair also occasionally refers to the "Frame 4000 Series" sans-D, so we may see a Frame 4000X at some point.The case ranges from $95 without fans to the $110 RS ARGB with 3x 120 ARGB fans. It’s targeting the modern budget range. There's a $100 middle step as well with fans but no ARGB. Based on discussion with Corsair, it sounds likely that the MSRPs will increase due to tariffs, but we don't have hard numbers for what those increased prices would be.The Frame 4000D is interesting because Corsair has gone all out with the gigantic holes in the front panel: functionally, they're close to having no front panel at all. Corsair Frame 4000D OverviewThe differentiating factor for the Frame 4000D is that it's intended to be modular, with users able to buy or 3D print alternate components. This is reiterated constantly in Corsair's marketing materials, including public blog posts: "FRAME is all about customization and we have some exciting things on the horizon. In addition to parts that will be available for direct purchase, We have modelled some blanks of the PSU shroud and motherboard tray, so you can download [...] these from Printables and customize them however you like."Corsair Frame 4000D Specs4000D Series (2019)FRAME 4000D SeriesDimensions (mm):466 x 230 x 453 mm487 x 239 x 486 mmMaterial:Steel, Tempered GlassSteel, Tempered GlassIncluded Fans:2x SP120 or 3x AF120 RGB ELITENone or 3x RS120 or 3x RS120 ARGBIncluded Controllers:NoneNoneFan Compatibility:Front: 3x 120mm, 2x 140mmTop: 3x 120mm, 2x 140mmSide: NoneBottom: NoneRear: 1x 120mmFront: 3x 120mm, 2x 140mm, 2x 200mmTop: 3x 120mm, 2x 140mm, 2x 160mmSide: 3x 120mm, 2x 140mmBottom: 2x 120mmRear: 1x 120mm, 1x 140mmRadiator Compatibility:Front: 360mm, 280mm, 240mmTop: 280mm, 240mmSide: NoneBottom: NoneRear: 120mmFront: 360mm, 280mm, 240mmTop: 360mm, 280mm, 240mmSide: 360mm, 280mm, 240mmBottom: NoneRear: 120mmExpansion Slots (Main):7 Horizontal (2 Vertical)7 Horizontal (3 Vertical)Motherboard (Main):Mini-ITX, Micro-ATX, ATX, E-ATXMini-ITX, Micro-ATX, ATX, E-ATXStorage:2x 2.5" SSDs2x 3.5" HDDs4x 2.5" SSDs2x 3.5" HDDsClearances:PSU: 220mmCPU Cooler: 170mmGPU: 360mm (335mm w/ fan)PSU: 220mmCPU Cooler: 170mmGPU: 430 mm (405 mm w/ fan)Dust Filters:Front, Top, PSU, SideFront, PSU, SideFront I/O:USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A (x1)USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C (x1)Headphone/Microphone (x1)PowerResetUSB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A (x2)USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C (x1)Headphone/Microphone (x1)PowerResetPower Supply:ATX (Not Included)ATX (Not Included)Warranty:2 Year2 YearThe BuildThe rotatable vertical GPU mount is one of three major features that genuinely live up to Corsair's promise of modularity, the other two being the PSU shroud and the motherboard tray (which can be removed with four screws). This is vital: being able to eventually buy or print individual components is nice, but it doesn't have anything to do with the case's design. With these three features, we're comfortable saying that the Frame 4000D is more modular than a typical case. It's also possible to swap the glass and mesh side panels to either side of the case, but this won't be useful until Corsair sells side panels individually or introduces more case SKUs.The vertical GPU mount is surprisingly quick to set up: by loosening two thumbscrews around the expansion slot covers, the entire set of seven slots can be removed and rotated 90 degrees. A riser cable can then be installed and supported by two standoffs installed on the surface of the PSU shroud. Using the built-in mounting holes, a maximum of three vertical slots are usable. Obviously Corsair intends for you to purchase a Corsair riser cable, but if you want to use your own, the holes are spaced 122mm apart.The Frame 4000D has old school pop-out fill and drain ports at the top and bottom of the chassis, which we also really appreciate. Open-loop compatibility fits well with the modular philosophy that Corsair is pushing.So far, these things are good. If we’re picking antiquated hills to die on, paper manuals will be one of them: We'd like to see a paper manual included with the case in addition to the version on Corsair's blog. The benefit of the online guide is that it can be updated; for example, the online manual now explains what the point of the strip of mylar in the accessory kit is, whereas we had to email Corsair (it covers the reverse-connector holes in the motherboard tray when they're unused). A paper manual can’t be updated, which is a downside as much as it is an upside: The upside is that a company can’t gaslight a customer if something proves incompatible and is retconned. It’s also just more convenient to build a computer with a physical manual.But then again, maybe Corsair doesn’t deserve paper manuals since its own digital manual incorrectly lists the screw count and steps for removing the power supply shroud. With a digital one, they’ll be able to make as many mistakes as they want and the only people who will know about them is everyone who read this article. For the record, it’s 3 screws, not 2. And the diagram is also incorrect.There's another, larger piece of black mylar in the kit, but the manual devotes less explanation to this one, simply saying that if you "don’t want your cables visible through the bottom mesh quarter-panel, swap the translucent insert for the color-matched blank-out insert included in the Accessory Box." The case also has a Lian Li-ish strip of mesh ventilation below the glass side panel and it ships with the translucent insert. If you install fans in the two 120mm slots on top of the PSU shroud, we'd recommend getting rid of the inserts entirely.The Frame 4000D uses the so-called "InfiniRail" system. At the front of the case, there are two metal rails that hold up to 12 plastic clips. The rails slide in and out for 120mm or 140mm mounting, and the clips slide up and down the whole length of the rails. Technically, the rails can fit 200mm fans at their maximum width, but only by forgoing the clips and mounting directly to the rails. At the top of the case, Corsair took the simpler approach of using a single sliding rail and no clips. The system is more complicated than it strictly needs to be, but our only real complaint is that there are exactly twelve clips included with the base model Frame 4000D, with no spares in case one breaks.The only significant fit-and-finish issue with our review sample was that one of the plastic pieces of the ball snap fasteners had popped out of the chassis in shipping. We were able to find it and put it back, but just like the InfiniRail clips, Corsair didn't provide any extras (like some other manufacturers do). As for build quality, construction of the Frame 4000D feels more delicate than the older 4000 series cases. This is partly a tradeoff for the more breathable mesh pattern, flexible fan mounting, and removable components. All of these things get exchanged for rigidity. Corsair apparently intends to sell Frame 4000D components individually as well, but we don't see any on the store as of this writing.On the positives for build quality, the elaborate stamped 3D pattern on the front panel is much sturdier than it looks. We'll have thermal results later in this review, but the Frame 4000D's front panel appears more open than the 4000D Airflow's (watch our review) while retaining most of its rigidity.There's a cable cover at the front of the case that can be installed in one of two positions, but as is frequently the case, we were only able to use it in the forward position because of the ATX power cable. The other position is better suited to back connect motherboards, of which ASUS BTF, MSI Project Zero, and Gigabyte Project Stealth have been validated by Corsair to work. The cable cover is extremely easy to remove, requiring only a single screw, and it's equally easy to slot the side fan mount from the accessory kit in its place. The side fan mount is another feature that will become more interesting if Corsair introduces a Frame 4000X or other variant with a sealed front panel.Cable management is good with tons of velcro straps behind the motherboard tray, but the best route for the 24-pin cable is along the cable bar, which isn't an option if the side fan mount is installed instead. Front I/O cables are neatly sleeved and the whole I/O unit pops off with two screws, so it would have been nice to allow alternate mounting locations (like in the O11D EVO), especially since having the I/O at the bottom of the case has become unusual these days. Even still, we like the modularity of it. They are delivering on that. As for storage, drives can be mounted on two plates, one behind the motherboard tray and one under the PSU shroud. Each plate can mount either two 2.5" drives, one 3.5" drive, or one "iCUE LINK System Hub controller." We'll be interested to see whether Corsair comes up with a modular solution to fit more drives, but for now, that's it.The default location of the GPU anti-sag arm is on the cable cover, too far forward to benefit anything except the longest GPUs, especially if the cable cover is shifted to its forward position.It can be moved a step further back by using the "mini mount" in the accessory kit, but there's no way to do any finer adjustment, and you should look for a different solution if you really think your GPU needs that support. Appearances are subjective. For some, a possible downside of the Frame 4000D's increased modularity is that it doesn't have the clean, uninterrupted lines of the original 4000D cases. We'll leave it at that; you can form your own opinion.Corsair Frame 4000D Thermals Visit our Patreon page to contribute a few dollars toward this website's operation (or consider a direct donation or buying something from our GN Store!) Additionally, when you purchase through links to retailers on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission.The $95 base model Frame 4000D that we were sent for review didn't include any stock fans, so Corsair sent along a pack of three RS120 ARGB fans. We used these fans to match the stock configuration of the $110 Frame 4000D RS ARGB, which is how the case is marked on our charts. According to Corsair's spec sheets, the ARGB fans have the same specs as regular RS120s, so these results are also representative of the $100 Frame 4000D RS (non-ARGB)'s performance.CPU Full Load Thermals - Noise-NormalizedWe’ll start with noise-normalized thermals when using our hemi-anechoic chamber to establish the noise levels.Under full load with the case fans adjusted to hit our 27 dBA noise normalization target, CPU temperature in the Frame 4000D averaged 43 degrees Celsius above ambient, or 47 degrees on just the P-cores. That's a significant improvement over the original 4000D Airflow's average of 49 degrees (53 on the P-Cores), but that's to be expected since the older case has only two fans and splits them between the front and rear of the case.Relative to the rest of the chart, the Frame 4000D performed fairly well here. The Phanteks XT Pro Ultra is comparable in price and design, but it split the difference between the Corsair cases, with the Frame 4000D still a couple degrees cooler. The Lancool 207 (read our review) remains the budget case to beat with averages of 41 degrees across all cores and 45 on the P-Cores, while the NZXT H5 Flow 2024 (watch our review) and Phanteks G400A (watch our review) performed similarly well. The G400A remains difficult to find in the US.GPU Full Load Thermals - Noise-NormalizedMoving to GPU thermals under full load in the same noise normalized test, the Frame 4000D averaged 45 degrees above ambient, with 49 degrees for the memory and 59 for the unshown GPU hotspot. That's another victory over the original 4000D Airflow, which averaged 49 degrees for the GPU temperature, but again that's with two fans to the Frame 4000D's three.The G400A effectively tied the Frame 4000D in this test, while the H5 and XT Pro UItra didn't do as well. The XT Pro UItra averaged 47 degrees for the GPU, a couple degrees warmer than the Frame 4000D. The Lancool 207 remains near the top of the chart for cooling. To learn more about that one, you can check out our Best Cases round-up from last year or our original review for more info on that case's pros and cons.CPU Full Load Thermals - Full SpeedAt full speed, the Frame 4000D's CPU thermal performance continues to scale fairly well for its price, while the 4000D Airflow falls further behind. The Frame 4000D's noise levels and performance were essentially tied with the Phanteks XT Pro Ultra here, with the Frame 4000D averaging 40 degrees above ambient, or 43 on the P-Cores. The G400A performed similarly as well, but with a lower 37dBA noise level to the Frame 4000D's 43dBA, while the Lancool 207 remains an outlier with both lower temperatures and lower noise levels, making it a lot better here than really most of these other cases.CPU Full Load Thermals - Standardized FansThe standardized fan test has always had limited usefulness, but this is one of the places it’s useful.It’ll help us evaluate the Frame 4000D's unusual front panel by comparing it against other cases with an identical set of fans and placements including the 4000D. Average all-core CPU temperature was 40 degrees above ambient and the P-Cores were 44 degrees. That's reasonably well-matched to established mesh-fronted cases like Fractal's Meshify 2 Compact (watch our review) and North XL (read our review), and extremely close to SilverStone's recent FARA 514X (read our review). The Frame 4000D is also significantly better than the 4000D Airflow when normalizing to the same fans, reinforcing Corsair’s improvements to the chassis design itself.No matter how open the front panel is, though, the fans still have to pull air through Corsair's filter as well, so it makes some sense that some single-layer mesh designs like the Lancool 207, Pop Air RGB (watch our review), and Flux Pro (read our review) perform slightly better here, although the G400A also did fairly well with two layers.GPU Full Load Thermals - Standardized FansIn the same test, GPU temperature in the Frame 4000D averaged 43 degrees above ambient, tying it with most of the cases we just mentioned (Lancool 207, Pop Air RGB, and Flux Pro), while the XT Pro Ultra did unusually poorly with an average of 50 degrees.As a side note, GPU thermals with the 4000D Airflow were abysmal in this particular test relative to the rest of the chart. That differs from what we saw 5 years ago using our old test hardware, which demonstrates the value of retesting these cases now that we've switched to new components and a flow-through GPU design.VRM & RAM Full Load Thermals - Noise NormalizedAs a final note, the VR VCC sensor averaged 30 degrees above ambient in the noise-normalized test with the Frame 4000D. That puts it at the cooler end of what we typically see from cases, with only a couple of outliers like the Lancool 207 and Flux Pro dropping to the 27 degree mark. The same goes for the SPD Hub average of 24 degrees above ambient (which is the RAM temperature), with relatively few cases on the chart dropping below 22 degrees. Both these sensors indicate normal internal case temperatures.Corsair Frame 4000D Conclusion Our fully custom 3D Emblem Glasses celebrate our 15th Anniversary! We hand-assemble these on the East Coast in the US with a metal badge, strong adhesive, and high-quality pint glass. They pair excellently with our 3D 'Debug' Drink Coasters. Purchases keep us ad-free and directly support our consumer-focused reviews!Of the existing Frame 4000D SKUs, the Frame 4000D RS at $100 is a decent deal, especially given how tightly packed the SKUs’ prices are. Going from 0 fans to 3 fans is worth $5, and going from no RGB to ARGB may or may not be worth another $10. We need Corsair to follow through with more modular case components (like the alternate front panels it showed in the trailer) to make it really interesting, or at the absolute least offer some more printable files. The Lancool 207 remains king in terms of min-maxed price-to-performance, but the Frame 4000D is a reasonable alternative to budget Phanteks cases like the G400A and XT Pro Ultra, or potentially some Montech cases (which we'll be adding more of to the charts shortly). As a successor to the existing 4000 series, we like the Frame 4000D functionally. Some of the finer attention to detail elements like the geometric patterns and yellow accents remain, just with a more complex appearance than previously.Corsair has mentioned that it may have to increase prices, but we don’t yet have final details on what that amount might be on this case. We don't encourage panic buying, but if you've decided that the Frame 4000D is the case for you and it's currently in stock at MSRP, we wouldn't recommend waiting around for a discount. Overall, this is a job well done by Corsair. It is a much better return to form as compared to something like the 6500D (read our review) from last year. Source: https://gamersnexus.net/cases/corsair-remembered-how-make-case-frame-4000d-rs-argb-review #corsair #remembered #how #make #case #frame #4000d #argb #review