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Do It Yourself Cool Cases
wiZd0m sent us a nifty collection of cool cases. Not for sale or anything, just user designs and pictures.
The site is kinda a mess with zillions of these things sorta cluttered on long pages, but some of the cases are quite clever. They range from useless (neon lights and glass panels) to bizarre (putting an AMD chip in a G4 case) to the practical (blow hole fans). Tons of ideas for the do-it-yourselfer.
Yeah I know reply to my own post but whatever.. Loaded up the old favorites list and had some more for your viewing pleasure:
Cardboard Box
The Lego Case
Alienware computers now offers 8 different colours for it's cases, so it shouldn't be too long before all the major manufacturers get in on the act.
-- Somebody call for an exterminator? - Terran Ghost, Starcraft
There may also be serious problems with internal temperature. Metal is a heat conductor, plastic is somewhere in the middle, but surrounding your overclocked P3 with an insulating material is probably not the best idea! :)
You'd have to admit, though, that even some of the lamest cases get good comments. Oh and just because you put stickers on your case, doesn't make it a mod. ;^)
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Wooden armaments to battle your imaginary foes!
I found a link to this site at http://www.lugnet.com. It's called the "Woo Lego Project" and although there are no plans, these guys did make a case completely out of legos. It looks kind of weird but is supposedly rock solid.
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If Murphy's Law can go wrong, it will.
The All Aluminum Case
I saw this case a while ago, but A) it's $300, and B) all of your components that have the regular cream colored face (CDROM, floppy, etc) would look mighty stupid in it.
Although from the picture, it seems that dude found/made a cdrom and floppy with an aluminum face! (I suppose paint would work too) very cool.
--
python -c "x='python -c %sx=%s; print x%%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))%s'; print x%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))"
PC cases are OK but what we really need are creative looking notebook cases. I mean who gets to see your desktop anyways...
Some of my boxen as of several months ago. Both the cabinet and desk are full now. Note the digital grade bungee cord.
If it's not a Frankensteinesque beige monstrosity with the cover permanently off, several drives that don't quite fit the bays they are in and stick out the front, fans all over the place and cables in danger of catching your feet as you use the thing as a footrest and try not to spill cereal on it, it's not a REAL computer.
The mahogany box was pretty neat, though, I have to admit.
Slash has nothing to do with Slashdot.
Actually the DNS problems have been resolved. No need to use that old IP :)
Yes, I'm certain, I work for VH.
And good lord it's loading slow. Urgh.
Computational Madness in a round package.
Compaq must use the same shitty floppy/HD bay-thingie in all their systems.
Of course, it's not as bad as the HD bays in Gateway towers. You couldn't remove a HD from one of those in 15mins if your life depended on it.
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Soma: because a gramme is better than a damn.
However, that said, a nice cherry system is a COOL idea. So here's what I propose - wooden overlays. You could opt to have case completely covered with wood, or you could choose "wooden highlights", sorta like what you get in fancy cars.
Unfortunately, there's one thing that I can see happening that would immediately take a case from "pretty" to "hideous" - a wooden panel falls off. Then you have these adhesive stipes over crappy metal exposed, and the whole effect is ruined...
SUWAIN: Slashdot User Without An Interesting Name
SUWAIN: Slashdot User Without An Interesting Name
lt looks like someone was deleting the site when i visited it, half the jpeg's were gone, and now, i get a 404 error when i go to the page, way to go.
--
Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know when your gonna get food poisoning.
Ugh, have you done hardware design? Yes, you're right, you could probably get away with it if you were doing it by yourself for yourself (although apparently you've never seen the aftermath of a serious short on a PCB... it's not just a smoking resistor or capacitor).
But you absolutely could NOT sell it to others, and you sure as heck wouldn't be able to even try to sell in Europe.
And watch the stupid comments until you know what you're talking about...
-S
--- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
Yummy wooden cases to be bought here: Tech-Style
With the new variable color led's this is very possible. the downside is that each led is about $10.00 so your case would cost about $600.00
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
More cool cases at: http://alternatecases.angryfruitsalad .co m/
I've always wanted to paint my PowerMac 6100 case like a box of Crayola crayons. 16.7 million different brilliant colors, baby!
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
Hey, if you want a computer in a keg, be sure to team up with this guy who already has a head start!
He's got one that's already sawed in half!
- Dekaner
Sure, we've all seen the quickies, Mr. orb. It's one thing to mess with a CPU if you have more than one box, but being a student, my money situation is rather tight, and I've only got one box to mess with. I worked all summer, sweeping up radioactive waste and pulling cables at $7.50 an hour (I'm really not kidding), so the computer that I built is a substantial investment. If I break it (more severely than I have already) then I'll have the pleasure of doing my CS homework in a public lab that is a good 25 minute walk from here...
To much people looking at the site so they deleted it?
My friend made a plexy glass case
He put a red light it in, but didnt know what RF was. It looked really cool but didnt work very well. Whenever he turned it on he monitor started flickering and had many other problems after a while, then he brought it to a lan party, he had about 10 people stop to tell him how stupid he was for putting it in, he hasnt turned it on since =)
There are two major products that come out of Berkeley: LSD and UNIX. We don't believe this to be a coincidence.
Ever hear of kindling temperature? I can throw lit matches at a 2x4 all day and not catch on fire. I doubt a smoking resistor or capacitor would cause it to go up.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
I did see a tiny bit of the page before it crashed Netscape for the bazillionth time, and it looked really cool. I'm going to reboot into Windows (!!) and view it with IE (!!). That's how desperate I am. Hopefully the dust won't have clogged up my Windows drive...
SUWAIN: Slashdot User Without An Interesting Name
SUWAIN: Slashdot User Without An Interesting Name
Get out your can of spraypaint and get creative!
I can't stand those poser cars. Computer cases are different, however, because it's more like personalizing your case. It's not the same as putting stripes on a car to make it look like there's some actually performance mods when there isn't. You can personalize your car too, but it would probably look really stupid.
Check out Bryan's Rice-Boy Page to see some of those poser cars.
"There are no cool guys in musicals." -- Coach McGuirk
I've been wanting to build a case out of an erector set, but where do I find them anymore? I looked on eToys, but the new ones are all meant to build specific things and probably only come with the parts needed. I just want beams and screws! eBay has a bunch of old ones, but they are for collector's mainly and cost more than I want to spend. Any ideas?
"There are no cool guys in musicals." -- Coach McGuirk
The main problem I see with a wood case is the beige drives on the front. They look horrible and would really stand out on a wood case. Maybe have a wood door with a nice brass hinge to cover them up? Maybe I'll build one, I already built my computer desk, entertainment center thingy, and a table out of plywood and 2x4s/1x4s. It would fit in well.
"There are no cool guys in musicals." -- Coach McGuirk
http://www.luddite.com
The site itself has actually been around for over a year, but I've never seen their "custom order" section actually go online, which is another thing that makes me think it might be a joke.
But hey, if it is real, there's your hookup for a no-doubt expensive wooden case.
4-star general in a one-man army.
Not impressive :) I've seen 600mhz athlons running stable at 800 and beyond!
David
PS - trying raising the core voltage if you wanna get really nasty with the clock speed. Just keep in mind you'll need LOTS of cooling, and you'll probably end up frying your chip without any electrical knowledge! *DISCLAIMER* YOU _CAN_ fry your computer following that advice, if you do, it is _YOUR_ fault, not mine.
I was just thinking would be a nice touch would be the attache' case .....you have the handle to make the thing portable ...anyone remember the Kaypro computers..hehehe would be nice for the LAN parties.....just snap the top of the case open, remove mouse and keyboard, plug in ethernet,video and power in the back, and bam...yer in business....
What? Me worry? NEVER.....
I'm running MIDI sequencing off a Performa 575 which was basically my first computer- for starters, I removed the vent louvers on the rear fan area and lined the inside/top of the case (this is an all-in-one Mac) with fake-fur to try and mute noise. I sold it to a local computer shop for use as their house Mac, and there it stayed for a couple years- then I got it back because it had always been so great for MIDI sequencing, 33mhz 68040 and all (you can do MIDI on a 8mhz 68000 mac but the screen updates are really slow!) at which point I got serious...
- Apple drive replaced with a smaller IBM drive that was significantly less whiny (remember these are all SCSI drives, some are kind of noisy). Also, a layer of thick, loose feltlike stuff (sound absorption from old speakers!) was added over the drive in the cramped little compartment the drive goes in.
- first fan attempt- adding smaller fan in series. Cut airflow dreadfully- computer was running hotter, though the just-ticking-over fans were indeed quiet.
- Final attempt- 5W 92 ohm resistor in series with fan. This mellowed it out just enough...
- Planned- sculpted duct lined with fakefur or felt absorption material to block a direct path for sound from inside the computer. This would be the final touch...
That's the little computer- only for MIDI and playing networked Marathon Infinity- First, the case already had some sound damping materials in it, from earlier tweaks. Didn't help. The Seagate is just _scary_ in its noise pollution, like an open-header dragster engine spitting flames and noise. The whine is savagely loud and abrasive. I have reason to believe it goes over 20K and gives headaches from ultrasonic noise pollution at very high sound pressure levels. The start was keeping the sound damping stuff in the case, but how to block this penetrating noise?
- The sides of the case are heavy material compared to a lot of PCs, but they're pretty 'live'- resonant. I layered two 50 yard rolls of aluminum tape over the metal parts of the case, inside and out- maybe eight layers deep. This has two effects- the weight helps to block sound, but more significantly, aluminum can soak up a lot of vibration and resonance when used in this way- forcing it to distort rather than using it for rigidity.
- The front of the case was only plastic so even more ruthless procedures were in order: concrete
:) actually I didn't do this right- I didn't leave enough space to seamlessly put the case back together, stripped a screw (actually, broke a plastic bit) and kluged it with strapping tape. However, the concrete does suppress the noise of the Seagate- this combined with the aluminum-clad panels cut the noise by two-thirds.
- Next, I'm going to try some fan mods from another 'silent PC' site- putting diodes in series with the fans (apparently startup current is greater this way than if you just used resistors). There are two large fans in the Power Mac 9500: a PCI slot fan that also cools the CPU daughtercard, and an internal power supply fan. Both will get slowed down a bit by series diodes (the air the power supply output blows is always _cold_... 300Mhz G3s don't make much heat, nor does the ATI Nexus).
- Finally- gotta get rid of that horrible Seagate
:) if the system is rendered relatively quiet even with a ST15150N in it, imagine how nice it's going to be with a Fujitsu or IBM Ultrastar instead- I might even be able to record with it.
Even stranger mods might be possible- I'm picturing layering concrete on the _outside_ of a case. No sound's going to get through that. The only problem would be keeping it on there- riveting steel mesh to the sides of the case might do the job, or possibly some sort of big casting job might work. Alternatively, a _wood_ case would probably do a good job- speakers are made out of MDF for a reason, it seals in sound better than stamped wobbly steel boxesAnother very significant concern given this attention to sound absorption is airflow. However, this is somewhat easily solved- make the airflow go through a Bose-like labyrinth, only one that's lined with sound absorption. It won't take much to impede sound at the frequencies we're talking about (HD whine etc) while still allowing substantial airflow.
I love seeing weird cosmetic mods and general weirdness modes like the Turbine Case- I'd also like to see more ergonomics mods like I've been talking about. It wouldn't be very difficult to build PC parts into a slightly large wooden box- perhaps a box within a box, with an internal suspension system to suppress residual vibration noise. Ideally you could do things like run a RAID array of dirt cheap Seagate ST15150Ns (cheap because they are so ^$%#&^* noisy!) and suppress the noise so ruthlessly that you could record music in the same room with the things! All it would need is really soundproof cases _and_ an exhaust system that allows serious airflow while blocking any and all sound. This would not be easy, and you couldn't do it with existing PC cases- but you could do it. You could probably do it with a couple 4x8s of plywood and a bunch of heavy felt...
(geez Chris, rant often? *g*)
Ask and you shall recieve! http://www.asuko.isfnet.ad.jp/English/frmain.htm. I originally saw it on (what was then called) ZDTV (now known as Techtv). It's only $4000! http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/showtell/story/ 0,3656,2115139,00.html
http://www.popularculturegaming.com -- my blog about the culture of videogame players
It's been done, although it could have been done better: http://www.ri ceb oypage.com/shame/hall_of_shame_6/hallofshame6.html
Scroll down to the bottom of the page.
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Turn on, log in, burn out...
I have a Power Macintosh 6500 which is the perfect case to do this with. An exact replica of the plastics in wood would look so sweet. Basically Apple first built a metal case that houses the computer. Then(for looks) put curvy plastic panels that slide on/off with little knobs that stick out of the plastic. by just making wooden panels with the same knobs you could keep the sheilding/grounding of a metal case and have a permanent( no adhesive) wood finish that you can still take off easily. The CD drive wouldn't be that wuch of a problem since it is covered except for the door the the CD-Rom tray which would be easy to make.
I've got a monstrous case that dates back to the days of the early 386's. It's like new cars versus old cars. Flimsy metal vs. good thick, heavy steel. My new cases, which I consider *nice* cases, are nothing compared to this thing. I could probably throw this thing through my new boxen. This old thing, now an Pent200 running at 250, easily weighs 3 times what my newer machines do.
My pride and joy is the Dell Optiplex GX1 (PII450) retro-fitted into a small tupperware-like container. It's a little cramped inside there, but it's real handy as a portable server. It's even got the handle on top!
Damnit, I need to take some pictures of that thing.
-Just because you're not paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.
I still think someone could make a fortune mass producing a wooden furniture grade computer case. Say a deep mahogony or cherry.
I've seen a few people making them by hand, but they need the volume to make it worth doing on a large scale.
load "linux",8,1
Is there room for a big subwoofer in the trunk of one of those?
I'd hate to see the PC go the way of the Corolla.
-S
--- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
http://www.applefritter.com. Apple machines, but the ideas could be adapted.
The party's over
Hmm, I always wanted to modify my G4 case. After all it does use an ATX power supply. When my G4 loses it's edge I might try putting an ATX board in there. (Just to confuse my fellow Mac heads when it boots Windows)
Angleworm
(first running, then screaming)
I am a man, not a toy.
I'm sure that Tommy Hilfiger,DKNY, Levi's, Gucci,etc.. will have their case soon.
Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought.
Ah. You have a Matrox I see.
The party's over
Regarding your first point:
I agree given your example, but a _little_ positive pressure in the case could be good. If you filter your intake, and your exhaust is _slightly_ restricted, air will blow out of any vents and little holes, helping to keep the interior dust-free.
Duh...I didn't read carefully. In your example more fans blowing out than in (negative pressure inside case) makes vents and other holes act like intakes (even through in through a removable media opening). Very bad for dust problem. My first reply still makes sense, but doesn't exactly pertain to your example.
Anyone know of a site with plans to build a case out of Legos? Not just to cover another case, but actually make one with Legos.
http://www.caseetc.com the guy that runs it is pretty damn cool. he's got all the right gear you need to make a bitchin' case mod.
"One man's "magic" is another man's engineering."-- Robert A. Heinlein
This person's neighbors must be really annoyed, what with the frequency of his "Laugh out loud"ing. LOL. AHHHH!!!
My box: citra.
It was originally a COMPAQ
Now we have ricegeeks.
YELLOW MAKE COMPUTER FASTER!
How about shoving a giant spoiler on it, some bad boy stickers, chroming the floppy drive, replacing the case LEDs with blue LEDs, and writing something in kanji across the case?
Oh my god, dude, look at how many fans I stuffed into my system so I can make my 900mhz machine run at 901mhz!@#@$#
Oh ya , now I remember. Bongs! This reminds me so much of the competitions the stoners used to get into making the "coolest" bong. Guess it does show that computting is an adiction.... or at least a drug!
Papa Legba come and open the gate
http://64.29.18.113/
I've got a 700 mhz Athlon running at 800mhz. How's that?
>So screw computer technology. What we want is >advances in case technology! Ed : So invent it yourself! LOL!
Actually he went to Wal-Mart and bought a silver pen and just colored them. The full article is here
BR&g t; -redial
As for myself, I have an Inwin full-tower that was decorated by a guy who was a layout artist on the "Dilbert" animated series. One side is "Dilbert At Home" the other side is "Dilbert at work." Here's the link to see those side panels.
Genndy Tartakovsky drew Dexter on one of my other PC cases. I would also love to do a full hot-rod paint job on an LC-class Mac case and put an LC475 logic board into it with a full 68040 inside. Flames and everything. That would rock.
---- Hey Grrl Geeks! Your very own geek news site has arrived!
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
i think it is disgusting that you people have nothing better to do than insult people that mod their cases. we do it for fun. not all of us are content to have a plain beige box like you. it is way too boring. we do it because it is fun. you say that is pointless to trick out a case because it has no functionality. i bet you are they same people that use skinz for your software. how many of you have some flashy skin for blackbox or litestep or winamp, or any other skinnable application? we just take it to the next logical step. after the software is skinned, the case gets the case itself gets a new skin. go find something more important to gripe about than people who want a cool looking case.
"One man's "magic" is another man's engineering."-- Robert A. Heinlein
I just bought one for $208 shipped. Reply if you want me to email you with the details.
I just looked at the site using Netscrape running on Solaris, and it worked fine - so it's more a windoze/macos/linux problem than a netscrape problem. Oh, sure, I had to reload the page once 'coz it was pretty blank the first time, & it kept wanting to set cookies that would persist for 20 years, but I got to see the first page. (I didn't look at any more 'coz the connection was s...l...o...w).
What a long, strange trip it's been.
I got half the pics before it was unplugged... anybody happen to know of any mirrors?
$0.02 (CDN)
no intereference involved you moron. and yes that is neon inside the case right noext to the components. it couldn't possibly cause interference if not a single person has mentioned it in the last 6 months.
"One man's "magic" is another man's engineering."-- Robert A. Heinlein
most drive faces can be easily removed for painting. if you are going to take the case off a monitor for painting or whatever, be sure to leave it unplgged for several days before you start. also, flip the power switch on it a couple of times a day as well to make sure there is no juice still built up in it. grounding is covered if you build a wood or plexi case. the components are grounded through the motherboard, which is in turn grounded through the PSU, and hece the ground pole on the plug.
"One man's "magic" is another man's engineering."-- Robert A. Heinlein
not sure if anyone has tried that, but i know a guy that took two cases, bolted them together, and put two systems in the monsrtosity. one side of the "double machine in a box" was his linux server and the other side was his linux client.
"One man's "magic" is another man's engineering."-- Robert A. Heinlein
And I sure as hell don't have the time to go to your crappy website especially when it comes up with a "404 Not Found" error. (And what's up with all the extra unnecessary carriage returns?)
What an idiot...
--
You think being a MIB is all voodoo mind control? You should see the paperwork!
A man who wants nothing is invincible
Who would want a 2x4 case anyway? It would be more like a cigar box.
This one is circulating the hardware sites today:
The Turbine
A very cool case.
-redial
Barring things like the transition from AT to ATX, a good case can outlast even the highest megahertz part in your box.
So screw computer technology. What we want is advances in case technology!
I'm all for the wooden case... it's just classier in general, although a metal liner to cut interference would not go amiss. Barring that, I want to see if someone could sculpt a steel oil drum into an appropriate shape with the required tools.
"Any connection between your reality and mine is purely coincidental." -Slashdot
Just wing it!
Got Rhinos?
Here
I didn't visit the site this time because I know that it invariably crashes Netscape on Windows or Mac OS, and I do mean every single time.
The newspaper I work at runs a tech-oriented column that mentioned this site one week, and since the columnist didn't bother checking for himself if it would load under anything but Internet Explorer, we had to insert a note saying not to view it with Netscape. Grrr.
Anyway, this little problem is definitely worth noting, and NOT flamebait.
Slash has nothing to do with Slashdot.
Oh man, this makes me want to hack up a beer keg and build one of these.
Does anybody know some good places to buy parts for doing stuff like this? They all have cool neon lights, fancy glowing things, pulsating LEDs, etc...and I'd like to get my hands on these things. If you have any ideas, please let me know.
David
But before putting 1337 fans that blow mindlesly air in your case THINK about the airflow: ...) - a fan blowing directly over another fan (side case fan and cpu fan) is a bad ideea. The fans rotate at different speeds and the twisted airflow will cut the efficiency of both. Try a 90 deg angle.
rules/hints:
- What goes in, must go out. If you have three fans blowing air out and one blowing in they won't work at their optimal parameters.
- A big fan can override a small one - if you put a big powerful fan above/near the PSU and the "in" airflow is too small it will end up sucking air in reverse from the PSU and fscking the PSU fan
- Think about the airflow - a fan blowing directly into some drive cables doesn't do any good
- Avoid circular currents (i'm sure they're not named that way but
- Using a 12V - 7V switch is a good ideea for noise-haters.
- If you pad the interior with foam or simmilar stuff put some grounded conductive (tin foil that touches the case metal with one of the sides) matterial in the areas where the air flow is powerful in order to combat static electricity build-up.
- blue leds are cool but a single blue led will light half of the room at night. If you hate light sources at night stick with the old red/green ones.
--
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I have thought about building a case so that I would have something nicer than the exciting beige case(s) I have now. I was wondering what steps would be necessary to protect components from static and other electrical threats (not EMP, I really don't think I will concern myself with TEMPEST shielding).
I remember reading about the clear case that someone had built a while back and the first thought that came to mind was what about static. I know that plexiglass comes with a thin plastic laminate that is attached with static when it arrives. So I was concerned about static build up and the havoc it would wreak on my computer. Hey ugly and working is functional. I am not going to go so form over function that I have a cool looking paperweight (or motorized coaster if the CD-ROM still works).
Is static a concern with plexiglass? I know very little about electronics. The plug goes into the socket, always discharge yourself before handling components, the basics. If static is a concern, is there a way to deal with it? I was thinking metal strips attached to the case. But I don't know about grounding and such.
Also, are there any gotchas when using wood? I think it would be much nicer if I could build a case out of wood. And I could actually build a case that went with the furniture. Hey, some of us have spouses who refuse to let a beige box in the living room and I can't really blame her.
Where can one get DVD/CDROMs with a black or colored facing?
All this concern about cases is great but what about the parts of the computer that I interact with regularly? I can always hide an ugly case. What about the monitor, keyboard and mouse? I saw someone posted a link that eventually led to some nice wooden accessories. But, alas, no ergo keyboard. I know that monitors can be quite dangerous - something about capacitors if I remember correctly.
I assume that one can safely remove the case on a CRT - otherwise repairs are impossible. If that can be done, are there any concerns about an alternative enclosure?
is here
Actually there is a whole group of people who are into this kinda of thing. You will usually find at least one at any LAN party (there is almost always a prize for best case). I've even heard of a group trying to come up with a Sphere case. Since that site got /.'d check these out:
Cassejunkiez Gallery
Case-mods.net - Definately Check this out! Very cool Case mods
The Turbine - I posted this earlier, but just in case (pun intended)
The All Aluminum Case
-redial