Slashdot Mirror
The Ultimate PC Case - Continued
chrisd writes " While surfing, I found a link to the PCMODS site which sells all kinds of cool stuff to trick out your PC. I'm talking big plexiglass windows. Neon! Aluminum cases! Lights! I see a link to thinkgeek but I guess TG doesn't carry thier stuff yet. Way cool though. But, a company called Plycon has their stuff and other cool stuff. So go accessorize that case cowboy!" Ant also sent in a story on the creation of a portable desktop - inside of an aluminum briefcase. Supercool as well.
at our last lan party one of my buddies brought his pimped out case. He spent the last 3 months working on it. Neon lights, 800 fans, plexiglass window with goldfish inside, his own honda generator, etc etc. It looked really cool though. gag..i haven't gotten my electric bill yet ;)
i'll stick with stickers on mine...
go bush quayle 92! ;)
~V
With my current primary PC, I settled for a compromise between looks and functionality and got an Antec SOHO server case. It has two 80mm fan mounts at the anterior, two 80mm fan mounts at the posterior, a detachable, locking side panel, and a neat sliding "drive rail" system for the 5.25" bays. It's also very roomy. At $80 before shipping, it wasn't cheap, but it was definitely worth it.
While I know it's irrational, I just love cool looking case. My next PC will likely live in a Yeong Yang YY-8201 (miniNLX form factor) if I can find a decent mainboard for it.
All generalizations are false.
--
I like to watch.
- Success of General Motors over Ford Motor Company.
- Success of Nokia 5100 series of cell phones
- iAnything.
- The entire fashion industry.
- Andy Warhol
- Boy/Girl bands
- Wired magazine
I could go on, but I think its clear that consumers prefer style to substance.- Power supply fan. Probably the biggest culprit. I understand that there are several manufacturers of quiet PSU's, and that 30dB is the target for a quiet PC. Is there such a thing as a PSU whose fan only turns on when necessary (at least turn off in sleep/suspend mode)?
- Other fans. Faster CPU's and video cards require better airflow, which require more/bigger fans, which increase noise. How do you get better airflow with less noise?
- Hard drives. Faster RPM hard drives create tons of noise, especially when it causes case vibration. I've heard of hard drive enclosures (Silent Drive?), but I don't think they work with 7200+RPM drives (too much heat)
- Case design. Does a bigger, heavier (metal vs. plastic?) case reduce noise? What about vibration?
Can anyone offer any tips here?
Slashdot: come for the pedantry, stay for the condescension.
Eventullay a numeric keypad sticking on it to do like a house entrance / car alarm (very 'jacky').
Some of this mods are functionnal btw.
#include "coucou.h"
If you want something that is stylish AND functional a rack case is the only way to go.
There are several inexpensive 4 space rackmount computer cases out there that look incredibly cool (and have shockmount drive bays) add a nice QUIET 300w power supply, an skb roto-rack and an extra fan in the back and you're 10x more professional protected and portable.
"Tension is the great integrity" -- R. Buckminster Fuller
Wow, I didn't even know they made PC cases out of plastic.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I own 2 custom-built PCs using Colorcase's Yuri case. This "100% aluminum" and plastic case is fabulous. No screws needed to open it up. No sharp corners inside. Looks cool, runs cool with Athlon 900MHz and Enermax dual-fan power supply. Runs very quiet. I love it.
Dave Barnes 5 breweries within 6 blocks of my house
wouldn't chopping a huge chunk of metal from the side of the case and replacing it with glass leave a gap for electronic emissions?
Now if only Scotty would time warp back here and give us that damned recipe for Transparent Aluminum
8-)
Let's not be daft. The point to take is "...treat the computer like a closed container such as a briefcase or file cabinet." It does not matter whether the computer is physically clear, unless you hid something illegal inside the machine's case, in which case you'd be an idiot fuly deserving of arrest. It means they can't legally access the data stored in the system unless they could also legally access the contents of your (opaque) filing cabinet (say, via a search warrant). Having a window in your case doesn't release law enforcement agents from the laws of legal search and seizure.
Virg
Well, I'm not seeing many defending style, so I will. A disclaimer though - when I spend my computing dollars, I'll get a larger monitor, faster processor, and more memory before any stylistic considerations (and often, style doesn't make it onto the list).
The argument "Style over substance" is valid when marketing and design is used to make a sub-standard product look better simply by improving it's physical appearance. I cringe when relatives buy a poor performing PC, simply because it looked sexier than the alternatives.
But you don't have to sacrifice style for performance. The performance of a PC is not inversely proportional to how good it looks. Some of you have probably seen some pretty sexy looking heavy metal, and some of the highest performing notebooks also look pretty sharp.
We've all been duped by experience to trust that ugly=value. That's from the days when the big domestic guys were making pretty and expensive boxes, while the overseas guys were making ugly and cheap boxes. If you had tech skill, you passed on the pretty hand-holding models and went straight for the foreign boxes, with questionable configurations and lots of driver disks.
We no longer live in those times. You can buy an excellent PC over the Internet, that's fully functional. If you want to build one yourself, you can do that, but often the savings isn't worth the time (the people that know how to do it are worth quite a bit per hour).
So, why are PC's still ugly? Because we still buy them ugly, 'cause we think ugly=value=power. That's a larger factor than other considerations, especially since a little design may even help with cooling problems.
I much prefer my 1930's house with ivy and a little yard to a warehouse with a raised floor for easy cable access. I prefer my hardwood floors to 1/16 inch, easy to vacuum carpet. If prefer my home office, with a view of my yard and my dogs, to my cubicle at work (even though the cubicle is nice as cubicles go). I prefer my slashdot posts with nice formatting, well-thought out ideas, and most of the grammar and spelling checked to three-second post and links to naughty cx domains.
Why don't these ascetic tastes spill over into the PC domain? Mostly because the people that make them have bought into the style vs. substance war, and you can either buy an ugly but powerful system, or a pretty but brain-dead system. Well, you can have it both ways. To think otherwise is to still live in a world where people can be either intelligent but unattractive, or beautiful but dumb. Well, I have a little more hope for the world.
I'm slowly becoming a style convert, and my wife has helped a lot. It's not that expensive anymore, and it's becoming cheaper every day. You can still be a geek, too. Just run the wire through the walls rather than over the floors, and get some help when shopping for clothes.
Check out an organization that's trying to bring some design into our lives. They had a contest to design a better power meter, with some interesting results. (If anyone can find the slashdot article that first linked it, please tell me).
Also, check out this galary of case mods to look at, I've got some very cool ideas from this site. Check out the last one on the main page.
"Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know."
"Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know."
-- Ernest Hemingway
But yeah, what's next? Vanity plates w/ chase lights around them, blacklight ground effects, and silkscreened gothic-font 'h4x0r' across the side?
You don't know shit about life. Go to www.thejackytouch.com to see real bad taste (beware, even if you can stand goatsecx you may need a barf bag before clicking)
For the non-french readers, click the 4th link on the left ("Jacky Du Mois"), then browse the entries by month. Can't give a deep pointer, the thing uses frames.
Cheers,
--fred
1 reply beneath your current threshold.
Interesting car. Just one question though, do they give you the rest of it when you make your last payment?
Proof or not, I was responding to the comment "it doesn't appear to be on ThinkGeek" with a statement of fact.
I couldn't care less about /.'s, or anyone's advertising motives... thanks to Junkbuster.
I can explanate how to administrate your network. You must configurate and segmentate it, so it can computate.
That's not a car! That's a go-cart with body panels. Yuck!
How is this off topic and a guy 15 comments down is 4( FUNNY )?
Even better than that, it was modded to troll first! Howzat then? Me, the 13th Duke of Glasgow, in an internet chatroom, with my Karma?
BTW, case mods and colored PC's have existed *long* before the imac came out.
Slashdot: come for the pedantry, stay for the condescension.
All generalizations are false.
--
I like to watch.
Slashdot could and should automatically mirror the page that the link points it, if not every page on click away as well.
The editors wouldn't have to do any more work than they would now, the submission script could easily look through the post for links, and have them downloaded to a slashdot server, and change the link to point to it.
Once the post is off the front page, the cached pages could be deleted, and the links changed back to the actual links.
Faraday cages only protect what's inside them from outside radiation. They don't stop radiation from inside them going out... :)
This is exactly what I worry about at night: Does my computer look "cool" enough? Nevermind that it lacks RAM and urgently needs a current generation CPU, the coolness of looking at it is far more important. Or at least that's what the good ppl at pcmods.com seem to think. Personally I couldn't care less how my machines look. A computer case should be stable and absorb noise (if possible). Any form of electrical illumination inside the case is just an unnecessary heat source. These cases might be well suited for desktops of executives but not for the typical geek user.
But then: Maybe I underestimate the importance of being cool. This might be a good subject for a Slashdot Poll: What do you look for in a new computer case? ... I would have to go for CowboyNeal.
Line 9: Argument of type SIGNATURE expected.
Sgi workstations (eg 330's) have nice cases, Hard drive bays are mounted horizontally to the cdrom for easy access for example. and unlike Mac hardware, isn't Proprietary.
--- LOTR!!!
if you're in the uk and don't want to wait for/risk international shipping, you can get case mod kits (plexi-glass/flourescent lights) from www.theoverclockingstore.co.uk.
i wish i was but oh well
I think you are talking about the SuperMicro SC750-A case. That's what I have, and it's not very fancy but very very nice. It's got four drive bay cooler fans, two fan mounts in front, one fan mount directly over the CPU, one fan mount above the power supply, the traditional screw-in for a fan behind the CPU, and a crapload of drive bays.
The only thing is, most of the fans you have to buy seperately.
Gentoo Sucks
Not much. Plenty of PC's these days coming out with plastic cases instead of metal.
~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
I would reply to this, but I have to go take a ride in my superstrech SUV limo...
Huh?.. How is SCSI or EIDE proprietary? I've had half a dozen PMacs over the last few years and not one of them required a proprietary HDD.. Now, Apple may not supply drivers with their hard disk tools for every drive out there, but all you need to do is grab a copy of FWB Toolkit (the personal edition ships for free with drives from a number of vendors) and you're golden..
So if we're not talking about the HDD, you must be talking about the 72 pin SIMMS, or the 168 pin DIMMS, and more recently PC100 or 133 SDRAM.. Nope, wait those aren't ay different than the RAM shipped for PCs.. Maybe it's the processor.. Who cares, the standard MacOS supports that, and so do netBSD, AUX, mkLinux, LinuxPPC, etc..
to all you people who are bad mouthing and talking crap about people who mod their case, bugger off. aren't you the same people who "scream from the mountain tops" to think differently, to go your own way, to be an INDIVIDUAL? it's pathetic when people like you start talking crap about others, and then turn around and cry for freedom of expression when the roles are reversed.
I love people that think it's always THE SAME PEOPLE saying DIFFERENT THINGS on slashdot.
You do realize there are more than 12 people reading slashdot, right?
"And like that
was one that a local bbs was run in back in the 80s. It was a Capt'n Crunch cereal box with an 8086 running Citadel 86. :)
Maybe I should proof my posts next time!
---
The (Hopefully) Great Slashdot Blackout
Isn't one of the primary reasons to put your computer in a case because it contains the electromagnetic radiation generated by the computer? Wouldn't putting a window in your case partially defeat this purpose?
Granted, I've never witnessed any adverse effects from this and I've run computers without cases for years but at the same time I know that it probably makes a difference in some situations.
If one person or a a hundred million people read slashdot, the argument is still valid. these are the smae people that were bithcing about it last time this topic came up, and these are the same people who want freedom of expresiion.
"One man's "magic" is another man's engineering."-- Robert A. Heinlein
I believe that case mods and other aesthetic features are simply the answer to the ugly beige case that totally disrupts a room's style. PC's have become so friggin' mainstream that they just can't be left in the office anymore. They've become total entertainment centers, and entertainment is something best suited for the living room. Now think about how that ugly soulless beige case clashes with your shiny black leather couch and just stands out as an intruder in the house of style. VCR's and stereo decks usually have their own sleek little style, why not do to same with our PC's ?
-Billco, Fnarg.com
The SuperMicro SC-760A is the best case I've seen yet. It has a redundant cooling 300w (or 400w) power supply (2 fans), 6 exposed full height bays 1 hidden full height 1 exposed half height and 2 hidden half height. There are mounts for four regular fans alongside the full size drive bays, and there are external vents next to these fans. There are 3 intake fan mounts up front. There is a large fan that gets mounted directly over the processor and a large exhaust fan above the power supply in the upper-back corner of the case. I had a few problems with vibration but they were easily cured by taping some of the "no-slip" material at a few metal-to-metal contact points... the tape is not visible. The case now has no vibration and has EIGHT FANS.
. ht m
http://www.supermicro.com/PRODUCT/Chassis/sc750
They cost about 150 off pricewatch.
---
blessings,
"Only in their dreams can men truly be free 'twas always thus, and always thus will be."
--Tom Schulman
There are plugins for Winamp that will flash your keyboard lights in time with the music for nothing.
-- Welcome to the new dawn.
Did anyone else flash on Frinks "Visible Computer" from the Simpson's?
"Oh, no, the hard drive is crashing at an ALARMING speed!"
--
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
I am guessing that it was a SuperMicro SC760A case. I have one & I must admit that it is very well built. Here is the link:
A .h tm?
http://www.supermicro.com/PRODUCT/Chassis/sc760
Hehe, I've already got a Lian-Li PC-60 (the all aluminum case). It kicks ass. :)
--Dark|||Knight
Well, according to Poptronics Magazine (July 2000, page 29), which the cover story is how to build a Tesla Coil, a Faraday Cage is very strongly suggested so that the plentifull EM energy does not interfere with objects around the coil. Also, the Cages have long been a staple of any conspiracy theorist trying to prevent people from "Tempesting" them.
That said, it seem that they keep stuff either inside or outside.
Maybe I'm just old-fashioned about my computers, but am I the only one who thinks that it's not what's on the outside that counts, but what's on the inside? Who honestly cares what your machine looks like as long as it can compile the latest Linux kernel in less than a quarter of an hour?
I mean, you could spend the cash some of these cases cost on far more important things like more memory, a new hard drive or even a graphics card if you're not into so much serious stuff. But trying to turn your PC into some shrine to aesthetics is just silly.
So much for geeks being some of the last people to appreciate substance over style. What's next, "How Flash can liven up your website!"?
Yeah, I was hoping someone had some insight into how Apple did it. Maybe they just have metal shielding around the boards, but I didn't think so.
In the imac world, there's only a few colors available (bondi blue is the most common), so nobody really ends up with a unique case.
Slashdot: come for the pedantry, stay for the condescension.
It does, but with the fans you really need to grommet mount them. Use thick O-rings on the screws where they come in contact with the case (i.e. not the side the fan is on) to buffer the fan's vibration from the case. A lot of the noise is from the fan(s) vibrating the case.
--Dark|||Knight
French site about case tuning: JackyPC.
but how on Earth do we keep our rooms from becoming toasty ovens? I've only got 7 PCs running in here and its a toasty 78F degrees. It's the middle of winter and I need to keep my window open. I need peltier coolers for my walls.
GiraffeSville, a place anyone can call home
If you disassemble most fans and spray every surface with some non-friction.. spray (I know the spray brand as CRC, you probably have a different name) it'll be very silent.
The small fans are usually hitting something or have cheap motors.
-- Eat your greens or I'll hit you!
-- Eat your greens or I'll hit you!
Faraday cages only protect what's inside them from outside radiation. They don't stop radiation from inside them going out...
Really? Why? I don't understand why there should be a difference. Care to enlighten me?
One of these days I'm going to resurrect my old Tandy 1000 RL with a real M.B.
science is a religion
I've got a modded case, and i'm the average geek user.
:)
case modding is just as fun and rewarding as cpu/gpu over clocking. especially when it's done well.
at the moment, i've got a case with a red neon light shining through a Quake 3 logo, and one on the way with a debian logo
As for the heat source, the lights dont give out much heat at all, and run at 3V (less than a hard drive, iirc).
Saying that it isn't important because a system may need more ram is irrelivant, as it's your choice what to buy - case mod, or ram. easy.
i wish i was but oh well
Sure! ;) )
Electrical charge gathers on the outside of a conductor. I can't remember the exact details (physics 1 is a very blurry memory!) but this means that you cannot induce a current on a conductor inside a hollow conductor (essentially what a faraday cage is) by means of a moving charge outside the conductor.
A moving charge inside a hollow conductor can cause a moving charge on the surface of the conductor, however, which again can induce currents on conductors outside the hollow conductor.
Easy peasy (i think
I don't know if I'd want something that can retain a static charge anywhere near my PC hardware.
III.IIVIVIXIIVIVIIIVVIIIIXVIIIXIIIIIIIIVIIIIVVIII
I've always wanted someone to sell a 100% transparent case. I could build one, but I'm too lazy.
Some of those have possibilities for convenience. Imagine if you could have the flourescent light on when the computer was not. I always find that it's annoying to be prodding around on the inside of my case when it's under the desk and blocking the light. I don't want to have to pull out everything to swap a card out, I want to be able to lie on the floor and do it. So in that case, a neon light would be really useful, kinda like the little bulb underneath the hood of a car.
;)
Maybe I should get into the case-mod scene. I never really liked the overclocking scene because I do real work on my computer. But some of those mods look rather interesting..
Gentoo Sucks
An Amiga World cartoonist saw this coming years ago. There's a picture of some people with funny-looking computers, and the caption was something like, "We figured out that users don't really want more power or increased applications. They just want really neat tail fins!"
---
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Of all of the complaints about your call phone, heavier?!? Does toting around the extra five ounces really get to you?
Virg
http://scotgold.cyber-city.co.uk/cgibin/acatalog/
All 5 of my PCs have one of these puppies.
Since last I saw them mentioned on Slashdot, ColorCases has added some fully translucent all-plastic cases.
They also have some other new designs, for example the $99 shiny "USB Stainless Blue."
But please, somebody tell them that their new site design blows.
This actually sounds vaguely rockin! (I'm kind of into redneck chic- grew up poor.)
Can you post pics?
-jpeg
No, fast computers and high-end peripherals are cool. Light-up cases with acrylic windows remind me of the pathetic losers who put neon lights, air dams, and 5" exhaust tips under their Honda Civics. It's just sad.
There are more RF emissions coming from your CRT monitor than your PC, so don't worry about it.
An unshielded computer emits far more RF than a properly shielded monitor. You should spend a little more time reading and less time practicing your ghetto-boy hand gestures near your light-up computer.
I've had that beaten for years. I have an old Diamond Multimedia (yes, for a while they made whole computers) EISA system that was a passive backplane, space for two system boards, and 14 EISA/ISA slots. It has two cooling fans in front for the drive bays, the cards loaded with the brackets to the top (vertical mount for cooling) three fans under the cards to cool them, and two exhaust fans out the back, plus the exhaust fan for the power supply. The lights dim when you switch this beast on. The best part is that it used a standard fit passive backplane, so when EISA went out of vogue three weeks after it came to market, we could replace the guts with a PCI-based three-motherboard-and-ten-PCI-slot system. The down side is that the system weighs nearly thirty pounds (I think), looks like a small refrigerator and sounds about as loud.
Virg
Stupid thing... I hit Enter to tab to this field by mistake. Sorry about the double post...
Anyways...
Now we can have computers that have
(Thank you William Shatner!)
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
I reviewed the mid-sized PC-60 (silver) a while ago. It's got full-tower drive capacity in a much smaller form factor, it's pretty, it's light, it's easy to work on. Review here. A few days ago, I got a PC-31 (black) to play with, as well. Smaller, but still with plenty of room, and a front panel design that means you can use beige-bezel drives without them looking too ghastly. Review here.
information wants to be expensive...nothing is so valuable as the right information at the right time.
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
A rearview mirror on the monitor? A 12" Subwoofer? A "Piss on Microsoft" Decal?
This guy has done it. There also used to be a company in Upstate NY that manufactured, among other things, fully wooden (cherry and oak) keyboards, but I've forgotten the URL. It was mentioned on Slashdot before, in one of the many articles titled "The best keyboard in the world?" (or something).
The newer Dell Precisions have about the best of case designs I've seen. Easily pulled out cage for up to 4 HDDs and easy access to SCSI drive jumpers, railed drives, two flip-out power supplies for making access easy and plastic filler for proper cooling of the hot-spots. It even comes with a tension bar for the video card... All in all, the best case design i've ever seen.
seriously, hasn't everyone seen every idea for every case already? half these people are re-inventing the wheel.
water cooling, what's new. you buy a $150 blizzard kit now, gamers all over have them.
rounded cables, great idea, but these people adding 30 MORE cables in, just add to the clutter, and with the wrappings, make it just as bad as with regular ribbons.
as for fans, thats the big one, everyone wants more suction, pull more from the outside, yet they dont see the need to guide it well. blow holes, great idea, moronic iplementation. a regular blow hole, sucks more dirt and dust into a case than anything else. i've never seen one with a foam filter, have you? my case suports 3 fans on the front, effectively blow holes, it also has a built in filter, maybe people should just stick with regular cases after all?
i don't know about you, but half this crap makes cases less apealing and baulky, and do they really gain the performance for what they pay. at work, we want the best performance from our machines, should i start tearing apart the cases? no, its not feasable, or worthy. cooling an extra 4 degrees by adding 10 fans doesn't help me, and OC'ing isn't in a plan at all. i think these people need to just set their machines by a vent and crank up the a/c.
as for lights and windows, woohoo! but like, i said, there is a boiling point when it takes you 30 minutes to re-assemble your computer at a lan party.
Note... this is not the original poster you're replying to, but I had to say this. And yes, it's offtopic, but you'll have to use a few points to get it down there.
:)
--anyway--
Actually, this is what makes it most amusing... nothing is funnier than when these things try to race me. Nothing sucks worse for these folks than being beaten by a 5000 lb. full-size 4x4 pickup
The amusing point about the "rice boy" phenomenon is that they spend $20,000 in mods on a $20,000 car and it doesn't do anything, because they chose the wrong car to modify and poorly invested their money. Any $40,000 sports car or $25-30k sports car with $10-15k in mods done by anyone with an IQ above 100 will put their car to shame.
By the way, just so everyone knows, the term "rice boy" isn't intended to be racist. There's plenty of white guys with V6 Camaros with Z28 emblems and gold spoked 13" wheels that are rice-boy cars.
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Hehe, as a matter of fact, I started on it today. The case is done and all, just trying to get it running...I can't find a good PSU...But I have a nifty hard drive mount on top, pictures up at foozone.net/lego shortly.
The neon lights are all nice and stuff but what happens when you have a black light neon light and some nice boards with an EPROM chip on it when it erases it?
agreed. I have owned a couple of machines that use that case and it is very easy to work on. My only gripe is the second hard drive bay (right under the one Apple mounted the hdd in at the factory), which is pretty tough to get at.
I've got one of those here... nice case - mod for atx is going to be a shit though. Has room for 2 full height 3.5 drives exposed, and 2 full height 5.25 drives not-exposed.
It's made of solid aluminum and has a weight sticker on the top : 18kg or 40lbs - so you actually weren't all that far off compared to the average pc.
You might have to use a MicroATX sized power supply though.
You pay shipping (toronto, canada) and you can have it.
A five inch tailpipe can't make your car faster or look better, and a hole in your computer case won't either!
Actually, going to a larger diameter pipe cat back will usually give you an additional 5-10 horses (and better gas mileage); this does require a high-flow muffler, though, too. A high-flow cat (or no cat at all...just gut it and weld a large pipe inside it to avoid echoing) will yield even more horses and better gas mileage.
(Obviously, if you're constantly using those extra horses your gas mileage isn't going to improve, but if you put on a performance exhaust and don't change driving habits, you will see improved gas mileage. Just watch out for smog inspections...laws vary by state.)
And some case mods are designed to increase airflow (obviously, not a plexiglass window) which can in turn allow one to OC components even more.
Some of my favorite case designs are sold by
http://www.colorcase.com/
They have some really nice looking cases. Next
time I build a system, I plan on purchasing one
of their cases, unless something else really
nice comes along.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
ThinkGeek does carry their stuff...It is in the new flyer they sent out. This seems kind of silly to me...It looks like it might interfere with the power that runs all the drives I insist on having...On the flip side, it would make the server room look pretty cool. .Kris
Prof. Frink: "Here is an ordinary square."
Cheif Wiggum: "Whoa, whoa. Slow down, egghead!"
After building so many PCs, for myself (not that I really need them, but what else am I gonna spend my money on besides hookers and crack?), I was so sick of conventional beige boxes. As a weekend hobby, I started crunking out some case designs I've had swimming in the back of my head. If I invested so much time tricking out the insides of my PC, why should I neglect the asthetics? I bought the neon lights and thumbscrews I use from pcmods.com, they are a great company and ship your stuff out fast. Here are a couple of my modded cases I've designed:
Niteshade
This is a clear case design with plenty of fans, plenty of lights, and a silver crystal sculpture. Today I'm upgrading this one to a Thunderbird 1.3G.
Ryoko
Modeled after my favorite Tenchi Muyo anime character, this Linux server is probably going dual-processor in a week. Most of the hard work on this was using a steel jigsaw to cut out the window in the side panel. Printing and laquering some 60+ photos was the fun part!
OK if you have the lights and the windows, then of course you must put in the hydraulic lifter and shock absorber kit with modified shortened springs so you can post it as "low-rider"! :-)
Whilst some of these mods (like fans apertures) are an essential item, some are not (windows etc) and both can lead to radiation of interference from within the box and also violate the CE testing for EMC. The fix for fans is to cover the big aperture with a gauze or metal grid having holes not larger than 6mm square or round. The same can be done for the window but would spoil the visual effect. I don't know of a screening material that would be invisible. This radiation isn't trivial - I lose all colour on ITV when my case cover is off!
.... with cases with neon lights and Windows, I mean, windows, you know, those transparent things you can use to see through other surfaces.
In this case one can look at the motherboard and the expansion cards! Watch them while they work!
Absolutely mind blowin' stuff!
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Jeez, I thought you guys were trying to get windows _off_ your boxes ;-)
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
pretty soon we'll see fancy new cases that you can set your monitor on! conserve desk space and improve ergonomics by raising your monitor to eye-level! of course, our 19" and 21" monitors will probably crush the poor things, but hey.
eudas
Blessed is he who expects the worst, for he shall not be disappointed.
There are tons of companies that sell or even post how-to's for case modding. it's a whole 'nother community. try www.gideontech.com or www.virtualhideout.net
I like to see what's going on in my computer,
Anyone remember the old Wyse or (pre-Dell) PC's Limited computers that had an LCD panel on the front?
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Didn't PackardHell make one several years back that was trapezoidal and designed to fit into a corner?
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
eco frendly cases. they rot in three years and reduce landfill.
Is there a solution on the PC market for a fanless case such as the new Apple cube? Every desktop I own is annoyingly loud due to fan and hard drive noise.
What would be cool is a case that is completely convection cooled with sound insulation for the drive bays.
----- Indecision is the key to flexibility.
Ok, so it's not custom, but your post reminded me...
At work, we've got an Austin 486/33 EISA from 1992, before they got bought out by some Taiwanese outfit (it was top-of-the-line when it came out). It's been running continuously since 1992 (except for hardware upgrades -- more disk).
But the killer is the case. The fscker has a solid steel case and is built like a tank. It'll probably still be running when the sun goes red giant and swallows the earth!
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
I was thinking about doing this for myself and starting a business with neon lights in computers. One of the first things I was concerned about was the heat these lights produce. The cases shown here appear to be using StreetGlow lights... This is bad. I wrote to StreetGlow and asked about their heat production, and they advised against using them indoors or in a computer case. If you want to put one in your case, you probably want to add several more fans...
I think that is it! When I saw it the front panel was off so it's hard to say for sure but the interior looks familiar. Thanks for the link!
Ancient Budo Master once told me: "All your bruises are belong to us."
CRC... Do you know the manufacturer, or any other details of the spray? I've been wanting to make my fans a lot quieter for some time. Maybe this will help. Thanks! Chris Simmons Avid BeOS user. technix@begroovy.com
I've been on the modding scene for a while now and I can guarentee you that PCMods products are very low-grade. You're much better off purchasing your mod stuff from Cole at CaseETC.
"Make it idiot proof, and someone will make a better idiot."
Indeed, that's the cool thing about neon. It almost doesn't heat up. I think the people at PCmods also know that you don't have to plant a regular light bulb at the inside of your PC. Jeroen.
Here are links to the casemods on thinkgeek.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/things/3735.html
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/things/3738.html
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/things/373b.html
--"Karma is justice without the satisfaction"
the best place to get case modification gear is CaseETC at http://www.caseetc.com . CaseETC will soon be the only supplier for what wil be the most awesome case on the planet, within the budget of most of us anyway. it is/has all aluminum, 13 drive bays, dual PSU mounts, 6 120mm fan mounts, WTX certified, and friggen huge. 14 inches wide by 26 inches high, and 18 or 20 inches deep. and the whole thing will only cost about $300 shipped, with a 300w Sparkle PSU included. those were the last specs listed that i remember, but there is an FAQ on CaseETC. Did I mention that the case will have each part of it anodized in the color of your choice, for free no less. the best forum for case mods is at: http://www.hardforum.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid= 13
to all you people who are bad mouthing and talking crap about people who mod their case, bugger off. aren't you the same people who "scream from the mountain tops" to think differently, to go your own way, to be an INDIVIDUAL?
it's pathetic when people like you start talking crap about others, and then turn around and cry for freedom of expression when the roles are reversed.
"One man's "magic" is another man's engineering."-- Robert A. Heinlein
I've been searching all over for good ways to make my computers essentially invisible. I finally ended up just sticking them in a closet (with a really badly hung door so they ventilate just fine) and running cables out to the monitor and keyboard.
I just don't get the deal with making the thing more obvious, I guess. I'd like a system where the monitor and keyboard disappeared when I wasn't using them. I've looked at armoires and such but they're so huge. Maybe someday laptops will come with video cards that don't suck ass.
The people who buy this crap are probably the same people who cut the springs on their Honda, bolt on an angry-beehive exhaust, slap on some stickers, light up their dash with neon, put on big shiny chrome wheels that weight 30lbs a piece and then try to drag race me from every damn traffic light!
JUST SAY NO!
Before anyone buys any of this stuff, think about the terrible habit you're starting. Take up crack or heroin, or extacy. There are rehab centers to help you get off of that, but nothing can cure bad taste! Look at this site and you can see how bad this addiction can really become! A five inch tailpipe can't make your car faster or look better, and a hole in your computer case won't either!
I think Jon Katz needs to write a series on it, Stories from the World of No Taste.
Everybody denies I am a genius--but nobody ever called me one!
What are you talking about?
I just recently purchased a DELL. Case isn't ugly. It's the normal beige narrow fulltower.
Actually --- The case has some nice features (Outside venting CPU fan. Easily manipulated drive-bay ... etc.
Err ... Looking at the front page for dell, I see what you're talking about! Yeesh... Glad I got mine before these atrocities ...
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The (Hopefully) Great Slashdot Blackout
Shouldn't they complement each other? There's a nice thought. Oh, I forgot we're human. Nevermind then.
While I think the window looks cool, esepcially with the light, wouldn't chopping a huge chunk of metal from the side of the case and replacing it with glass leave a gap for electronic emissions? I thought the idea was to create a faraday cage to restrict this? Anyone know what affect this would have?
This site seems to sell pcMods stuff, and offers some additional opinions and uses: http://www.dansdata.com/neon.htm
Now, if you put a lame PC in a cool case, that's a different story. That's like putting ground effects on your Yugo.
I can explanate how to administrate your network. You must configurate and segmentate it, so it can computate.
So... what's next? are people gonig to be saws-all-ing their cases in half to make low rider pc cases?
How about ridiculous spoilers on p133's (like the spoiler will help the pc run SETI@home units any faster! ha!
I better rush to register a www.beaterz.com like address www.beaterzpc.com hmmm.... now if I could only find my bookmark to www.networksolutions.com I could register it...
E.
www.randomdrivel.com -- All that is NOT fit to link to
Build Your Own PVR/HTPC news, reviews, &
I'm waiting until I can buy a large decal of Calvin pissing on an Intel logo...
Wah!
Here are some user case designs previously shown on slashdot. Remember the PVC case? PCMods has rather bland cases in comparison.
Here is another page previously shown on slashdot.
BTW, being a Jeep owner I am rather dissappointed by the lack of stainless steel cover accessories.
The phone is still too heavy to carry comfortably in my shirt pocket and too bulky to wear strapped to my wrist. Yes, these things get to me. I also want a laptop that weighs less than 2lbs with battery and is about as thick as a notepad.
I saw a case at a local PC shop ... best case I have ever seen. The box actually belonged to a customer so the guy behind the counter did not know the case's manufacturer.
... one on either side of the drive bays (with vents punched into the siding), one in the front bottom (standard), another mounted to blow directly on the cards ... and more! All steel construction, very modular. I want two of them! But alas ... I have not been able to find out who makes 'em.
It had 6 fans built into it
Ancient Budo Master once told me: "All your bruises are belong to us."
But wouldn't it have been easier to screw a hndle to a normal tower case?
Now I can make my p00t3r case match my ub3r c00l car with the n30n lit3s!
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Digestion Fault. Stomach dumped.
We've beyond the "any type of case you want, as long as it's beige" phase. It's a Good Thing, too, because it means the computer is no longer a status symbol in and of itself, it's now an appliance whose outside can be changed to fit your personality.
Marxism is the opiate of dumbasses
I got ahold of an Old IBM ps2 Model 80 (the 3 foot high case with a handle on top that weighs about eighty pounds). Anyone have any experience with putting a ATX mobo inside it?
It would make the perfect LAN party case.
I relize I would have to put in a new Power Supply, and do a bunch of Dremel tooling, put theres not any technical impossibilities, is there?
Thanks
Yeah it probably is a waste of money to go buying these windowed cases when you could be buying RAM, etc, but one of my buddies decided to start cutting his case up. So far he has installed a neon light, a window, a grille in the front for an intake fan, and a red translucent die where the power switch used to be. This thing is amazingly cool So I say if its a waste of time, not money, I'm all for it.
-Zuchinis
I think a lot of readers are missing the point. This is all about having fun. I love compiling a kernel, or a new piece of software as much as the next guy; and I get a kick when one of my programs finally does whart it's supposed to. But there is really somehting great about having a Dremel in your hands, cutting a hole for a new fan. All of these sites, PCMODS, Virtual Hideout, and even [H]ard|OCP originally started out as places to exchange idea and tools for overclocking, and coooling. Once people get started it can be a lot of fun! Adding a couple of fans to my machine is great.. I can flip one switch on my machine and watch my Motherboard temperatures drop; and know that it's not because I went out and bought a lot of expensive stuff, but because I took the time to do something myself. It is a little about showing off, but a lot of it is about pride. The fact that you can admire your own handiwork, and just the fun of the experience!
Even if i find the windows a good idea, i don't think it would really matter where my computer are (under the desk)... but one cool thing about that site is that device that control the inner fan... Never i will buy such thing prebuild but... i think its a good idea if you have some time to spend to build you own one. Especialy in my case, where my "server/firewall box" is a old computer (but new enought to need a fan)... so i could stop the fan when the noice start to be really to high in the house... An about the fact that box in metal where there to protect from outside radiation... well that was before the computing industry realize that plastic would cost less... so now they say it was for the "Style" ;-)...
"We are not what you would call... normal"
Is it just me, or does placing neon tubes *that* close to your CPU seem like a really bad idea?
:)
My ex-roommate used to have those stupid things in his car (they look like the same type of tube) and my cell phone would go crazy when it was near them (it would blink weird klingon-looking characters and beep and wouldn't be able to sync up with the network for a few hours). My 900mhz Sony cordless would do the same thing. On a dare we took my old Dell notebook out there, and it (literally) made screeching sounds out of its speakers when those neon tubes were on.
It just seems to me that when electricity is arcing around near your CPU, bad things will happen.
... and all I wanted for xmas was a magic 8 ball, but i got this lousy
Good grief some of this is ugly. I like black cases, but what's with the people who put beige periphs (e.g. CDROM, floppy) in a black case? The fashion police need to pay these folks a call.
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As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Oh, screw that PC (politically correct) crap! Light-up cases with plexiglass windows are just stupid. Don't those morons know that the cases are made of metal for a reason! Haven't they ever heard of RF interference or the FCC? If those idiots keep it up, there will be mandatory (RF) emissions testing stations for PCs. Despite posts to the contrary, modern PC cases have a lot of shielding. Empty drive bays have metal shields behind the plastic filler plates. The plastic fronts on PCs are backed up with metal. Conductive paint is sprayed on the back of many plastic parts. It's all done to reduce RF emissions from the PCs.
I wonder how many of those idiots that have invested all of those dollars and hours in their cases still don't have basic things like DAT tape backups, laser printers, and flatbed scanners.
The same thing has happened with modems, too.
What's with the skimping on lights? I like to see what's going on in my computer, (without wasting desktop space). I wish internal modems came with a 5.25" faceplate filled with the traditional lights an external modem has. Ditto for ethernet cards. LED VU meters for sound cards. Lights for EACH separate IDE and SCSI chain and for the FLOPPY.
Ah well.
At least there's the racks of network switches. (The previous sysadmin was a moron and had 25 racks of 16-port HUBS linked with a backplane, all in one massive star configuration. Yeeeeesh. The company balked when I requisitioned funds for racks of switches to replace the hubs, but were amazed at network speed increases afterwards.)
Member of the Legion Of Microsoft Haters
... as they don's sell HAL9000 cases. You know: Dark Gray with an Black-blue HAL9000 logo and the red eye. (to connect to a lot of small monitors will display big three letter signs on different collored backgrounds and vectorial animations.)
The only thing i say close to that was a series of HP Vectra pc which had a round HAL-like power button wich will glow red (HDD led).
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Lately the slashdot posts seem to have another story included with them as well, like: "SoAndSo also sent in an article about a similar subject" appended at the bottom of the post. It's been done twice today, and it reminds me of the quickies.
What about bringing back the quickies? I would kill over an hour just going through all the links in the quickies, it was great.
Perhaps Slashdot should enter the webhosting business... "Host with us, and you'll never be affected by the Slashdot effect, unless we are." :)
________________________________________________
suwain_2
http://scotgold.cyber-city.co.uk/cgibin/acatalog/S cotGold_Catalogue_Linux_Tux_Products_2.html
These cases look cool, but consider what that would do to your "reasonable expectation of privacy".
After visiting the ModCases site, I tried the HNN Slashbox link to "FBI Searches" and found these tidbits...
"For example, the Supreme Court has held that a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy in property located inside a person's home, see Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 589-90 (1980); in conversations taking place in an enclosed phone booth, see Katz, 389 U.S. at 358; and in the contents of opaque containers, see United States v. Ross, 456 U.S. 798, 822-23 (1982)." (emphasis mine)
and
"To determine whether an individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy in information stored in a computer, it helps to treat the computer like a closed container such as a briefcase or file cabinet. The Fourth Amendment generally prohibits law enforcement from accessing and viewing information stored in a computer without a warrant if it would be prohibited from opening a closed container and examining its contents in the same situation. " (emphasis again mine)
With these two quotes it wasn't hard for me (playing FBI-man advocate) to say to myself, "Well, with that clear window it's not a closed case anymore and therefore the owner has no 'reasonable expectation of privacy'. I guess I can search/sieze it."
A trim-pot, 4 switches, and 5 LEDs for only $37, what a deal...
The system http://www.dwp.domainvalet.com/chris.
A Sharky Extreme Forum discussion of it.
Forgive me if this is old news, but at Las Vegas COMDEX 2000 a company Eupa from Taiwan had some of the most amazing computer cases I have seen. (But at that time they only sold entire computers, not the cases alone.) Two in particular were metal with a 1930-ish "Buck Rogers" look, the Classic (burnished finish) and the Home (shiny chrome finish) They also sell metal retro look audio speaker systems.
Would somebody PLEASE make a good looking PC case, and not just one that's just a goddamn beige box with some coloured plastic stuck on the outside, or a face painted on the front.
Let's get some cubes in there, maybe a wall hanging thing, a flat case that screws into the bottom of your desk, SOMETHING NEW.
That's all, except I'd be the first in line to buy one.
How is this off topic and a guy 15 comments down is 4( FUNNY )?
*shrug* whatever... It doesn't matter, just seems off... to paraphrase "wah"
E.
www.randomdrivel.com -- All that is NOT fit to link to
Build Your Own PVR/HTPC news, reviews, &
does everything have to end up looking like a honda civic these days? the person that buys this stuff must be the same kind of person that orders $10k worth of 'tricked out' aftermarket accessories for their $3k honda. what the fuck is the obsession with noisy, low-riding japanese cars? i soooo do not understand that trend. did i look this stupid with the pegged jeans and painted sleevless denim jacket that i wore when I was 14?
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https://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
More neon lights and bizarre cases than you're ever likely to see
http://www.virtualhideout.net/cool_case/
looks like theve been /. ed
--- LOTR!!!
i use this really old power mac 7500/100 at work, and opened it up a few weeks back to put some more ram in it. i must admit, i really do hate using a mac a lot, but, opening the case up and working inside it was great. i have never seen a case with so much thought gone into it. everything is so well laid out and easily accessible, and there are even little arms to prop bits up on. nice one apple, shame about the software.
wray
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hello this is bruno brooks, umm, err, cunt.