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.
- 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.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"
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).
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!"?
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.
information wants to be expensive...nothing is so valuable as the right information at the right time.
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
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"! :-)
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.
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?
... 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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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.
More neon lights and bizarre cases than you're ever likely to see
http://www.virtualhideout.net/cool_case/
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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