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Cool Case
A reader writes "I thought this may be a good read for many of the Slashdot readers. Here is a review of what seems like a great Lan Party Case. It's light, sturdy, and more importantly has two giant sized blow holes, for all you hardware fanatics and overclockers out there."
The inside is split in two, one side to store the drives and front bays and the other half (there's just about enough space between the two to fit the cables through) is about as big as what you'd get in a minitower... want to put two smokin procs in there? good luck. As soon as we put the side doors on, the temperature went skyroof and we had to add a couple of fans in there (how are you supposed to get some flow when there's a barrier between flow in and flow out???).
Can't tell you which one I'm using now (one that's 1.5 as large as a midi tower) but the 'leet factor aside, YY cubes are worth shit all. (you seen how ugly some of the other YY cases are? or how fragile? sofar, the best cases I've used are vasco cases.
PS: About sharp edges inside the case? well, these combined with having to pull on the old power connectors can leave quite a few battle scars on your hands... (not the sames as the ones you get from playing quake, though ;)
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"Hasta la victoria siempre!" El Comandante
Why on Earth would anyone use a case like this? 184 CFM fans + harddrives + CPU fan(s) + graphics card fan(s). It would sound like a jet taking off
Is it too much innovation to ask for a freaking handle on top of a lightweight case? That's what I really want for my LAN machine. The case I have now weighs almost 35 pounds and trying to get my arms around it while juggling my keyboard and mouse is just nuts. Maybe some mesh webbing on the side for those items.
* Handle on top.
* Mesh webbing on side for keyboard, mouse, cables.
There, make that.
Posters such as yourself are why I sometimes think AC is bad.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
It's light, sturdy, and more importantly has two giant sized blow holes....
This quote comes from:
A: National Geographic describing killer whales
B: Slashdot describing computer cases
C: Hustler describing blow-up companions
Is that your final answer?
What's your damage, Heather?
I made two servers out of tupperware cases. You know the blue ones with the little locking handles...
...and I'm not sure we should trust this Kyle Sagan either.
Well anyway, I thought it was clever. They are rather small and fit a mid-tower sized motherboard, power supply, and hard drives.
For me(college student) the average $35-50 per case is too expensive and takes up too much room in my dorm closet.
$3 per case, and the whole server fits within 18" x 6" 12".
Lots of people ask about my tupperware computers. But I just smile and respond, "I don't care what it looks like, it works doesn't it."
I have once or twice gone to eject the floppy disk from an install, and swore as I realized I'd just depressed the power button.... what follows is a install that proceeds with me firmly holding in the power button so it doesn't actually power down, until I finish the install and can halt the machine :)
:)
:)
So ya, I can see it. Is it really that much of a pain to require a power button relocation to under the pile of paper on top of the box? Not so much
I think maybe one of those cool 'fire missile button' covers that the guys in movies always smash before it can slide aside would be much cooler
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On the whole, I find that I prefer Slashdot posts to twitter ones because I don't get limited to 140 chars before
OK, here's the quick and dirty on the relationship between bouyancy effects and inertial effects created by a fan.
Bouyancy effects in low speed flows are measured by engineers using a nondimensional number called the Grashof #. It is defined as
Gr = g*Beta*rho^2*L^3*(Tw-To)/Mu^2
Where g = 32.174, Beta is the coefficient of thermal expansion, rho is air density, L is reference length (in this case the distance between hottest spot, directly over processor, and exhaust port), To is temp at exhaust, Tw is processor temp, and Mu is the viscosity of the air (assumed constant here although mu is temp dependant.)
Since there is no velocity term here to account for the role of the fan, we have to introduce the Reynolds # Rho*V*L/Mu. V is the average between the velocity of the air leaving the fan and the velocity of the air at the exhaust.
Essentially, Gr/Re^2 becomes a new non-dimensional # called the Froude # for forced motion: Beta*g*L*(Tw-To)/V^2
For Gr/Re^2 < 1, the bouyant effects are less important than the fan effects. The reverse is true for Gr/Re^2 > 1 .
In a typical computer case, L = ~24 inches, Beta = 1/To = 0.002 (perfect gas below 500 R), Tw = 650, To = 518, and V = 12 in/s. Thus Gr/Re^2 = 2.82, >> unity -> bouyant effects are more important than fan effects on a global scale. However, on a local scale L= 4 inches or so, (in the vicinity of the processor), Tw= 650, To = 518 and V = 24 in/s, Gr/Re^2 = 0.015 << 1 -> fan is necessary to keep cool locally.
The problem is that To rises to much higher than normal temperatures when the case isn't properly ventilated. So if you have a case with nowhere for the air to go, you may have problems. Heavy duty fans like those used by you crazy overclocker types help to solve this by moving air away from the processor, but a better engineering solution would be to simply increase ventilation.
Taking the walls off your case almost always increases ventilation more than putting a big fan in; I've got a 750 tbird at 848 in a relatively small case with 4 (hot) 7200 rpm seagate 19171wc's and a voodoo3, and it overheats with the cover on in a matter of a few minutes. With the case top off (the walls don't really matter) it runs for days.
Hope this helps,
Rev. Neh
Resident aero type
... and there is no doubt, that one day he will be
where the eye of his telescope has already been
I always see these wonderful overclockers cases and a lot of discussion about adding extra fans for cooling and all of this stuff. Has anyone done any work at making a quiet computer. Can you buy fans that don't make boot-up sound like a shuttle launch?
My box is used for everything from digital audio recording to playing movies on my TV. It therefore holds a fairly sore thumb kind of role in my Living Room. Microphones don't like the noise.....and nor does my gf who unlike myself still hears the thing.........I just find it comforting.
"Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality." -- Dalai Lama
Mail ordering one of these babies from far away would be expensive, and I suspect the UPS man would stop talking to me.
I live in mid-coast Maine. Portland, Maine is about an hour and a half drive away, Boston a little less than three. There's a lot of industry and some high-tech in South Portland, so maybe I can rent a truck or a van and get a rack there.
Advice on rackmount uninterruptible power supplies would be helpful too.
I do cross-platform development and I'd like to set up a build and test farm of lots of twisty little 1U machines all running different Linux and *BSD distros, QNX, Solaris x86, UltraSparc Solaris at some point, BeOS and of course Mr. Bill's operating systems. I do Mac OS too but probably won't rackmount those, as it would mess up the nice Flower Power look.
BTW, I'm finally about to break down and by a Belkin Omniview 4-port KVM Switch with a Mac video/ADB keyboard adapter. Maybe if I save up I can get the 8 port with On-Screen Display.
While the Belkin may be expensive, the switching is electronic. I've worn out a Manhattan mechanical VGA switch in about four months sharing a monitor between a Mac and a PC - I have to fiddle with the knob each time I switch it to get the connection right or the colors are all wonky. Also I'm sure to start shooting from the rooftops the next time I type into the wrong keyboard!
Mike
-- Could you use my software consulting serv
You can frag your opponent at high frame rates and use it as a bong.
Here's a suggestion... this case has almost an inch of space between the front of the metal chassis (where two of the fans are) and the removable plastic front. Buy an AC air filter, cut out a couple 8cm squares, and tape the pieces to the front of the metal to keep the fans from sucking in so much dust. Change the filters every two months or so. (That seems to work for me, and my systems are on 24/7/365.) You can buy filters which are designed to screw directly onto the face of the fans, but because of this case's snap-in fan mounts, those type of filters won't fit.
I own three Antec cases and have had no problems with them... the company seems to employ some really nice people, too.
I've bought all of my Antec cases from TechStore. You can buy the case I described (the SX830) for about $75 here. This is not an inexpensive case, but if you run powerful systems and/or overclock, I think it's a great investment. The case only comes with two fans, so you'll want to buy two more. Good sources for cooling supplies are Millisec and Cooler Guys.
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I like to watch.
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Ellison: How are you gentlemen !! All your database are belong to us
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I like to watch.
... it's the fsckin' moniter. My case is pretty light compared to my behemoth of a moniter (19" flatscreen, weighs about 60 pounds and is really unwieldly to carry). If somebody made a "moniter carrier" (like straps and handles or something), I'd buy it.
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If you want a small case, the Lian Li PC-31 (review here) is pretty funky. The PC-60 (review here) is still highly portable and has lots of space, and the new PC-70 (review here) is, um, an ideal case for people who really want to impress their fellow gamers. The darn thing still weighs bugger-all, at least until you put an actual computer inside it :-).
tcd004
Don't click here unless you want stock photos.
But let's put that aside for a minute here. Why do you need this kind of case? The free market is a wonderful thing for scientific innovation, but this is the sort of thing that makes me think back to that old notion in Marx that a capitalist economy tends to produce unnecessary stuff, waste, and duplicate efforts.
Those communists are just jealous that they never came up with the amazing innovations we did, like beer helmets, pet rocks, pez dispensers, and sourceless operating systems...
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People would probably make fun of me for having a funky case, but then I could say "Hey! Get off my case!" when they started up. I bet they're gonna sell a buttload of these things.
...All I can say is that my life is pretty strange...
I saw the case,
I said Yay,
I clicked,
I waited for the Chick Hardware page to load for ten minutes while I made my coffee.
Oh, good lord, you people have slashdotted their site.
But let's put that aside for a minute here. Why do you need this kind of case? The free market is a wonderful thing for scientific innovation, but this is the sort of thing that makes me think back to that old notion in Marx that a capitalist economy tends to produce unnecessary stuff, waste, and duplicate efforts.
You can customize a case and make it lots cooler, quieter and cheaper than the flashy case spotlighted here. You eliminate waste and learn something while you work on this intimate level with your machine.
I am all for convenience, but let's see if we can't find some of the more extraneous technology being peddled out there by perfectly intelligeng people and steer them into some really crucial research.
I am currently of the mind that some really useful work would be the development of a battery that can store lots of power for a long period of time, hence reducing the immediate power demand and enabling us to capture massive amounts of solar energy for use in dim places and at night.
Perhaps we could school a few less marketroids and a few more engineers, too. There's another example of waste.
Goat sex free since 2001
Squozen
Some of the features:
Power button on top to prevent accidental power offs
clever indeed, but with my power button on front box, I've never had such a problem... has anyone? I like to pile things on top of my case... I'd imagine that would result in more power-offs for me.
Completely rounded edges for safety
In related news, today, an unidentified man was mutilated beyond recognition when he suffered a horrible accident with the edges of his PC case. The accident could have been avoided, officials say, if the edges had been rounded.
I've been overclocking PC's for seven years, and I've never needed a special case.
You're much better off just saving your money for more useful computing equipment - or, god forbid, something actually important - than buying a fancy case so you can feel leet.
That being said, I have a friend who bought one of these cases, and although he was happy with it at first, it developed stress fractures after a few months. Now, he's very hard on cases (moves his machine a lot and such) but that still seems like a very short lifespan.
- qpt
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Domine Deus, creator coeli et terrae respice humilitatem nostram.