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Impressive Homemade Aluminum Cube Case
baschie writes "A Belgian guy, Dennis Vieren, probably designed and built the most beautiful aluminium case ever, called project "Frozen". He designed his case from the ground up using CAD software, and built it from plates of 3mm aluminium and 3 mm acrylic glass. It cost him about 300/400 euro, and took him about 250 hours to build."
You can watch the pain at his ISP's stats page.
IAAL,BIANLY
Really nice looking. Appears kind of elaborate to get into though, as far as I can tell from the photos. I especially like the logos on the side. Too bad it'll be slashdotted soon with the amount of images on the page.
The thing is truly a beautiful piece of work! I just hope for him that the light can be turned off ;) Also it appears immensely big! I mean, build a cube out of 6 full size ATX mainboards - it's bigger than that! :) hehe
I couldn't fit that where my computer is now. And I'm pretty sure my girlfriend wouldn't let me if I could
Any technology distinguishable from magic, is insufficiently advanced.
I wonder if the Al shields EMF's enought that they don't interfere with anything like phones, tvs, etc.
I find the cube to be more attractive then a bulking beige box. Thinking back to when the Apple G4 Cube was introduced, and how many of my friends said they liked the design, why is it that the consumer market is still dominated by tower-type system housings? What makes Aluminium easier to machine than say, Magnesium or Steel? How marketable are hobbyist case designs to larger consumer-market case retailers/manufacturers?
SIGERR: laziness exceeds quota
I did some pretty cool case mods myself (but nothing to compare with this guy). My work took me 3 weekends. Each day of the weekends I spent about 15 hours working on it. So I put in about 90 hours over 3 weekends. Kinda of burned me out on case mods for awhile. But then again, this guy looks like he has all the right tools and cad software and so on. My tools boil down to a dremel tool and a hand file. My cad "software" is quadruled graph paper. I'd love to have a machine shop to play with though ...
Take a look at the modifications that extreme custom car builders do to their transport, not out of any practical reason, but for the love of building something with the most extreme quality. With imagination and hard work you can inject a LOT of style into your PC. I'd like to see systems with some insane 'tidying'... the auto customisers hidden wiring tricks, colour coded everything, even components laid out in an aesthetic manner. Not for practicality, but just -because-
If that's not your thing however - good for you. Everyone has a little excess (read: pointless but pretty) style in their life. Like the friend of mine who derides Mac cases for their 'prettiness' and claims function means all the most to her, but drives a more expensive bespoilered sporty looking car with no more performance than an average one.
While case mods are cool, they're just modifications of boring old PC cases. What's super-cool about this cube is that it was built from scratch and doesn't look like a traditional computer.
Besides, how many case modders use CAD and laser-cut aluminum? That's just nifty.
This
All one needs one is a plugin for Xmms that will cause the blue neons to flash in time :)
Swell. Let's see... the raw materials cost more than that, and assuming a sweatshop slave wage rate for 250 hours .. oh, it cost him about ten times as much as your bid. Don't hold your breath waiting for his excited reply to your generous offer.
The materials were bought for a single unit if you buy in bulk you get considral price breaks.
250 Hours laber was most likely in the CAD program, design work only neads to be done once.
I know I'm going to hell, I'm just trying to get good seats.
Um...did you actually look at the size of this thing?
This is nothing more than an ATX motherboard with an exceedingly large amount of space for expansion.
Apple failed at the Cube because it didn't really have an audience--it was powerful but not expandable (like the G4 towers) or cheap (like the iMacs) or portable (like the iBook or PowerBook). It was a great design--but it had no market since Apple covered them all for its area. You're right--Apple discontinued it for that good reason.
But a case like this--oh, boy, would IT have a market. I would pay up to $300 for this case alone.
ANY computer can get the job done today (just slap Linux on it if you have to)--now its a matter of aesthetics until someone places one with an artificial intelligence in a human-shaped form.
Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
From what I saw of the screen-shots the case shown was not small, and could have been easily upgraded. It was made from scratch, you're not exactly 'locked in' to anything with that are you?
it would look a lot like my trashcan. :)
I think I'm gonna put my trashcan on ebay. All i need is to turn it upside down, stick in a motherboard, drill a couple of holes for the wiring, and voila... designer computer!
If you think I'm kidding.. i bought it either at Bed Bath and Beyond or Ikea.
It looks more like the NeXT Cube, which the Apple Cube is descended from. I don't think Apple needs any lessons in cool cases, though.
Too bad he didn't go with a slot-loading optical drive and no floppy. Other than that, it is a very nice-looking system.
any local hardware store sells the stuff for heavy duty duct work. Some stores will even cut it for you and give you the exact sizes you need. You'll have to do your own dremel work though.
This guy might want to contact Antec-Europe about their Casemod Contest. His box might actually fit in the "Others" category...
Minimalist: Minor mod, extra fan or handle
Artist: Typically not cutting the case, instead the case becomes a canvas
Exhibitionist: Windows, showing the guts of the system
Decorator: Matches case to coordinate with a room/desk
Sponsor: Case with stickers, logos, etc
Others: If your case doesn't match the above
Withdrawal before climax is very ineffective and those who try this are usually called "parents."
nah, magnesium is great to machine. Cuts like butter, great finish, you just gotta keep the feeds up to make large, hard to ignite, chips. You may have to put it in an inert atmosphere to lase it. Large pieces (greater than 1/16 inch) are hard to ignite with conventional machining techniques (assuming normal cutting conditions). Can be welded with usual TIG torch (Tungsten Inert Gas). It's easier than aluminum to machine. Course, you could say I'm a professional...
Here is a shoebox sized one for about $300 etc. With mb and powersupply. Here for the table case. etc. (*warning* Japanese)
Interactive Visual Medical Dictionary
WRONG. The original spelling was alumium. (no "in")
t ml
This was then changed to aluminum, then aluminium. Then it changed back to aluminum in the US.
See http://www.world-aluminium.org/history/language.h
But none of this really matters unless you wanna go back to wulfram, plubnum, etc. (and originally, English had no "correct" spellings for anything.)
Shame the nice lines are spoilt by the four nuts at the top. I think they detract from the appearance of the box. Perhaps he could have countersunk some screws in there and covered them with something....
Baz
>> Heute Slashdot, Morgen das Sonnensystem...
hehe... That's German. Dennis speaks Dutch. The correct translation would be :
Vandaag Slashdot, Morgen het universum...
...You are over-qualified and under-paid. If we give you a raise, we will break the cosmic balance of the universe.