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Easy Access PC Cases?
swight1701 asks: "I remember seeing the MAC G4 case open for the first time and it was like a ray of light dropped down from above, and the Case was good. This has to have been the easiest access case in history, to be able to flip down the motherboard without removing any card from your PCI slots, genius.
So why is it, like most of Apple's more frivilous case designs , and colors, was it not copied by other case manufacturers? If anyone HAS seen this, or know the reason why it wasn't, please tell us all!"
Simply - Supply and Demand.
Nige.
Why hasn't it been copied? Simple: Apple has a history of suing people for copying their desktop look+feel, so one can only assume they'd do the same for their case design. No-one would dare risk it.
(Spudley Strikes Again!)
Mainly in the business class models by the larger manufacturers.
The HP Vectra was one of the most intuitive cases I ever saw. No screwdrivers were needed to dismantle the case, and take out every piece. Just a push of a button or flip of a lever.
The Dell Optiplex line was also similar in those regards, although a few items did need a screwdriver.
Unfortunately, the manufacturers only marketed these cases to the business IT people. The thinking was that only people who had hundreds of computers to set up would tinker inside the box all the time. Home users just let the box sit there and collect dust. To an extent that's true.
I'm happy just leaving my case off and all the screws out, all the time.
Keep looking, I am sure you'll find one in the right color -- if not, these guys Directron do custom painting of cases and bezels for your drives to match....
...we are from the government - we are here to help...
Easy access has been sacraficed for low price, and better airflow. Personally, I would love an easy access case, but i would not pay lots of money for a case that allows for little fan expansion, and a perk that i enjoy only a few times in the life of the PC. It comes down to the fact that most people do not open their PC case once in the life of the computer, and those who build their own computers either add a few parts over the lifetime of the PC, or go down the road of modding, where the flexability provided by the case is the most important, not easy motherboard access.
Yawn.
I've worked with this one for my home clients and I like it a lot. I have not, however, seen anything like it on the OEM market. You're right though, I would buy one if in a second if I came across one...
Another great thing about the G4 case is that the cables are routed along the edge out of the way. You look at that Dell case somebody posted the URL for, and you still have IDE cables hanging in the air between the two halves. Not so with the G4, you don't even see the IDE cables unless you're looking for them.
The downside though is that when adding hard drives to a G4, you don't get the inadvertent blood sacrifice to make sure it works. All my PC cases seem designed to make sure you can't add a hard/cd/tape drive without bleeding on it, which ensures the black magic works.
The next Cmdr Taco duplicate will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
...is to save up a bit and buy an actual G4 . They're great machines, they come with a killer operating system, they'll probably do everything you need, and do it with minimal hassle. Not to mention that, as fat as I can tell, Mac users are more attractive to the opposite sex. ;)
I have a Lian Li PC-60. http://www.lian-li.com/
Its brushed aluminum, all thumbscrews. All of the interior edges have been de-burred, so there are no sharp edges. I have worked on a lot of crappy PC's in my life and this is by far the best case I have ever worked on.
I find the anatec 1030 has lots of room to work. Slides for the 5 1/4 bay and removable HD bays.
a handle pops the side off it can be locked with a provided key.
...and if you really want to do this there's a nice guide here.
I've been using an enlight case similar to this one It doens't flip down but it is very easy to work with as only one side panel comes off at a time. You also dont' have to worry about screws, the front holds the side panels on. My only issue with it is airflow. It has a fan slot in the front and back but the front didn't have any airholes. A little drilling solved this problem.
Of course, as these components are designed to be "hot-swap" they kinda have to be easy to remove!
While the V880 is in a radically different class from the G4 (server vs workstation), Sun kit in general is much nicer to work with. I remember one of the first things I did as a sysadmin was adding RAM to some SPARCstation 5s and my boss showing me how to remove/replace one of the hard drives. Of course, you pay for that ease of use.
Those features you mention are available, and have been available for years, if you look for it in the PC market. The reason, you don't see it regularly, is cost. The hinged tray or slide out tray add complexity and cost to the case. That is ok, in the Mac market where you only have Apple to buy from and cost is not the motivating factor most people buy from Apple. In the PC market where they all pretty much run the same, cost is a large factor in what computer you pick up.
I have to second that enlight case. I have a couple of them. They are, by far, the best case I've found yet. Front snaps off and on (lever at bottom). It conceals two (optional/unnecessary) screws that hold the left and right side panels on. Those are the only two screws involved in opening the case. The 5.25" bays have two spring-mounted clips that screw on to the drives, so drives can be trivially removed and replaced without any tools. The entire 3.5" bay comes out the same way, on spring-loaded clips. (Really great for tweaking jumpers!) Lots places to mount fans. Good airflow. By far the best design I've ever seen!
PS: Their website lists all their cases. Including some shots from the back.
PPS: I'm not associated with Enlight, other than by being a satisfied customer. Posting anonymously as I'm at work.
I would put up with that, but helI'd have to freeze over before Apple would do that. A third party Apple case would prob. retail for 299+... I guess I could set you up with one for $1799, until then.
I agree with you 100%. I work on computers all day for work, and I've seen a ton of crappy cases. Mostly the tiny little PCs by Compaq, HP, and the thankfully gone eMachines. People ask me why I spent so much on a case, and I explain how everything's exactly like I dream of cases being. I instinctively reach to unhook a latch, and it's there. Everything's really smooth and sturdy. And you can fit like 6 hard drives in it, if that's your thing.
I've had the pleasure of hiring ex-apple industrial designers/mechanical engineers. It was a real pleasure working with such talented engineers.
i could have sworn i remembered reading a story on /. a number of months ago about some guy that gutted a g3 or a g4 and stuck an amd rig in it with minimal case mods ... anyone got a link?
--m
I love my Antec Case.
I can open it up, and change fans with no screws. The drive cages and external drive rails are awesome.
that is a piece of cake to work on. I opened it up with a hammer and a cat's paw and took all the screws out and everything just kinda piles on top of eachother.
wah!
Make A PC Out Of A G4 Case
The above URL is for instructions on how to make PC using a G4 case.
The problem with making a case too easy to open is that people will open it.
Imagine a kid with his peanut butter and jelly sandwich opening the case just for the hell of it, to watch the CPU fan spin or whatever.
I remember some old XT cases that had a suitcase-type lid where you just pushed a couple of buttons on the side and could open the top of the case just like a suitcase (hinged on the back and everything). The problem with those cases is that, as I said, "everybody" would open them.
On the other side, the two absolute worst cases that I ever tried to open were both Packard Bell. I was trying to install a CD-ROM in one and discovered that the drive bay had a plate welded onto the front. I ended up using a hammer and chisel (literally) to beat it off. The other really awful Packard Bell case that I had to deal with is one that was a real Chinese puzzle to open. There were no visible screws and once I had actually found the screws then it took me literally a half-hour to figure out how to push-and-pull that case to get it to come apart.
*shudder*
There seems to be a happy medium between too easy to open and too difficult. Now once I've got it open, it's nice to have some room to work, indeed, but that's another issue.
If you're a zombie and you know it, bite your friend!
I'm getting one this week to try it out.
The side drops down and the G4 can operate without the fan blowing on the heatsink! In fact, as we all know Mac CPU's use a fraction of the power that PC CPU's use, so they heat up less. The heatsink is only on the chip so that it won't melt when you leave the case open for too long:) The upside of course is that you can open the unit, disconnect the fan and hey presto - a silent G4!
About, er... two years ago I bought a 486 server machine from a used computer place ("COMPUDYNE" I think was the manufacturer, and yes, I don't mean a 486 desktop being used as a server, but a 486 that was actually a server machine back in The Day). It was remarkably like the G3 and G4 cases, in the way it unhinged, the way the cables were routed, and the way the drives were mounted... All in all, a pretty sweet little machine with its pimpin' VLB 256kb vid card ;-) (it served as my lan2ppp machine for about six months, then it became an IRC server for a while, then I had to move and get rid of a bunch of stuff so it went to a friend).
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I noticed while browsing through the ExoticPC website that they have Penguin cases. Very slick.
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G4-style ATX case. This one is housing the new amiga motherboard. http://www.amigascene.nl/nieuws/nieuws.htm