Slashdot Mirror
New Generation of Cases?
mikeb55121 writes "In my never ending quest to build a bigger and better computer i have come across this new design of computer case that is prety intresting to me and possibly any one else out there who build their own computers. This case is very unique because it is shaped as a "T" and the manufacture says that it ends cable clutter and has very good airflow." The aesthetics aren't bad, and the concept is solid. It'll be interesting to see if this catches on. I kind of doubt it.
Cool looking case
I remember when Packard Bell made a special case that was an upside down T. Except with them, as with everything, it sucked, and now I must end this anecdote.
But how much will it cost?
that's an incredibly ugly case... this concept has been tried before, e.g. the Sun Blade x000 series of workstations, and they're ugly too.
I just had to cart a PC up 3 flights of stairs and down the hall to my dorm room. Moving my PowerMac was a lot easier because of the handles. PC makers still have a lot to learn from Apple IMO
Tivo makes a nice case. You might have to rip out some extra parts, but it is a nice case.
Apple has a lot to learn about pricing and performance, too.
Meh, my idea computer has no real chassis! Just a bunch of parts, and maybe at most a skeleton of a chassis right next to a very large fan...
blah. it's all lights and cooling and cable clutter and poppy cock. let me know when they design a QUIET computer case. noise cancelation tech, built in sound dampening materials, baffles on the outside fans... hell i dunno, but my heap is LOUD and i'm doubting that a "T" does much for noise.
Ok, it looks like two G4 towers that ran into each other at high speeds. Without handles. So what's the point? Yay, it has a folding down chasis design, but how the hell are you going to find the room in the back of the computer to do this? The reason why the Apple towers were so great, is they folded outward, not backward.
It seems to me to be another "We're trying to clone Apple and not get sued by mimicing their design so we're just making it stupid" case.
Dacels Jewelers can't be trusted.
a good case is:
- rock-solid
- transportable
- space-saving
- cheap
- attractive
it's time to wipe the slate clean on case design. go back to the basics. back in time. to an era where puup and piles of puup were the pinnacles of architecture.
you can start here: http://www.g-news.ch/articles/nhp200nc/
It's a rare thing when someone actually thinks outside the box (pardon the pun) enough to make a design that's actually both efficient and user friendly. And, is incredibly sweet, though it is rather large like our ninja's sweet friends the Hippos. I wonder if an apple motherboard might fit inside, i'm becoming increasingly fed up with apple design and am looking for a nice platform for an anti-mac of sorts. "Orbis Non Suficit."
I don't know. It still looks like it would be rather difficult to have to move this case around. It seems like it's wideness would be the problem.
I would not want to imagine a beowolf of these...
It would be ugly. Besides you would be hard pressed to turn them on the side and put them in a rack.
Just say no
Replying to your own troll? How about you actually put some thought into your trolling . . .
For those of you who don't much like macromedia stuff, you can see small pictures of these things on another page on the same site.
They will not fit into the "case" compartment of most PC benches, if thats the kind you have.
Good idea, but Im pretty sure theyre a passing fad since the dimensions are so inefficient.
loply.com
Is it just my imagination, or can I really not be bothered to install shockwave flash on this computer to see their photos.
(mutters about these upstart webdesigners with their fancy flashy new animations...) now maybe when mozilla gets the ability to turn Flash on and off on demand, I might be persuaded to install it, rather than using someone else's computer whenever I need to run an insecure plugin...
This may be rough on these guys, but I'm not changing my case unless it does my laundry, my homework, or finds me a date - something every geek would like. The rectangular ones seem to work fine - when you kick them, they make a nice clunking sound.
...oOOo..'(_)'..oOOo...
Where can I purchase one of these "I-tee's" ??
Let me shut off my wind tunnel so that I can hear you.
Coolermaster do them, there are plenty of coolermaster suppliers throughout the US and UK.
Look for the ACT-610 series.
Well, that's pessimistic. "It's good, but nobody will buy it."
If the airflow is as good as they claim, then that's excellent. I've had a number of problems over the years with poor cooling, and I'm certainly not a hardcore gamer or 3D renderer.
Easy access to everything in the case is also a big plus. It just looks so elegant. No more fumbling with lots of little screws and trying to get Tab A into Slot B reassembling my case.
There are a few potential problems: the manufacture of this case will be more costly--it's not just a box. So bargain hunters won't buy it. The shape of the case won't fit into a narrow slot that some desks leave; it wouldn't be a problem at my desk, but I can see trouble in cramped environments. Aesthetically, the shape is novel, but I don't know if it's as attractive as the poster makes out. Finally, are drive cables long enough to reach all the drive bays, or are we limited to technologies that permit longer cable runs (serial ATA, for example)?
My two cents.
~Idarubicin
Its just a motherboard on it side with a couple of nicely placed fans..
Still have the same cable issues, only now they are visable from your seat, and not 'hidden' behind the machine..
Quick install of drives is nice, but other then that.. who cares?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Some similar ideas I remember from my experience also with Compaq and IBM.
Less is more !
It's another slashvertisement!
"Quoting famous computer scientists out of context is the root of all evil (or at least most of it) in programming." - K
It'll be interesting to see if this catches on. I kind of doubt it.
It's kind of hard for a product to catch on if you don't offer the customer a method of buying it.
I've opened many a case in my time and I figure some of these case designers missed their calling, which was to design traps that guard Pharaoh's tombs.
It's Christmas everyday with BitTorrent.
...have had good airflow and have been clutter-free since the GXa series of machines circa 1998. If anyone needs to learn decent easy-access design fundamentals for PC cases, go look at a Dell...
Incidentally, I wouldn't be surprised if Apple learnt from them, the G4 certainly came after some of teh innovative Dell stuff.
Here's a fast mirror incase the website goes down.
You are one weak bitch.
3 flights of stairs? Come on!
For starters, it doesn't end the cable clutter. There are still cables there. The only thing that can end cable clutter is to go wireless where possible and organize wires yourself.
Secondly, will this thing fit in popular office furniture bays for computers? Some "cubbies" in office furniture are fairly narrow, this thing looks like it wouldn't fit.
I can't find it, but I seem to remember an old article about a computer case that was made out of wood - to match your furniture. That was much more innovative than this.
--------
Free your mind.
I agree, think of it this way, when the slashdotting goes down they are going to REALLY regret have a huge flash thingie. It STILL isn't as bad as flash intros though. Flash can be used to improve a website, but a flash intro can never be anything but wasted bandwidth on their part and time on my part.
Yet another story for sale
Buy your own space on slashdot to pimp your product today!
I don't have much to add here, but I always like to see well done alternatives to the typical Lian-li and Master Cooler.
Besides, it goes so well with the one perfect shape for furniture.
...in case it gets /.ed.
I like it, it seems very well planned out. Putting something in or taking something out looks like it would be much easier than in most tower and (especially -- ugh) desktop cases, where components and riser boards and drive bays are shoved in every which way, making your "upgrade" feel like a game of Tetris. Only I don't remember Tetris giving me scraped and cut knuckles or stripped screws.
It also looks more mobo-friendly. My motherboard, a Tyan S1854 (yes, it's old), theoretically fits in a standard-sized tower case. But the power connector and IDE connectors are on the front edge of the motherboard, where they prevent use of anything deep (like, say, a CD drive) in the 5.25" drive bays. A case like this looks like it would be perfect for my motherboard. It would be more compact than a super-deep tower case, and it doesn't look like I'd need extended IDE cables.
I don't see a price or a link to an order form. Pity. I hope that doesn't mean they won't enter production. I know I'd buy one, as long as they aren't hideously expensive.
SIG: 11
this case is pretty interesting, but its shape is sub-optimal in terms of space requirements. since the motherboard goes on the back instead of the side, and because the external cables (power, etc.) come out of the side instead of the back, this thing probably takes up about twice the horizontal space of a typical case.
Gyrate Dot Org - "Where high-tech meets low-life"
It looks interesting enuf, but where do you put the window and the CCFT?!?
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
This case would look at home in any AV setup.
Cooler Master 610-GX1
A bit pricey though
A few more pictures.
I planned on inserting something witty here but never got around to it.
I guess I just don't get the aesthetic that drives companies like hp, etc. to build these rounded edge, 10 shades of grey machines, but anyway, there are a couple of new wrinkles to this machine:
1) The footprint of this machine is made much more complicated by this T-shape; desk real estate is precious, and you're using up lots of it placing the board sideways. Additionally, the cables in the BACK of the machine don't even flow straight back to the power, cable, monitors, whatever...Instead you need one of those fussy little plastic guides.
What comes to mind is the possibility of linking these t shapes together somehow, if pcs were located next to each other. I know it wouldn't really work with this design, but it would be an interesting experiment for computer lab computers.
2) the front of a case is usually the place where you lavish details, with knobs, controls, etc. (or the clean, smooth, absence of controls, which is my preference) The machine now has essentially THREE fronts, rather than just one. Rather than concentrating on one front (and for the case modders, possibly one side with a window or some such), the case designers have three fronts and no good sides to concentrate on. And they've done a pretty crap job on all counts.
just my two cents.
-noah
1. The cooling for the drives looks to be less-than-optimal. I tend to run SCSI drives in my systems, and many of them get hot. The intake for the fans would also pull air right off my nice cool 19" monitor, seeing as how my monitor is to the right of the tower.
2. There's a reason cables come out of the *back* of a computer -- you can route them to wherever you want them. Looking at this case, all the cables come out of the left side of the case. Looking at my desk, my tower is on the left side (which is by the wall). So with this, I'd have to route the cables *around* the back of the case....
Ob/.CaseMod: Where would you put the window and the neon lights?
Wow. You'd think the PowerMac had a jet engine in it after looking through that site. Mine isn't loud. The only sound I hear is the incessant whine from the cry babies. Then again, I used to work around machines that actually were loud.
I think the next generation of cases will be those made by companies that try to use as little space as possible, (yes they do need to ensure that there are no heat problems.). I've grown tired of having a tower case that doesn't tuck away under anything, and make so much noise I can hear the fans in the nearby room. My next computer will probably use a shuttle case/motherboard for these exact reasons.
/.'ed before i could get to it. this is getting annoying
It looks like something familiar from star wars, but for the life of me i cant think what. Anybody else see what i'm talking about, some ship or droid or something...
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
I personally think it's a good design. I dig the fact that the drives just 'snap-in' as opposed to requiring screws. However, I do find it funny that the site never shows what'll happen if you quickly throw the case-door open. I have a feeling all of the IDE cables would be ripped out of their sockets. Fun!
but I want that case!
That thing is beautiful. For some reason it just caught my eye and that was it. If you have more money than sense, I appeal to you: Purchase me this case! I am not strictly opposed to giving sexual favors for it!
HEAR MY PLEA! I WANT THIS CASE!
Thank you
One problem with this might be accomidating desks. A lot of the cheap $150 desks you can pick up at Office Max may not be ideal for this. I'm not sure what the dimensions are exactly, but it's possible that the spot for the tower may be too narrow for this case. Just a thought.
I want 11 5.25" bays and 3 3.5" bays.
If you are counting, that's enough for 7 SCSI drives, 3 IDE + 1 IDE hd, and 1 bay for a floppy tape drive.
I'm nearly to the breaking point with my damn mid-tower. Maybe I could mod a VAX server case if my local college will make a donation.
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
For my current machine: I just pop of the side and I have access to everything. And then I don't need to close it to test my machine.
I guess that is the crux of the problem for this case. To actually get it up and running it must be closed, which means closing it part way, connecting the ribbon cables up, and then snapping it shut (since I doubt you want to run it with the tension of the mainboard + CPU on the IDE cables).
Now I have to say that it does seem to fix the mobo access issue. But it does this by making the case more of a hassle to get running. And that's too heavy of a black mark to ignore.
What is music when you despise all sound?
yeah, who doesn't want to own his private windtunnel to blast the fur of a cat from a distance of 20'?
-t
The animation doesn't show the PS anywhere.
I'd guess it's in the bottom, under the drives...
That would seem to be less than ideal for cooling : (
It *IS* funky looking though and it lets you get to your KVM connections easily, perhaps too easily. It should have a hatch that covers the slots, but has cut-outs to route cables through.
Never design computer cases when you're high on crack.
While I will concede that some of the design elements are novel, this thing is just ugly. It looks like somebody wedged an aluminum briefcase into a radiator.
Karma
even if i wanted to buy this fugly mofo, where would I?? there's no purchase link or price. One thing is guaranteed though. It's a better case design than any Gateway offering in 8 years.
This is the first case i've ever seen where the mobo and pci cards are perpendicular to the drives (hence the 'T'/'Tee' name, doesn't look that much like a tee from the outside)... as far as accessibility, it reminds me a lot of the Apple PowerMac G3 (Blue&White) - G4 design in the way it opens up... wonder how much it costs.
of something you'd see on the set of Star Wars in the rebel hideout?
Fooferaw
Oneworkspace.com - Your clients w
that has the motherboard mounted on a fold down door.
While it looked cool and functional on my mac the PC case sucked because the IDE and floppy cables were too short to reach when the door was all the way open.
So every time I had to open the case i had to disconnect my hard drives and floppy.
Just another instance of the PC makers half-ass following Apple's lead and getting it all wrong.
I can believe the motherboard will have adequate ventilation, but how are the disks to be cooled?
All designs that have been around for years and years should be relooked at occasionally. I'm tired of the rectangular box. And with long Serial ATA cables, and better cooling, i hope this box style takes off. Current boxes cant be the best design, there has got to be something better. Maybe this is it. Or maybe this will light a fire for other producers to relook at their designs.
Wouldn't fit in my current desk; this thing is 15" wide, and the computer shelf under my desk is only 10". But, my current case is taller and longer than this guy.
The "easy access" isn't quite so easy, though, when you realize you'll have to pull the computer all the way out from the wall every time you want to open it. Or you could just turn it, but that requires more maneuvering room.
I like the idea of the cables plugging into the side, though. I can't count the number of times I have wished I had one of those dentist mirror-thingies when figuring out which plug goes in which jack. It won't reduce cable clutter in the slightest, but it will make them more accessible. (The only real way to reduce cable clutter, I've decided, is the liberal application of zip ties.)
Don't you wish your girlfriend was a geek like me?
"The rectangular ones seem to work fine - when you kick them, they make a nice clunking sound."
That's not the case making that sound.
And I'll repeat my complaint: while there are a couple of alterations or perhaps innovations to this case, really it is just more of the same. Do I have something better? Maybe, but I'm still testing it.
Computer geek peddles bootleg porn from city hall
Their Flash ain't nothing but trash!
If their case is as good as their flash animation it looks like a good build. It's certainly more convenient to work on than the standard PC case today.
Working on my parent's Dell for example is still a nightmare and I'm promised at least two or three cuts from unfinished metal.
I also have to admit that I got all the information I needed about the case just by looking at the flash animation. It was highly informative. So I gotta give these guys some kudos for good design both on the web and in real-life.
What's the point in replacing your bulk case with equivalent? Most users don't use 6 PCI slots and 4x3.5"+4x5.25" drive bays.
When I buy a new case, I want it to be like this.
Jeebus Cripes I get sick of seeing this in every story that links to a Flash animation.
If you can be bothered to post a rant about evil insecure plugins on slashdot, you've already expended more effort than it takes to install flash player.
(mumbling about old-fart unix geeks, and their inability to grasp the idea of progress as anything other than bloating and feature-creep) Maybe all you flash-haters can go sit in the back of the cave with the lynx users and bitch about what bad web design taste the rest of us have while you all read Slashdot in fluorescent-purple-on-black, 80 column textmode!
If you're really worried about the Flash plugin's security, install it as a user other than your normal account, and when you need it, just pop open an xterm, su to that user, and run mozilla. (Assuming you run *nix. If you run Windows, installing a mozilla plugin should be the least of your security worries.)
0 1 - just my two bits
After googling for a bit, I can only find UK retailers. Does anyone know of a place to purchase one of these in the US?
Someone mod up this comment as "funny!" It's so true. :)
Thats the first thing I thought when I saw it.
Where can one get one's hands on G3 or G4 cases (with handles, bondi blue or platinum or whatever color, there's a market) for less than a hundred bucks? They don't have to have a power supply, and we already know they're not ATX but one can hack that easily enough.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I would worry about it's compatibility with a lot of all-in-one computer desks I've seen. Many desks have standardized compartments for the case, and this is 1) possibly too wide, and 2) has the cables oriented in the wrong direction.
Also I would worry about it's capacity to add more fans. I've got an SC750a now, and I love having mounts at just about every point in the case for more fans. I guess that the manufacturor isn't as worried about more fans, though, because of the airflow design (which looks very efficient).
Those worries aside, I think this is a terrific concept and if the price is right, I'll build my next computer from it. I wish it came with round cables though, that would help airflow even more.
Punctanym: alternate spelling of words using punctuation or numerals in place of some or all of its letters; see 'leet'
Stupidly wide. I have 3 towers side by side under my table right now. Side warts kills that. Side cables kill it worse.
Noise?? I didn't see where they mentioned fan noise. The next time I buy a case, it will be the most quiet one I can find.
Bzzzt! Thank you for playing.
Cases can have bad air flow when they are just a box..... A t-shaped case having good air flow? I doubt it. Plus there is just as much cable clutter. Also your cable will have to be pretty long to plug in while the case is open, so when you close it up the bales will just dangle and I dunno about you, but I don't like cables waving around when I move the case and what if a dangling wire gets near yer processor fan or heatsink... I think that could be a potential problem. This case is marketed for the people who just HAVE to be different. This case will not catch on.
I know a lot of people these days like to mod their cases, and I looked at the case on this web site (which han't been hit hard yet) and I don't see alot of room for cutting, and etc. If you do cut on the main side, all you see is the side of your drives.
;) It's a nice thought anyway..
While it is nice to see cases that accept standard ATX motherboard formats, it's even nicer to see cases that are shipped as a big plastic block with no holes, and it's up to the user to drill everything.
And for this comment above others, mod me down, I don't mind. These are just my opinions as a hobbyist.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I renamed the flash plugin (C:\phoenix\plugins\NPSWF32.dll) to NPSWF32.dll.fuckthis. When there's a page that I'd like to see flash on (about once a week), I just rename it back. You don't even have to restart Phoenix, just reload the page. The procedure should be the same for all Mozilla based browsers.
Did you know you can fertilize your lawn with used motor oil?
Does this look like they just glued two cases together to anyone else?
I would like a case that is sphere shaped, like a big round ball.. that would be great :)
and I bought it just for the fact the mobo I/O connectors were on the side. No more crawling around in the dark 'under the desk' pit with a tourch in my teeth. Woohoo.
As mentioned above, available from ebuyer.com.
P.S. The IDE cables don't rip out when you open the door, shame the bottom of the door isn't fixed to the unit though. A hinge would be good.
The case looks cool, although other posters have noted the inherent problems. But I've put together a few boxen in my time -- I LOVE the drive bays! A small lever in the box that locks and releases the bay cover or drive -- that's beautiful! Now apply that to the card slots also, so I don't have to bother with that screwdriver anymore...
Mmz I don't like this design, :/
It seems to take in more space than a normal case, and cooling will be less cause the psu is mounted on the bottom of the case
And especially the left side of the case will look VERY ugly with all the cables that come to your mobo..
Case modders will also dislike this design, well there is room for a window but I don't think you will see much of your hardware with this design..
And I thought only Apple cared about the look. Cases need handles and easy accessibility, not new designs. How are all the SCSI and IDE cables going to fit in this thing?
Macworld was in SF this week, so I went there for an hour or so, which was enough :-) There was a surprising amount of furniture. I don't remember the name of it, but somebody had a line of white and chrome stuff that went with the half-sphere iMacs, which provided a bottom half sphere and some bent chrome tubes and a keyboard/mouse holder on another extension arm, kind of like having your desk replaced with a white spider.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Looks like it's easy to get to everything.
It reminds me of the Harkonen ships in the 1984 Dune.
"It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
The thoughts acquire speed.
The lips acquire stain.
The stain becomes a warning.
It is by will alone I set my mind in motion."
Wansu, th' chinese sailor
I fear it will not interest me, nor many others. Given the availability of the Highpoint RAID controller on motherboards, 4 bays for hard
disk drives are needed, as well as the floppy disk drive. And only two fans? With those extra HDD I would suggest an extra two opposite the current two, one on top, plus two at the front bottom in front of the hard disk drives, I appreciate that this will pobably mean turning the case into a cuboid, but I would suggest that this is no bad thing. Further, the case should be big enough to cope with oversized motherboards (eg dual-CPU mbs).
qts
Most cases are durable enough. Since we are in an age of plastics and aluminum, we shouldnt be afraid of our cases crumbling apart. I'm not sure why you guys whould need handles on your computer. I personally mock the Mac's with handles i.e. the iMac with a handle across the top, or the towers with obnoxious handels. When you are moving your computer, which shouldn't be much, do you really need handles planned into the design? To me the shuttle cases are looking good except for the heat issue (assuming you arn't playing with the insides all the time). But Mac has nothing special at a high cost.
This case is TOO big! What self respecting geek only has one computer and soon as you do space becomes an issue. The Shuttle with their SFF are the direction I like to see. I just wish they would make a server model Shuttle. Don't need the multimedeia stuff, need dual NICs, room for two hard drives, no floppy, thin CD-ROM. two PCI slots no floppy, serial ports front and back RJ45 serial would be fine, BIO option to redirect video to serial is no keyboard attached.
That's what I'd like to see.
I am currently using this and was going to upgrade to corrugated but this changed my whole perspective on cases.
I think the biggest problem with cases is the fact that everything you want to attach to the system spouts from connections on the mainboard. These cables (IDE, power, fan, etc.) are always either too short, too long or otherwise impossible to wrap around the other components in the system without slicing, dicing, twisting, bending and otherwise really mungling the cables.
There have been a few incentives I've seen to remedy this like taking the ribbon cables and turning them into wrapped cables so they don't take up as much space, however that still really doesn't fix the inherent problem. Connectivity from mainboard to peripheral.
What I would like to see is a case where the mainboard connections plug into a central unit (perhaps behind the mainboard itself) and each add-on (hard drive, CD-ROM, floppy, fan, etc.) would plug into their own connectors. If a case designer really wants to make something inventive, they would make an IDE plugin built into the case. Snap in the hard drive and poof. Its connected. Snap in the CD-ROM. Poof. Connected. No more wires and cables. Now THAT would be innovative!
"Purchase me this case! I am not strictly opposed to giving sexual favors for it!"
And I'm not strictly opposed to accepting them.
but then all of the cables will be hangin out of the left back side of the case. so it limits under desk placement and has cables all over the place. no, i dont think it will catch, atleast i hope not
A bit oftopic but take a look at the website of Lian Li
:P
Someone seemed to forgot to pay their bills
People are saying that it won't fit in the slots of their desks... I suppose I'm not the typical user - I would never ever ever ever ever ever get a desk that had a slot for me to put my computer in.
:)
It insulates the machine too much and regardless of how hard you work to cool it, you are exacerbating the issue if you have it in a slot in your desk.
That said, I'm not sure the shape is all that great for my uses because I basically only ever really want either a laptop, or a bunch of small and compact machines to cluster. Something that shape on its own and under an open desk is just dandy - but trying to put that in an area with others just like it takes up more space than just the traditional "brick o' computer"
The main things I want from a case are compactness,quietness, and cheapness.
None of those seem to help keep it cool, but when you have multiple white noise sources going, they seem to amplify each other, and it SUCKS on hardwood floors.
I want a case that is quiet and clamshells, but is just a normal shape that is easy to cram a bunch of them in a small place.
basically I want a rackmount, but for way less money
There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
Check it out.
J.
Remember when the original Mac's came out? They were decidedly below the state of the art in graphics, especially color (even the Vic-20 did color). When they finally made color Mac's, they acted like the invented it.
Reminds me of the time when Al Gore claimed he created the Internet...
First time I opened a dell amazed me.
1)Take out the power cord
2)Pull a tab
3)Everything falls apart in a nice neat pile.
my associative arrays can kick your hash - TCL
I actually have an old Compaq Portable and Compaq Portable II, and I gotta tell you, they're almost anything but.
Besides weighing more than any modern computer should (with crap specs, even for the era they were made in), the handles on those cases aren't nearly as good as the Compaq engineers thought.
It would've been much better to have the handles on the ends for a computer that heavy (See the G4 case, which has handles on each corner), whereas the one handle in the center not only has trouble supporting all the weight, but also lets people do dumb things when they only have 1 handle: like swing the case.
If a computer is going to have 1 handle, it ought to be light enough not to be a hassle, such as the original iBooks.
Furthermore, Compaq had no ideas for integrating the handle into the case, and it was a truly ugly "feature" on the Portables.
The PowerMac G4's corners are what it stands on, and can be removed for rack-mounting. The iBooks could be hung on hooks for storage.
The Compaq Portables? Bricks. Nothing more. Stack 'em.
The company succeeds for the most part on fooling people and taking advantage of the dimwitted.
Who else would fall for the original iMac selling scheme: "We'll get rid of removable storage and charge them $400 more for the feature of not having it. They'll buy it because it is blue."
Or the Apple floppy drives: "We'll require a bent paperclip to eject the media, and charge twice as much as the guys who sell machines that have easy to use eject buttons."
Thankfully, the fools are few. Apple is an "also ran" in the computer world: less than 10% like to pay a lot more to get a lot less.
Apple: "It just works"
PC: "It not only works, it also creates and plays too"
ebuyer in the UK have them for around £80 here
Bigger and uglier doesn't strike me as better.
Personally i'm getting tired of the huge boxen, I would much prefer the design of a small and effecient system that doesn't consume space and blanket the room with noise.
This thing is a G4... with a PC stuck to the side!
:-)
At least I can't say "lump-stick-rectangle" like the iMacs.
fair.org counterpunch.com truthout.com indymedia.org salon.com
eff.org guerrilla.net debian.org gentoo.org
The Awesome 1337 Lego LAN Case!
All I need now is some lego :-)
I can see how this design might be nice in situations when the back of the computer must be visible. Instead of trying to hide the computer under or behind some thing; it could be used in a more open situation like on a table top that is not against a wall or on a counter or bar type space.
Christ, that's ugly.
To mail me, remove the 'mailno' from my email addy.
"Yeah. It smells, too..."
Funny? This is fucking retarded. If someone wants to throw together their own convergence device, of which the Tivo is not (yeah it records TV, but I'd like something to view my DIVXs, player DVDs, listen to MP3s, etc). This is fucking dumb from a mortard with too quick of a yapper.
ebuyer has them. £80 (inc VAT) for such an ugly-assed case is a bit spendy methinks.
The design of the PC system SUCKS from a thermal management standpoint.
Look at the old VME systems (e.g. what is in use at a telephone switching office).
The backplane board is vertically mounted along the back of the enclosure, and the cards are ALSO vertically mounted into the backplane. Any plugs on each card are on the front of the card. One whole section of the bus is reserved for I/O connections, so standard connections are on the backplane.
As a result, natural convection can move air over the system. If you need forced air, you put a fan at the bottom of the system, pressurizing the cabinet - that way you are moving denser, cold air with the fan.
When the S100 systems came out, they almost got this right, but they put the backplane on the bottom, and mounted the cards vertically. As a result, you now have the backplane blocking natural convection. Plus, with the connectors on the BACK of the card, you have yet another impediment to air flow.
When the first PC was designed, they stole the design of the S100 bus systems in that regard.
Now, you have one of two options - the tower approach, with the main board vertical and the cards horizontal - so your GPU cooks in its own heat, and the cards block the natural airflow over the main board, or the desktop approach - where your cards are vertical, but your main board cooks.
All case designs for the PC are work-arounds for this rather BAD design.
And until the PC industry starts making a change, no case tricks will completely ease this.
That said, I must say these things:
1) That was possibly the BEST use of a Flash animation for a site I've seen in a long time. Rather than wasting my time with BS, they show me the case in operation. Bravo to the webmaster!
2) The case actually would solve one problem I have in my setup - with all the cables exiting out the back of the tower case, and the tower being in the bay in my desk, it is a bitch to get to them, and they tend to get nibbled on by the fans I've put at the back of the desk. This case, with the cards exiting from the side would avoid that.
www.eFax.com are spammers
Put all the connections on the front. Make the whole case smaller. Make the whole chassis a heat sink and build a fan into the MoBo.
I'd say Apple has been one of the most design-oriented mass-market computer manufacturers over the past few years. I'd personally prefer an Apple case over one of these cases, which I doubt will have a long future as they seem not to fit many computer tables.
where's all that Karma?
Has anyone seen the new dell cases lately? The new tower desktop ones, you have to lay it on its side, then you press two tabs, one on the top and one on the bottom, and you pull it up. The drives are attached to the one side panel, and the motherboard to the other. They really did a good job with the cable routing on the front. They even include a case intrusion detection switch. Yet I have seen it in use. So yes, this design ( minus the "t" part) is already in use by Apple, and Dell, and others :P
where are you gonna put the nice big showy window? it seems the only place conducive towards putting a window there would be pretty boring with just he cables there and such. as zaphod would probably put it... 10 out of 10 for engineering, but -10,000,000 for no style.
.cig - what you do after winning a good flame war
Cool, as one of the few Girls Going into CS this looks like an excuse to use my new DIY Ambient Light Keyboard Kit. I just have to Recycle a Pay Phone into a MAME Emulation Console with one of these New Generation Cases. If only I could find a Water Cooled Power Supply. Mmmm.
that's hilarious!
Man, that thing is UGLY! And I doubt if it is any better than the current cases in the cooling and accessibility department.
;) )
Haven't they heard that smaller is more beautiful (some women ought to be told about that too
Take a look @ http://www.mini-itx.com for some rare and lovely computer cases...
Beware of Programmers who carry screwdrivers. -- Leonard Brandwein
Uhmm the proctologist just called. They found your head!
damping means to restrain. dampening means to make wet. sorry - just tired of seeing/hearing it used incorrectly. and to the poster below: it's spelled ridiculous.
Now that _is_ a nice case - I like it. A bit tricky for upgrades, but hey .. ;)
no taxation without representation!
of these on selves. One feeding heat to the next, to the next, till we have a meltdown!
Si vis pacem, para bellum! For evil to succeed good men need only do nothing!
If you check out the explosion diagram you will notice that the front feet(item 46) look like they might be able to serve as a handle...Might be a bit flimsy depending on how the front feet are attached or what material they're made of.
To be fair, the noise from the MDD Powermacs is a tad nasty if you want to use it in a production (audio/video) environment...
:)
that said, they ain't got NOTHIN' on a 7000rpm Delta
hmmm...
judging from those pix, the future design of PC fire supression systems still need some adjusting for overclockers ^_^
...this beast comes along and redefines the term.
This thing looks like a G4 that got broadsided by a PC that was reversing at a high rate of speed-- or maybe what you'd get if you were teleporting a G4 and a PC fell into the pod.
I can remember those old Reese's Peanut Butter Cup commercials where the one guy's chocolate fell into the other guy's peanut butter. Except that that was a good idea, and this isn't. Somehow I don't think "You got your P4 in my G4!" "No, you got your G4 in my P4!" would be much of an ad campaign.
~Philly
It looks interesting, and fairly convienent in design. However I still prefer Apple cases. My 8600 case truly does rock. That said, does anyone know where I can find a kick ass server case on the cheap? It needs to be a doublewide basically. I need one that has approx 8 5 1/4" bays for the 3ware ATA cages to occupy. A bunch of fans would be nice too. Redundant PSs would also be cool. I do need this on the cheap though.... usenet@linuxnuts.net if you know of one. thanks
This looks interesting but there is no room for a window to show off the goods! I guess performance is actually more important.
GENERATION 25: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. Social exper
My two 10K rpm cheetahs are fairly loud... I learned to get used to it. :)
My old Apple // had a handle on the monitor as well and the computer itself. Moreover, that thing came out well before that Compaq you linked us too.
But seriously, who cares about who pioneered the computer handle?
Some of the folks here are simply trying to say that Apple's PowerMac cases offer a combo of accessibility, portability, and style that no one in the PC world has been able to duplicate.
I know that when my PowerMac is no longer functional I'm probably going to gut it and save the case for one of my PCs. It's compact, it has a door, it has WiFi antennas nested in handles that don't really look like handles, and it not ugly and boring.
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
You can buy this case in the uk from a company called special tech --> http://www.specialtech.co.uk
Ummm your father called -- he wants to diddle your ass again. This time act like you don't like it.
Whoever designed that case is a genious. Congratulations. Maybe the folks who designed my bigscreen TV could talk to you and find out how to include HANDLES TO HOLD THE DAMN THING!.
Great job on the case though!
No flash? To fscking bad, dweez cause everybody else has. You're left-behind, rolled over ... ignored ...
...point to make, it won't fit in many desks. My "slot" for my desk is 29 centimeters... this thing is 33. Kills me ever getting one (with this desk). Having the cables stick out the side is even worse.
... look at it from the top down... what does it kinda resemble? Makes me think of the austin powers movie ... wow it looks like a big, woody...
Ok, now for something completely original... think about it
FLR
The Sun Blade 1000 and 2000s have the motherboard oriented the normal way. The back is wider though because the power supply is huge and takes the whole "sidecar" portion of the case. There are some older HP cases like this.
Fuck Beta. Fuck Dice
from the design, this case can only sit to the right of the user. If you put it to the left, you get fans facing you, along with having to wrap the cables around the back.
Colossians 2:8
Looks Like A Space-Heater.
There's a very good need for handles on your case. They're called LAN parties.
A PC with a backpack.
A single Mica washer behing the transistors stops the mains voltage getting to the water.
Did they earth the water pipes... Nah...
What about condensation? Mica washers are very very thin. It would be so easy for a water drop on the cold water pipe to bridge the gap.
They should really have changed to isolated tab transistors.
And hook up that earth connection to that copper pipe... It's what it's there for... To stop you killing yourself.
If you can't be bothered to google it, try zalman - They are meant to be the best for quiet PC business. The next PC I get will definitly be a silent one (which they purportedly do), my current one sounds a bit like a hurricane! :)
---
"An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind" - Gandhi
Am I the only one that sees this case lacks an exhast fan by the CPU? How well can this thing transfer heat if the air near the CPU can't escape?
First, your IDE cables have to reach a LOT farther than they would in a normal case -- at least twice as far. Second, your IDE cables would be stretching over your PCI cards. Third, in this configuration the power connectors for the board, fans, and CPU are as far away from the powersupply as you can get. I'm assuming their PSU has super-extra-long cables, but again, those cables are hanging across everything else, and some of us like to swap up to better-quality PSUs in the machines we build -- PSUs which do not normally have ultra-mega-long cables. Fourth, with the positioning of the PCI cards, you're working right up against the vertical tower portion of the case -- not a huge hassle, but something that a 180 would have fixed. Fifth, all those extra-long cables wadded up inside will impede airflow.
Slashdot quality declines as the number of hot grits posts decreases. - Provolt's Law, Apr-09-2005
Well, having used 1e6 different cases over the years, I have to say I like this one.
I really dig the way you can easily access the entire system like this; fiddling around with the drive connections is a real bitch even in my huge tower - and my water-cooling system doesn't help.
I see two annoyances, though: first off, the grids for the fans cannot be removed. These cheap stamped-out fan openings are quite worthless, impede air flow, make the flow noisy, and look lousy. I always end up cutting them out, and attatching a standard thin wire-grid for the fans.
They do look big enough for the silent 12cm Pabst-fans, though.
Secondly, you're going to get a pocket of hot air in the very top of the case, as I don't see an extractor fan or even an air vent in it.
Definitively need to cut yet another hole in the case for a (silent) fan there as well.
All in all, though, it's a pity I've already got my case , into which I put rather a lot of effort and money ;)
Ciao,
Klaus
Free PC version of ChipWits at http://www.breueronline.de/klaus/chipwits/
The box you bought your shoes in has about the right size.
i've bough one the other day and put my pc bits into it and here's what I think. Pros Looks nice, nice design - great colour (I got the orange one) completely screwless which is great. Good drive bay support, enough for my needs anyway. works well. Cons. Cable clutter isn't reduced at all, it's just as cluttered as any other pc case I've ever used... The back end comes off completely allowing you to place the motherboard and extra cards in it, great idea, except that my ide cable isn't long enough to stretch from the cdrom drive at the top of the case and to my ide zip drive underneath and still stay attached to the motherboard. (the lower hd cables are fine though) Two side fans, aren't quiet but they're not overly noisy. Front panel support is wank though (bit let down) my motherboard MSI kt3 comes with support for front panels like the bluetooth connector and the usb 2 panel and extra sound ports. But they can't connect to the existing front panel on the case (USB and line out, mic)- different connectors. Thus rendering them useless and meaning that the front panel add-ons supplied with the board now have to go at the back - covering two expansion card slots) overall it's a nice case, that looks smart, and is reasonably priced. But doesn't really do all it's cracked up to. I'd love to be able to say that cable clutter was down, but it's not, and I'd love to be able to use the front ports, but I can't. Shame but it is Orange :)
I guess one way to "End cable clutter" is to leave out the cable-connecting when making your annimation!!!
Why stick up for big business?
Why the hell do they make winter coats puffy? ... Because the jacket's padding traps air.
notice the word "padding". That "padding" is insulation (i.e. feathers). Sure, there is some air inside the jacket as well, but the insulation padding is what keeps you warm, not the air around it.
The truth doesn't care what I think.
Shoebox? Way too big.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
"Lightning is a ridiculous example."
One would think that a century after Special Relativity folks would finally have wrapped their brains around the concept of relative. I guess not. Nothing is a good insulator or bad insulator. Things are only good and bad insulators relative to other substances. This is a tautology. It is not open to discussion. If you are under 17 years old, kindly keep your ignorant high school opinions to yourselves.
As for the moron who moderated me as a troll, FUCK YOU, ASSHOLE. If you disagree with me, say so. Don't moderate me to troll because your vocabulary isn't sufficient to make a comprehensible point.
Hic iacet Arthurus, rex quondam rexque futurus.
I want the ports in the back, not the side of the computer.
"What's that thing?"
"Well, it's a highly technical, sensitive instrument we use in
computer repair. Being a layman, you probably can't grasp exactly what
it does. We call it a two-by-four."
-- Jeff MacNelley, "Shoe"
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