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17" Monitor Case Modding -- The "iMike"
greyrax writes "So what does a Canadian cabinet maker who's a closet techie do during those long winter months? You modify a 17" monitor case to house your computer (think iMac).
The blow-by-blow descriptions and pictures outline this three-month project. The only question that I'm left with is 'What is that antenna for?'"
I understand that he's got skills, but the difference between this and an Apple product is that Apple products reek of sex appeal. You know, they have gorgeous curves, feminine touches, and the colors work together really well. When a woman walks into your home office and sees a bunch of Apple gear, she says "Oooo, pretty. You've got great taste." When she sees this, she's speechless, and not in a good way.
This thing is a farm implement. It's a high-quality farm implement, and I admire his work ethic, but it's still a farm implement.
What's your damage, Heather?
Kind of reminds me of the green color Acer used to make some of their computers. Maybe if he used a satin finish paint instead of the really glossy paint. Another thing I would change... Why would you put the audigy panel centered above the monitor? Maybe this guy bought a soundcard that he won't use nearly a quarter of the features on, but still if you want to plug in your head phones the cord will dangle down unless you secure it. Just my two cents...
Be a man! View at -1
acm.cs.uwec.edu
Actually, I think he picked the completely wrong design. You couldn't offer to do that to my computer for free. I'm impressed by his ability to solve various problems and make a working unit and he did a great job of being thorough, but I don't want it. For me, the biggest reason is that the whole point of the iMac and Macs in general are for understated elegance of design. The point is to actually remove everything that you don't need immediately. All those ports and drives and access ports should be off to the side of the monitor, not right in the front. It gives the whole thing a Battlestar Galactica look that I'd prefer not to have. I only want to see the display and I'm willing to live with a CD tray. I look at my computer, with my mid-tower is underneath. My only interfaces to the computer are the monitor, keyboard, and mouse, with occasional access to the CD-R drive -- a computer should be built with that in mind.
Companies already make all-in-one machines that are smaller footprint (not much bigger than just an LCD monitor). It doesn't have everything as roll-your-own, but the trade-off is small enough that I'd prefer to have form over function.