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How a Computer Case Is Built
mtxmorph writes "Ever wondered how that pretty case on your desk came to be? Tom's Hardware Guide recently took a trip to China to see the production process for the Chenbro XSpider/Gaming Bomb case. Lots of interesting pictures in this detailed article." I must admit, this is far more intriguing than I'd initially thought, if only for the subtle differences in corporate culture. Chenbro employees have the option of living "on campus" in employee housing.
Pretty case on my desktop?
You have to be vision impaired to like a plain white box with no distinguishing features.
In fact it's the ugliest thing in my room.
Slashdot Sig. version 0.1alpha. Use at your own risk.
Anyone else read the Microserf book? Same thing as the campus living and whatnot...
Oh and here is the Google Cache of the Chenbro site, its already getting slow!!
Pretty cool article though... I'm suprised at the amount of work that goes into one.
Tom's Hardware: How are you gentlemen?
Chenbro: What you say?
Tom's Hardware: Someone set us up the Gaming Bomb Case
> Ever wondered how that pretty case on your desk
> came to be?
No. I've seen a sheet-metal brake in action.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
All those *happy* employees.
Something along the lines of "Smile or get Shot" I assume...
Didn't I read the article on Tom's Hardware last week or something? Meh, I like the pictures anyway.
These are nice, pretty boxes but I can't wonder how long after modders have got there hands on them they will have twin exausts and go faster stripes. By doing that they should be able to get to at least 4Ghz :)
Rus
Cheap UK and US VPS
Never fear, the ever emerging trend of ubiquitous computing will solve that.
More like the employees are pleased to work for a (comparitively in China) high wage employer rather than slave on a farm and die from poverty. Industrialisation is the best thing that has happened to the people of China.
--
FreeNET user? Comfortable with the adverse selection?
The "living on campus" (what is considered by /. readers as a great thing) is not that great. The site is too slow so I can't read the article, though I do know a bit about China factories (living in Hong Kong and having visited a few myself, Hong Kong is part of the Guangdong province, Dongguan is one of the larger cities there). There is an important dark site to this whole China production work.
The workers often come from far away - all the way from the west is not uncommon. These people come to the east because of the 'good' salaries (typically about 20 RMB per day, or USD2.5, 12 hour days, 7 days a week), to make money and after a year or a few years move back to their village having saved a bit to live from. The working conditions are often harsh, poorly lit rooms, dusty, hot, etc.
They live on campus, often in single room appartments with shared facilities. Food is provided as well, the fee is normally around USD30 a month. Cheap, for you, but it is half of their salary! And all the rooms have strong iron bars - mainly against theft.
Margins for these factories are also often really low - cents to the dollar. As a result workers are sometimes treated as slaves, I read regularly stories about this in the Hong Kong newspapers. About workers making just enough to pay for their own stay and the contract cost (often have to pay a commission to a middle man to get the job), and not being allowed to leave the factory. Breach of the one year contract would cost them a fine of about two months salary.
The products coming from China are wonderful, and wonderfully cheap. Labour cost in China is low - China is now in the middle of the industrial revolution Europe and USA had in the 1800s. With all the poor working conditions and pollution included.
This is something to realise the next time you buy a case, or another product "made in China"! There is a lot to improve here.
Wouter.
Don't kid yourself. China is a poor agrarian country, with many of their people in poverty that would shock a westerner. The workers that land skilled factory jobs like these are taking a huge step forward in their qulaity of life. They more than likely have substantial discretionary income and free time to enjoy it, compared to thsoe that still labor on small farms. Their income is reasonably assured, they have access to health care and education, they have good housing.
The "happy peasant" is a romantic notion with little or no basis in fact. For people living in third world conditions, these jobs represent a quantum leap.
huh? in order to put my case on my desk I'd have to make a hole in the ceiling!
(i've posted this as Anonymous Coward already)
I really don't see how anyone would be interested in how a computer case is built. There is nothing complex or interesting about computer cases. What am I missing?
It's just that for some reason the editors decided to link to www6. Just try other numbers, for example, I read it on www4. Links:
www4
www5
Hmm. In the 17th century, they put madmen and beggars and criminals to work for no pay in some manufacture or workshop, putting other people (who got paid for working) out of work. History repeating?
Hell is not other people; it is yourself. - Ludwig Wittgenstein
It can be had for 40 bucks here:
9 40 ,.shtml
http://www.bensbargains.net/ktalk/1065831211,22
Looks kinda like a spider, I guess.
Shouldn't all literate people know how something simple like this is designed, tested, and constructed? If you can read this sentence but don't know how to fashion a trivial metal box, ask for a refund on your education.
"The employees can come and go from the campus when they are not working to shop and explore the local community."
That's a little to liberal for my likingLike David Stellmack (author), I've only ventured overseas once, though it was to Singapore. Same smiling-faces phenomenon. I asked a girl at a school we were visiting why everyone smiled, and she said they'd been told to!
Over and over again, this writeup seemed like it came from a FUD factory. I'm sure that these cases are outstanding -- however, statements like
unless you buy a quality product you are wasting your money.
are pure drivel. Buying a $100 case for middle-of-the-road or lower requirements is a waste of money. A machine used to run your OS and assorted apps, with generic HD, motherboard, processor, and drive components does not require a high quality case. Spending $100 on one is simply a waste of dough... and not the converse, as the Tom's journalist -- or Ken -- would have you believe.
Support a few technologists in Washington.
Get an advertisement on Toms hardware?
I'm not sure I caught any of the FUD, after about the first 3 paragraphs I gave up reading the words and just looked at the pweddy pictures... Horrid stuff even if he doesn't get paid over at THG, sending him to China (or should I say letting him come back) is too much of a reward for that piece of drivel.
Notice the bubble wrap that is used to protect Ken Stallman from readers throwing their old cases at him
What? You got a small case or something?
If Mr. Edison had thought smarter he wouldn't sweat as much. --Nikola Tesla
Chenbro employees have the option of living "on campus" in employee housing.
There is a word for that - sweatshop.
tie him down, pull his pants down and don't arouse him too much or you logo will shrink instead of grow.
This space is intentionally staring blankly at you
The employees can come and go from the campus when they are not working
What a progressive company. They certainly do have a great compensation package there.
Free cell phone tracking
Only cases that are hard tooled offer the best levels of quality consistency from case to case. This does not mean that cases produced using soft tooling are inferior, but consistent quality is difficult to control with soft tooling; and the additional time and labor that is required to produce quality soft tooled cases means that manufacturers must charge more for cases made with the soft tooling process to cover their production costs
So let me get this straight.. hard tooling is better and costs less, soft tooling is worse and costs more? Hmm... sounds a bit like an ad to me. "Buy hard tooling.. its better and cheaper" just a coincidence this company happens to use hard tooling. There must be some cost benifit to using soft tooling, otherwise no one would do it. "Passing on additional production costs" is bullshit IMHO.
I.O.U One Sig.
As a software engineer specializing in user-interface design, I don't believe the computer's enclosure is where the user's attention should be focused. "Oooh ... shiny!" So what? A computer user spends most of his time looking at the screen anyway: the case has no purpose other than to support some parts. And the truth is that, whether it be cars, computers, or women, it's what's under the hood that counts.
... that's way cool ... how'd you get it to do that?" The desire for more positive feedback of that nature drives us to do even better next time. So if you really want to stand out from the computing crowd, learn coding and do something cool and useful that the rest of us can enjoy, and you'll really impress us. Your shiny new plastic computer case with the electroluminescent panels stuck all over it will not. Put the money into a faster processor or a better video board instead, or better yet some programming classes at your local college.
It's just ego, really, and the desire to be thought well of by other people. Now, I'm not deriding the ego trip, in and of itself. In the right context, it can be highly motivating. I mean, most of us programmers love to have someone in our own field look at our work and say "Hey
To be honest, if some manufacturer were to make a case that blended in with the rest of my office (say, a nice dark woodgrain finish that would match my desk) I'd be first in line to buy it. Some years ago I did something like that. I bought some wood-grain contact paper and covered a mini-tower with it, and spraypainted the front panel a matching color. It looked very nice, fit right in with the rest of the decor. Hm. I may have to try that again, now that you got me thinking about it.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
RTFA
You will notice in some of the pictures the employees are not wearing proper protective equipment. This is most evident in the paint booths and in spot/projection welding processes. This was the employees' choice, as they wanted to be "seen" in our pictures without their masks or goggles. Once my camera appeared, everyone wanted to be included in the photos for this article, and my presence generated a lot of attention and excitement. Chenbro does provide proper safety equipment for their employees and they are required to wear it -- except when an American with a camera is snapping their photos. We were all over the factory with a camera for two days, so the "word" spread that it was a photo op. As you can see, the Chenbro employees loved having their picture taken
Though weather you beleive this is up to you...
Slashdot - The one stop shop for procrastination
Ya I just skimmed the article, I hate reading pages and pages of boring text. Thanks for pointing out that tidbit of text. It kinda makes sense. If I worked next to machinery I would go buy my own saftly googles if they did not provide then.
I hate the US goverment hatred for the "commies" in China. I wish China the best of luck over these tough times to make their country better.
Nobody would read Tom's. It's geared towards gamers with more money than common sense, who are convinced they need to spend as much as possible, and want to impress all their lamer, I mean gamer, friends, with their big shiny bright green case.
I have blog like everyone else
Well, you haven't been to China, right?
Finally had a chance to see the pictures. What are you talking about?
There were no child workers at all. The youngest girl I saw was probably 18. Asians look younger than Europeans at the same age.
The shirts they were wearing were company uniforms.
You can tell a great deal about the character of a man by observing those who hate him.
Well, I guess they do this to prisoners everywhere. But I don't think there's any big problems with prison workshops putting 'ordinary decent people' out of work. I mean, there aren't too many things you can produce using quite low-tech tools and not too skilled workforce (though they can make weapons out of nothing).
Hell is not other people; it is yourself. - Ludwig Wittgenstein
There were a couple of funny details in the article -- like how it reads like Engrish in some places, and how task manager was displayed on a PC to make it look important.
I was facinated with the manufacturing process but I wouldn't want to spend more than a few hours in the place. It is hard to imagine those employees to spending the majority of their time in such an ugly factory "being extremely proud of their work". But it just means that the security of such jobs is far better for them than their alternatives. So if you have a better job, be grateful!
How would "all literate people know how something simple like this is designed, tested, and constructed" if articles such as this didn't exist to tell them?
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
Its a good article in that is shows that even the simplest parts of our computers have a lot of time invested in their design and manufacturer. Too many people see some elements of their PCs are "overpriced" when compared to others. As in "why should this piece cost so much when it doesn't do as much as this other one"
//China// do take manufacturing seriously. It is only logical for them to invest in QA as it is will provide the basis for a lasting economy. You can go only so far many "cheap third world" items, and China obviously has ambitions beyond that status.
There are some interesting points in the article, provided you ignore the overbearing emphasis on quality assurances. I think the heavy focus on QA in this article is an attempt to show the readers that they
At least they were upfront about the fact that windowed cases can't pass an RF test. Sometimes this had side effects the buyers don't realize, to include inteference of cordless phones, radios, tvs, cell phones, monitors, and even dsl modems. Let alone what all that RF does to you (would be interesting to see how much exposure does do to some of these users - I have seen cases right on desktop with the windowed side facing the owner)
Informercial aspects aside its still interesting. I have 3 cases here, and its evident which ones are produced with more care. That care isn't done for just our benefit, it does come back to their bottom line.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
As far as I'm concerned, Western companies can't compete against China not just because of the low salaries, but because the government provides benefits beyond what most people receive here. It's an artificial government boost that should IMO be compensated for with trade sanctions. When will people realize that this is part and parcel of why tech is dying in the US, Canada and Europe?
I was looking at the stamping/folding gear - No company in the US would be allowed stamping/folding gear like that! It is possible for someone to get a limb in the press, and get it folded or stamped, or to put fingers ABOVE the working area where things are moving
OSHA would throw a fit - which is why the cases are made in China
I remember a factory that had a die press. It had a metal cage around it, and full safeties - the operator had to close the door, and use a 2 button (one for each hand) activation, as is standard. OSHA still giged them. You see, there was a 3 inch gap at the floor. They said it was possible for a person with really long arms to lay down on the floor, slip their arm under the gates, rotate their arm up, and JUST get their fingertips on the die surface. Then another person could trip the press, crushing their fingers (Like the other person isn't going to see the person laying there?)
Yes, you have to protect workers from ACTIVELY trying to hurt themselves - protection against passive errors or stupidity is not enough. Heck, OSHA would gig the factory for the guy taking of the goggles for the photos! There was recently a case where a subcontractor's employee didn't wear eye proctection eye thought both the subcontractor AND the prime contractor supplied eye proctection and ORDERED the guy not to take them off, and in fact, the prime had suspended the worker a few times for taking them off. Guy gets injured - the sun and the prime's insurance Co's had to pay
-- 73 de KG2V For the Children - RKBA! "You are what you do when it counts" - the Masso
It's pretty obvious that this 'journalist' is following along in the lines of the 'journalists' who visited the Soviet Union in the 1930's, getting pampered treatment and blue-ribbon factory tours.
The history of what really went on in factories and villages in the USSR is now becoming well known. Let's not repeat history.
A Good Intro to NetBS
Is there a shortage of moderators today?
Slashdot monitor for your Mozilla sidebar or Active Desktop.
Is it just me or did we just slashdot tom? I can't seem to load pages beyond the intro.
Sometimes I wish I was a plumber, then I'd know how to deal with other people's shit.
Here, one of the Chenbro employees is re-working the die to implement an engineering change required to improve product quality. Chenbro is continually looking for ways to improve the quality and consistency of their products.
Give me a nondescript case that sits off in the corner, doesnt make a sound, and has everything I need in a small container, and I will be happy, I don't like these ugly cases.
I want my desk to only contain my KB, Mouse, and my 3 head LCD setup. it speaks volumes, and is alot sexier that some hideously designed case whirring like a jet engine, taking up space and not matching anything.
moo.
No matter how hard you work nor the time that it takes to build one if the end product is just ugly! I mean look at the case design of apple products (i.e. G5), and you'll see what i mean by that. Design plays equal role as does engineering. G5 for example uses state of the art anodizing process called Microplasmic anodizing that coats material (i.e. of G5 -- Aluminum alloy) and makes it as twice as harder than steel. You can read more about this process at http://www.microplasmic.com One more thing that this article ignores is design part. The Innovation and education of Design team is not something that has to be ignored, look at the Apple design team lead by Jonathan Ive.
if u really dont like ur case why dont u mod it. its great fun. see www.casemods.com
end;
Yes, they are so far beghind US, but they are stealing the jobs. Did you see the number of laboreers? Working in the same factory living there? It is astonishing how we can buy somethin made in China, and dont ask our selfs in how much risk we have put life of humans that do not have any safety precautions. Also I cant belive how fast companies are moving China. Lower costs? Ok, but you are taking jobs from here, and you are puting Chinese to work, some times under infra-human conditions... Not fair...
"Ever wondered how that pretty case on your desk came to be?"
not really, no.
"You will notice in some of the pictures the employees are not wearing proper protective equipment. This is most evident in the paint booths and in spot/projection welding processes. This was the employees' choice, as they wanted to be "seen" in our pictures without their masks or goggles. Once my camera appeared, everyone wanted to be included in the photos for this article, and my presence generated a lot of attention and excitement. Chenbro does provide proper safety equipment for their employees and they are required to wear it -- except when an American with a camera is snapping their photos. We were all over the factory with a camera for two days, so the "word" spread that it was a photo op. As you can see, the Chenbro employees loved having their picture taken." I can almost hear the briefcases full of money clicking open.
In Soviet Russia, beowulf clusters imagine YOU!
I think just about all the latest cases are so damn ugly. Stupid window panels, layered on plastic to make it "look" hi-tech. Stupid full front doors. Ughh.
Give me back the days of the normal mini-tower cases. There was nothing wrong with the old cases except the materials they were made out of, sharp edges steel, not very good circulation, hard to remove drive bay and pci slot covers, no front access USB/firewire/sound connectors, and all the same color. But the overall look of the minitower cases was just fine. My new pc will be a basic black case made out of aluminum. It is so hard to find basic black cases that are built well though.
Don't they have the "smile and wave or get fired" thing over at USA's Disney parks too?
I think we have proof that safety == loss of American jobs. Think about that next time you vote for the democrat union workers. Democrats constantly push for a "safer" environment for union workers yet they are doing nothing but screwing you in the long run by causing these jobs to be moved to China and other more enlightened countries where these stupid rules don't apply.
Sometimes in the US, safety laws indeed do go overboard. For example, the company still has to pay you injury compensation even if it was CLEARLY the employee's stupidity or blatant disregard for safety rules that got them hurt. This is ridiculous. Our legal system and labor laws reward idiots too easily.
Table-ized A.I.
Sending this kind of work to countries that commit attrocities against their people are not countries that we should be praising.
Tom's HW article is drivel and FUD akin to Red Cross visits to German and Japanese prison camps during WWII.
To Copy from One is Plagiarism; To Copy from Many is Research.
I'm sorry guys, but after the disaster that [H]ardOCP had with THG regarding the rollout of the Amthlon64 processor during quakecon 2003, I wont be viewing that site for some time.. Maybe never!
First rule of holes; When in one, stop digging.
Wow, I just finished reading that "article" and it seemed to be more of an advertisement than an objective analysys.
They probably just had to lie/tell half the truth.
Talk about all the good things and none of the bad.
Remember that TV show? I could sure enjoy seeing it's return given today's trash television programming. It could have Temptation Island's timeslot IMHO.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
I'd like to see the process of creating a PowerMac G5 case, or somthing from IBM, since they create most of the stuff that they use, unlike Sony, Toshiba, etc.
Sig: I stole this sig.
It's one thing to bandy about lines like "child labor" and "forced to work 12 hour days" and such, but the pictures don't lie. It may very well be that there are many many sweat shops in China, but how can you say this is one? I think some people have an ax to grind and will avoid the facts at all costs to make their point. For Christ's sake, look at the pictures: Any 12 year olds working there? Please. There are many factories in the US that are far worse then this.
Where did these Chinese people get names like Jerry, Johnny, Kevin, Ken, Jim, etc? Don't they have _real_ names? Why does everyone think English is so cool?
My other car is first.
Like the ones in microwave ovens should be able to pass the test. That would be a new market too.
We are Turing O-Machines. The Oracle is out there.
For those that actually want to follow the link above remove the space between the zero and the comma.
Linux Works
Mmmmmm...
Sorry, couldn't resist. I'll leave now.
Show me on the doll where his noodly appendage touched you.
Well, y'know, it's an article about Chenbro. So... If you wrote an article about, say, Ford, or Intel, you might talk a lot about Intel this and Intel that. In fact, Tom's did an article back in the day where they toured an AMB fab, and you know? They said 'AMD' a whole lot there too! That said, while I strongly doubt cash money was exchanged, I expect Chenbro paid airfare and so on.
Fuck me, could this shit have been a more blatant commercial for some fucking case manufacturer? Was the THG schmuck assigned a full time fluffer to make sure he had a raging hardon the entire fucking time?
..... As the name implies, gravy is used to join folds of meat together and create a beautiful fur fucking rug." Good thing someone mentioned exactly what "hot melting" means. I thought cold melting. Then I thought that maybe it had something to do with Republicans and naked pictures of the Baby Jesus. No! It has to do with hot melting. That god for people to tell me EVERYTHING.
And for christ's sake, who the fuck is the fifth grader that writes the captions? How many of the things start out with "As you can see" or "As with this", "as with that"? Well thank you very fucking little as I don't need to be told that I can see something. If it's so fucking Obvious, then why the fuck does the fifth grader need to tell me that I can see it? Logic would hold that it isn't too fucking obvious, as you can clearly see, if someone has to tell you you can see it. Good god, that drove me up the fucking wall.
Here's the sentence to end all sentences, and proof that some people just don't know a fucking thing about writing. WHERE'S THE FUCKING EDITOR?
"The hot melting process is used to secure and join the plastic together. As the name implies, heat is used to melt and secure the parts into place. "
THE FUCKING NAME IMPLIES IT? IT JUST DON'T FUCKING IMPLY IT! IT IS IS IS IS IT. WHAT THE FUCK WILL HOT MELT MEAN OTHER THAN HOT FUCKING MELT?
"The hot melting process is used
I could send a monkey to China with a note: "Dear China, rub shit on this monkey and send him home with a computer case" and get a more coherent objective view of some metal-fab place with political prisioner housing on site.
Wow.
What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey
cold you please supply some url's documenting the problems with Chenbro?
This was not an objective article. THG was invited to goto the factory. They talk about how many people ask them how cases are made... you know what? I think that's bull. I think nobody asked them, they just bit the shiny hook that Chenbro dangled, and we're now eating fish.
This is an advertisement, disguised as an article, with very little content.
"I will trust Google to 'do no evil' until the founders no longer run it." Hello Alphabet.
the whole article, interesting as it was, seemed like an infomercial or something, similiar to the one that appeared on slashdot the other day about data recovery
every sentence seemed to have been penned to cast Chenbro in the purest possible light, with continued empathsis as to the superior quality and commitment of the workers.
if tom's hardware started to show this kind of bias in it's reviews it would quickly turn heads.
it almost seemed like the journalist didn't bother with writing the article himself and just got one of Chenbro's copywriters to do it for him.
This UID is 7651 digits too high to subjectively infer IQ from.
From prototyping to manufacturing I fail to see how difficult is it to build a metal box
The ambient temperature is slightly lower under the desk (at least it is under my desk at home - 6 foot conference table, tubular legs) because of the marginally lower altitude within the indoor environment, also because of the greater distance from the ambient heat from the monitor. During most of the year, particularly the winter months, the temperature is significantly lower at floor level, at least at my house (slab foundation, ceramic tile floor, no carpet or rug).
The downside to this situation, of course, is an increased level of dust and/or pet dander. Regular maintenance can control these problems.
While this might seem to minimize the aesthetic benefit of a "pretty case," that isn't necessarily so; what's really unattractive (in my room at least) are the numerous stacks of O'Reilly books, VHS tapes, DVDs and Dr. Dobb's Journal magazines, plus the 20 or so speakers, 4 subwoofers and the three 19" monitors. Oh, and the whiteboard on the wall, covered with multicolored scrawlings. Did I mention the old bedsheets used as window curtains? Those velcro cable ties from CaseLogic make great curtain tiebacks!
A nice-looking PC tower might help to distract (albeit only slightly) from the rest of the unholy mess.
Thank goodness for OpenGL screensavers! A bit of psychedelic culture in my hopelessly geeky life!
"A generation which ignores history has no past and no future." -- Robert Heinlein