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Design-Your-Own Computer Case Kits
lord black writes "I was walking the aisles of the local Fry's and discovered a nifty computer-case-erector-set-thingy. Made by Aero Cool, the Lubic kit is basically a bunch of aluminum rails, acrylic panels (for mounting hardware to), and misc. screws to connect it all, for constructing a unique computer case. They have a gallery of example cases. BTW, Aero Cool also makes neat CPU coolers."
Server errors are _much_ cooler in Chinese...
For some odd reason I read that as a Lubric Kit for mounting hardware and screws :-/
Took me a while to realize that they were talking of the other kind of hardware.
They have a gallery of example cases.
You mean, "had a gallery!"
Make-your-own computer cases: When ricing up a shitty car isn't enough.
So where can I buy a kit?
I have had one of these similar kits for years now!
Some links that actually work:
The cases.
The coolers.
The company.
Don't thank me; thank Google.
Kid-proof tablet..
From my perspective, I don't know if there's really much difference between blow-blow and blow-suck. (Gawd I love out of context quotes!) ;P
Un-news
Oh, wait, this is Slashdot. Like those spermies are ever going to end up anywhere but a tissue anyway.....
When I tried to view the pics the site had already been ./'ed. Here's the google cache for the
Lubic Gallery of Case Mods
Both are just about equally worthless. Both cost ridiculous sums of money for products eventually become worthless. It looks good, but is mostly a makeup for the user's own inadequacies. These modders just love to tell you about their mods and show it off, as if everybody else should care.
Slashdot Moderation: From positive to terrible in 2 "insightful" posts.
Tweaknews.net did a review of the Lubic kit last month. Apparently it's not as easy to use as an erector set, but it's still a cool product for case modders.
eclecti.cc
There's probably a better listing somewhere but I stumbled across this one recently. Could become an art form. Then again, maybe not.
No, it's Chinese. Taiwan (AKA The Republic of China) is a small island off the coast of China which was founded by the Nationalists after the Communist party took over the rest of China.
I don't really think there exists a country which would put their error messages in Sanskrit. Sanskrit is an Indian language, and Hindi and English are far more likely to be spoken there.
"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity." -- Hanlon's Razor
How did this get modded up?
p sticks.shtml for just one reference.) And Michaelangelo was commissioned to paint, among other things, the Sistine Chapel during his lifetime.
Chopsticks were certainly NOT invented in the U.S. (See http://www.cuisinenet.com/digest/region/china/cho
Well, the Japanese site is already slashdotted (at least, I think it is, seeing as I can't read Japanese) and the American site doesn't have examples of what you can build from the kit. Doesn anyone know if you can build a smaller form-factor case from this kit. One that would, say, hold the inards of an Xbox snuggly?
where the comment ends and sig begins
Now I had a quick look at the .us site and the first thing I thought was "Orac!".
;-)
Go on, put your hands up, you know who you are (fellow old farts)
People who are 'in the know' shunt around the whole Taiwan/China controversey by referring to that island as Formosa. Formosa is the Dutch colonial name for the island, so it pisses off all the different factions of Chinese equally to call it that.
A Good Intro to NetBS
Why geeks can dump hundreds of dollars into what is effectively a glorified box, but can lay only excuses on a cause like Wikipedia's survival.
I followed the link, but I came away with more questions than answers, unfortunately.
...
Two-fan solution
Suggestion from the manufacturer: use blow-blow direction will perform better than blow-suck.
That made my damn day....
Looks like the real cool that these fellows need is not in the aesthetics of their finished product, but in their server farm which is causing 2nd-degree burns to anyone within 5 ft. of their "cool" cases.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
I rrecently upgraded my case from the POS that I had before. While shopping for the new case, I ran across these kits. While they sound interesting, (and I'd give them props for the concept if it weren't for the legos and erector sets that had it long before them) The finished products from their gallery are rather dissapointing visually.
I am an art major, so that might have something to do with my bias, but as far as I can tell, you'd get much better results visually with a couple sheets of plexi, your saw of choice, a dremel and some acrylic joining compound, (I use IPS Weld-on 3... got it from http://www.tapplastics.com ) In my mind, the latter setup will give you alot more flexibility in your case than a pre-made kit.
of course, i could just have looked at the gallery and gotten dissapointed too quickly to really make a fair critique of the product. *shrug*
"Operating systems suck: you're better off using only the BIOS" --trainsaw.com
Wow, those chinese 404s (they are 404 errors, right?) look great with those multi-language fonts in OS X.
:)
Man, I've never been able not to understand something so clearly
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
Michelangelo WAS able to sell his works. Are you forgetting David? Are you forgetting the Sistine Chapel? The Laurentian Library? The Medici Tombs? The Last Judgment? If anything, he was very successful. Leave it to pretentious geeks to spew out bullshit on the bullshit capital of the Net: Slashdot.
A blog like any other.
1. Ergonomics is key and bridges the real world and the virtual world of the GUI.
I'm sorry, but cutting windows into a case and filling it with flashing blue lights makes it look like a K-Mart. It has NOTHING to do with ergonomics.
Personally, when I work on my computer, I only need to look at the screen. The last thing I want to look at is a distracting CPU case. My CPU is discreetly tucked away in a rack with a door that's usually closed. Unless I need to burn a CD, I never have to look at it or listen to it.
That's right. I am.
With how cheap beef is, I'm going to have the best tasting case on the planet.
And I won't boot in windows, or else it will perform like it has Mad Cow Disease and get the neighbors upset.
People "in the know" should realize that Formosa was the Portuguese name for the island, not Dutch.
Man, are those cases UGLY. A giraffe case? Come on...
Presonally, I'd like to see a case that looks like a Philco Predicta television.
The links do work fine, you just cant click on them, I guess they didnt want to get slashdoted so they banned slashdot as a referer. Just copy and paste.
snowulf.com
Chinese manufacturers sometimes have real gems in the names of their products. Like Asrock motherboards - every time i see one of those, goatse guy comes to mind. Or the VIAGra chipsets. No kidding - google
Wonderful, I forgot slashdot doesn't automatically add BR tags. ah well.
I am a filthy pirate.
1.) AGP slot that has a special opening for giant sized fans
2.) allowing multiple power supply
3.) allowing as many as 8 fans on the side.
4.) enable water cooling to graphics card and cpu
5.) water tank that can be refilled externally
6.) convenient screwless case
7.) case that can slide the entire motherboard out easily without any recabling
8.) 10 external and 10 internal bays
9.) firewire, usb and headphone jack at front
10.) case opens up top conveniently for cooling
Damn I can go on forever.
I have seen few of those small ones. They already came prebuilt with motherboard, CPU, etc
They did have a cd burner with them - one of them laptop-style things. And the power supply was a separate AC adapter if I recall correctly.
The whole thing was about the size of the Xbox system. Really nice looking but dont know how reliable they are.
I dont remember the manufacture but you can probably find many of those on google or ebay.
The size of an xbox system?
No no, I want it SMALL - As in, if you doubled the size of a CDROM drive or something.
I am a filthy pirate.
Newt-dog
My Doctor prescribed daily nasal saline irrigation, hehe
I searched google a bit.
Did not find the exact thing - cant remember the name of it. But came across this small guy. It is somewhat pricey, but i am sure you can find cheaper versions given enough time. I dont know if you can get much smaller without going to Pentium 2 or lower class machines.
Look here.
They call themselves World`s smallest PC`s and they damn sure got some small guys.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Wow, wonder what state you're in. Never met anyone online who has a frys in their area.
Using enough sterotypes?
Case modding isn't just taking a standard case then adding a window and lights. Rather case ricers are a vocal subset of case modding.
There are many other types of case modding:
1. HiFi - Modified to reduce noise.
2. Overclocker - modified to increase cooling.
3. Art - modified to be an expression of the owner, in much the same way as art cars. This is distinct from tarting up.
4. Disguise - many people shoehorn PCs in to cases that look nothing like a PC. eg: R/C car body
5. Geekiness - modifying case for additional capabilities, eg: tracked R/C case, with built in UPS.
Anyway I thought ricers were typically not liked because they tried to make a car look "fast", without any performance improvement. That is not the same as making a car look "pretty". I've not yet heard a case ricer claim that their cosmetic changes made their computer faster.
In other words, "You keep using that term, I don't think it means what you think it means."
Here is perhaps a starting point: mini-itx.com. I have no clue how good the store is, but they at least list specs and names so you can look around for the best site to buy the cases from.
There is always a project box from RadioShack, good for building your own small projects. There might be one that will fit your needs.
Remember, Google is your friend: search for project boxes
Sapere aude!
whereas a "type-R" badge on a car that was never offered in that version or a giant spoiler that doesn't produce any downforce, just makes the owner look like an idiot who doesn't know anything about cars.
a better comparison would be twords people who have "show cars". You probably think anything beyond a functional beige case is just as retarded as putting LCD screens in the headrests of a 2 seater car (where nobody can see them) and an extra one in the trunk.
------ Work is so much easier when you don't
5.) water tank that can be refilled externally
This quality in a case freaks me out a bit for some reason. I like the case though
Why do I have this? I don't smoke.
At the end of WWII, there were about 6 millions Taiwanese. From 1945-1949, about 2 million Nationalist troops and civilian refugees arrived from China
While that had been a tragic event and impacted the Taiwanese who were already there. The Nationalist/KMT hardly founded Taiwan.
...that clear plastic bi-plane with RAM slots I say in Fry's actually has some redeeming value?
looks like it'd be really noisy and susceptible to dust and whatnot cuz nothing's covered. No protection for any of the components.
If you build your own case you had better be careful that the fans and other components are positioned so that you get good airflow around the stuff that gets hot. Case designers spend a lot of time verifying that their boxes won't overheat and it's sometimes not at all obvious how the air is going to move.
"Cat/Dog/Child encounters 5000 RPM CPU cooling fan in open 'erector-set' computer case, owner/parents sue for $10M."
This does definitely not appear to be critter or chillin friendly. I saw it at Fry's too (set up as an airplane), and that's the first thing that went through my head.
To sell this nowadays, those guys must have some really good liability insurance.
I'm curious if I could use this kit to make a chasis for the 8 drives I have on my firewire bus. I use WiebeTech's (http://www,wiebetech.com) drivedocks, and just stick them one on top of the other at the moment (using the plastic spacers they provide), but a purpose built chasis with some fans, and a place to mount the firewire hub would be really neat.
Max.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I saw a mod on TechTV where they put the comptuer in a machine gun cartridge box. OK, what is the point of this? It doesn't make you cool, it just makes you the idiot who wasted countless hours with a Dremmel Powertool modifying a tin can to house his computer.
I'm not criticizing someone who wants to create a new space-saving circuit board design or something. That makes sense and takes some engineering skill.
This particular product seems more than a little silly with the designes that are just rails, not becasue I am concerned about electromagnetic radiation, but because I am concerned with dropping stuff on my motherboard. I thought that was the point of the case, otherwise, just lay the crap out on your desk and use it. It's a hell of a lot easier to switch hardware with it not in a case.
Maybe the grammar nazi did get it, but chose to ignore it because it allowed him to bring in the word "plankeye". I have to admit, it's a pretty cool word. I can just see him champing at the bit (chomping? champing? what-the-fuck-ever) to use it.
Furry cows moo and decompress.
All these cases are neat. Though I hate to be a killjoy, it's what I do best.
How is RFI suppression handled in these clear plastic cases?
Keeping your computer case closed to RF is generally a good idea.
Fire and Meat. Yummy.
But why do people insist on paying rediclous amounts of money for something that doesn't increase performance?
For the same reason that someone will buy a Ferrari for $80K that is slower in the 1/4 mile than some Honda the Ricers build for $20K.
It has to do with enlargement, IMO. And I don't mean spam.
If you wanted more flexibility than you get from a kit, you could try 80/20 aluminum extrusion. They have various hardware, plastic panels, etc.
Self-building a system, especially with a creative enclosure, is never a Bad Thing. However, there is one very important -- I would even say 'critical' -- aspect of doing so that no one seems to be paying attention to, and it applies to ANY computer case that is not a full wrap-around all-metal enclosure.
Specifically: Unless you take explicit steps to electrically shield the transparent parts, the enclosure will never meet FCC Part 15 requirements for not radiating RF energy, or being susceptible to outside RFI (Radio Frequency Interference).
Here's the filthy details, and some more info on why this is a Bad Thing. Early computer systems and peripherals were classed as "Unintentional Radiators" under part 15.3(z) of the FCC regs. Later, as processor speeds climbed, an additional category of 'Digital Device' was created under part 15.3(k).
It was under this part that two subclasses were created. You may have heard references to something being a "Class A Computing Device" in the commercial world, or a "Class B Computing Device" in the consumer world. Both of these subclasses have to do with how much RF the device radiates under normal use, and how much potential it has to interfere with other nearby devices, including TV's, stereos, etc. The ARRL's web site has a page that summarizes this, and provides a great explanation on the issue of what 'harmful interference' is, and what the rules say about responsibility for solving issues involving it.
The Reader's Disgust version is this: Sure, you can build your computer into the flashiest Lexan-and-Aluminum enclosure you can find. You can equip it with all kinds of see-through parts, flashing LEDs, and other useless fluff to your heart's content.
HOWEVER -- remember that any material other than metal, solid or mesh, is going to be pretty much transparent to whatever RF energy your system spews into the surrounding environment in the course of its normal operation. If your flashy see-through system causes interference to ANY other RF-using device that is NOT covered by Part 15, to the point where said device cannot operate properly, it is YOUR responsibility to clean it up, electrically speaking.
Transparency to RF is a two-edged sword. You might get incredibly lucky, in that your way-cool see-through system might not be causing any interference at all. But what happens when, just as one example, the ham radio operator next door to you starts transmitting with a 1,000-watt-plus signal? (Yes, we are allowed to use that kind of power, and more).
Another example: What happens if a cop, the paramedics, or anyone else with a portable transceiver happens to transmit with said portable and they happen to be close to your computer at the same time?
Either way, a good chunk of the RF energy from those transmissions are going to go straight into your computer, because all that Lexan is going to let it in like a firehose stream through tissue paper. At best, your system may lock up or reboot unexpectedly. At worst, you could be looking at hard drive corruption.
And guess who's responsible for clearing up the resultant mess? Not the ham radio op. What they're doing is covered very well indeed under FCC Part 97. (That's not to say they'd just tell you to fix it yourself -- most hams are pretty nice about helping you to fix such issues if their transmitters appear to be wreaking havoc, but the ultimate responsibility lies with the owner of the Part 15 device).
Not the cops, paramedics, or whoever else was using the portable radio either. They're operating perfectly within the limits of their FCC license as well. No, the onus for fixing the problem lands right back on your shoulders, as the computer owner, all because you wanted a
Bruce Lane, KC7GR,
Blue Feather Technologies
These cases were also featured at quakecon 2003 (pic)... just a nifty little tidbit..
yes, that is a computer. Yes, it looks like an airplane... yes it works =) I saw it working with my own two eyes.
"You had this look that of an angel, it was such a bad disguise" --Dishwalla
Not one...TWO! Wow. Now what would you use those for?
Blar.
Erm... convenience? IMHO, Trackpoints are hardly ergonomical, since they usually cause strain to the shoulder articulation...
Taiwan's modern history goes back about 400 years, to the day when the first Western ship passed by the island, and Jan Huygen van Linschoten, a Dutch navigator on a Portugese ship, exclaimed "Ilha Formosa" (Beautiful Island).
You could also check out Cappuccino PCs, they have a wider selection and even carry barebones kits.
Heat, Dust -- how about Radio Frequency (RF) interferance? Both in and out of the computer.
Flashy and hugly!
Anyone has built an Eiffel tower or Golden Gate bridge computer case?
Unless someone can build a case looking like this one. I can reconsider my position...
Achille Talon
Hop!
As for problems with EMI reception...well, I suppose that if my next door neighbor had a kilowatt transmitter, the antenna in the backyard would be a dead giveaway and I might think twice before building one of these systems. But, apart from an extreme case like that, PCs are really quite immune from RF interference. A great deal of the design work that goes into the actual chips on the boards is devoted to EMI and ESD rejection. Critical signals are routed differentially. Signals on the PCB are (relatively) low frequency and routed with an eye toward reducing EMI transmission and susceptability.
My current work involves designing and simulating high speed digital systems. Part of that design work is to determine both how well the network rejects EMI and how little it radiates. And, as I mentioned before, short an extreme case (like the 1000 watt Ham transmitter), it is virtually impossible to couple enough energy onto the transmission lines to cause any trouble. And the amount of energy radiated beyond a foot or so is almost unmeasurable.
So, from a practical point (electrically speaking), these "cases", such as they are, are probably not the EMI terrors that one might thing. That being said, I sure wouldn't want one around my cat.
-h-
The kits need curved rods and a cutting tool that can cut the plexi in anything other than straight lines. You're too limited with straight edges.
Linux at home
This looks like a reduced-scale version of 80/20, an industrial product typically used for building custom workbenches, robot chassis and the like. I wonder how the prices compare. The 80/20 web site is here: http://www.8020.net/
Just dig some Construx out of your basement and build a case out of them. Those come complete with little astronaut decorations.
I've actually been waiting for a modular case solution...as long as it's done well.
I don't try to be right, I just try to make people think
Fry's was originally a supermarket in the Santa Clara valley (what became known as "Silicon Valley"). When Safeway started to move in, the Fry brothers saw the writing on the wall and applied the supermarket model to electronics.
The very first store was on Arques/Lawrence Expressway, very close to Hwy 101. It was before they decided to tart them up with amusement park style "themes" (in fact, when the original store moved across and slightly south on Lawrence, it became the first "theme" store done up to appear as if you were inside a giant PC case).
I remember being 16 and responding to a newspaper ad. My interview consisted of:
"Do you know what a nano-second is?"
"Yes."
"Good. You're a computer technician. Here's your cross-reference catalog."
"Crossed what..?"
"Get out on the floor. You're already 5 minutes late. Once more and you're fired."
I stuck around about 6 months and bailed (after daily abuse by management and customers [this was back when engineers were really still engineers]).. It was fun to come back from lunch and see all the middle manager types holding a PC Magazine sideways and open to the middle.. you sneak up behind and comment on the poorly-hidden Hustler centerfold they're drooling over and laugh as they drop both mags and run for the door.
All of the security in the stores is actually geared toward preventing employee-theft than customer-theft (especially after a rash of "returns" by friends of employees.. hence the strip search at the exits).
If you know what you're doing, Fry's can be a great place to get all manner of equipment for a decent price. If you are a clueless civilian noob, you're gonna get fucked six ways to Sunday by mouth-breathing staff and the re-shrinkwrapped, re-shelved DOA parts.
I have something in common with Stephen Hawking...
How the hell did you avoid -2 offtopic moderation? Just amazing.
Right, "Ilha Formosa" isn't Dutch.
Okay, I guess I was wrong, but the Nationalists founded the current government of Taiwan, and top level domains are assigned with respect to countries, not cultures. So I was almost right.
"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity." -- Hanlon's Razor
Yay! now my techbench at home/work can have somewhere other than a blank wooden board as a testbeanch machine :) I regularly swap out componants on my home server, and testing 20 motherboards can get really, really fucking annoying putting them in and out of a case, so this is a great item for techs like me :)
:)
P.S. the server is stored in a plexifronted shelf under my workbench, runs at 55 C but for NSW, Aus thats not a bad temp, and the munchkin can smack it as much as she wants
South Park - Case Mods are Gay