High-End Aluminum PC Cases Make A Comeback

An anonymous reader writes ""Lian Li's V1200 Plus represents the apex of enclosure technology to date. Lian Li is a long time favorite of computer builders, especially those who are willing to spend more so that they will get the features and design benefits of a high end product. This case has a formidable price tag, but with its great looks, innovative layout, and brand reputation it has more that a few things going for it. At 210 x 490 x 625mm this case has the depth of a full-tower, but not the height. This makes it perfect for extensive systems and for people who need to tinker inside the case.""

Comments

Re:What tipped me in the direction of Aluminum

[modecx]

1cm thick steel case? No way! Well, maybe on an SGI or something (them suckers are massive), but still that's about 10 times overkill. Maybe you have a case that thick if you want to make it bullet resistant. Heh. Most cases I've seen were made of 16 or 14 gauge (which translates to about 1.5mm), with some parts going as thick as 12 gauge for the backplates and certain structural pieces--like on older SGI and SUN computers, and on some heavier power supplies. I mean, my '64 Ford truck is old iron, but there's not a piece of sheet metal over 1/8 inch on it, aside from the frame rails.

Aluminum alloys are generally about half as dense as steel, and are inferior in strength in many respects. The benefit of aluminum is that it's light enough to allow one to beef the structure up well enough to make up for it's comparative lack of strength, and it's very malleable--you can bend it into shapes that would cause steel to break. And as with all things it's the shape that counts. All things being equal I'd expect that the aluminum case to be significantly thicker than the steel one. I have a micrometer, but no aluminum case to test that out on :D It's really quite a complicated science comparing materials (I would like to know more about myself, if I ever go PhD that will likely be my direction) but both materials have their advantages and disadvantages.

Soda cans are aluminum for a few reasons, and none of them are because aluminum is especially strong. For one, it's much easier to punch out into the shape we know soda cans for today. Like I said, steel could break under some circumstances. This is one. The machine that forms them is a giant drop punch, and in one step the can is pressed into its shape, it happens in a few hundred milliseconds. Steel would likely tear because of its stiffness, and it would wear out the tooling faster, but that's probably not signifigant. That's why "tin" cans, which are actually steel, are rolled and seamed. Secondly, if you're shipping out hundreds of millions of cans of product yearly, it would be wise to make the container as light as possible, not only because it costs more in materials, but it costs more in packaging and transportation--which surprisingly is supposed to cost more than the can, and more than the drink within. Aluminum cans used to be much thicker before they figured out the hyperbolic style tops and bottoms, and I heard long ago that the primary reason for the change was indeed shipping costs! Maybe it's true, maybe not, but it's a funny story anyhow.