Sexy Intel Computer Design Worth Big Bucks

An anonymous reader writes From a BBC article, "Intel is offering $1m in prizes to designers and manufacturers who can come up with sexier alternatives to the "big beige box". The competition is open to PC designers and manufacturers worldwide and each company may submit up to five different designs. The grand prize winner will receive $300,000 (£159,000) to enable the mass production of the system and $400,000 (£212,000) to co-market the design with Intel. The runner-up will receive up to $300,000 to help with manufacturing costs."

Comments

Apple?

[setirw]

Are its machines not "sexy alternatives to the big, grey box?"

They run Intel processors, too.

Re:Apple?

[PapayaSF]

Are its machines not "sexy alternatives to the big, grey box?"

Yes, my first thought on reading the story was: Why bother? Just cut to the chase and give Jonathan Ive the money. I'll bet the next case he does for Apple will be better than anything that comes out of this contest.

ahem

[Audent]

www.apple.com/store

just deposit the cash in my account, OK?

Is it really this hard? I went to a trade show about five years ago and saw funky PC designs from some division of Hyundai that were orange plastic pyramids and things of that sort... It's Not Hard, just get on with it. Hire a designer, fer cryin' out loud.

Re:ahem

[toddestan]

So give Apple props for the iMac design instead.

Why? It's basically a big, ugly, white slab. You can't adjust the height of the display, and like a PC from 1998, all the ports are on the back. You have to move the entire computer to point the iSight camera at something. Open it up, and there isn't any thing you can add except for more ram. I don't really see the appeal of the iMac's design myself.

Sexy but still functional

[moore.dustin]

I do not think case mods fall under this as they are looking for a more attractive version of what they have. Hopefully we get some different options from this, but speaking generally, how much can you do different? If these are going to be mass produced, they have to have utility as well. By that I mean easy access to the hardware and logical placement of said hardware.

Apple has some good ideas on the boring concept of cases and they have been done well. I am expecting something that looks like a case, but has some extra features on the outside, both functional and visual. I hope this effort results in some serious advancement in how cases Work, Look, and Feel.

cool looking computers

[celardore]

For a while, I was into case modding. I had my stepfather do the metal cutting and so on, because I'm an accountant; I don't know how to cut metal and if I can get others to do a better job for me for free then cool. I had him cut stylistic holes in the side panels and I installed neons and light cables etc. That was a couple of years ago though.

Now my PC is under my IKEA desk, so nobody sees the sides. I have a missing drive bay cover so you can see the coloured fans but thats it. Stylish PCs may be a big deal to some, but I lost that interest quite quickly.
Sure, your PC looks cool, but who really cares?

Re:Limiting Factor

[westlake]

There are already cool, sexy pc case designs out there, but the biege box still rules.

I would have said it is Dell's wolf gray and black box that rules.

Re:I like beige boxes

[x2A]

I don't think we should stop there. I want my TV curvy, my amp, my speakers around the room... in fact, the whole room, the floor, let's do away with flat.

Or maybe I'll just look at what's on the screen instead, and leave the computer case itself not screaming out for attention. If I ever want everything curvey for a while, I'll just take some of the special mushrooms :-)

Re:Who gives a shit?

[geekoid]

I would, and so would most married women.

Someone who can design on small, quite, and as few cords as possible would be a winner.

Mac Mini is a great design for 80% of computer users.
The remainder will build there own anyways.

Far too many negative or...

[stubear]

...stupid "get a Mac if you want curves" comments, and many being modded as insightful. Granted, there have been very few Intel based PCs that have been contenders to win design awards but I've seen a few that are easily as good looking as many believe the Mac to be. Dell's M2010 is far better looking than then notebooks being sold by Apple. The Sony RS Series and LS Series are great looking desktops, the LS being the all-in-one like the iMac. The Sony Digital Living System is a great looking media center PC. It's all a matter of taste.

One of my favorite comments was this one, "Hopefully we get some different options from this, but speaking generally, how much can you do different?" Ummm, perhaps you are a) not the target for PCs like this and b) are not creative enough to design an elegant, stylish PC case. I'm always amazed with this attitude from geeks given that they'd be extremely passionate if one we re to say something equally as inane as, "why spend billions of dollars to go to the Moon or Mars? They're just lifeless rocks with no interest to anyone."

Re:I like beige boxes

[drsmithy]

Some may deride Apple for the design of the Mac Pro case, but if you open it, you will immediately notice that they REALLY spent some time designing the layout of the interior parts. Heck even the the old Sawtooth generation G3/G4 towers (circa 1999) had that nifty side-handle design where the motherboard sat on a hinged door.

The PowerMacs are certainly nice, but there's no shortage of PC cases - in both full-PC and component guise - that are just as good.

Our Dell Optiplexes, for example, are laid out basically the same as the Macs and just as easy to work in - albeit not quite as pretty (the drive sleds don't have covers, stuff like that).

Department store shoppers give a shit.

[Freaky Spook]

You may not give a shit about what your case looks like, but in the retail market where PC's sit on shelves the shoppers do care more about how their PC looks then really what it does.

Just recently I build a computer for a friends parents with a nice low profile Micro-ATX desktop/tower case and a 19" LCD monitor. It replaced a huge white box & 17" CRT on their desk and after some cabling cleanup it made their study look bigger and much nicer.

They were so impressed they showed it off to their friends, and within a week I had requests for 4 more.

People do care about the asthetics of what they buy when they want it for more then just basic functionality, the computer speed & jargon goes right over their head and they just want something that works well and looks good.

no longer beige

[harlemjoe]

in my personal experience, almost all cases now come in black, grey, blue or a similar dark shade. I haven't seen a beige box in a long, long time.