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First Look At Wild New "Level 10" Concept PC Case
notthatwillsmith writes "Maximum PC just posted an exclusive hands on with Thermaltake's unique Level 10 case. This concept design features individual compartments for different components (each with dedicated cooling) all mounted on a black steel frame. The case looks like a prop from 2001, rendered in black steel instead of white plastic. It's absolutely unlike anything I've ever seen before."
Cases like this are aimed at the hobbyist, not at corporate desks or people only interested in a tool.
Personally, I kinda like it.
"I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
Cool? Yes. $700 cool? No.
If you look at the drive bay covers they are not perfectly aligned. For $700, you would expect Jobsian OCD attention to detail, regardless in shortcomings to the other design elements.
47 pounds case ? It's for no hobbyist, it's for body builder. No normal geek could even think of moving this behemoth.
And I find it rather ugly.
That's all I really need to know. It looks interesting, it might be cool, but I'll never buy one.
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
I've been a system builder since the 486DX2 66MHz days and of all the case designs I've seen come, go, and be claimed to be the next coming, the only one to ever be a perfect blend of form and function is the Mac Pro cases by Apple. I'm not even a fanboy, and most of those cases probably were never even cracked, but there is no denying them. This thing is just dumb.
http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
One of the strengths and unfortunate weaknesses of PCs is that components are interchangable. This is a plus, since it means anyone can replace a part, but the downside is, the replacement parts may not fit the "concept" quite wel.
In this case, it appears that while there's the central stand for wire routing, I'm not sure if it comes with the requisite power supply and cables trimmed to the right length. Too much cable is OK, you can hide the slack in the tower, but more often than not, cables are just a wee bit too short.
A design like the old G4 towers where one side flips down with the motherboard exposed and all the cables running along the edge is what I envision a good case to be, but even in OEM PC designs from Dell and the like, they incorporate such "flip open" design. Unfortunately, it fails as some cable is too short, meaning it flips open a little bit, you disconnect it, open it more, disconnect the next too-short cable, etc. A real mess that spoils the nice servicability.
My one concern is that - what happens if the power supply you bought doesn't have cables that reach? You have to invest in extensions? Or is that vertical stand contain a backplane, and all you do is plug the power/sata/IDE/etc cables into it, where they will go to the right component?
Just saying "any normal geek" already excludes Mac users. It has nothing to do with when Apple stopped using CRTs.
/me dons asbestos undies
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