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Translucent PC Cases
webslacker
sent us linkage to a place selling translucent PC cases
for those of you who are seeking something different, or are
jealous of the iMac. These actually look pretty excellent.
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I happen to be a fan of the design roads that Apple is taking, in regards to the translucency of their computers. However, every other company, whether they are making USB mice or knock-off cases as this, are just making something that was ugly in beige even uglier in pale color.
The reason the iMac and the G3 look good is because they were designed with the idea in mind that you would be seeing some of the internals, while these fools are just slapping cheap plastic on existing designs.
What's so attractive about seeing the green print board of a mouse, even if it's through a blue tinted cover?
Apple did this out of originality, and as usual, are being copied poorly.
A properly designed case will cool your computer's components much better with the case on than with it off. This is especially important for 10,000RPM hard drives, which tend to run hot. You can cook one of those guys by running with the case off. Bay coolers help, but they too depend upon fans drawing hot air out the back in order to properly cool the drives. On some systems I've had to do some pretty strange airflow modifications to get things to cool right (amazing what you can do with clear tape and extra fans), all of which depend upon the case being on.
In other words: if you're leaving your case off, CHECK THE TEMPERATURE OF YOUR DRIVES! If they're hot, make sure your case ventilates properly (i.e. that there's air holes where the air will naturally flow over the top of the drive), and put the cover backon your case.
This isn't as important with modern IDE drives as it is with 36gb SCSI drives, which make enough heat to barbecue a pig, but it's still better to be safe than to shorten the life of your drive due to poor cooling.
Send mail here if you want to reach me.
Well, good, easily-manufacturable black equipment. If I recall correctly, the original NeXT cubes were made of magnesium, which the black paint wouldn't stick to very well. The angles of the cube also had to be *exact* right angles, making it nigh-impossible to build easily--in fact, new machines had to be developed just to put the case together.
;)
Thank God Jobs has stopped being *quite* so picky/megalomaniacal.
These ugly cases are a pathetic attempt at mimicing the iMac. Even the names of half the colors are the same! Butt he colors are not enough, because the cases are still boxy. They have the same square edges that all PC's do, instead of smooth, flowing curves that hallmark the Mac.
--
Timur Tabi
Remove "nospam_" from email address
Have to agree about those cases. God forbid we actually put some style in the case. Just hideous. I want a transparent case, not translucent. :)
Now, if I could get a nice mahogany cabinet... that might be nice.
You can. There's at least one company out there making hardwood cases for PCs. The URL was posted here the last time this discussion came up.
These cases look like dull rip-offs of the Apple
iMac & G3 cases. I don't even much like the looks
of the new Apple cases (and they're hardly all
_that_ original looking - they look like they
came straight out of an Anime movie). The great
design that is present in the new G3 box is how
dead-simple it is to open them up and work on
them - THAT is truly innovative. And it's quite
obvious that they did _no_ usability testing on
that new hockey puck they call a mouse. And the
keyboard feels pretty flimsy, too.
All in all, I'd rather have the same easy-to-
work-on case, but in flat black.
And why doesn't anyone make a really _nice_
black monitor (or mouse)?! Good black keyboards
can be found, and there are some okay black
cases, but good black monitors seems to be
completely non-existent!
I can't help but think the first manufacturers
who start making _good_ black equipment are
gonna make a killing...
Wow, remember when see-through plastic telephones were THE coolest thing on the planet?
Now what *I'm* waitng for are the Transformers, Thundercats, and He-Man and the Masters of the Universe cases.
I came to the conclusion that it was too much work and much more expensive. Finding a black ATX case to begin with was a task, and then you have the nightmare of finding all the drives and peripherals in black. Black floppy? No way. Black CD-ROM? Maybe from IBM or Compaq at inflated prices. Black mouse? The only decent quality one was by Logitech, and it was $40. Oh, and monitors... again only by IBM and Compaq at higher prices. (I'm sure there's other black hardware manufacturers, but it's a chore to find them and as I said, they usually cost more)
Another option would be to buy an stealth system from IBM, but I want to same money by using my current hard drives, my Voodoo2 card and all my other old hardware. So scratch that.
At least with the translucent casing, you can install all your off-white peripherals and CD-ROMs, removable harddrives and they'll match reasonably to the translucent white. It doesn't even look too bad with a beige monitor.
Check out IBM's website. They definitely offer black PCS, as well as black monitors, keyboards, mice, LCDs, and black printers.
Their Aptiva line comes in black as well...
Of course, there is the premium that comes with IBM...
AS
-AS
*Pikachu*
You said it bro! If I could get a case like that, I would pay a large chunk of change for it.
Unfortunately, I'm forced to build one. Me and a friend, with the help of my dad (who used to work on IBM mainframes for the greater part of my life) and an artist who mostly works with metal are going to attempt to make new BeBox-like cases complete with the CPU load meter LEDs on the front.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I run BeOS. The rules don't apply.
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I run BeOS. The rules don't apply.
I think they're unattractive. But it's not for me to say what people might enjoy. I simply have some minor criticisms:
They look cheap. Really cheap. Like bargain basement $29 at the corner-OEM-shop cheap. Maybe it's the dirt-poor quality of the images (or the site in general), but I get a general sense of flimsiness from looking at them. Then again, I get the same feeling from iMacs and iLoaf boxes.
Bad marketing. People who care about their case are going to go out and drop the $200 for a SuperMicro 750 and a few cans of Krylon. Everyone else will pretty much take whatever is on the shelf at Sears. VARs are going to stay away from these things in droves.
Poor I.D. What is with that swoopy neckline bit? Why does it look like something clipped on to an existing plain sheetmetal case? It seems like in ripping off the iLoaf and the iMac, these guys have snapped up only the things that are annoying about its design (with the exception of those funky crate-handles... good god, what was Apple thinking when they said, "Hey, let's put 4 spoilers on it! That'll make people think it's fast!")
Color selection. What's it going to take to get a *good* case in black? It seems like black hardware is always of the extremely flimsy variety.
And as a general aside to all of the folks ranting about the genius of the Apple iLoaf case: "Go look at a SM 750."
if they are going to copy apple, then they should copy the way the case opens. the apple cases are the first intelligent case design i have ever seen. all this ingenuity designing sophisticated hardware and no one until apple could design a stinking case. i dont care what the damn thing looks like just give me a case that i can install memory in without cutting my hands or taking the @#$%^&@ MB out! anyone else feel this way?! who cares about color. i would buy a freakin' pink case if it opened like an apple case!
Um, I think the new Macs are cool and everything but --
:)
Have you ever tried to set a CD jewel case or a cup of coffee on top of a computer with, "smooth, flowing curves"? I HATE smooth, flowing curves. I want "flat, usable space".
BTW -- don't take this too seriously.
Save the whales. Feed the hungry. Free the mallocs.
>If a case is translucent (to visible light), then it obviously can't be metal, and if it isn't metal, how can it shield the computer components within from potentially harmful electromagnetic interference? *Not* a good situation for anyone who expects their computer to be behave reliably and predictably.
>Oh well, I'm sure it's just another *dumb* trend. They'll learn eventually.
Er that statement makes no sense. The only devices that would suffer would be devices that pick up radiated RF (radios and non-cable TV's for example).
First of all, the computer isn't shielded from itself, so removing the shielding will have NO effect on the computer's reliability.
Second, MANY of us run caseless constantly with no ill effects from RF (or anything else). A bigger concern would be cooling, and you don't need metal cases to cool properly. Translucent plastic will do just fine.
http://www.bullnet.com
This sort of thing parallels what my Dad used to do to his motorcycle back in the days. The way that I mess around and tweak out my computer, he used to do to his motorcycle.
Getting a case like this is similar to getting a nice paint job, chrome plating or ground effects. It's not necessary, but if you have the cash for that sort of thing, it makes you look like a pimp. And who doesn't want to be tH3 g33k p!Mp?
-peace