The Incredible Invisible Case

Brett Profitt writes "No, it's not entirely like the clear pc case, and it's much, much cooler than a simple windowed case, but it would still look great with a hard drive window. This, my friends, is The Invisible Case ! " Truly a labor of love. This may be the nicest case I've ever seen. To bad you can't buy them like this! Check out the details (Transparent rubber feet, fans, and hard drive window). It absorbs envy beams from miles around.

It absorbs envy beams....

[Cruciform]

and promptly converts them to EMF emissions. :)

Wrap that rascal! Where's the shielding?

Re:kinda OT: Mirrors...

[JPriest]

has been addressed in the past, there may be lagal issues with mirroring the content without prior written consent, not everone would care but someone would kill it for the rest. and some web sites make money from adds/banners and that also complicates the mirroring process.

leather

[Petersko]

Gee - my first post, and I risk damaging my karma. Alas... Am I the only geek who finds electronics inherently ugly? I don't even like my PC showing as-is because of the lack of style displayed by the designers. Why would anybody want to show the guts of their PC? I did not get a chance to see the pics, as the site was already pulled, but having seen the insides of hundreds of PC's, none of them make much of a positive fashion statement.

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Dust bunnies and interference

[hyrdra]

One word: dust.

All those fans act like an air filter inside your PC, filtering the air in your home and gradually building up debris inside the case. While for the most part harmless (in moderation and unless blocking of choking a critical fan completly), the result is nasty as many have known. Compressed air helps, but there is still a mark left on the metal.

A plastic case would require frequent cleanings with a glass cleaner/damp cloth. Pretty soon that kewl case will be showing it's ugly dirt for all to see.

There's also a question of interference, although most circuits are FCC type B, which means they must not rely on their enclosure to prevent interference. Most high frequency circuitry that can actually do some damage in widely used consumer spectrums are already shielded by the component cases themselves. And despite what people will tell you, a 200 MHz (400 MHz RDRAM) bus or ultra-fast chipset SB->NB link doesn't output enough power to cause interference to anything a foot or so away, much less longer distances.

In fact, AC motors such as those found in blenders, which are often not FCC certified cause a wide band of strong interference all over the spectrum. Next time take a look at your TV while making a milkshake. Even those with cable will notice significant interference.

Oh well. I still probably wouldn't buy the case for any serious or even everyday use as the cleaning requirement would soon render the case dirty and unattractive (much more so than your typical beige box). Still though, there isn't much of an argument of interference from the other side of the fence.

Pardon my physics knowledge,

[cide1]

Isn't the shielding from a case due to the gaussian surface the case ( a conductor) provides?

E*flux = Qenc;

Farraday first expressed some fundamental concepts in words, such as electromagnetic field lines, and later capacitance (hence farads), but I believe Gauss discovered this one.

Cide1

Re:...and attracts legislation.

[DorkusMaximus]

Well said!
I feel similar concerns while reading every story of this nature. A few foolish people could ruin the homebrew market for everyone. Given some the legal changes being condsidered in USA now, the outlawing of self assembled computers seems very possible...

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Re:How serious is RF interference, anyway?

[Skuld-Chan]

Well - I for one can hear my video card on my sound card - so it can't be that good.

Last time I saw a spectrum analyzer on a standard at style computer it had a lot of noise in it. Not to mention the switching power supplies often used have a tiny bit of noise in them too :(.

I can actually hear my computer with most of my amatuer radio equipment (including hf) - its annoying too as I live in an apartment and I can't have external antennas.