Antec Releases "Skeleton" PC Case

ThinSkin writes "It is appropriate to say that Antec was 'thinking outside the box' when the idea of the 'Skeleton' PC Case sprung to mind. The Antec Skeleton is an open-air PC case with a pair of shelves for the motherboard and other components — held up by arching arms. There are no side panels. This is ideal for the computer user who is constantly fidgeting with his PC parts, or someone who wants to show off his fancy components. Just have a compressed air can nearby. There is also a slideshow of Antec Skeleton images available."

How appropriate

[Hatta]

Halloween is just around the corner!

Seriously though, Antec makes some amazing cases. Thing is, it's so easy to get into my P180B, I don't think this skeleton case is going to be any better.

EMI

[afidel]

I don't think any component manufacturer certifies their stuff running in free air, I would think you would get a lot of EMI out of a system like this that would interfere with anything around it.

EMC issues?

[Anonymous Coward]

A modern PC built in that is going to radiate from DC to daylight!

Little chance of anyone actually being able to sell PCs built in that thing into the European market as it would never pass the radiated emissions limits (And would quite likely have problems with the immunity requirements).
I suspect that pretty much the same thing applies wrt the FCC in the states.

I know, it makes me a boring old fart, but I was under the impression that the point of building a PC was to build a good one, and I have a lot of difficulty seeing how that 'case' is a win from any perspective.

Reliability?
Acoustics?
RFI Immunity?
Ability to listen to the radio within a quarter mile?

Nope? Not interested.

Regards, Dan.

Nothing new, just slightly prettier

[Kraeloc]

The vaguely-cube-shaped open-air case is in no way a new concept. Just off the top of my head, there's the DangerDen torture rack. Not to mention every 15-year-old hardware enthusiast who can't afford a real case and has to build one out of lego/wood/cardboard/k'nex. What would actually be interesting would be a standard vertical tower case, built without the need or even the capacity for side panels. Just an open-air midtower case that actually looks good. And don't tell me to take off my side panels, because that's not the point here.

Re:But...

[ducomputergeek]

Already ordered one for our development lap where we're testing under lots of hardware configurations. We've been using old PC server towers, the kind that stand like 4ft tall, so we can easily access all the components when we need to swap out this or that. But they do take up quite bit of space. As the article said, it's a niche product. So i guess next week we'll see.

I will not be purchasing one of these.

[bistromath007]

There is a semen stain on my case.

Re:Good for a lab.

[Anonymous Coward]

Posted anon because modding you down for being an idiot would not be fair.

Electromagnetic radiation emitted by computers is not inconsequential, but not of practical concern, and certainly not to the degree where any caseless computer would be illegal to sell (presumably for violation of FCC regulations). Radiation is determined by resistance multiplied by the square of the current. The current consumed by the computer in total is significant; the amount of current in any given wire inside the computer tends to be quite small. Surprisingly, computers are not designed to be antennas and serve rather poorly for that purpose.

Not only that, but why would confining the radiation to the inside of the case help anything? If anything, the open case has less of a problem with EMI.