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Hardware

The Incredible Invisible Case 311

Posted by CmdrTaco from the now-thats-elegant dept.
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.
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The Incredible Invisible Case More

The Incredible Invisible Case

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  • It absorbs envy beams.... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Cruciform ( 42896 ) on Monday March 04, 2002 @07:12PM (#3109041) Homepage
    and promptly converts them to EMF emissions. :)

    Wrap that rascal! Where's the shielding?

  • Damn ... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Aceticon ( 140883 ) on Monday March 04, 2002 @07:13PM (#3109049)
    There's always some crazy geek or other inventing an new computer case.

    What will they come next with, an Ethernet switch on a teddy bear???

    Oh ... wait [slashdot.org]

  • Ummm (Score:4, Funny)

    by cr@ckwhore ( 165454 ) on Monday March 04, 2002 @07:14PM (#3109052) Homepage
    How is this not like the "clear PC" case?

    If you want a really invisible case, just lay your mobo and parts out on a table. Then, your PC will be +5 cool.

  • Kind of like... (Score:5, Funny)

    by B00yah ( 213676 ) on Monday March 04, 2002 @07:14PM (#3109056) Homepage
    The Emperor's New Clothes...Just tell everyone that you have a new machine that you modded with a clear case, clear components, and clear peripherals, and only smart people can see them :)
  • A case made of transparent Aluminum. Sure wish Scotty could post the design for one of those on /.

    -G

  • Not just the case (Score:1, Redundant)

    by fobbman ( 131816 )
    In about 10 minutes this whole website will be invisible thanks to the allmighty /. effect.

  • Ya, it's nice, and it's pretty clear, and it's a cube, but it ain't Apple.

    And, I still like my lego case better. Maybe I should take some pictures of that . . .

  • kama ho + /.-ing (Score:3, Informative)

    by Nate Fox ( 1271 ) on Monday March 04, 2002 @07:17PM (#3109083)
    for those trying to get to it (its a bit /.ed atm), the article is split up in 16 pages. The good pictures are on page 14 and 16. So try to get through to those, rather than taking a guess:
    http://www.bit-tech.net/article/72/14 [bit-tech.net]
    http://www.bit-tech.net/article/72/16 [bit-tech.net]

    • Re:kama ho + /.-ing (Score:4, Funny)

      by ArsonSmith ( 13997 ) on Monday March 04, 2002 @08:05PM (#3109409) Journal
      Wow!!! That case is soooo invisable my web browser cant even find the pages. it is on. and the ErrorDocument is invisable as well.

      Not Found
      The requested URL /article/72/ was not found on this server.

      Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.


  • Forget the invisible case, that server must be using some invisible bandwidth. Only 10 comments so far when I clicked the link - 15 minutes to load the pics.

  • Big Deal! (Score:2, Interesting)

    by poot_rootbeer ( 188613 )

    So what? I just leave the case off my PC most of the time, and it has the same general effect. :)

    I wonder if it's possible to make translucent-clear printed circuit boards? I guess green is okay, and the occasional red-lacquer board you come acros is neat-looking, but I'd like to be able to look through a motherboard like looking through a frosted window...

    • Re:Big Deal! (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Smallpond ( 221300 )
      On really old oscilloscopes, Tektronix used to gold plate not just the connectors but all of the PCB traces. Those would have looked great with a clear case. Especially with all of the vacuum tubes glowing.

  • what would be really cool (Score:4, Interesting)

    by 7-Vodka ( 195504 ) on Monday March 04, 2002 @07:18PM (#3109097) Journal
    what would be awesome with this, is pouring some liquid CO2 smoke into the case and seeing exactly how the airflow inside the case is behaving! you could work out how to best position fans etc.

    • Re:what would be really cool (Score:4, Informative)

      by fiori ( 45848 ) on Monday March 04, 2002 @07:50PM (#3109304) Homepage
      That "smoke" you see with dry ice or liquid nitrogen is the water vapor in the air condensing. That would not be a good thing to have on your motherboard.

      There is such a thing as liquid carbon dioxide, but only at pressures above 5 atmospheres.
  • I wonder how it handles heat and static. A word of warning, when working with acrylics, fumes can be carcenogenic, also do nerve damage, work in good ventilation.

    I just ordered the Lian Li PC65USB (black) and am waiting for word of it's impending shipment. I'm thinking of putting LED Christmas lights inside [foreverbright.com].

  • it looks cool, but... (Score:4, Offtopic)

    by lyapunov ( 241045 ) on Monday March 04, 2002 @07:20PM (#3109106)
    I do not think I would like the constant reminder of all the dust bunnies. I think blowing the machine out every couple of months is good.
  • when, a couple of months from now, the interior of the case is covered in dust.
  • The craftsmanship is incredible.

    He removed the metal case so the guts of the power supply are visible. He took the face off his DVD drive so you can see inside. Even his hard disk has been modded with a window showing the platter and the read/write head.

    My favorite quotes:

    "Needle files are a modder's secret weapon."

    "Yes, I did polish the heads on the fasteners. Thanks for noticing."

    Very impressive.

    steveha

  • How serious is RF interference, anyway? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by steveha ( 103154 ) on Monday March 04, 2002 @07:29PM (#3109164) Homepage
    I like putting computers together. I always try to keep the RF shielding intact. This computer has no RF shielding at all.

    How much of a problem is that, anyway? If his next-door-neighbor is an amateur radio enthusiast, will the clear computer mess up the airwaves? If he wants to watch TV, will the computer ruin the picture? Can he stop pacemakers at 50 yards or something?

    I don't have any clear idea how serious the emissions from computer hardware really are.

    steveha
    • As an amateur radio operator, I can add my $.02 worth.

      In working with Packet Radio (data communications over amateur radio) I found that the emissions from my PC were way too high to use the "rubber duck" antenna on my radio, if it were in the same room. I found 2 fixes. One was to put an external antenna on my roof and use it. The other was to put a RF Choke (little black bulge on certain cables) on EVERY cable comming out of the back of the PC.

      The EMI won't affect much outside a 10-20 foot radius, but AM radios, etc... that he tries to listen to in the same room or adjacent room will be hosed.

      As far as pacemakers, etc... go, I don't have any idea.
    • Hah, nothing compared to the RFs in my room.

      Okay picture this is you will.

      SCSI scanner for starters.

      100ft long RF cable TV cord running into the room )yess 100 foot, a lot of door jams to work around, and yes the picture quality sucks).

      Incorrectly installed florescent lights.

      two nice big case fans one of which has had a fin knocked off of it and now runs nice and loud.

      a 36inch gateway destination monitor and one of those cheesy ev700 monitors.

      (the Destination attracts moths from OUTSIDE the house, into my room, and they land on the screen and can't get back off of it! It also has grabbed papers up from the desk in front of it. . . . can we say static field? :) )

      My land line telephone has audible noise over it. That both parties in a conversation can here.

      Don't forget the printer, 3.1 sound system (no place to put the 4th speaker), wireless keyboard and mouse, 11inch graphics tablet (w00t!) with one of those nifty wireless pens (works by radio waves as I recall. . . . hmm, though it has been awhile since i researched it, something about the tablet sending out minor radio waves to the pen to provide just enough power for the pen to give the tablet notice of its location.)

      A TV tuner card (uh, the 100ft cable run is for something. :) )

      And oh yes, the RF cabling runs the parameter of the room and is of the cheap radio shack variety, I am sure that it is acting as a nice antenna for the entire room. In all fairness though the telephone had plenty of problems before the cable was ran though.

      Ahh, I almost forgot the Cat5 running through a hole nearby, the power extension cord draped though the same hole as the CAT5 (was flipping the breaker to often, had to switch some items to another line) and the cable modem that is running. Lovely eh?

      (Cat5 cable is of the maximum length of course, and the power cord is of a similar length as well.)

      You want Hmm, what else now. . . . printer of course. Not a significant source of RF emissions though. ^_^ And the Destination monitor is currently off right now (power prices you know, thus using the EV700, higher refresh rate anyways, nice to have 800x600 at above 60hz. :) ), but the phone still has noticeable static over it.

      I am SOOO going to die of cancer.

      Aaaanyways. I doubt that this guy has 'real' RF emission problems.

      Oh, and Dr. Kevorkian, if you ever need any patients with pace makers to have a sudden and mysterious heart failure, just send'em on over my way. :)
  • Prior art means nothing to Apple when they'll present their iCeBox(TM) within a few years. So be careful to log the photos' timestamps, in case that we read a story on /. about Apple threatening everyone who puts plexiglass around a x86 box.

  • great except for one problem (Score:4, Informative)

    by Lumpy ( 12016 ) on Monday March 04, 2002 @07:33PM (#3109185) Homepage
    It will look great for about 5 minutes. and DONT take it to a lan-party.
    The type of plastic he chose is easy to polish and looks great, but scratches easier than any other plastic on the planet. Plexiglass is the worst in durability to scratches. yes you could buff out the scratches as you get them.

    I like his idea, and I would love to see someone make one out of real glass with a metallic tint so that the RFI and EMI can't freely propagate out of the case. (You could get your case vaccuum-metalized... now that would be really cool.. not clear... CHROME!

  • kinda OT: Mirrors... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by DraKKon ( 7117 ) on Monday March 04, 2002 @07:33PM (#3109187) Journal
    Since /. is charging for subscriptions... how about /. stat mirroring the "cool" sites that get the /. effect and make the "cool" site useless..

    I hate it when there's something "cool" in a message, that 1 million other people see, and you try to go to the site and you get broken images everywhere..

    Most of us use perl/perlmagick here and it wouldn't be to difficult to create a script that mirrors the site that we want, compress the hell out of the images, and have a new fangled mirror.

    Remove the mirror after an hour or two, so /. doesn't use up too much hd space..

    now THAT would be a service that would be worth the subscriptions...
    • It sounds something like a Google cache. I definitely think that a short-term cache would be a good idea. It could all be done through redirects: if slashdot can't open the page in a reasonable time frame, then they should serve a cached copy. I'm aware that some sites rely on hit count for ad revenue, but once it's /.ed, that becomes irrelevant. Using a cached copy when the page is over-loaded should allow them to still get hits, and allow other people to see the site.
      • > I'm aware that some sites rely on hit count for ad revenue, but once it's /.ed, that becomes irrelevant.

        OTOH, some small sites are charged by their web hoster based on the amount of traffic they get.. I wonder if /. has been the cause of huge bills for featuring sites of unsuspecting hobbyists.
    • Mirroring sites in stories would be a great idea. Just have a link beneath the story of all the pages that might get /.ed. It's probably nicer than killing the site and I'm sure /. wouldn't have a problem with the traffic since all of the traffic is origionating from the /. server anyways.
    • 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.

    • Re:kinda OT: Mirrors... (Score:2, Interesting)

      by hyyx ( 447405 )
      Every time someone posts intelligently regarding Slashdot implementing some sort of mirror system, it always gets modded up. Look at the amount of posts here regarding slashdotting... more than half I would say [at this time]. We are speaking out, but no one ever seems to listen. What do we have to do to convince Slashdot that this _is_ a good idea and it is what the readers want?

      • My new (?) idea of /. mirroring (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Shiny Metal S. ( 544229 ) on Monday March 04, 2002 @09:28PM (#3109883) Homepage
        Every time someone posts intelligently regarding Slashdot implementing some sort of mirror system, it always gets modded up.
        Here's what I would suggest to do, this solution would address every /. concern [slashdot.org]:

        I got email, saying that link to my site (http://site/) is going to be posted on Slashdot in half an hour. For the time of slashdotting I add this to my httpd.conf:

        Redirect /img/ http://slashdot.org/cache.pl?url=http://site/img/

        so when someone wants http://site/img/image10.jpeg, she/he would be 302 redirected to http://slashdot.org/cache.pl?url=http://site/img/i mage10.jpeg and would got this image from Slashdot cache. I could even set it up so only queries with http://slashdot.org/* Referrer header would be redirected, or alternatively, someone could just change the URIs in <a href="..."> links in the HTML if the webmaster don't have access to webserver config. But the point is that this way the cache would be served only for explicit wish of the webmaster and also only for those images which are not the ads, banners, counters, etc. if the webmaster wants so.

        It could be also used for HTML but the large images are probably the main reason of killing banwidth on sites, like in this story, with many high quality pictures of cool hardware (I suppose that there are many high quality pictures of cool hardware but I can't access it). The cache could work for, say, 6 hours and would serve only files in subdirectories of linked URIs to avoid any abuse.

        What do you think?

        • What do you think?

          What do I think? honestly? I think you're smart - and there ain't a whole lot of that going around.

          Most site operators wouldn't have a clue how to redirect requests for images even if they did have a clue what the slashdot effect was. But I think you have a great idea that could help actual geeks with smaller sites.

          It's too bad the ppl that maintain the slashcode don't read this site. huh?

          • Most site operators wouldn't have a clue how to redirect requests for images even if they did have a clue what the slashdot effect was. But I think you have a great idea that could help actual geeks with smaller sites.
            It would be used only by few webmasters, by those who really need it (and can do it) so the traffic won't be high. Maybe the poll would show interesting results?
        • Take out the middle-man and point the story's links straight to the Slashdot mirror (with permission, of course).
          • Take out the middle-man and point the story's links straight to the Slashdot mirror (with permission, of course).
            From the FAQ [slashdot.org]:
            Slashdot should cache pages to prevent the Slashdot Effect!

            Sure, it's a great idea, but it has a lot of implications. For example, commercial sites rely on their banner ads to generate revenue. If I cache one of their pages, this will mess with their statistics, and mess with their banner ads. In other words, this will piss them off.

            Of course, most of the time, the commercial sites that actually have income from banner ads easily withstand the Slashdot Effect. So perhaps we could draw the line at sites that don't have ads. They are, after all, much more likely to buckle under the pressure of all those unexpected hits. But what happens if I cache the site, and they update themselves? Once again, I'm transmitting data that I shouldn't be, only this time my cache is out of date!

            I could try asking permission, but do you want to wait 6 hours for a cool breaking story while we wait for permission to link someone?

            So the quick answer is: "Sure, caching would be neat." It would make things a lot easier when servers go down, but it's a complicated issue that would need to be thought through in great detail before being implemented.

            With my ideas, I was trying to solve those problems.
            • Taco's just being lazy.

              All you have to do is send an e-mail, sometime before, or even as the story is breaking that says, 'if you want to have your site cached on Slashdot, please click this link.'

              Then (or even previously) you have the "SlashDot spider" make a map of the site, say, 3 links deep.

              No mess. No fuss. Oh well. Good ideas seldom get used.

  • C'mon, where are the perfectly polished aluminum sphere PCs? When will someone put a PC inside a disco ball? How about just a pyramid? Anybody?

    Oh, well, maybe I ought to try making one myself. What's the maximum distance across those micro ATX boards..hmm...and where would I get a big polished metal sphere anyway..

  • I glad if it can absorb envy beams, but I want something that can absorb the ./ effect!!

    (actually while I was writting this comment the site started to slooowwwwy load in another window;)

  • Next up! (Score:2, Funny)

    by Dixie_Flatline ( 5077 )
    The incredible dissapearing website!

  • That invisible case is frigging amazing! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Nathdot ( 465087 ) on Monday March 04, 2002 @07:42PM (#3109250)
    I mean like whoah! the PC is ENTIRELY invisible!

    Either that or the images aren't loading because of slashdotting.

    :)

  • Heres the pictures (Score:3, Informative)

    by gavinhall ( 33 ) on Monday March 04, 2002 @07:43PM (#3109257)
    Backup on their site

    http://www.bit-tech.net/images/article/72/dscf13 66 .jpg
    http://www.bit-tech.net/images/article/72/ds cf1367 .jpg
    http://www.bit-tech.net/images/article/72/ds cf1368 .jpg
    http://www.bit-tech.net/images/article/72/ds cf1369 .jpg
    http://www.bit-tech.net/images/article/72/ds cf1370 .jpg
  • It is slashdotted... I can't see anything...

  • nevermind modding the case! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by limber ( 545551 ) on Monday March 04, 2002 @07:50PM (#3109300) Homepage
    OT, but this /. obsession with case modification -- a practice which i can't relate to -- makes me think of the classic story of Andy Ihnakto's 'anti-case-mod':

    He did the reverse -- he kept the case intact, but substituted something else more interesting for the innards. Specifically, he made an aquarium [jagshouse.com] out of his old Mac 512. (no pics, but if you hunt around on google there's lots of 'em people have done)

    Who needs a fish screensaver when you can have real ones swimming around...

  • Don't have a mirror for pics but (Score:3, Informative)

    by JPriest ( 547211 ) on Monday March 04, 2002 @08:02PM (#3109390) Homepage
    just go to Google and type
    site:www.bit-tech.net case
    To see the rest of the pages on the site. Most people don't know about Googles search site feature, it's cool.

  • Google Mirror (Score:3, Informative)

    by guamman ( 527778 ) on Monday March 04, 2002 @08:11PM (#3109447)
    Here is the google cached link: http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:yFtkFzNXw54C: www.bit-tech.net/article/63/4+The+Invisible+Case+b it-tech.net&hl=en

  • Server death (Score:5, Funny)

    by pumpkin2146 ( 317171 ) on Monday March 04, 2002 @08:12PM (#3109457)
    I host this.

    Firemen have been dispatched to Telehouse London to prevent this web server from burning down most of the UK internet as it's pair of P3's and pathetic little IDE disk UTTERLY FAIL to cope with the pure 30mbit/sec of joy that slashdotting creates.

  • Can be had retail (Score:5, Informative)

    by Toodles ( 60042 ) on Monday March 04, 2002 @08:15PM (#3109485) Homepage
    Too bad you can't buy them like this!

    You can purchase similar all plexi-glass cases from www.clear-viewtech.com [clear-viewtech.com]
  • Wow, that really IS invisible.

  • leather (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Petersko ( 564140 )
    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.
  • I don't see any mention of shielding on their web site. If you cause interference with a PC using this case (and you probably will), you may be forced to stop operating it. In any case, it just isn't very nice to your neighbors to run an unshielded computer.

    I hope the Canadian equivalent of the FCC will stop this company from selling the case. Selling unshielded computer cases just is pretty irresponsible.

    • Re:no shielding (Score:2, Interesting)

      by MajikMan ( 453619 )
      What you are saying does make sense, however I've been doing a good bit of reading about case-mods and such lately (not specificly clear acrylic cases...I think they look tacky but thats just me), and have never read anyone actually complaingin about getting interference while using a case with a large window, or even a fully clear case.

      I'm no elecrtonics expert, and I agree that in theory it could cause some serious problems, but as a neutral onlooker I haven't seen anything actually indicating that it does cause a problem. I very well may have just missed an article, and if that is the case I would appreciate someone pointing me in the right direction.

    • Re:no shielding (Score:2, Informative)

      by rekoil ( 168689 )
      As a side note, I recently went from a wired network connection to a WLAN PCI card (The DSL came to my phone jack in my upstairs office, but Verizon delivered the T1 to the basement). I normally run my machine "naked", and discovered that in order to get a decent wireless signal, I had no choice but to replace the tower case cover.

  • Dust bunnies and interference (Score:3, Insightful)

    by hyrdra ( 260687 ) on Monday March 04, 2002 @09:42PM (#3109952) Homepage Journal
    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.

  • It's not really invisible... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Junior J. Junior III ( 192702 ) on Monday March 04, 2002 @10:02PM (#3110043) Homepage
    Just slashdotted. Wait til the server load goes down again, and you'll be able to see it. No, really.
  • Couldnt we just put down a layer of indium tin oxide (ITO) [puretechinc.com] on the inside of these plastic cases? It's transparent and conductive so wouldnt that solve the emissions problems while maintaining the look of the case? Would this work? Of course it would make the case cost a couple grand or something, but money isnt the issue here right?
  • I can see why these are nice and all, and I enjoyed seeing these articles until now, but it is getting really redundant. Couldn't a seperate case-mod section be created, so that I can ignore these but not the relevant/interesting Hardware articles?
  • If you suffer through the interminable downloads (remind me not to let this guy show me pictures of his kids), you discover that he did this in order to house...a 1 GHz Celeron...

    This reminds me of those kits you could buy that would turn the front and rear ends of your VW Beetle into a Rolls Royce.

    --Blair

  • About time, but when...? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Myself ( 57572 ) on Tuesday March 05, 2002 @09:08AM (#3111913) Journal
    They still haven't gotten to the fun part: Transparent circuit boards (copper-clad glass substrate, brittle but beautiful) and transparent chip packaging.

    Think about it! Most QFP and PGA chips have boring black plastic bodies. How hard would it be to replace them with clear plastic? Ceramic packages could probably be made at least translucent.

    Then you embed light-emitting junctions at important areas of the chip, so you can watch the whole thing brighten, dim, and change color as the computational load changes. NOPs would be faint blue, cache misses would make the prefetch unit flash red. Floating-point would cause the FPU to glow green. Imagine it! You could tell what was eating most of your timeslices just by looking at the chip. Nevermind how you'd see through the heatsink to perceive all this. ;) Oh wait, if the board's clear just watch all the action from underneath.

    Seriously though, if the whole mobo chipset were clear-encased too, you could tell the difference between RAM accesses, drive activity, interrupts, DMA storms... Ooooh.

    We already have SCSI terminators with activity indicators, am I really asking for too much?

    (Now why didn't I patent this 5 years ago when I came up with it?)
  • It would be awesome if he could post some printable patterns with dimensions so that we can duplicate his work. It is great that he could share his work with us...but for those of us who are too lazy or not mechanically oriented, it would be nice to have some patterns.
  • ...but in the last few pages i got the follwing message:



    00:17 5th March 2002

    sorry, but the bit-tech.net server is currently unavailable (thanks slashdot :p)

    in the mean time, please visit the forums

    13:10 5th March 2002

    we're working hard to get our host's to re-enable our account

    however, thanks to the kindness of monolith you can indulge yourself with linears invisible case article

    - moose

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