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Hardware

Cooler Cases 148

Posted by CmdrTaco from the quest-continues dept.
xopher found a site that actually has some pretty cool looking cases. Some of the models are pretty sweet. If you can't afford one of those new SGI boxes, join the club. But you could consider one of these, although they don't have prices listed.
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Cooler Cases More

Cooler Cases

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  • No full tower models (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Whenever I find companies that sell "snazzy" looking cases (ie, ones that are supposed to look better than your standard beige box), I am disappointed to find that all of them are only mid-tower models. I use a full tower because I have numerous devices in my box and anything smaller gets really cramped really fast. Additionally, larger cases dissipate heat better. I wish I could find some stylish full tower cases. :-(

    ~Nik

  • HP Kayaks (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Hewlett-Packard Kayaks are the nicest plain-vanilla PC boxes I have ever seen. They have plastic ducts that force air from a dedicated fan over the processors. The drive cage has dedicated fans that pull air directly over the drives (cheetahs, they need it). The case has thumbscrews for toolless access and everything actually fits together.

    The SGI seems really nice, though. I'd like to get my hands on a 320, as they seem VERY price competitive with other vendors, but have an AWESOME architecture.

    Oh, and if you just want a cool case: sandpaper and krylon, baby!

  • Silent cases (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    my enlite is pretty quite
    www.enlitecorp.com

    They dont sell full towers though =(

  • You mean you have a case? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Although alot of people have been saying that it runs cooler with the case on, this is not always so. My inside case temperature (machine with 10,000 scsi harddisk and couple of PII's running at 504Mhz with peltiers) is about 10 degrees C cooler with side of the case off.

  • Even better case... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Look at http://www.pcpowercooling.com/chrome.html for an even better case. It's an all-steel dark blue tower with a chrome face plate. I have a similar one I bought from California PC Products (www.calpc.com) but I like this one better. PC Power and Cooling is the best in the business for power supplies and the like (it really does make a difference). I have about $500 into my case and power supply (400-watt PC Power and Cooling power supply/CPU coolers/temp alarm/fans, black 8-bay tower, drive bay cooling fans, castors & fenders). I only wish I had seen this one first. It seems like I checked the price and it was around $400 with power supply (the 400-watt ps is priced at $225 alone). Well, maybe someday.
  • Wow, lots of possibilities. I especially liked the wood case people- _damn_ that stuff is incredible! Obscenely luxurious. It must cost the earth :)
    I kept thinking of a crazed steel framework thing- you'd have to like the sounds of drives whining (2 IBM SCSI drives here) but it might provide useful information on what they're up to (read: chris is apparently an ultranerd ;) )
    Currently I'm doing the opposite- I have a dualboot Mac and have treated the inside of the case with strips of duct tape, each of which has a string of Mortite down it. Damping each panel made the case very quiet.
    The steel frame (or copper tubing, that's fun to do with pipe fittings and a torch and solder :) ) is the opposite- might be cool enough to actually do, the only comparable hack I saw was the picture of a sort of skeletal PC. However, the cooling isn't as good as it might be- and why on earth replicate the configuration of a boring PC box?? Seems crazy to me! Instead have all the drives sticking off in different directions, motherboard mostly flat, power supply several feet away etc etc etc. Make it _sculpture_ or don't make it at all... the only reason to have such a skeletal computermonster is to redefine what the machine is, and that means arranging the parts differently. If I do this I'll certainly have pictures... of course, I think if I have pictures of it running, I'm almost obligated to show it running boxstock MacOS :) as a sort of whimsical joke. Though it'd look more integrated running linuxppc, console or WindowMaker :)
  • Heat on the CPU doesn't bother me because I don't overclock. Heat on the hard drives, on the other hand, does bother me. A 10,000 RPM Cheetah becomes noticably hot to the touch with the cover of my case off. That's because no air is blowing over it. With my case on, it's a different story. I have three fans blowing *OUT* of my case (it's a hacked tower case), and big vents on the front that are set up to direct air through the hard drive bay. My hard drive runs *COOL*. And that's what I care about, because it is a lot more expensive than whatever crappy CPU I have in my machine today (I've always been of the opinion that anyone who spends more than $100 on a CPU would be better off getting a better hard drive and more memory!).

    All of this depends on your case design, of course. For example, cooling in the InWin cases is kind of iffy. The newest InWin towers have enough space for three fans in addition to the power supply fan and that does help, but their front bezel needs some more vent space and they don't need all those open vents on the side and top. (They need some, but not as much as they have). On the other hand, this crappy no-name generic case I have here at home is a terrible case but it keeps my drives cool as ice with its big front vents blowing straight into the drive bays.

    -- Eric
  • Heavy duty industrial stuff. We use'em for all of our high end stuff (alas, they're too expensive for our low end stuff).

    They do look industrial, though -- heavy-gauge painted steel all the way. Can't change that basic industrial look no matter what color you paint it.

    -- E
  • Somehow I suspect though that the point of your sweeping--and inaccurate--generalization is to get people riled up and start flaming.
  • Seems to me the easiest way to make a custom case is to start with a chassis from a commercial case and put your own housing etc. on it. Sort of like new sheet metal, or something. Carbon fiber or fiberglass would be my material of choice, possibly with heavy aluminum foil between layers to avoid screwing with every TV on the block. As for color, you could take a housing like this to any halfway competent auto-body shop and have it painted, or DIY. I'll probably do this, once I figure out a LED array for the front panel (sort of like the Thinking Machines boxes).
  • Posted by Sam Robertson:

    Am I the only person on this planet that prefers a desktop case over a tower?

    -Sam
  • Posted by jonrx:

    http://www.yeongyang.com/yy0110.html

    I'm getting one for my next upgrade!
    _jon
  • Posted by jonrx:

    I have one BeBox [be.com] at home, these things are as cool as cases get. Although they only have 2 external and 2-3 internal bays. -jon

  • Depending on the internal structure of your components, you might run cooler with the case on. I've seen a few cases that were designed with airflow through the case in mind.

    And a couple of my computers have cases. The ones I run as servers do, at least. I set them up with their hardware, put in the services I needed, and left them to gether uptime. :) My "tinkering" computer, however... I think the case is around somewhere.




    --Phil (Packard Bells seem to have fairly nice cases. Too bad that's the only good thing about them.)

  • Cool? (Score:1)

    by Scott ( 1049 )
    After seeing the SGI boxes and the new G3 towers, these things look like garbage; just your average case with some colored plastic glued on.
  • As soon as it's feasible, I plan on putting the PC in the back of my closet somewhere and just having a nice big LCD panel, wireless keyboard and mouse in my living room.

    I don't use floppy disks but once every few months, and I can easily put the CD-ROMs I use regularly (usually just my Starcraft CD-ROM) in one of those ATAPI changers...

    Won't have to worry about cases, then, at all.

    And for those lovely occasions where a hard reset is required (my head is Win98, though I have a Linux box on the LAN), it shouldn't be hard to use some telephone wire and wire up the reset pins on the motherboard and/or power switch to one of those cool key-operated safety pushbutton switches in my living room.
  • I was looking at aluminum stuff at a local lumberyard/hardwarestore/manlytypeplace. And I bought an 8" long like 1/2" x 1/2" L for around $5. I would *really* like to build my own case that is double-wide, and has the ability to not have a cover, but look really cool without one. My current comuter is a 'small' tower with like 2 5 1/2" bays, and 2 internal 3.5" bays. Unfortuanatly :> i have 2 cdrom drives, and 4 hard drives. So. I stole a power supply from an old 486, and it's powering 2 hard drives. The power supply is sitting on top of the computer next to the two hard drives it powers. my modem is sitting on top of the entire mess :> cables everywhere, of course...

  • There have been lots of cases with special doors for easy access. My favorite case design was for some old NEC P-60 and -66 midtowers. They had a plate in the base to get to the expansion slots, just one screw. You could just take off one side panel to get to the CPU and memory, and you only had to pull the other panel off if you wanted to monkey with the drives. I loved those cases, which of course meant that the next version required complete disassembly to upgrade memory.

    Of course, I love some of the HP server cases too. They're great to play with, if only because they have enough room to crawl inside and still have space for a comfy chair.

    Apple does neat stuff with their cases, but I hate the way they try to avoid good old fashioned screws and bolts. I know that a screw will work, and I will always remember how to get it open in a panic situation. Those crafty snaps and latches the Mac-boys love either break on their own, or get bashed by me when I need to get the hard drive out and I can't remember the secret knock that makes the case disassemble itself.
  • I know I could cut down on clutter if I could fine a case that could house two (or more) motherboards in it, all the drives, etc...

    I guess in something like that, heat would become a problem a little quicker, but it'd still be cool.

    Something along the lines of an old file cabinet gutted and rebuilt.
  • I did this too, although I spray-painted my case before the components for it arrived....The whole removable shell is a dark blue color (like a Zip drive), and the front bezel is mostly blue, with the drive areas and power switch retaining their natural whitish color. I used normal spraypaint with a coat of some clear spraypaint stuff, but I've still got a few chips in the paint in the spots where I bang the case into things...
  • IMHO, this only further validates that PC case designers are nowhere near as innovative as the ones who work for Apple. These cases are all pretty boring - they're still the same dull boxes, only this time they have some colored shapes on the cover. And in many cases (no pun intended), the pretty colors just limit the number of visible drive bays.


    --
    Timur "too sexy for my code" Tabi, timur@tabi.org, http://www.tabi.org
  • Wait till you see the AGP cards that need 115 watts of power.

    --
    Timur "too sexy for my code" Tabi, timur@tabi.org, http://www.tabi.org
  • I had a friend who did just that. He removed all the guts from his computer and spray-painted it electric blue, two coats. Then he put everything back in, and the computer ran just fine. As long as you do the work outside and give the case a little time to air-dry (as per the spraypaint instructions), it should be O.K.: no errant particles on the disk or boards.
  • > Oh, and if you just want a cool case: sandpaper and krylon, baby!


    You don't need the sandpaper. My friend
    didn't use any.

  • Just use ordinary copper/metallic wire. Twisted multi-strand wire outght to be a lot more flexible and resilient than plain solid wire.
  • These cases are kind of cool, I like that 411 model one... But I'd like to see a company that makes some really wacked out cases (made of metal, cyberpunk-esque, etc), or even some SGI box look-alikes. Some of these boxes have a strange akin to some Compaq boxes.
  • I didn't like the devils, but I liked that one they used for the "Case" button (I couldn't seem to find it elsewhere on the site though).

    Still no El Capitans/Yosemities/iMacs, but these are very nice. Great for those who stick with Intels for whatever reason.
  • Someone show me the plans to build it and I'll rush out to the local toy store and buy my building materials.

    Of course, If I built a lego case, I'd feel obligated to buy the Mindstorm robotics kits and build a robotic arm on the top that would turn the machine on and off on command!

  • What I'd love is a case that didn't shred your hands to ribbons the minute you open it. Side panel, thumbscrews, lots of bays, good cooling, and availability in a wide range of colours would be nice too. The best cases I've seen come with medium to high-end servers, and you can't get those without buying the whole thing.

    On a related topic, does anyone know where one can get a black desktop (not tower) case that doesn't look like crap? I'm looking for something to put my mp3 server into...
  • /.'ed ??? It won't even connect.....
  • The cases look cool, but don't have near enough bays for my drives.

    I'm still looking towards building a custom case (If I could find some good plans). I'm thinking of putting multiple fans in the side to help vent the heat of all the cards - these new video cards seem to run exceptionally hot.

    Anyway, I think I'll keep looking.
  • I don't care if my case is beige. I look at the monitor. If what's on the screen is pretty then who cares what's in the corner covering the computer components putting the pretty stuff on the screen? What I'm interested in are things like side-panel doors and stuff that actually helps me maintain the computer.
    --
    Aaron Gaudio
    "The fool finds ignorance all around him.
  • Real nice....until you want to install an additional drive or the newest 3dfx card.
    --
    Aaron Gaudio
    "The fool finds ignorance all around him.
  • I bought a very cool black cube case made by YeongYang from a place called Kri Computer in Southern California.

    http://www.kricomputer.com/yy0210.htm

    Mail ordered it, came in like 3 days. Well made case, has drive bays and motherboard areas separated. Spot for two fans on the front,
    lots of drive bays. Built for ATX boards.

    I love it! Just need a black MS Natural Keyboard to match!

  • Personally I was under the impression that it was the other way around, that the one good thing about Windows software was that it looked good.

    I will admit that, for instance, GIMP doesn't have as much out-of-the-box functionality as Photoshop... but that will correct itself, given time and the favor of the patent laws.

    Window Maker, on the other hand, does look really sweet... and I like it better than Explorer. Wow. Best of both worlds!

    ElpDragon.

  • There will be some *really* neat things possible once we start using PC99 or PC2000 spec machines. Get rid of the serial, parallel, PS/2 ports, and ISA slots, and things can get real tiny. Check out the Intel Concept PCs at http://www.intel.com/p ressroom/archive/backgrnd/cn111598.htm [intel.com]!
  • What's the big deal about cases? They whole point for me is to hide the technology. All this showing off your big PC look way too much like truck pulling to me. I want the effect, not the technology. Call me back when they fitted a battery-driven LCD panel puter w/o keyboard into a frame you can hang up on you wall without being ashamed.

    Geek is ok, but go with style.

  • Now, Ive got 2 computers that I sit in front of, a
    PII 400, and a G3 (I have to support the Mac users
    too, so they bought me one. boo-hoo :) ) While I use the linux box about 99.9% of the time, the tower for it sits on the floor well out of sight, while the G3 case (old style) which is MUCH better
    looking, even for a beige box, sits on the desk.
    Just from the discussions here, it looks like the market is ripe for a GOOD pc case company. Startup, anyone? :)

  • Seeing as how some of the cases at that site look like toasters or other small kitchen appliances, they should be able to accomodate your desires easily.
  • These cases are UGLY!
    They're a perfect example of a distinctly American
    type of kitsch, the 'decorations' (a good-looking
    box doesn't NEED decoration) on the box look
    like the decorations on cowboy boots and I can
    hear the country music coming out of those ugly
    boxes....

    (not to say that Europeans or Asians don't have
    their own kitsch)

    Sander
  • Or try touching the heatsink on an AMD K6-233 when the fan got blocked and the computer ran without for half an hour. Especially, try to unmount that thing when you've noticed that to get the CPU some fresh air (hint: heatsinks are hard to unmount bastards and now try without touching it...ouch :-)
  • Actually I was trying to cool the heatsink off fast and for that I need to switch on the computer to power the fan, but I did not want the CPU to also have power therefore I removed it from its socket. (The CPU surface itself wasn't actually hot - only warm)

    After cooling everything down and reinstalling it worked again. I'm writing this with that very same K6 and it works flawlessly.
  • I had four NeXT Cubes (Uncle was a VP for NeXT). Excellent machines, I had them for almost ten years. The alloy of which you speak was a cast magnesium alloy. The box weighed about 30 lb. One of them was broken (cracked NeXTBus), so we threw it off a second story balcony. Amazingly, the case survived (of course, we took care to remove the working Winchester drives beforehand. The stupid optical drives were screwed from day one.)

    The problems with NeXTcubes were manifold. First of all, I don't know if you can fit an ATX motherboard in there, because there is an enormous shared bus acting as a backplane. Logic boards slide into the bus sideways and access it that way. The hard drives and power supply plug into the shared bus in different places as well. To put an ATX motherboard in there would probably mean removing the shared bus, but then you wouldn't have a locking mechanism for the various parts. You can't screw anything in easily, because you'd have to drill a hole in thick metal.

    The shared bus means, however, that you can plug in multiple motherboards. With some configuration of the O/S, of course. (This was in 1989, mind you -- years before Linux SMP.) The air flow in that machine was terrible. The old Winchester full-heights got HOT ... i heated a burrito on one after fscking it three times in a row. The optical drives were typically sandwiched between the hot hard drive and hot power supply at the bottom -- that's why NeXT optical drives were notoriously unreliable. Magneto-optical works at a temperature called the Curie point (when the transition metal alloy in the Optical Disks was susceptible to vector realignment by a magnetic field.) Damn right, those boxes were poorly designed.

    Oddly enough, I've heard a lot of complaints about the lack of expandability in cubes. I never found that a problem because I could always daisy-chain my SCSI devices externally. NeXTs used standard SCSI-1, I might add, nothing mutant like the old MicroVAX II...

    Ah, those were the days.
  • Check out Macase [macase.com.tw] - they have a a midi-tower that is about 7-8cm wider than your average tower case.

  • I want one of those new apple cases for my PC!
    (no M$ ever, no Intel AMD & VIA)

    I hate scraping my knuckles on the poorly built
    Aztec and Enlight cases. I want a cases that
    gives me easy access to my MB, while it is running.
    Apple G3 case [apple.com] is entirely usable. I like haveing a few more colors in my workspace, sure it will be tacky in 3 years but so will my computer.

    Easy access, The Handles I like as they prevent it
    from actually resting on the floor, for those occasional spills. Being able to open while running is way cool! Sure it runs a little cooler when you run with no case, but you dust death rate goes way up....

    Now Apple needs to offer the case without the logo... and with holes for ATX form factor. Then I could have a decent PC case.
  • my friend's fan seems to make clunking noises and the fan stops sometimes... he's cleaned it out several times.. no air flow through that thing (or very little)...

    case off..

    first time that happened, i was really scared so i put it in my freezer with the case off, it took 1/2 hour to cool that thing off properly (didn't want too cold as to have condensation occuring)

    don't worry, he's buying a new case + MB anyway :)..
  • I disagree on the noise part. I was forced recently to move my computer to my bedroom. I look on the noise as a soothing thing, kinda like sailors with ship engines.

    Silent hard drives are important. I don't want a pair of Cheetahs waking me up in the middle of the night from cron jobs.
  • They're just pretty fronts to very bog-standard cases... big deal!

  • Actually, if you try and do that to certain SGIs (notably indigos and indies) they run a whole lot hotter because there is no airflow to certain parts of the machine that require forced air cooling. Can't remember exactly which parts at the moment. When the techs for SGI showed up, and we were running without the case for more than an hour, we would put the cover on, upside down to let the air move.

    Doesn't matter in PC's, as the standard case design is mostly open, but in tight spaces, you can use the boards as baffles to direct the airflow.

  • Bah... (Score:1)

    by deeny ( 10239 )
    They're still 90% beige. Can we find some cool cases that *aren't* primarily beige or black? I've seen these cases in person, btw. Why pay a $50 premium for only a little style (debateable) and color? Because that's how much extra these puppies cost. I'd rather get two beige cases and some paint.

    _Deirdre
  • Many *finishes* however, combust at much lower temperatures!

    I would *not* use polyurinate (as the rec.ww folks refer to it) for this due to the possibility of toxic fumes. Probably a light shellac would be best. :)

    _Deirdre
  • Thank you, you gave me a very good idea for what to do with my ailing PowerMac 6100 that's had overheating problems. :)

    _Deirdre
  • Screw cases. I wanna suspend the insides of my computer from the ceiling with some kind of wire. Anyone have an idea on what kind of wire to use? Is normal fishing wire srong enough?
    --Dast
  • I have a Sony VAIO that i bought for some god unknown reason about a year and a half ago. This was before they went to the cases that were 4 or 5 inches tall (thank god) but still it was pretty slick looking.
    PROBLEM #1 (three months after purchase) the CD ROM they installed broke, so I had to replace it. I discovered that with the fancy case I had to take the whole thing apart to get it out. So I added the new CD ROM below it and let it sit there.

    PROBELM #2
    Now that my computer was hideously ugly and mismatched, I kept the door slid up constantly. But the doors and mecahnisms they use on these cases SUCK, so soon the door snapped and no longer slides up, stuck half way looked even tackier, so I had to remove it.

    PROBLEM #3
    Not enough bays: I bought a CDR a few months later. But there were not enough drive bays with the irremovable CD ROM, so I had to take it apart to get it off, and cut my thumb open pretty good doing it.

    PROBLEM #4
    I put in the new CDR in the stop slot once i finally got the fancy Sony CD ROM out, and discovered that the front of the Sony was one plastic piece that was attached to the floppy. I had to remove that piece in order to replace the CD ROM, so now my floppy is this ugly piece of black plastic that doesnt match anything. You can also peek into the computer through the area surrounding the floppy due to odd case construction.

    OTHER PROBLEMS
    In addition to this, I spilt soda in the keyboard and had to replace it with a standard Logitech one, which does not match the case either. Compounding the ugly mess is the wheel mouse I replaced the tiny one that came with it. I will never a buy a non-beige case again.. Maybe these cases will allow for better upgrades, but I won't risk it until I can be sure everything looks sexy and sleek together.. You just need to run Enlightenment and no one will look at your ugly case
  • How about wood? You could go steal paletes from behind costco or safeway (or wherever), break them apart and use the wood. You may need something other than duct tape though. You could buy a litte bag of nails cheaper than a roll of tape anyway. You could use a rock to pound in the nails if you want too.

    Harlequin
  • ...for me (not enough drive bays, smaller PS than I currently have, etc.) but they're more interesting to look at than most.

    I think I'll stick with "putty" until I figure out how to put a nice wood veneer on my current case. What's Norm Abrams' e-mail address?
  • Whe will they get it!?!? Putting ANOTHER piece of plastic on a standard sheet metal AT/ATX case doesn't make it "cool"

    Someone needs to make a high quality case of out quality materials that isn't just a piece of plastic hot glued to the side of a BOX.

    Oh wait some one did! Apple!! Imagine that...

    That new G3 case puts anything else to shame. It has easier access then anything else on the market (beer box guy not included :), even you geeks who leave the cover off of your computer case.

    I'll give a site like this colorcase place a second look when they do somthing new.
  • Take a look at the specs on the new G3 EVERYTHING except for the ADB port in the back is industry standard. The RAM, the ZIFF socket, hard drives are UDMA, USB, firewire. The monitor port is even standard VGA!! These things rock. Apple is getting it right. They can use standard parts, but they don't have to use the cheapest POS like everyone else.

  • well i saw one up here in the northern va area at a computer show, and i was looking for a case and this guy that was selling them, was selling them cheap, so i bought one. let me just say.. THEY SUCK!! i hate the two button at, atx config, and don't get me started on the freakin' door that kept wanting to break off.. i was so pissed and drenched in kerosine and promptly burned it.. it was lovely.. went back to my lovely beige case. you don't know you miss it until you set your new case on fire.

    "this message has been designed for the thinking impaired."
  • and add something into one of the front bays... you wind up with a Great Big Ugly Beige Rectangle in the middle of the picture. Not so bad for the ones that have the door on them, but on the ones that don't, it's a mess.
  • your cpu and motherboard will stay cooler if you keep the case on. it has to do with how your fan works in an enclosed area as opposed to how it works in an open area.

    If you have a fan six inches away from your CPU in open air, some of that air will get to your cpu. If you have a pipe (or any enclosed area) between your fan and your cpu, all of that air will get to your cpu.

    The more air your CPU gets, the cooler it will be. Even if the air inside the case is a few degrees warmer than the air in your room.

    CPUs run better when they are cool, so put the case back on your machine. ;-)
  • I don't want molded organic cases ... i just want a standard case in a different color. SGI had it right back in the hayday of the indy and the indigo. Maybe i can just score an indigo2 case and stick my parts in it :)

    brett
  • This has probably been on /. before but...

    www.rockcity.net has some REALLY original looking computers. I wish they'd sell just the cases.

    Tech-wise their complete PCs are either too expensive (PII) or not too impressive. Oh, and the site has been "under construction" for far too long to inspire confidence.
  • Personally, I thought these cases looked a bit cheesy and not fit for their purpose. I have no problem with the old beige box. They're easily hidden if you don't like the appearance, and who sits there staring at their case while at their computer anyway?

    If you want art, buy art. Let cases be cases.

  • If I'm not mistaken, the G3 motherboards are the standard ATX form factor. And the drive bays are standard size too.

    I guess if you really wanted to, you could swap cases with a new G3 owner who thinks that the case is the worst looking case ever.

    Actually, that would be a change... a PC in a blue G3 box... hmmm ;)
  • There's an interesting looking case at http://www.goodpc.com/spec/sv600.htm but I've not seen one in person to comment on the construction and such.
  • Um.....hate to point this out, but if you are running any kind of highend processor, or videocard, then that means alot of heat, which is probably not such a good idea next to cardboard.

    Unless of course you like the idea of a spontaneously combusting case
  • You know, your right, he really would have a
    problem if the case he made was wooden, but for some reason I tend to think that cardboard burns at a lot lower temp. than 450F, but i could be wrong...
  • Wait...I would agree that a 386sx/16 wouldn't get anywhere near hot enough to ignite anything, however, your original post specified an ATX form factor. All 386 boards were AT...so I guess you got yourself a discrepancy on your hands huh?

    Not to be petty or anything.
  • www.caseoutlet.com has some really cool looking cube cases. They are a bit more expensive, though.
  • I nominate the classic combos of Cardboard-box/VME (or CPCI). Forget plastics and metal!
  • I've been looking for that URL for weeks... I stumbled upon the site, but didn't bookmark it.. thankie!

  • Do black cases exist? Pref with a flip door
    that I can put my drives behind because they
    dont have black face plates.
    Anyone know of any?
  • Check out http://www.kryotech.com and check out their cases. How is -40 C for coolness? Unfortunately, you might have to buy a system along with their cases since the cooling head is matched to the CPU. Their cases don't look half bad for beige hardware, either.
  • While we all are on the subject of cases, I thought I might bring up the iMac, which has been getting a lot of attention lately because of its cool case design.
    Some acquaintances at Apple actually tried to get Steve Jobs to change his mind for the design that became the iMac production case. Since they are analog and monitor types, they are familliar with the guts of a CRT, working with them daily. They were agast that Jobs intended to show off yoke portion of the monitor through those 'sexy' blue windows in the top.
    The guys wheeled a monitor on an AV cart into Jobs office, turned it around, and pulled the back off of the monitor. They said "In one year this is what our customers will see through those blue windows in the iMac." For those of you who have never opened up your monitor (as Jobs probably never had) let me tell you what he saw - a CRT fuzzy with a grey carpet of dust. It turns out the high voltage of a CRTs is a magnet for dust.
    I know that this may not be of any concern to most of you since most computers have the monitor separate from the CPU, but you do still have dust build-up in the processor box, and a clear case of any kind will show that off right away. (I know, most of you upgrade your gear so quick it doesn't have time to get dusty.)
    Just thought you would like one more anectdote to add to the voluminous corpus of Steve Jobs lore, and to remind you that some products that are visually appealing on the showroom floor sometimes don't age well.
  • I don't have any plans, but it would seem like the best way to go would be to get a bunch of those flat, green landscape pads and build a replacement cover for a case you already have. I don't know what I'd do for the front cover though.
    An added bonus of a Lego case would be the time you could kill during those huge downloads (hey, we don't all have cable modems, T1's, or whatever).

    PS Anybody know whether those flat pads come in anything beside green, grey, and blue?
  • If you (or someone you know) has a few ounces of talent, just airbrush your current case and bezel with some nifty-neato-keen original artwork.

    Take a look at the left side [tbf.net] and the right side [tbf.net] of my case. These are ~150k jpgs and were taken right before I put it back on my machine.

    And yes, my brother is taking orders for them. :)

    John.
  • Check out Addtronics' "extra" series full tower or server tower at http://www.wco.com/~addtron/index.html [wco.com]. I have a 6890a, and like it quite a bit; it looks like the '91 and '92 series cases are the same as the '90 series intenally, but have nicer looking fronts. You can put fans in all the usual places plus blowing sideways across the 5.25" exposed drive bays.

    And if you're reading this, you definitely want the casters. They give you the ability to pull out your case much more easily (or put it out of the way where it goes much more easily)! You probably want them even if you never close the case...

    Just a happy customer...
  • The ability to make a case that looks cool is a matter of exteriors. If SGI and Apple let other people use their case designs, there's no reason the factories that made them couldn't put SGI/Apple outsides on an AT/ATX compatible frame, save for FCC Class B RMI emission concerns.


    The (vaguely related) thing I really hate is SCSI cable makers who make their cable plugs such that you have to run the cable to the top of your case, then down the bays--or alternately, have only a between-drives length of cable between the host adapter and the first drive. Ecch. Plug it in the right way (and probably waste a plug), or plug it in backwards and probably waste a plug anyway. What a choice...
  • The full and server towers in the Extra series *are* wider, and I think it improves the ease of messing with the guts quite a bit. But they're not two drives wide. For that you need an expensive RAID enclosure which has no room for anything but drives. :-(

    (Found a use for the 5.25" bay above the power supply? Or did you get the 7890?)
  • Fahrenheit 451 just doesn't have the same impact any more since the CD-R, though...
  • Convection doesn't work all that quickly, especially compared to air circulated by a fan. If the case is closed, air should circulate up the case (past the cards, past the ram/cache, past the drives, past any voltage regulators on the motherboard), through the power supply and out. The general temperature in the case may be higher, but the hot spots will be fewer, or at least cooler.

    If the case is open, the CPU and the power supply (and anything else with a fan blowing on it) will still be cooled. Everywhere else, the air will stagnate (or just move very slowly), your hot chips will waft heat up towards your hot hard drives, and your hot hard drives will just get hotter. While your CPU may register a few degrees cooler (as the fan can blow air from the room across it), but nothing else gets much airflow, so the other $1500 of your $2000 system suffers.

    ATX PSU fans that blow in on the CPU are okay for a desktop IMHO, but those don't tend to be heavily expanded. For a tower, you should have as many or more fans blowing out the top back as you have blowing in the front, especially if you have a self-cooking hard drive without a fan on it.

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