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Hardware

Translucent PC Cases 247

Posted by CmdrTaco from the quest-for-cool-cases-continues dept.
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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Translucent PC Cases More

Translucent PC Cases

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  • Gee, they even have Mac Flavors/Colors (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Its bad enough to want a case that looks like that, but to give them flavor names just like the iMac? Thought the names were stupid enough as they were on the iMac.

    Wanna shine my shoes? Make Zebra ztripped cases, or black light ones. Dont give me this single color scheme named after stupid mac systems.

  • Spraypainting thread (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Last year, there was a thread on Ask Slashdot
    which turned up some excellent suggestions about
    spraypainting cases and keyboards. Unfortunately,
    all the comments seem to be gone:

    http://slash dot.org/article.pl?sid=98/11/07/0116225&mode=threa d&threshold=0 [slashdot.org]



    Does anyone have a cached/saved copy?

    --ac

  • You're all wrong! (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    You need to understand that Apple started into transparency with the iMac. Why? Because the iMac is a fully contained unit that goes on TOP of the table. It cannot be hidden. As for the G3... it's beauty lies with its functionality. It is only transparent because it follows Apple's line of products. IMO that's the only reason. The G3 goes under the table. Apple didn't need the G3-looks to be trend-setting.

    On these new organic pc cases... designers are so off. Most people don't have the desk space for these type of units. Units go on the floor, and when units go on the floor, people don't care as much about how they look... just that they're functional. In the meantime, even if they did go on top of the desk, it still needs to look good with the monitor. These units will just make your desktop look like crap. If you want to concentrate on aesthetics, concentrate on things that people will see... things that go on top of the desk like monitors, speakers. Otherwise improve on the usability.

  • Translucent overkill (Score:3)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 28, 1999 @02:31PM (#1911317)
    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.
  • Suddenly I have a really strange feeling on the back of my neck because I had been debating between more RAM for my server or a new windscreen for my bike.

    Didn't ever think the two passions had anything in common.
  • You just put a normal floppy drive behind the slit, and since 3.5" drive are pretty much standard design, it should fit.

  • Drives? (Score:1)

    by Octal ( 310 )
    Do you realize how hard it is to get internal CD-ROMs, tape drives and Zip drives in transparent iWhack colors? I mean, thre are about 20 different shades of beige already, and that idiot Steves Jobs goes out and makes things EVEN WORSE for anyone who wants to upgrade. If this keeps up, I might have to use Legos for a case.
  • I have an In-win Q-500A. Plenty of room to toss whatever I want in it. Right now, I've got 4 SCSI drives, a CD-Rom and a CD-R, and an old IDE drive, and I still have room for other stuff. These cases would be cramped beyond belief for me.

    They also bring up another issue: Where are you gonna find CD-Roms (and other peripherals) with translucent faces? It'd totally ruin the effect if you were forced to use beige peripherals on a translucent white case.

    Not for me, unless I build up (yet) another system.

    - A.P.
    --


    "One World, One Web, One Program" - Microsoft Promotional Ad

  • From what I've heard, it's anything but.

    I'm sick of people claiming Apple Computer is the be-all, end-all of computer products. Do people actually believe easy-to-open cases weren't around before the Mac? Others have already pointed out counterexamples that existed earlier, and it's pretty easy to get a hold of well-designed PC cases nowadays too.

    What's Apple done, again?

    - A.P.
    --


    "One World, One Web, One Program" - Microsoft Promotional Ad

  • Thank you for enlightening us to the fact that everything Apple does is perfect, and everything the rest of the world does is shite.

    I'm sure we'll all keep it in mind while our PCs are busy outperforming your puny G3.

    - A.P.
    --


    "One World, One Web, One Program" - Microsoft Promotional Ad

  • Sun Sparc IPCs and IPXs had a similar, possibly simpler design, back in 1990. SGIs are also incredibly easy to open and work on too. I'd go so far as to say *every* workstation manufacturer's cases have been incredibly easy to field-service. All Apple did was take that design and add a couple of rounded corners.

    - A.P.
    --


    "One World, One Web, One Program" - Microsoft Promotional Ad

  • Awful big talking for an AC.

    Anyway, I'd say anything with a slide-out motherboard tray is as easy to open as the G3, and requires much less workspace as well. Compaq's server cases are an excellent example of this; a pair of thumbscrews is usually all that's required to get into the machine, which is usually very well laid-out. For the do-it-yourselfer, lots of options are available, including my personal favorite, the In-Win Q500. While it doesn't "open up", the sides are simple to remove and the motherboard is on rails and slides out easily. Makes getting to the RAM simple; often the case doesn't even need to be opened to replace or add RAM. I'm sure other case examples exist. These are just the ones I could think of off the top of my head.

    - A.P.
    --


    "One World, One Web, One Program" - Microsoft Promotional Ad

  • Dual power supplies? Cheap? I want a billion dollars too, but it's unlikely I'll get it :-(.

    I just pulled down my California PC Products catalog and it looks like they'll sell you a case with dual power supplies -- but it'll cost. They have one that'll fit a standard ATX case, but it looks like the price on that thing is well over $350 (retail in my catalog is $408). Pretty pricey just for a power supply :-(.

    You might want to check them out at http://www.calpc.com, by the way. Some serious sh*t there. Only folks I've ever encountered who have a case that'll hold more than 30 drives (but check the shipping weight and dimensions on that thing -- it's HUGE!).

  • Intel has one that works with the California PC Products NLX chassis. Unfortunately, according to our guy who researched the NLX formfactor, Intel has decided not to offer that motherboard in a "boxed" formfactor, they are only offering it to OEM's.

    We also looked at ASUS's NLX board, but we couldn't find a NLX chassis that would fit its daughterboard format. Perhaps Elan Vital (ASUS's case-making arm) has such a chassis? in any event we're past the point of researching such things at LHS, for obvious reasons (busily morphing into an east coast sales & support center for VA).

    -E
  • 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.

  • Heck, it should be obvious to anyone who grew up in Japan in the 1970's that this [edit.ne.jp] is the origin of this whole iMac translucent colored plastic trend.
  • Posted by hyperman:

    I have seriously not used a floppy disk with either of my macs at home in nearly three years. There is nothing that a floppy can do that a CDROM or a network can't do better.

    To be totally honest, I'm beginning to feel that removable storage in general is headed for extinction. I can just pop my hard drive out and move it elsewhere- why mess with a Jaz?
  • Posted by invisix:

    I've haven't seen a decent PC case in years... Apple has some good cases now, and SGI has always been in the zone. Doh!
  • Posted by The Incredible Mr. Limpett:

    Maybe someone should make a "smooth, flowing curve" computer case with a built-in cup holder! I'm thinking like you see in cars nowadays, especially mini-vans. That would be cool!

    BTW I like the cases, especially if I had a B&W G3 mac, I could get one of these for my PC and have a matching set. Of course as other posters have said, good luck finding matchin monitors, mice, etc...
    ----
    "Wars, conflict, it's all business. One murder makes a
    villain. Millions a hero. Numbers sanctify."
  • Posted by The Incredible Mr. Limpett:

    Well, it's no worse than these Compaq boxes here at work. freakin daugtherbords on daughterbords on fatherboards stuck in the middle of the motherboard. And the memory of course is under it all so you have to dissasemble the damn thing to get to something.


    ----
    "Wars, conflict, it's all business. One murder makes a
    villain. Millions a hero. Numbers sanctify."
  • 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. ;)
  • Black, but with neon lighting strips, perhaps one above the top-most drive and one below the bottom-most.
  • Yellow could be called "banana", to keep the flavor analogy going.

    I think I want a bunch of blinking LEDs on the front of my next machine, that blink randomly most of the time but occasionally show short random messages.
  • Cheap, milky plastic over a cheap metal case. Bah!

    Now what I want is a keyboard with lighted letters. I don't mean that Star Trek Wrath of Kahn transulect blue keys. What I want is a regular looking keyboard with lit letters on the keys. That way I could see the keys while playing Quake with the lights off. :)

  • Or just that after all the opening and closing of the case, you'd lost the screws :-)
  • Where does the floppy go on these beasties? I know there's a slit for the drive, and a button too, but are you going to have to get a special drive to fit in there, much like the drives in the Dell "molded case" machines? I wonder if it'll match a 17" Apple monitor. :)
  • They actually look pretty cool! This is my personal opinion.
    It's far easier to forgive your enemy after you get even with him.
  • Now that's a well designed case! 2 thumbscrews, the cover slides *front* off the case, so you don't have to unplug all those cables just to open then damn thing. Drives are mounted sideways, so you have easy access to power and data cables. (Less blood inside the case) And of course cpu activity leds on the front. None of this Mattel-like translucent stuff... :)
    Jón
  • Yes, there have been some cool cases for Lap Top's in the movies, and I saw one on "VIP" or whatever with that Pam Anderson chick.. ya know.. the bay watch one. But, I'm not holding my breath to actually see someone selling them.

    Now, as far as HACKERS goes, ARGH!!! You know what, I am SICK of hearing how LAME HACKERS WAS!! IMHO, Hackers was great. The movie may not have been "perfect" but I sure haven't seen ANY other movies do it much better. Hackers sucked, in your opinion, ok, so then name a few movies that were actually better, and weren't "pure fiction." The Matrix SUCKS in my opinion, because it may be interesting to watch the affects, but thre was NO way you can believe "that could happen." Hackers actually retained at least some ground in the real world..... Well, maybe it wouldn't happen, but it's not impossable. I would love to see more movies like Hackers. I would love to see better movies like Hackers. For that matter, I would rather see a movie that was HALF as good as Hackers than to see another "total science fiction, there is no way at all ANY of this could happen, but we got great special effects" movie.

  • PC makers just don't get it (Score:3)

    by timur ( 2029 ) on Wednesday April 28, 1999 @02:35PM (#1911346)
    Face it - no industrial design team for a PC manufacturer will ever come close to Apple's products. They just don't have the talent.

    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

  • What I'd like to know is, where can one buy an NLX motherboard? Any who's had the opportunity to open up a Dell Optiplex knows that they're the way to go! On an NLX mobo, the PCI/ISA bus is on a daughterboard that can be easily pulled out of the machine without disturbing anything else. Also, at least on the Optiplex, the case opens with a single button in a similar way as the G3 mac, and the power supply and HD bays are on hinges to make removal simple. Definitely the easiest PC hardware I've ever worked with.

    --Alex
  • Yeah.. I like the cases made by www.calpc.com. I guess I'm the odd duck, but I think those ugly colored cases like the icrap err imac would make a better flower pot or maybe a paper weight for the kids. For me it's gotta be 100% steel and "built for WWII" as we say around here...

    "rbf"

    --
    ALPHA LINUX POWERED and loving it!
  • Hey!
    I liked Hackers myself.
    I laughed at how unreal it was.
    The "secure" system with just a password, no username (or the reverse depending on how you want to think about it).
    The completley graphical systems.
    The psycadelic worm program.
    THe large amounts of viruses unleased on the seemingly Unix systems.

    But i still liked the movie itself.

    Then again, I got a kick out of Blacula.
  • I got tired at looking at my full tower case one day. Grabbed some blue paint (my favorite color). Removed the cover and the front plate and painted it. Then someone pointed out to me that from the side, it's the right shape and color to have the markings of the Tardis painted on the side.

    Gets me thinking

    Now all I have to do is find a 12v blinking light for the top

    But seriously. If one has just a bit of creativity or atleast some of the kits out there...do it yourself and save the money for SDRAM. They have stone textured paint out there, Marble kits, you name it. Besides, You have a better chance of convincing your SO to let you keep a computer in every room of the house if you can convince her that it will match the decor
  • yep your're onto a good idea there. about the only thing i like about the new macs is the way u can get access to the mb. having to open my pc to replace boards and hard drives, change cables etc makes my eyes wince when i drop a screw inside.

    what i would do for nice layout and access. but lets face it is there a market for these kind of cases? if there is a market someone will produce it.
  • Of course! There were never any "easy to open" cases until Apple! I mean, you can't include the old IBM PS/2 cases which had only two thumbscrews keeping the side on. Or the Aptiva on my desk with the case that just slides off.

    Sorry both of the examples are IBMs, but its all I've ever owned. the point is, there have always been some great cases out there. Apple just took it the next step..

    Log

  • Yup, the imac is a nightmare to open. I've installed enough memory upgrades in those babies to last me a lifetime. However, like the original Mac, it's not really designed to be opened by it's target audience: the regular consumer.

    Folks like Mom and Dad, who are either going to get the memory installed when they buy it, or get their son or daughter to come over and do it for 'em. ;)

    The blue and white G3 on the other hand, is the "professional" Mac, and thus is designed for extremely easy access for upgrades.

    Did Apple invent the easy to open case? Of course not...but they are bringing it to the masses wrapped around some pretty impressive hardware.
  • I picked up a black cube server case when I built my PC a few months ago. It's a Yeong-Yang BYY-0210. Picked it up from a place in Southern California, Kri Computer.
    Here's a pic: http://www.kricomputer.com/yy0210.htm

    The pictures don't do it justice. Nice case, mobo/PCI section is separate from drive area, with a crapload of drive bays. Connectors for eight lights on the front. Spots for 3 fans to keep those drives cool!

    Plus, a little door to cover all your drives that don't have matching bezels. :) A wee bit expensive, but I think it's worth it.
  • Sorry, somebody beat you to it. I remember a post a few months back about someone who had clad a old Powerbook in Legos....

  • 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!"

    Ummm.....no, I don't think they were thinking that. More likely thinking that those handles might make it easier to lug the beast around. You may not like the look, but let's not be ridiculous here.
  • 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.

  • Yuck. (Score:3)

    by Tumbleweed ( 3706 ) on Wednesday April 28, 1999 @04:32PM (#1911359)
    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...
  • I'll say. I've got one. It weighs something like 20kg. I like having a couple of well-placed handles for something that heavy. (it is NOT flimsy. it's putting a dent in my desk!) If a sharp metal edge or something is more to your liking, glue on a razor blade.

    Anyway, what I'd really like to see: shocks. It would kick ass to have a low-rider cpu bouncing all over my desk. Would probably have to be a hd-less machine. And I think we'll skip the low-rider vdu.

  • they look like they came straight out of an Anime movie

    Yeah, well, the tentacles (optional, incld. with dvd) are a pain in the ass.

  • Honestly, I'd love a nice cherrywood case. With a lot of brass hardware attached.

    what about a mix of nice wood, leather, and textured black plastic -- something like the inside of a Lexus? That would be cool.

    Why not just use a Lexus? Toss the cpu in the trunk, heads up display, keyboard on the steering wheel (horn == ^G). Makes parking a bit tricky, but it's probably better than a cubicle. I dare you to try it.

  • I've done this. You've got three options.

    1. Call up Quark and bug them for the version of Quark that doesn't require a keydisk. They'll bitch and groan, charge you money, spank you and call you chester, but they'll do it.

    2. Use existing floppied Macs to create a disk image of the keydisks, with Apple's DiskCopy utility. It's stashed on just about all of their installer CDs and you can dl it too. Then mount the image from each floppyless Mac and Quark doesn't know the difference.

    3. Get a floppy drive and share it between the various Macs whenever you need it, like the Grey Sisters did with their eyeball. It's a USB device, so you can hot-swap it, etc.

    I also suggest looking into Adobe's new dtp program, which is called InDesign or something like that. It's supposed to read Quark files with a high degree of accuracy, accept native Illustrator and Photoshop files and generally run Quark's ass outta town. Given that those morons (Quark) took years to put out v4, which has maybe three improvements, I would not be averse to this.
  • Heh.

    I find this really funny because I am a huge anime fan - Escaflowne, Nadesico, Porco Rosso... I really don't like H anime at all.

    OTOH, I thought it was a pretty funny joke.

    Anyway, I've got one of the new G3 minitowers. It's nice, I like it... but I really don't think that it looks like something out of an anime, or any sf made in the past couple of decades. If they had thought of the idea of microcomputers back in the 70's, then I could see the development of a similar design....
  • I suspect that the cost is a bit higher because of the auto ejection... we already lost auto injection a number of years back, because it would drop the cost. (too bad - it was cool)

    More relevantly, Quark is the only program I know of that still uses a keydisk. There may be a couple of others, but by and large everyone uses cds if they have installer disks at all.

    And if you're ever going to bring out a floppyless machine, it's best to make a clean break. When the original Mac came along, IIRC, there were no arrow keys on the keyboard. If there were, who would bother using the mouse? They were put on later, after the mouse was established, and could survive on it's own.

    If Apple had floppies as an option, Quark would always require them (why not) and you'd still be spending money. But as it stands, Quark will soon have to put boxes on the shelves with no floppies at all, or lose money because of people who don't want to go through any hassle.

    Me, other than Quark, I haven't used a floppy of my own free will (sometimes at work, which is prepress, but we also have a SyQuest, Zips, Jaz, Bernoulli, MO, DAT, etc. to be able to take anything that comes in the door) for years and years. I would have been pissed off if Quark made me buy a floppy for that one program. Instead I made an Image, and I put Quark on 'the list.'
  • I saw this story on a Mac site days ago!
    /. is becoming ?.
    I like how Mac users are scooping PC users
    on cool PC cases...
    Not only do they get the cool cases first
    but now they're inspirirng and spotting them
    first. Gee, maybe Mac users aren't all clueles after all :->
  • Make Zebra ztripped cases,

    I love you.
    ---
    "'Is not a quine' is not a quine" is a quine.

  • Did you watch the same movie I did? last time I checked very few viruses were graphical. hell last I checked running ls doesn't fly me through a virtual landscape of data towers either.Now that's realisim a p6 power mac...heheh
  • These are obviously a weak rip off of the iMac. Pathetic. Pc companies don't have any panache. That is the real problem.

    Custom cases NEED a "door" to cover the beige 5.25" drives. They also need a little style.

    At least my home computer is one of those MASSIVE 80's AT cases that I rescued from work. It's kinda cool, but only because it so big. AFAIK, the best pc cases are still at California PC Products [calpc.com].

    We should make our own cases.

  • Amen to that. I've got a pair of the huge In-Win 11-disk towers. However, I must say that the translucency is kinda cool.
  • If it's running MS you could call it the iLose.
    Lose your work, lose your temper, lose your spare time...

  • Can we stop with the "just don't get it" thing? It makes me wince every time I see it... it's at once condescending and horribly ambiguous. :D

    /rant off
  • Hey, this company's East Coast office is right around the corner from here! Anybody want me to walk around the corner and check them out? :)

    Now, if they only had a model with 8 5 1/2" bays. :)
  • Somthing that has always bothered me with this sort of case: What about RF interference. A conventional metal case sheilds quite well against both emission and absorbtion of RF interference. Most of the opaque plastic cases are metal or foil lined. Do these see-thru cases make the grade? Or are these cases going to make my TV go on the blink?

    Adrian

  • Children of the 80's (Score:3)

    by Qeyser ( 6788 ) on Wednesday April 28, 1999 @02:25PM (#1911376) Homepage

    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.

  • Every Taiwanese case maker here has been knocking these things out for months. Cases, mice, keyboards, scanners, you name it. They've been out in the street markets for some time.

    Trust me, they look like shite.
  • Apple cases are easy to open?
    Maybe, but getting the components out
    is another matter entirely. I've seen
    downright silly arrangements of things
    in Apple boxes. It's like a puzzle.
  • Actually, in my limited NT admin experience, NT has to have floppies. WinNT requires 3 floppies on installation (it's actuially optional, but you'll want 'em if something goes wrong) for the emergency rescue disks. On a Mac, the emergency rescue disk is the system CD that came with the computer (or any more recent system CD). That's why Macs can get away without a floppy. And since the drivers for the, well everything... are on said same CD, Macs don't need a floppy for drivers.

    Of course, any Lotus Notes shop probably makes great use of floppies for moving user.id files between machines. It's networkable, sure, but a floppy works out handy sometimes. Other than that (and the occaisonal Quark installation), Macs don't need floppies. They're just an occaisonal convenience.

  • One of the supervisors in my office got his hands on a set of IBM black monitor, mouse and keyboard.

    Gorgeous, simply gorgeous. I've got a G3 at home (and yes, I did just replace the keyboard and mouse today; the Macally keyboard is a nice unit, and the Contour UniMouse has a very nice, solid feel, plus three buttons; both are USB only)

    I like the IBM matte black look better, translucent blue and white is nice, but mate black... man... Do they make a USB version ?

  • ookay the colors are acceptable,
    but the form factor still lacks.
    It's justa big friggin box taking up space.
    With PC104 available,
    I'd rather mount my pc under my desk
    out of sight; rf mouse & keyboard,
    flat panel display.
  • I can't help but think the first manufacturers who start making _good_ black equipment are gonna make a killing...

    Yeah, NeXT is making a killing alright.

  • Let's see, we have Lime, Strawberry, Grape, Orange... and what's that? Blackish green? Or is that brackish green? Yuck.

    Folks, these things are just plain butt-ugly. Let's face it: PCs are just not going to be sexy no matter how much plastic you wrap around one. You can put a bikini on your great Aunt Selma, but that won't get her in Sports Illustrated.

    Just run your PC with the case off like I do. Now, if I could get a nice mahogany cabinet... that might be nice.

    --JT
  • A nice mahogany cabinet. I saw the wood cases, and didn't much care for them. Say -- what about a mix of nice wood, leather, and textured black plastic -- something like the inside of a Lexus? That would be cool.

    --JT
  • After all, how else are you going to load the drivers for either device if they're not included with your OS?

    There's a real advantage to having a removable media drive that doesn't require any assistance from software to work :)
  • but thay are still shitty ATX cases covered in neato plastic. ONLY the new G3's and iMac's have truly inovative case designs when it comes to form factor and accesabilty. NO PC case even comes close to the ease of use of the B&W G3 case.

    You know what, it wouldn't take much more then someone other then a coke bottle geek to design a good a case. Apple did it.... again. You can not argue with the sales figures.
  • Let's get one thing straight, I LOVE my Mac and the OSX servers that we run on B&W G3's. IBM's Netfinity (stupid name) PC servers are pretty cool. Swap out mother boards and other devices real easy. Take a look at them sometime....

    The only thing I don't like about the BW G3's is the fact that ribbon cables run under a pannel and are a pain to remove. We stripped all of our BW G3's for the hell of it before we put them into action and that was the only bad thing we could find
  • Oh my. The wood case thing was a scam :)

    I hope you wouldn't want to run your computer
    in a wooden case.. that'd be just silly :)
  • The cases would be a bit more appealing if they
    switched the colored part with the translucent
    white part. Too much dark cyan for my eyes.
    Makes me sick to my stomach even.
  • Dude!

    You *liked* to computing towers with data displayed on them guarded by Penn Gillette?

    You *liked* the PowerMac with the P6 RISC processor and the screen that could project images on your face?

    You *liked* the battling hackers at the TV station?

    Wow.

    You're a rare breed.
  • I would like a semi-transparent, all black case. That would be spiffish.
  • If we evaluated all movies based on how beleivable they were, George Lucas would not be still milking Star Wars, and there wouldn't be 4 diffrent Star Trek series'.
  • ..I even saw iMac-alike CD racks, and other related accessories.

  • The Matrix SUCKS in my opinion, because it may be interesting to watch the affects, but thre was NO way you can believe "that could happen."

    I think the question is more along the lines of "If the Matrix really existed, would we even realize it?". The answer is probably not. The whole movie was a comment on how tenuous our perception of reality really is. And hardware, lots of military hardware. It was really a live-action comic book more than anything.

  • Redmond is the threat RIGHT NOW.
    Cupertino is the NeXT threat after Redmond.
    Deal with Redmond now
    Deal with Cupterino NeXT.
  • Man, i don't want WEAKER PLASTIC cases...
    I want HUGE THICK TOWER cases
    made of thick grey non-refective bulletproof metals to protect by boxen. Big inch thick cases, thats what we need. I want a case that would be as tough as Mr.T!!

    Hell yeah, I wanna put one of those car flame throwers on it to.
  • And neither do I!

    Hell yeah! =)

    No one gets it!

    And if i had it, i think i would sell it and upgrade my computer to some kinda big alpha box.
  • Oh great,
    and we can call it the "DiscoBox".
    er wait, Disco isnt popular anymore. dammit!

    Oh well =(
  • I'm thinking that might not be such a bad thing, I mean, my microwave busted a few days ago, if i just whiped the case of my computer and tossed a couple of sausages rolls in it wouldnt have been so bad.
  • These were also known as the Micronauts in the United States. They spawned many toys and a marvel comic. God I loved them....
  • As far as your aversion to smooth, flowing curves is concerned, perhaps you're the one who isn't (ahem) "getting it".
  • I've seen I-ROCs fitting this description.

  • SGI machine share this type of ingenuity (or so I've heard, I couldn't afford one).
  • Well stated. Woof.
  • Of course, you could always just leave the case off ;)
  • Personaly, I am quite fond of my nice In-Win [in-win.com]
    case. With a slide out Droor for the motherboard
    and all steel. I do not think that they make
    translucent cases like that yet.

    Though, I do think that a well built clear (not
    translucent) case would be nifty to look at.


  • 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.
  • Just for reference, the cases are going to cost 60-70$ and will be available in June according to the company.

    Our company colors are orange, white and black - so the orange case would be just dandy for presentation machines/etc. Since we're designers, we take that whole identity thing pretty seriously. We even have an orange recliner in our office. *laugh*

  • Most of the cases I've seen with the molded floppy slot use regular 3.5 drives. You just have to rip the bezel(faceplate, whatever) off the front of the drive. Then it bolts in like normal.

    These look pretty cool, assuming the quality dosen't suck like other alternative cases I've seen.

    --John Riney
    jwriney@awod.com
  • can anybody think what computer will look like now !? ...
  • Check out IBM's [ibm.com] 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
  • 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.

  • Yet more unsolicited opinion. (Score:3)

    by Cowards Anonymous ( 24060 ) on Wednesday April 28, 1999 @05:43PM (#1911448) Homepage
    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."

  • is it easy to open? (Score:4)

    by fixe ( 28769 ) on Wednesday April 28, 1999 @02:44PM (#1911451) Homepage
    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. :)
  • >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.
  • 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

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