Let's talk about case designs. Post some you iike or dislike too

What cases look similar?

Anything from Sun is usually top tier. Dells from the early 2000s are the silliest looking machines though.

Its a server in a tower chassis. What did you expect?

Needs more fans

AND SIDE WINDOWS AND RGB

I don't think there was another one with a vertically mounted CD drive.

Airducts have to make a comeback. Filtered intake, through cpu cooler and out. Everything else cooled as today but give me fucking sealed filters, panels and seams.

How about a fan instead?

Why would a server not be rack mounted

I see no reason why you couldn't do something similar in one of those cases whose front panel is only 5.25" bays. Three bays will make a square slot, where a huge speaker can be installed,
Get creative, there is also space for a vertical optical disk mount. Of course, you will need to go full DIY, but that is fun on its own.

I believe the same case can be mounted in a rack.
IBM provided desktop conversion kits for server cases, with feet of course and, I believe, that extra plastic with their branding on the top.

Somewhere like a small buisness might not have the room/need for a whole rack if its a single server and a switch/router.

You guys wont believe this, but a guy I know runs this server with a 16 port rs232 card attached, at the other end of the cables are 12 of these (pic related) they still run their company database off it. Prior to that server he was running AT&T UNIX on a Bleasedale Mini Computer that he bought in 1979. He replaced that with the IBM server 6 Years ago
He runs SUSE enterprise Linux on it. He calls me in whenever theres a problem with it

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I really like the modern cases that have a PSU shroud and removed the CD drive, but I won't get one because they can't hold more than 3 HDDs.

>hurr go solid state
I will when I can get 6TB drives for cheap.

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This is peak performance.

I used to love this case and monitor
It's an Ambra Hurdla, made by IBM but under the name Ambra probably dates to 1990

forgot photo

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Reminds me of the old Packard Bell designs.

check this out. I just looked for one of these on ebay
Get this guy, he wants 27000 GBP for one
ebay.co.uk/itm/Ambra-Hurdla-486-Vintage-PC-IBM/273946109818?hash=item3fc875e77a:g:NoAAAOSwM4RdPDJu

This is what peak performance looks like gentlemen and ladies (men). If the case doesn't have at least a single 5.25" bay, it's fucking trash.

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Gone are the days when any cheap case had 3x5.25", two floppy bays and internal space for five 5.25" drives.
When they were vanishing I bought six for $5 each, and I'm keeping them for projects.
No one will want to steal a computer assembled with one of those monsters in the fifth world; one would look at them and hold his nose, even if the case is secretly filled with 15 kilograms of very expensive parts.

>tfw lost my extended hdd cage
Ahhhhhhhh

This one will always be my favorite case. Such a shame I couldn't afford to build a computer when this beauty came out.

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Sucks man
Yea it sucks a lot. I get that gamers and the like don't use a lot of 3.5" drives/DVD drives. Rosewill makes some sub $35 mATX cases with 2x 5.25" bays, 3x 3.5" bays, and a few 2.5" bays.

>looks like a cheap thrift store CD player with the bland black plastic and ugly proprietary front loading drive
>unexpandable proprietary everything
>not even good/interesting hardware
I will never understand why this is the first thing to be posted in every one of these threads. Is it just one guy every time?

I was thinking recently how the design and modularity of current cases and hardware is a bit convoluted. If you could update the market and reconfigure all of the machining, there'd be no reason to keep a lot of the vestigial design choices.
I like classic PC design, but the modern selection often feels like this weird hybrid where a bunch of RGB's get slapped in any empty space on the same old upright chassis.
There's a bunch of examples you could come up with, the main one that got me thinking about it is how there's (correct me if I'm wrong) no reason not to combine the PSU with an UPS, and continuing from that idea there's no reason for the PSU to be modular. Or, at least not "modular" in the same way; they could have a single cable running to the mobo, and it would instead be the mobo that provides modularity as it connects to every component regardless.
Then there's airflow and cooling, why have gimmicky watercooling or a big fan hanging off the CPU with all those mounting points, when the whole case could be built like a server rack. Each component slipping into its own space, fewer points of failure, and instead of empty space resulting in turbulence there could be a single heatsink and turbine-fan running the length of the case for intake and exhaust at each end with no gaps in between for the flow to be interrupted.

tl;dr I'd like to see some new creative (utilitarian) designs that aren't just a hunk of composite materials in a new shape with the exact same internal layout.

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My local mom and pop computer shop is still hanging like 3 or 4 of those off of an ‘030 Alpha Micro.

thats what your mom said

Small installations, departmental servers, other setups that don’t really need to waste money and space on a bigass rack for no benefit.

i miss this computer

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I would love to have that if it didn't have a window

all defines are just cheap knockoffs of the true best fridge of all time: the p-183. too bad your weak arms can't handle double thick rolled steel and sound dampening panels on every surface.

>one of the first cases to use a psu+hdd chamber
>fits extra large PSUs
>even the 5.25 bays have dust filters
>drive sleds within removable cages, all drives have silicone dampening, and so do the case feet
>what plastic there is is industrial strength POM that is extra thick
>supports the longest/biggest GPUs with the upper drive cage removed, or keep it and add a fan to the back of the cage for direct cooling

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>If the case doesn't have at least a single 5.25" bay, it's fucking trash.
KEK. Who the fuck uses optical media still? But I understand doing so on rare occasions. Get an external USB DVD burner for those rare as fuck needs. I have one, but I haven't used it in YEARS(close to a decade I think). So why the fuck would they waste case space on 5.25 drives?

I would remind you we are in 2019 here, and soon to be 2020. For fuck's fake...

I suppose people admire how it was the only computer with PERFECT (or extremely close) arcade ports.

you can say the same argument about the Antec P100.

>omguh it's CURRENT YEAR
>How are you still using optical media?!!?!
Fucking zoomers I swear. I burn literally hundreds of blu-rays and DVDs a year

Is it possible to get a modern case that doesn't have a glass window and support 240 rad?

Lol I burn discs regularly too. Not hundreds but enough to pull my DVD burner out fairly frequently

The 5.25" bay can be used for other stuff.
google.com/search?q=5.25" hardware&tbm=isch

I do photography and people love having optical backups of all their stuff I shot/filmed. Weddings? Multiple 25GB Blu-ray discs per customer easily.

>Fucking zoomers I swear. I burn literally hundreds of blu-rays and DVDs a year

You must have strange (edge case) archiving needs. So let me save you by informing you that optical media promised 100 year backups. In reality - even under ideal storage conditions - you will get far, far less. I've read horror stories about facilities who relied on optical archiving, and now they're scrambling to save shit they thought was safe. You need to look at better options ASAP. And check if a lot of your older archives are still readable. Check the disk surface for visible problems too.

>
>Lol I burn discs regularly too. Not hundreds but enough to pull my DVD burner out fairly frequently
And still no reason to not just use an external burner, thus saving room in the case for more valuable things like 40TB of porn.

nah, antec gave up on innovative designs after the p-183

>drives in sleds along big-ass fixed bars like a budget case from 2007, actually holds less drives
>can't customize internal space, no more PSU chamber or option for internal GPU fan
>no more individualized dust filters
>front ports only on top
>no more locking door
>metal only on the front face, not the entire case, more plastic in general

silverstone has better designs and lian-li has better build/aesthetics imo. and for rixe factor your can't beat in-win.

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see I have stacks on stacks of 25GB Blu-ray discs and 100GB UHD Blu-ray discs.

The average gamer has no need for anything bigger than mITX change my mind

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This user has the right idea

unfortunately a lot of mini-ITX cases fall into 2 categories:
-it's as big as an mATX case
or:
-it's $200+ machined metal from kickstarted nobodies working out of china and it has autistic build limitations (but it is very small), also dust magnets.

this one is good but it forces you to buy a 650w psu and 2 fans with it.

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you're not wrong. If we can push this hard, maybe we'll see a resurgence of proper specced ATX motherboards that don't cater to stupid gaming aesthetics and charge a premium for such stupid things. Maybe we'll even see old school green PCB normal looking boards again because the market sees that the vast majority of people aren't buying ATX anymore.

mITX bois would be happy because the premium cost of boards and mITX cases would come down.

Cooler Master Elite 110/130 aren't bad. The 130 can fit super long GPU's in it.

Hey I own that case
Sure it's 200 but of you lack a power supply it's fine considering It has RGB fans and a charger.
It's not easy to build in but it has amazing cooling for its size if you include the two bottom fans.

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a ton of cases, even ATX ones, now only support 2.5" drives and/or a single 3.5". BUT, if you can attach 3.5" with screw points instead of proprietary meme sleds, you can use a 3.5" adapter cage to put 3x 2.5" (7mm) drives inside. so this case which only supports 3.5" x1 and 2.5" x1 can actually hold 4 2.5" drives. that's pretty good for mitx without a cage.

yeah. when I think about it a lot of mITX cases force you to buy SFX PSUs so that adds to the cost anyways. not many ITX cases let you re-use your ATX PSU from your old build. the ones that do are fat fuck cases that are the size of mATX. the thing that made me want ITX is it's so much easier to get at the back of the case, especially if you have desk/space restrictions.

I like shrunken mATX cases too, they can be really small. this one will do long graphics cards and 6x 3.5". you pay for it in CPU cooler clearance.

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Not enough airflow.

Optical drives aside, I'm irked that cases now lack the floppy drive bay. That thing is super useful to put a card reader!

>change my mind
go back and kys then kys again

A lot of them are fine

only ricer mini-towers with glass faces have bad airflow. a lot of mini-ITX cases have amazing GPU temps because they have dirct fans and/or direct venting. an ITX case can have much better temps than an average tower because the fans are so close.

The final boss of case ricing

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I know a guy that does, its absolutely massive.

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Peak comfy

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>supermicro
Sounds about right.

Better image.

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fractal node series is much more impressive than define IMO.

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I have this fascination with horizontal-orientated motherboard cases because I like the idea of gpus standing vertically. Though I've notice there are cases these days that allow for that with a special cable. But ignoring that, there's still the fact that the motherboard lays flat.

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>local disks
laughs in iSCSI

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vertical you say?

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it's objectively a better design but since nobody only has one monitor to stack on top of a horizontal layout nobody uses them anymore.

mITX builds are just too expensive still.

I hate how all the mITX cases that have come out over the years just got so fucking long and big.
It defeats the point.
The Silverstone SG05 was pretty ideal sized, it was smaller than a logitech subwoofer.
I even managed to get an H50 cooler wedged in there and a Radeon 4770

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huh? it's the same as any other build

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Fuck dust.

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>this kills the airflow

Yeah, but they look nice.

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Ill sacrifice some airflow for no more dust and mild liquid protection.

i love the look of the lian-li O12 but you cant lay it down because of the glass on both sides.

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for a first time builder not really
-b450 ITX is ~$120 instead of $80
-SFX PSU ~$100 instead of $70
-many cases can use fullsized CPU coolers and GPUs
-there are cheap ITX cases (though the nice ones are $100-300, usually over $150

but prices are getting better. cooler master is going to sell their mITX cube case with an included 200mm water cooler for only a bit over $100. I'd say the main chalange is building can be hard, and dependability is very limited. not much drive space and no DVD/blu-ray in most, or only slim drives.

IntelliStation POWER 185

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there are smaller ITX cases than the sg05 or sg13, but like it they are all CPU height limited and most can't take water coolers either (though increasingly more can), you have to use low-profile air coolers which can get you int autistic schemes where you're trying to shave a single mm to get things to fir with the cooler you want. I've heard of people either modding panels or grinding down standoffs to save space.

Was just about to post this. Legit best looking chassis ever made.

Thats a vertical CD drive, not a speaker

>this kills the airflow
The solution (if any manufacture would implement it) is combining something like a squirrel cage blower with competent filters. It isn't like you need to go full HEPA on i just to keep out dust. But blowers (rather than fans) have positive air displacement. They create air pressure differences, and that easily deals with the resistance of the filter media.

I actually have a small squirrel cage blower sort of rigged up at the front of my case (it wasn't meant to go there LOL). They blow a good amount of air and aren't any louder than a fan moving the same amount of air. Nor does it take up a huge amount of space.

Thus a case designer could use those to make a very high flow, dust free case that looks good. And for real I need a better case to deal with my dusty environment.

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The only way I could get an H50 in the SG05 was to pop out the HDD rack and CD drive rack and just wedge a piece of sheet metal on top and stick the HDD up there.

Those don't direct airflow in a wide enough pattern though, and you'd have to deal with having a huge fuckoff fan stuck to the front of your case.

I wanted this shit so bad when I was a teen

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What are you using for this?

OUT OF MY WAY LOSERS

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I used to have an old cheiftech like that... black no window, used a hole saw and cut the tray so I could hide wires, then found a holesaw and drilled out the side to add 2 80mm fans... must have been 15 years ago. Put a 3.4 P4 in there and got it to be stable at 4.2 on an asus p4c800.. forget which card I had though

>Those don't direct airflow in a wide enough pattern though, and you'd have to deal with having a huge fuckoff fan stuck to the front of your case.

See what I'm thinking - you use more than 1. Maybe 3 on the front of your case - incorporated in the case itself so it isn't on the front. No different than how you commonly find fans there.

The one I have mocked up on my case now is the style of the one pictured, but about 5 inches long. No thicker than a lot of CPU fans I've seen. It fits in a single 5.25 bay. So it could be incorporated internally easily enough.

Shit this is another reason why I should just go ahead and buy a 3d printer and do this properly(adapt it to my case).

Now I'm not sure what you're on about with wide pattern dispersal. Fans blow straight fucking forward. So does this. You could put fins to direct flow if you needed, but I really don't think you need to. Anyhow I'm talking about putting quite a bit of FILTERED air into your case. Probably more than your current case can hope for without a filter.

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