PC Cases With Character

Affluent Reptilian said:
I wondered this too after walking past an audio store and seeing a lot of the higher end speaker setups going for the '50s home durable goods look - which I totally get, it's nice. I couldn't find anything like that, though - partly because gamer shits dominates the market, partly probably because of costs and partly maybe because the thermal properties of this stuff aren't good (not sure on that one). If it ever happens, I suppose it'll happen within the next ten years as an increasing number of hardcore nerd types get better salaries and get married to wives who insist there not be anything totally embarrassing in the house that ruins aesthetics.

I did see some case mods out there for the case I have that changed it to a wood look - eg
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... This particular mod does pain me though because this case already has airflow problems and a bunch of irritating design decisions (why so little airflow out the top? Why a solid front door that majorly fucks airflow? Why offset the powersupply in the bottom in a way that makes it very hard to fit fans on the bottom? Having part of one of the side panels be removeable to add fans is nice, but they're in the solid panel which means if you want use of them you'll have to block the view of the interior...)
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I actually kind of like that 'glue plywood panels to the side of everything' aesthetic, At least the panels are cut square and precisely.

As you say, it would be pretty cool to have a case with little louvres for directing fan air outwards. You would definately want to make those with real wood, not manufactured panels however. Has this been done befo?
 
These are a thing now:
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They come with the keyboard and cost $250€. https://myretrocomputer.com/shop/

 
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Crankenstein said:
When the original was out typing was mostly hunt and peck so RSI or limp wristed homos hadn't caught on yet. Plus the computer is the keyboard so it needs to be TIHCC.
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That would make some sense as I doubt people got a lot of typewriter time, let alone computer time to hone their skills at touch typing.

Crazy that the thing uses a mini-itx board inside, it seems like the perfect candidate for some kind custom board. (But custom builds and all that)
 
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longtimelurkerfirsttimepo said:
That would make some sense as I doubt people got a lot of typewriter time, let alone computer time to hone their skills at touch typing.

Crazy that the thing uses a mini-itx board inside, it seems like the perfect candidate for some kind custom board. (But custom builds and all that)
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Homebrew was the only way for a lot of folks back then. Breadboards weren't uncommon.
 
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The keys on the originals are very high, bit higher than SA profile if that tells you anything. It's actually not that bad and you can type quite comfortably after getting used to. If you don't believe that's possible, look at typerwiters. No means only hunt-and-peck and some people were quite fast at it. How people screw their wrists and back up nowadays is by not moving for hours and staying in the same position. As long as you move occasionally and not remain in the same fucking position for hours you'll not develop problems, no matter how "un-ergonomic" your workspace is in my experience as computer toucher since the days the C64 was still somewhat current.

All C64 custom ICs were still NMOS (that changed at the end with the redesign) and could get quite hot (still nothing compared to modern stuff and heatsinks weren't strictly needed) in earlier revisions Commodore had everything in a metal cage for grounding and electrical interference laws which were quite strict in some countries. In places you had that cage connected by a bit of metal to some of the custom ICs for heat transfer. I doubt that's enough to cool a modern day 8-core. Later on Commodore, cheap bastards they were, had that board wrapped in some kind of very cheap silver cardboard with some holes stenciled out to let some of the warmth escape and then glued some slivers of metal directly to at least the graphics chip, IIRC. the graphics chip itself was in some revisions under a small metal shield for interference and added grounding, it's hard to remember since Commodore changed the mainboard basically weekly and I think there was at least half a dozen or so revisions. These cases were generally kinda garbage because they didn't survive opening very often until invariably some plastic pieces came off. Wonder if those are any better but thermally I doubt they're optimal for anything modern and that 40mm fan will probably have to run at jet-engine speed to keep things even somewhat cool. You'd have more headroom with the later redesigned case and an ARM something, but I suppose it's not as much of a "cult classic".
 
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❄️❄️❄️ said:
At least some of the old cases had an interesting gimmik - I'm a sucker for hotswap drive bays, even though I've literally never had to hotswap a drive in a desktop PC.

Modern gaming cases just feel tacky though - like a 14 year olds idea of what futuristic technology is - hard angles, aggressive detailing and no subtlety at all. Seems to be part of the whole #gamer aesthetic though, where the only way to stand out from the crowd is by looking identical to everyone else, RGB and all.
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The whole "gamer lighting" is indeed overrated. I thought internal lighting was cool back when I was 14 too (~2005) but in reality when I built a PC ten years later or so and actually added it a bit later, it's bulky inside (just have some green tubes), annoying, and besides, who am I really trying to impress?
 
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Light displays can be cool when they are done with intent. Blinkenlight panels that convey meaningful information are still as cool as they have always been. A pulsing light out of the air gaps of an otherwise unassuming big tower is a nice way to display the load or temperature of the computer inside of it. Adding an undercarriage light to a rice box with sliver trimmings and racing stripes is fun. etc.
It's mindlessly spamming lights on everything and everywhere that annoys me.
 
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LilShotaBoy said:


This youtuber does some interesting things with PC hardware. Kinda tempted to try making my own version of the bottom case someday.
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I've seen this guy before, he made a security system from the webcams of dead laptops. Shit was pretty cool.

Also, cases aren't too hard to make. I once saw a milkcrate case, a pizza box case, and a guitar amplifier. Oh, and one madman who used an old crt tv to make a pc that resembled an old mac.
 
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