>Speaking of details like case design, no it's not your imagination >-at least as far as mass market products go. > >The issue is that the hardware has cut-throat price-based >competition right now. Since there is no "value" added by the case >that gets used other than EMF shielding, the sole driving force for >mass products is making the cheapest cases possible.
I'm aware of this. My point is that even "premium" case designers such as Lian Li and Vastec, which already depart noticeably from the generic designs in some areas, have failed to make any significant innovation in the area. Even considering server chassis, the only personal-computer case designer doing any kind of real innovation is Apple Computer. Look at the iMac, the Cube, and the minitower case that has served the professional models for 4 years. >(1) Cheapest machining processes and materials I've sketched out a design which requires nothing beyond current techniques in this area, yet has significant advantages. I'm sure a competent industrial-design expert could do better still, inside of a week. >(2) If all else is equal, *don't* retool for a new design This one doesn't hold water. Even looking beyond the plastic and paint, there are already lots of minor variations between cases - starting off with a decent design should be no different. Even the "supercooling case" people are essentially retrofitting standard ATX cases with exotic add-ons. Most of these cost big money. >(3) Make all of the external customizations simple ones that involve plastic >wedges and paint. "Translucent is sexy", right? OK, that makes sense from the point of view of a "Joe Average" end-user, but you'd think there was a thriving tech-savvy market to cater for. The kind that will pay $$$ for extra cooling fans, the latest video card, and CL2-grade RAM. The kind, moreover, that might prefer black and silver to blue and green, especially if it works out more robust. >On top of that, the standard form factor for systems has changed >only minimally since the 1980's - even the ATX and NLX type systems >were basic knockoffs on the AT for some changes in power supply and >motherboard standard components. This means there has been minimal >motivation for a change. The ATX format change was very important, as it moved the CPU and RAM slots into much more favourable positions, among other things. Intel, among others, likes to point out how the CPU can now be cooled by exhausting hot air through the PSU. That's innovation, in a small way. Case designers have completely failed to take full advantage of this trend towards better airflow efficiency. Full-tower ATX cases have the PSU half-way up, so hot air spills around it rather than being exhausted efficiently. Drive bays are arrayed inflexibly down the front, meaning that cables are necessarily jammed together in the middle of the case, restricting lengthwise airflow and thus further increasing the temperature of the CPU. Worse, the 3.5" bays pay no consideration to HD cooling, meaning that my newish 7200 and 10000rpm IBM drives live in the 5.25" bays instead, and have "baycoolers" fitted to keep them from overheating in the already-warmed air (from the spill around the PSU). With over a dozen fans fitted, this machine is easily the loudest object in the room. With 5 ribbon cables across the middle of my full-tower case, I have real trouble keeping my 1GHz T'bird cool enough - and I live in damp, cool Britain. I don't want to even consider the troubles experienced by users in warmer climates. >I'm just happy that (some) designs have changed to easily removable covers. In my experience, most ATX cases now have the sliding doors that case manufacturers (mostly Vastec) occasionally experimented with in the Pentium era. I'd consider it more of a "your case won't sell unless it has..." tick-list feature. I bet if one guy comes up with a truly innovative case design for x86 PCs, the hardware-review sites will absolutely love it to death, and that might just give the industry as a whole a bit of a shake. To be honest, I don't much care if the "standard PC case" remains - it's a good and cheap design for a PC with modest hardware requirements, up to about minitower size. I do care if there is no alternative, as at present. -- -------------------------------------------------------------- from: Jonathan "Chromatix" Morton mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (not for attachments) website: http://www.chromatix.uklinux.net/ geekcode: GCS$/E dpu(!) s:- a21 C+++ UL++ P L+++ E W+ N- o? K? w--- O-- M++$ V? PS PE- Y+ PGP++ t- 5- X- R !tv b++ DI+++ D G e+ h+ r++ y+(*) tagline: The key to knowledge is not to rely on people to teach you it. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the line: 'unsubscribe vnc-list' in the message BODY See also: http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/intouch.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------
