I am looking to buy a new computer case. I was thinking of something that would look something between this and this

Those cases are so cheesey.

I have the AMS gMONO. It is painted with car paint, so it's all shiny and it weighs a lot more than most cases out there. It also has this thick acrylic piece on the front that makes it look bling bling. Adding to the bling bling factor, I put a Matrix Orbital MX212 LCD in one of the drive bays. It scrolls stock quotes, RSS feeds, and other cool stuff. Best case I ever owned.

I bought the white one since I replace components (such as CD-ROM drives) too often to wait for black faced ones to come out. The black gMONO is really a beautiful thing. The black version is the only other case I would rather have.

Those cases are so cheesey.

I have the AMS gMONO.

Hmm. I went looking for a case somewhere between this and this. I ended up with this, though it's not made any more and its successor isn't as nice IMO.

Peter

Well I wanted something inbetween this and this and ended up with this. You dont want to know where the firewire port is...

You should see the one he has now

Adding to the bling bling factor, I put a Matrix Orbital MX212 LCD in one of the drive bays.

I'm cursious.. Which one do you have? Their online catalog is a little.. confusing (Clicking on 'Drive Bay' will also give you ones listed under 'Graphic LCD', etc etc..) What do you use to contorl it, and (I couldn't see anything like this in the download section) in there information available to learn how to control it, customly? (i.e.: I'd like to program something under linux..)

THanks!
Me.

This is the one I have here.

It comes with a license for 3rd party software LCDC for Windows. My LCD is USB because that's the best way to do it with my motherboard. There are also serial dsplays and many software packages available for linux such as LCDproc.

This is the one I have here.
It comes with a license for 3rd party software LCDC for Windows. My LCD is USB because that's the best way to do it with my motherboard. There are also serial dsplays and many software packages available for linux such as LCDproc.

Ah thanks! I'm actually looking at these for a commercial venture with my company, so will either have to make my own program from scratch or make a 'plugin'..

Thanks!
Mike.

do you have any video of the LCD in action?

Which case did you end up getting? I would have recommended my case, but it's really too big and doesn't look like the ones you wanted. Still, if you were into something with an LCD, I would suggest the smaller version with one of the silver Matrix Orbital LCD displays. I'm thinking about it myself. Lian-Li cases are really nice. They're really expensive though, but it was the biggest splurge I made when I put this system together. I wanted a really nice case. And aside from the lack of a sliding motherboard tray, I love it. And you won't find a higher quality case window anywhere.

I can make one either tonight or tomorrow night. I should probably look for a tripod...

Thanks Robricc.....

DiGNAN17..I haven't bought one yet....I am thinking about just installing it in my current one for now since I can't find one I really like. Plus, the couple times I found one I liked online, when I saw it at CompUSA, it looked like crap. I want to find out with as glossy a finish as possible (like an Apple.) However, is there anything I could put on a non-glossy case to make it glossy? The case I have had my eye on is this

is there anything I could put on a non-glossy case to make it glossy?

Spray paint.

Wow, I can tell our tastes are very different. That wouldn't look any better in real life than it does online to me CompUSA carries Lian-Li cases. If you're at all interested, you could check them out there.

That wouldn't look any better in real life than it does online to me

I have seen this case (and many other cheap "blingy" cases) at computer shows. They are very cheap in build quality. The front is plastic and the sides seem to be made of crushed Pepsi cans. But, whatever floats your boat.

I would urge you to throw away any power supply that may come installed in these cases though.

Anybody interested in nice hardwood cases?

That's another project I've been considering. Might even be able to make a living at it, if everyone doesn't just dump mini-towers and go for laptops in the future..

Cheers

That'd be awesome!

if everyone doesn't just dump mini-towers and go for laptops

I think the move is more towards mini-PC, like the Shuttle and Asus boxes. At least, it is in my house (and I'm one of the most prolific PC upgraders that I know). Laptops are cool but the graphics almost always suck.

Towers are here to stay, however: how else are you going to fit a 3TiB RAID5 array for storing pr0n^Wmusic?

Yeah, I think people are more likely to branch out into mini PCs. I've seen as many people purchasing them in addition to their towers as there are making them their sole computer.

I myself went for a larger case after 3 years with a Dell, trying to fit too much into that tiny proprietary case, and they've only gotten worse in that regard. Granted, I went a little overboard with the PC75, but like you said, now I have plenty of room for all those hard disks. I couldn't have kept every hard disk upgrade running in my Dell case, especially not now that there's 4 disks in there with room for at least 7 more

I think the move is more towards mini-PC, like the Shuttle and Asus boxes.

The thermal reliability I've seen out of those Shuttle boxes hasn't made me eager to change my strategy of buying big-ass cases and putting big-ass power supplies in them. I'm tempted by a Hush Technologies box but it'd be diskless and with non-leading-edge graphics.

Peter

I wish Hush would just sell the case instead of making me buy an entire system.

There is always the Zalman TNN-500A... Certainly NOT a small case, though...

A little bit expensive. I think it would be cheaper to build a "normal" PC and an outhouse for it, along with all necessary KVM switches, if someone really wished to go that far for low noise.

I went the low noise route recently with an Antec Sonata. It has a pair of 120mm fans that move a lot of air throuh the case with almost no noise. A giant copper heatsink with a 92mm fan is on the CPU (similar in idea to the 120's - lots of air with low fan speed). The Sonata came with a nice power supply as well. I topped it off with a few things such as rubber grommets everywhere to keep the fans, hard drives, etc. from actually touching any metal (and perhaps transmitting vibrations), and a 5-1/4" 4 channel fan speed controller with an LED display for speeds and temps. Also have a fanless "giant damned heatsink" for the video card to put on next.

All-in-all it's very quiet already, and the system runs even cooler than before with all the rest of the fans I once had. I'd recommend it to anyone - to me, getting rid of the noise was more important than looks. But my PC sits under the desk so...

an Antec Sonata

I was thinking of getting one of those at some point, and then stuffing it full of disks. They're good, then?

The thermal reliability I've seen out of those Shuttle boxes hasn't made me eager to change my strategy of buying big-ass cases and putting big-ass power supplies in them.

How so? Out of the problems I have seen with Shuttles, only one has been thermal. My very first SS51 unit was one of the first 200 off the line, and they forgot some vent holes. With those missing, I was getting thermal lockups. The replacement however has worked fine, even running an ATI 9700 Pro, 2 hard drives, and a processor always pegged at 100%. The I.C.E. heatpipe on the CPU works very well, and the main system fan does a good job of pulling air in the front and side vent holes, over the components, and out the back.

Beyond my current SB51, I have friends with the SS51 (Radeon 9800 Pro), SB61G2 (Radeon 9600 Pro), and an SN85G4 (Radeon 9700 Pro). The problems here were the SS51 needing a motherboard replacement, after that friend removed a piece of RAM and put it back, not seeing a piece of conductive dust short out a few pins. The SB61G2 did suffer a power supply failure, about a week after he got it. The new one has run fine for months now.

I think the fact that Intel even has a "pico-BTX" motherboard layout suggestion now for the upcoming move to BTX means that mini systems will be around for a long time.

How so? Out of the problems I have seen with Shuttles, only one has been thermal.

Yeah, my SN45G is working fine (Athlon XP3200, Radeon 9800 Pro, Maxtor 250Gb HD), touch wood. It doesn't often run 100% CPU, except when playing games, and Half-Life 2 is still not out.

My other Shuttle box (SS51?, Celeron 1.3GHz) did die once, but that was a complete death -- and didn't appear to be thermal in nature (it was in a cooled 19" rack at the time). Having replaced the motherboard, it seems to be working fine now -- it's sitting here beside me running my website.

My other Shuttle box (SS51?, Celeron 1.3GHz) did die once, but that was a complete death -- and didn't appear to be thermal in nature (it was in a cooled 19" rack at the time). Having replaced the motherboard, it seems to be working fine now -- it's sitting here beside me running my website.

Oh, sorry, I'd thought that one was thermal (it was quite a warm cooled rack, as it were). Empeg's one had a PSU failure, and while again it can't be pinned conclusively on thermal problems, it always got pretty hot in there -- hotter than any of the PCs I've used except for the Pentium 233 desktop that used to overheat before I decanted it into a much bigger tower case.

Peter

I'd thought that one was thermal

Initially I thought that it might be thermal -- as you say the rack was quite warm at the time. After further consideration, I'm not convinced that it was -- it just died -- there were no random lockups or anything, which one might expect if it was overheating.

Ok...i am resurrecting this old thread because I am in the market for a new case (still.) I need something that can cool off everything much better than my current one.( I also would like it to look pretty cool too.) any suggestions?

How about this one:


But seriously, Lian-Li cases are definitely my favorite. I strongly recommend this one:

I believe this was one of the first cases to change the airflow in this manner. IMO, it makes logical sense to configure it that way.

I was strongly considering moving to a Shuttle recently, but decided to stick with gigantic Lian-Li PC75.

*edit*
Heh, I noticed I was making these suggestions already. Oh well. I'm sticking by my opinion