Brushed Titanium PC Cases

Z

ZodaEX

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Sep 17, 2004
Messages
4,902
Are there any case manufacturers that sell brushed titanium PC cases? I think it'd be a beautiful material for a PC case to be made from.
 
ZodaEX said:
Are there any case manufacturers that sell brushed titanium PC cases? I think it'd be a beautiful material for a PC case to be made from.
Click to expand...
Much doubt. Also, Ti scratches easily, so while it'd look beautiful at first, it'd quickly become a shit-show if you aren't careful with it.

Besides, Ti is expensive and requires special tooling, so more $$$.
 
vegeta535 said:
A case made of titanium would be stupid expensive.
Click to expand...
It would, but we live in a world of £2k GPUs and £1k motherboards. A Ti case doesn't seem so excessive compared to that.

Nobu said:
Also, Ti scratches easily, so while it'd look beautiful at first, it'd quickly become a shit-show if you aren't careful with it.
Click to expand...
I have a bicycle with a brushed Ti frame that is now 10 years old, and still looks pretty nice. A PC case sees a lot less wear than a bike, so I think it would be fine.
 
BlueLineSwinger said:
Lian Li and others gave up on aluminum mostly due to costs, so titanium seems like a huge stretch.
Click to expand...

That's so strange to me. I've never had an issue with spending $300-500 on a case. They last longer than almost any other PC component. I've always had a hard and fast rule that if I can't sit my fat ass on a PC case without damaging it, than it's not structurally sound enough.
 
BlueLineSwinger said:
Lian Li and others gave up on aluminum mostly due to costs, so titanium seems like a huge stretch.
Click to expand...
Used to have one of their aluminum cases a few decades ago. Cost was not the problem, the darned thing letting through every tiny bit of noise was.

Nowadays that would be less of a problem with ssd's and better airflow-focused cases (allowing for much lower noise fans), but the mesh and look-at-my-disco-windows leave little place for aluminum paneling to show.

I just can't be bothered to go looking for aluminum when it is already quite hard to find a somewhat decent looking case with good ventilation.

Back to titanium: the suggestion for it as a pc case material reminds me of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.
 
Last edited:
Mucho $$ for little, if any, REAL/ACTUAL benefit to the end user = extremely nice market demand = outrageous price = no interest from mfgr's due to low sales volumes....'nuff said :)

HOWEVER, in terms of durability, when milled, tempered, machined, and coated properly, this would not be an issue, seeins how Ti is used in the airframes, fuselages, and wing tips of most modern, supersonic fighter jets and spacecraft/launch vehicles. But of course, the cost of those uses is paid for by Uncle Sam & it's Aerospace conglomerates too

Probably the only benefit for us normal folks would be the "hey, lookie at what I got" factor...😱
 
dogDAbone said:
Mucho $$ for little, if any, REAL/ACTUAL benefit to the end user = extremely nice market demand = outrageous price = no interest from mfgr's due to low sales volumes....'nuff said :)

HOWEVER, in terms of durability, when milled, tempered, machined, and coated properly, this would not be an issue, seeins how Ti is used in the airframes, fuselages, and wing tips of most modern, supersonic fighter jets and spacecraft/launch vehicles. But of course, the cost of those uses is paid for by Uncle Sam & it's Aerospace conglomerates too

Probably the only benefit for us normal folks would be the "hey, lookie at what I got" factor...😱
Click to expand...

Making me smile every day for the rest of my life is a massive real benefit. Perhaps you can't see it yourself, however it is objectively real and there.
 
ZodaEX said:
Making me smile every day for the rest of my life is a massive real benefit. Perhaps you can't see it yourself, however it is objectively real and there.
Click to expand...
I have to agree. The older I get the more I do things that make ME happy after years of makings others happy. If that's a shiny new piece of hardware that does it then so be it.
 
BlueLineSwinger said:
Lian Li and others gave up on aluminum mostly due to costs, so titanium seems like a huge stretch.
Click to expand...
Not only that, but aluminum is very soft compared to steel and scratches pretty easily. Customer machines that were made of aluminum back in the day were always scratched to shit.
 
Niner said:
I have to agree. The older I get the more I do things that make ME happy after years of makings others happy. If that's a shiny new piece of hardware that does it then so be it.
Click to expand...
I am with you brother.
 
Last edited:
Isn't titanium very flexible physically? Works well in aerospace because it handles the pressure and temperature changes so easily? Maybe it needs a stiffened alloy, but it doesn't sound like the most rigid thing to make a desktop box out of...
 
Grebuloner said:
Isn't titanium very flexible physically? Works well in aerospace because it handles the pressure and temperature changes so easily? Maybe it needs a stiffened alloy, but it doesn't sound like the most rigid thing to make a desktop box out of...
Click to expand...
Steel, titanium and aluminium all have coincidentally almost the same stiffness to weight ratio. However, since titanium is lighter, that means that a case made to be the same weight as a steel case will have thicker panels, and since the thickness is a bigger contributer to stiffness than the material properties, a titanium case would end up significantly stiffer than a steel case of the same weight.
 
Mr Evil said:
Steel, titanium and aluminium all have coincidentally almost the same stiffness to weight ratio. However, since titanium is lighter, that means that a case made to be the same weight as a steel case will have thicker panels, and since the thickness is a bigger contributer to stiffness than the material properties, a titanium case would end up significantly stiffer than a steel case of the same weight.
Click to expand...
Trudat, and as for scratches, that would really depend on the coating material & process... I've seen various sized sheets of it which were heat-tempered & coated with a layer of a top quality, molecular-bonded epoxy urethane during the milling process, and it was damned near bulletproof...

OTOH, bare or thinly coated pieces of Ti are somewhat fragile & easily damaged, but is still stronger & lighter than Alu or steel, and easier to mill into precision-cut shapes, curves etc, with the proper equipment of course, which is extremely expensive....

Also, a friend of mine who is an engineer at a high-tech metal fabrication plant told me that they have been experimenting with combining/bonding some huge Ti panels with graphene & carbon nanotube sheets, which has yielded some surprising results in terms of strength to weight ratios :)
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Yeah i agree I am a retired Chemist and we used Monel all the time not cheap. Actually the most expensive stuff was virgin Teflon used in a custom reactor.
 
vegeta535 said:
That is $25 for a 4"x4"x5/32" plate. You also got to consider the design, labor and machine costs to produce a case. We don't use titanium in our shop but for context our price ona sheet of steel 36"x96" is around $45. Aluminum is $50-200 depending on the quality and Stainless steel sheets are $200+
Click to expand...
Yep, if you extrapolate that one small piece out to the amount that would be required for an average, basic ATX computer case, plus the required engineering/design work, and the milling & machining labor/time, you'd be talking ~$700-$1000, which I would think most average folks would consider as alot for a case, as do I. And I say this while acknowledging that I spent $250 for a Tower 900 years ago :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top