Origin is selling a retro-inspired beige box PC

erek

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Is Retro still king? (Article curtsey of KarateBob )

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"The chassis has also been painted a period-correct beige, a surprisingly refreshing change of pace compared to the black boxes with RGB lights that are common today.

Origin is only building 50 RestoMod PCs, so if you want one, you’ll need to act quickly."


https://www.techspot.com/news/87960-origin-selling-retro-inspired-beige-box-pc.html
 
Beige cases looked ugly then, and ugly now.
This unlike the NES that looked great then and great now, I do not see this having much appeal.

There is some nostalgia from previous PC era, I doubt the beige plastic (to fit the cubicle aesthetic of the days that also has very little nostalgy going for it) has much appeal, unlike say vector monitor it feel just all around inferior in everyway.
 
Old beige cases were like a blank canvas for mods, the nostalgia for me is mostly in the idea that you had this heavy-duty chunk of metal that could be chopped up and customized. I think there's also something to be said about a really clean, nondescript beige box for a sleeper build. This, on the other hand, is co-opting that nostalgia to sell a cheap imitation.

embarrassed by the quality of this product, will try to do better before posting going forward...
Still a relevant news item, though disappointing showing from a place like origin.
 
Linus tested one the other day when he was playing Cyberpunk at 8k
 
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I can't say i miss the beige cases of the 80s and early 90s. Although I did mod a few of them for increased airflow. I also don't care for the LED bling crap that we get today.

Just give me a nice black or silver painted glossy metal case with possibly some plastic for front usb and headphone jacks. A few 5.25" slots, and 2x 3.5" slots with external access and 5+ internal 3.5" slots. Basically a mid-tower case. A side window is ok, and space for lots of fans or a radiator.
 
Ah, it's not the actual case? Too bad, I think they are ugly, but would sell out in seconds probably with all the nostalgia buying going on in the tech world now.
 
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Saw this in the LTT video the other day. This is just a modern case painted biege with a sticker on the front. Meh.

But I'm sure someone out there who didn't live through that era thinks it's cool to have one, you know, because it's 'retro'.

This would be cool if the case itself was meticulously crafted to look like an actual biege case from the 90s. The front drives should be facades not stickers. Something a 3D printer could tackle with relative ease. Maybe someone over at Origin could actually be clever by cooling via a front facade thus allowing some airflow through actual vents that the OP sticker is trying to represent?

Also, 90s period cases did not have glass windowed sides. They didn't even have side, top, or botton fans holes unless you modded them. Suck on that, you RGB whores. It was strictly front to back airflow. Alas, it was a simple time.
 
and to be clear, I think retro pc clone beige is due for a big time come back (i appreciate it more than modern RGB), this case looks like crap.

Hope so, maybe

Love the beige color of the old cases, but this is ugly as fuck. Especially since the front is just a decal.

I wish someone would actually sell something like this corsair 900D (without having to paint it myself). It was from a 'dream machine' build Maximum PC did a while back. Beige, clean, no RGB, no BS.

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The thing for me is I somewhat doubt the validity of this combination. This might have a nostalgia look but I've personally never seen something with these components together. Technically yes there is a small window where something like this could have existed, but it seems an unlikely combination.

The odd choice here is the AT style tower case. (It has a physical power switch, which was removed in favor of a "soft switch" for ATX) That's not a common thing to begin with, so having a cd-rom internally just makes it even less likely. If this were real I'd probably guess it's an 80386 unless there actually were some 486 motherboard that were AT and not ATX. That would also move it closer to using tower cases and CD-Rom drives. Otherwise the AT plus 5.25" floppy would point more toward 286 or early 386.

I wouldn't want this case simply because it doesn't seem authentic. Remove the CD drive and make it a flat desktop or remove the 5.25" and AT switch and leave it as a tower. Sure you could have a 5.25" drive in a tower but I could still hook one to core i7. It was very rare to see one in a tower as most moved on by the time towers were popular.
 
I wish someone would actually sell something like this corsair 900D (without having to paint it myself). It was from a 'dream machine' build Maximum PC did a while back. Beige, clean, no RGB, no BS.

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I hate that in so many ways lol. I get the throwback angle, but not having buttons on the front put it into a class of one all by itself. This unfortunately looks like what it is, a new case with some paint slapped on it. Doesn't even require a second look to know there is nothing about it that should be beige. The case itself is also way too big to ever be a good choice for a throwback as that 5.25" drive looks tiny in it. They could have at least put the cd drive behind a flap that opens up and it would be more believable. Sorry if I ruined your dream but it's definitely not for me.
 
Yeah, if it actually had some sort of plastic-molded front panel stuff...maybe. Just having it be a flat sticker looks cheap and lazy.
 
Beige was terrible back in the 90's (and before) and it's terrible now. It was one of those things I always hated, but that is what made the case modding scene so great. In fact it's one of the reasons I joined the [H] in the first place.
It's unfortunate that it took so long for case manufacturers to "just get" that people wanted a simple black box. Now that we at least can get that for a reasonable cost I see no reason to go back to this ugly beige trend.

I basically have no nostalgia for cases. All I want is functional (good airflow with everything necessary for mounting stuff inside) and black. I don't even want a window. I really don't want RGB.
 
I wish someone would actually sell something like this corsair 900D (without having to paint it myself). It was from a 'dream machine' build Maximum PC did a while back. Beige, clean, no RGB, no BS.

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Despite having a glossy finish (Should be matte) and a solid front panel. I like it. I can feel the interior already cutting my fingers! ;)

Fun fact about the old beige white paint that turned yellow, I always thought it was from smoking or dirty environments,(which can obviously contribute) but in fact those old beige cases and even old game consoles like the Nintendo had a special chemical mixed into the paint & plastic to serve as a fire retardant, exposure to light over time caused it it turn yellow.
 
Well shit I still have a couple beige cases sitting around with older computers in them that kind of go into that "Yeah I'll use it for something someday.... but the reality is I just don't want to throw away a computer" pile. I'm sure the airflow mechanics on them suck, but some modifications could easily bring it into the 2020 and allow plenty of airflow... but then again, it's still an ugly beige case.
 
I have to say, I never liked the beige case.

But I love the beige IBM keyboards with the accents they have on keys. That may just be nostalgia, but dammit, it just looks right.
 
Clearly flat fake floppy drives and cd-rom drive stickers are a definite no-go. That's just lame. Stick a real 5.25" drive in it, and an LS-120 3.5", or one of the ultra-rare combo drives (by the time they were available, only 3 people cared about 5.25"). Use the tray from an old 4x cd-rom drive on a blu-ray writer.

Also, real beige changes color over time. A lame sticker isn't going to develop the patina.

Re: AT/ATX, I think plenty of 486 boards were AT only, and there were some Pentiums that were at least compatible with either power supply, but that part of my memory is getting a bit hazy.
 
Re: AT/ATX, I think plenty of 486 boards were AT only, and there were some Pentiums that were at least compatible with either power supply, but that part of my memory is getting a bit hazy.
That's correct, and I used to have a few of each of those back in the day (mid-1990s systems) when AT was starting to get phased out in favour of ATX.
 
A sticker would have been fine if it was backlit and laser-cut with either: period-appropriate red/amber/green LED light, or also period-correct hot pink to cyan lighting.

Otherwise it would need to be functional, even if they were fake bay covers that reveal card readers and USB ports. No reason not to include an optical drive, either, in that case.
 
I wish someone would actually sell something like this corsair 900D (without having to paint it myself). It was from a 'dream machine' build Maximum PC did a while back. Beige, clean, no RGB, no BS.
the corsair 4000D in white reminds me of the late 90s/early 2000s sun microsystems computers... just wish it had 5.25" bays
 
It wouldn't be retro unless the PC was fanless too. Otherwise it just looks like an old PC with modern acoustic problems.
 
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