The evolution of computer cases

[Gorilla]

How is it that computer cases look so much better today than they did 10 or 15 or 20 years ago? Or maybe the better question is how did computer cases look so bad back in the day?

I mean, we've all probably had a beige case at some point. Why the hell was beige so popular? Ugh, I remember that I had an Antec case that was beige with purple plastic fan mounts. Ugh, beige and purple. Was a black case a taboo? It's not like my case was an ugly design, just the color scheme.

What was up with all the neon and ultra violet? In early water cooling builds especially you would see a ton of neon.

And cable management was almost nonexistent. I was looking at some photos of old builds earlier today. They look like a power supply exploded inside of the case. Wires everywhere. Admittedly they didn't have modular PSUs back then, but still.

Has technology improved? I mean, we are still using steel, aluminium, and plastic.

It just strikes me as funny that it took so long to get to where we are today.
Imagine if there had been an 800D in the 90's. Maybe there was and I just don't know about it, but I remember the 90's and early 2000's as boxy and beige.

Ha, on the other hand I found myself wishing that the beige 900D could be purchased.

 

[Skripka]

Computers became dirt-affordable by everyone and not just something businesses bought for employees. After all, a business could care less what a box looks like so long as it looks like it belongs in a professional settings. Businesses realized there was a demand for boxes for consumers that looked better...and started making boxes that looked better...any color was better than The Beige. Hence all the bizzarro-colors that people started doing.

All things considered....it didn't take *that* long. How long did it take for cars to go from the box-ish construction of the Model T and its precursors to the smooth lines of the Stingray?

It takes a bit for people to want and expect more out of a product than the bare function of that product.

 

[singe_101]

Well this site has a really deep archive, or discuss it with mnpctech.

Skripka is right. And it went along with the purge of CRT monitors.

My parents had a beige e-Machines PC but by the next time they bought one I think it was a black box.

 

[nalc]

Well, PC modding as a hobby didn't really get big until about 2000.

That was the first time someone said "Hey, I want to be able to show off the insides of my PC"

The biggest and most popular mods were cutting windows and installing CCFLs. Painting became somewhat popular, as did clear plastic cases.

In terms of cable management, cases prior to then had maybe a couple of stick-on cable clamps and some zip ties. Few cases had windows from the factory, so there was no point in having cable channels behind the mobo - why would you need to hide cables there when you can't see inside the case? In fact, some of the most popular modder's cases only had one removable side panel, the behind-the-mobo side was riveted on. And, frankly, IMO, it was a fair amount more pleasant to work on a case like that, because you never had to flip it over during a build. To improve cable management, DIY PSU sleeving (not individual sleeving) took off, as did rounded IDE cables (rather than ribbon cables).

There were three really popular cases at the time. The Chieftec Dragon was a big steel behemoth. It boasted features like dual 80mm exhaust fans, triple 80mm intake fans, removable 3.5" drive cages, and four 5.25" drive bays that were mounted on rails that could be installed and removed without tools, hidden behind a door. The fans were all on purple plastic mounts that let you add and remove them without tools. The front grille was behind a cool bar design to hide the fans. This design school was to make big, sturdy cases with a lot of cooling that had features to make working on them easier. The Lian Li PC-6 was the opposite in many ways. It was a fairly compact aluminum case that was simply styled and built of premium-grade materials. It didn't bother with convenient but ugly drive rails that needed a door to help hide, or put as much focus on tool-less builds, but it was really high quality. Lian Li also pioneered the idea of a removable motherboard tray, which would allow you to install your motherboard, heatsink, and PCI cards outside of the case, then slide the completed assembly back in. The Raidmax A288 was the everyman's case. It was cheap, steel construction, and had none of the sturdy build and good design features of the Chieftec, and none of the sleek elegance and high quality materials of the Lian Li, but the low price made it probably the most popular cases on the market. All three had many others that were either rebadges, knock-offs, or heavily inspired (For instance, Antec sold some rebadged Chieftec cases, Coolermaster replicated Lian Li's design philosophy)

None of these cases were gigantic by today's standards, because the head output of those PCs was a lot lower. An Athlon XP was around 60w TDP, and even the infamous Prescott P4, known for being the hottest CPU ever, only had about a 80w TDP. However, contemporary heatsinks lacked heatpipes, which limited their size and cooling capabilities. The "Tower" heatsink didn't exist, everything had one fan and blew down towards the mobo. Your stock heatsink was all aluminum with a 60mm fan, and your aftermarket overclocking heatsink was copper/aluminum with an 80mm fan. If you wanted the best, you got the all-copper Thermalright SLK-900, which could fit a 92mm fan.Your case likely only had 80mm fans anyway, and wouldn't have a top 'blowhole' fan nor a side panel fan unless you added it yourself.

Your CPU had a somewhat lower TDP, but your GPU had a drastically lower TDP. Forget about 6-pin and 8-pin PCIE power connectors, only the flagship GPUs even had a single molex (sometimes floppy drive connector) for power. My GT620 has a bigger heatsink than the top-of-the-line Radeon 9700 Pro did a decade ago. All of these cards were single fan if they even had a fan (I did a lot of gaming on a Geforce 2 MX400 64MB that didn't even have a heatsink, it was just the bare chip), and you'd be surprised to see one larger than 40 or 50mm. Dual-slot cards that exhausted the heat out of the back were revolutionary when nVidia first leaked pictures of one on the Geforce FX 5800. I remember loads of speculation as to how loud it'd be, how well it would work, etc.

In my opinion, there were a couple big things that shifted the dynamic. First one was an improvement in cooling technology and heat production. Heatpipe CPU coolers allowed you to go much bigger, and fit larger 120mm fans, which was part of the reason why the market shifted away from 80mm fans and to 120mm fans as the standard fan size. Dual slot blower GPUs took a lot more air intake, so side panel fans became a standard feature on more cases. Dual-GPU options were introduced, increasing the airflow requirements. A top of the line PC in 2001 might have had a 300w PSU, five years later it was double or triple that. Second one was a push towards being quiet and cool. Previously, that was only achievable with waltercooling, so aircooling folks just picked one and went with it. Stuff like PWM fans and power-saving states started to take off. A huge one (IMO) was how mainstream PC modding became. When it started, nobody had done stuff like that before, and there was no "over the top". You'd have a huge window, a million CCFLs, cheesy "Biohazard" fan grilles, neon colored cables, etc. Companies realized it was popular and started cashing in by making these obnoxious pre-modded cases. More involved modders had a bit of a backlash against really over-the-top mods, and generally toned it down to avoid looking too much like a garish pre-mod. The rockstar modders started using proper machining techniques and equipment. A popular worklog in 2001 might be a guy with a soldering iron and dremel and rattle-can paint, five years later it'd likely be a guy with a CNC machine using laser-etched acrylic and a professional paint booth.

Eventually, the mainstream cases came back around to mostly being subdued, with a compromise between sleek looks, good access, tool-less features, and good cable management and cooling.

 

[LAngell34]

Nice post nalc! I have to add though, that even way back when I had full towers I painted the plastic and even beige metal paint job that I painted them black. It was not so difficult to find black 5.25" units like Floppy Drives and the sorts, I even painted a couple of them in my time with the "shipping" Cardboard floppy in place!
I can add that I also painted one computer out in a very HOT PINK for one Customer that insisted upon her color of choice. It was great to trust TESTORS Hobby Spray Paint all the way back in those days as well.

BTW Check out the new Corsair 900 Obsidian Series for a Full Tower that does everything!!!

 

[vr.]

I propose computer cases didn't get sexy until much later because computer nerds lack coordination and style (look at their clothing compared to jocks) and really didn't care much about appearance. "Normal" people didn't influence general computing until later on.

Back in 1994 I worked at a pc store that had 2 owners. People that came in were always fascinated by the components we had in the glass case so I said to one of the owners (he was from a blue collar family and generally pretty popular), why don't we make a plexiglass case so people can see inside a running computer? He said that sounded cool and liked the idea. Then I saw the other owner later in the day and pitched it to him. His response was it was the dumbest idea ever. He was the stereo typical nerd that was awkward and gangly.

 

[yadnom]

I had a biege InWin S500 back in 99 or 00 that I painted black. I even took the CD ROM drive and floppy drive apart to paint the bezels and trays black to match. It looked much nicer after the paint job.


I think back then most people didn't care how it looked. Just having a PC set you apart already. As PCs became more affordable and more commonplace in homes, it then became more of who's got a better/different looking one.

 

[PolygonGTC]

I modded my first computer back in 99 and back then there weren't really cases with windows and they were pretty much all beige. I cut my own window in the side, added a blue cathode, changed the LEDs to white and blue, and painted it a metallic blue. At the time I was pretty proud of myself. Looking back, I wouldn't be satisfied with the quality of the job if I were doing it now.

Taking it to LAN parties was a hell of thing. I loved hearing all the ranting and raving about it. Too bad the thing was huge and I got tired of lugging it around so I just started hosting my own LANs. I do miss those days.

 

[WiSK]

Not sure about the theory that nerds can't do design. Sir Clive Sinclair was a serious techie type. Yet he was the first to realise that black looks better than beige.

Here the QL from 1984:

This while 'trendy' Steve Jobs was still doing beige, e.g. Apple III:

and the original Mac:

Pics from http://oldcomputers.net/