Why are Cases Crappy?

[Logan321]

Here's an idea. Make a module that has all your leds/switches etc that'll fit in a 5 1/4" bay, and just put it in the top bay of whatever case you are using. Then you can ignore whatever other leds/switches are on the case itself. Or if that's too much of a hassle, modify an existing one, such as http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811998806

If you get the old bulb style leds, they'll be viewable from any angle, just have the tip protrude through your module.

And if you REALLY must have it facing up, cut a 5 14" bay sized hole in the TOP of your case, and mount it there.

PS. You do realize you're asking about BUYING a perfect case in the CASE MODDING forum, right? lol The perfect case is one that's close to what you need, and altered to suit the rest.

 

[rox1co]

i actually love my aerocool spiral galaxies case

excellent design

 

[Bbq]

I built my home theater PC in one of these about three years ago. It has not only one -- but two doors. They're desktop cases, not towers. I can't imagine putting six or seven on my desk, even if I had the vertical space to stack 'em.

Not the desktop ones. The out-of-production 110,210, 211, 710, etc.

 

[Nuzzles]

About the stacker:

Doesn't it have a moveable panel with USB, firewire ports, and the power and reset switches on it? If so, then you can just move that up to the top.

Other ideas:

You could even get a mini USB hub and use some doublesided sticky tape to stick it on top of the case for easy acess.

The LED's. Get some plastic mirrored shit, and angle it somewhere that it reflects the LED's.

I've also found that power buttons and reset buttons, are very bad to put on top of a case. Especially if you put stuff on it occasionally... They can be a real pain in the ass. So I'd settle for ones being at the top of the case on the front, if I were you.

 

[sprocket]

You could always use a small enclosure (like a Radio Shack "project box") to mount your LEDs, ON & reset buttons and all the ports (USB, Firewire, etc) and put it on your desk.

 

[mikeblas]

Let me get this straight, you want leds on the top of the case as well as the power and reset buttons, because you don't want your case on your desk?

Reread the first post; there's plenty of other design concerns. Let me know if you have any questions after checking it out.

I would hardly call that case "lumpy"

I would, and did. The plastic thing is lumpy. If you have a different opinion, that's great. I hope you enjoy your cases.

Please educate me when you say you want to see the led's while the computer is on the floor.

I can't understand what you mean. Educate you when I say something? Huh?

I have never seen a case with "functional" leds built on the top of the case.

I'm sorry you haven't seen them -- they do exist: there's links to a couple in this thread. The main reason I'm posting is because large tower cases are meant to put on the floor, but aren't designed so that they're easily used while on the floor. The cases linked here have some aesthetic problems, and it's surprising that so few cases are designed considered their intended position relative to the user.

If you get the old bulb style leds, they'll be viewable from any angle,

Unfortunately, LEDs aren't visible from "any angle". Just check the data sheets; some are better than others, but looking down at a case under my desk, I'm at a 65 to 75 degree angle to the front of the case.

I've drilled-out drive panels for a couple of my servers to mount the network lights. That works OK; at home, my servers are on the opposite leg of my U-shaped workarea and I can see them well because the angle is less acute.

aerocool masstige?

This case has the USB, Firewire, microphone, and speaker jacks on the very bottom. The switches and indicators are down there, too. Even if you put this rig on top of your desk, isn't it a PITA to use, since all your cables are going to be coming along the desk, getting in the way, or getting covered by other stuff?

You could always use a small enclosure (like a Radio Shack "project box") to mount your LEDs, ON & reset buttons and all the ports (USB, Firewire, etc) and put it on your desk.

I guess I could, but I think such a solution would suck. I'd have two wires per LED, because I don't thinks I could assume anything was common about the signals across different outputs on different cards, not to mention different machines.

So I'd have two wires for each of: power, HDD, network link, network xmit. Plus, more lines for additional drives (like on my RAID cards). We're quickly up to 12 or 16 lines. I have some cable I could use for this; I think it's got 10 pairs of 28 AWG wire, and is about a half inch thick. I suppose I could use D-15 monitor plugs for the signals.

After making the box and the calbing, I'd have to run a cable to it to each computer in my office; six or seven cables, some of which are going to be long just because that many computers makes a wide pile.

Even if I found some practical way to do the wiring, the EMF emissions from such a solution would present a challenge.

 

[Logan321]

Unfortunately, LEDs aren't visible from "any angle". Just check the data sheets; some are better than others, but looking down at a case under my desk, I'm at a 65 to 75 degree angle to the front of the case.

I've drilled-out drive panels for a couple of my servers to mount the network lights. That works OK; at home, my servers are on the opposite leg of my U-shaped workarea and I can see them well because the angle is less acute.

http://www.superbrightleds.com/specs/r10-360_specs.htm

And if you wanted to "ghetto" mod a normal led to emit 180 degrees, just use some sandpaper on the surface to rough it up a bit and it'll diffuse emit... which would allow you to view it from even straight above.

 

[mikeblas]

http://www.superbrightleds.com/specs/r10-360_specs.htm

Interesting, but I'm skeptical: how can it emit light backwards, through the substrate, its mount, and the leads? Do you know where I can find the full data sheet for that part?

 

[bmartin]

Why not just get a desktop (HTPC Style) case? Everything is in front of you, and you can put it under one of your monitors to save space?

1. If HDD space is an issue, buy a external enclosure, and set it where your pc was.
2. LED's will be in your face there, regardless how recessed (sp?) they are.
3. All ports are accessible
4. Most are aestetically pleasing, such as Lian-Li.
5. There is room for a sticker.
6. Most are designed to support a fair weight, and can even be mounted in cabinets.
7. mod it.

 

[mikeblas]

Why not just get a desktop (HTPC Style) case? Everything is in front of you, and you can put it under one of your monitors to save space?

Because of the number of machines involved, mainly. See post #11 in this thread.

 

[Zepher]

I too like simple and functioning cases. Putting all the fancy lighting and stuff does nothing for me as I use the case just to house my components and I just want a case that fits everything in there, looks decent and is built decent.

i've also been a fan of no doors on cases, but my current case has a door and it doesn' bother me much as I hardly ever have to use the DVD-RW, I've got one on the other machine and use that for backing up stuff.

this is my case,
http://www.transamws6.com/pics/pc/case6.jpg

 

[bmartin]

Oh, I get it.

Honestly, man. I dont think you will find a case that says "designed for the guy who wants LED's in his face on 6 machines laying beside him on the floor, with Devices connected to all of them." Most manufacturers have either budget line, mid tower quiet line, and gamer's line, and serverline. Servers arent to be sat at. Gamers have issues with Device placement. The guy who uses a bunch of PC's at his desk is a guy who is uselessly cluttered IMHO. No offense.

Let me ask you this. The whole "sticker" issue. If it is on the floor, wouldnt you put the sticker on the top of the case anyway?

Maybe you should just get 6 laptops and call it a day?

*note: I agree 1000000% on the door thing. Also on placement of devices*

Currently, I am using the Silverstone TJ-06. Doesnt seem to have as many of the issues as you state, but still, different strokes for different folks.

 

[mikeblas]

Most manufacturers have either budget line, mid tower quiet line, and gamer's line, and serverline. Servers arent to be sat at.

But high-end workstations are, and there are more physical similarities than differences between servers and high-end workstations.

The guy who uses a bunch of PC's at his desk is a guy who is uselessly cluttered IMHO. No offense.

It's between presumptuous and rude to tell me that my workspace is "uselessly cluttered" when you don't know what it is I'm doing with the machines. It's kind of funny that you'd think saying "no offense" excuses that, particularly when your comment contains no useful advice or appreciable insight.

Let me ask you this. The whole "sticker" issue. If it is on the floor, wouldnt you put the sticker on the top of the case anyway?

I can, if the case has a spot for it. The LianLi's don't, since they're all perforated. Most of the newer Dell cases I've used are good for this; they have a small embossed area where the service tag goes and an area where I can affix my own label.

While this is perhaps the weakest requirement on my list, I wish the LianLi's had a spot here I could affix a convenient label.

Maybe you should just get 6 laptops and call it a day?

Not enough disk storge or memory. Or computing power.

 

[bmartin]

It's between presumptuous and rude to tell me that my workspace is "uselessly cluttered" when you don't know what it is I'm doing with the machines. It's kind of funny that you'd think saying "no offense" excuses that, particularly when your comment contains no useful advice or appreciable insight.

You are right. It was extremely rude. My apologies. I just don't understand the reasoning I guess, since every option have been rebuttaled down to LED Spec sheets. Let me rephrase.

1. There is no perfect case for your needs. Sorry.
2. Perhaps a rack and KVM is your only option.
3. You better be folding on those rigs!
4. What exactly are you doing with those rigs? Since it wasnt originally posted with the general complaint.
5. How many devices do you need to connect that can not be resolved with a general hub? What are they?

I guess it comes down to what madmat said before:

You'll never find a case that matches your criteria 100% so you'll eventually have to settle for 80% or 70% or even 60% or 50%. Other than paying some major bucks to have the cases that you want custom made you'll either have to mod your own or buy cases that suit your needs as much as possible.

It's a sad truth but the old saw applies here: "You can please some of the people some of the time but you can't please all of the people all of the time."

 

[}Meat_Whistle{]

I know what you mean about cases. When I first built my system, I found one that I thought was good. I didn't like it the second I pulled it from the box, but as it was the last part I needed to get it built I went with it. It was a cheap piece of tin that would bend if you farted to loud.

I ended up trading a hdd that I didn't pay anything for anyway for just about my dream case. Nothing fancy, but it's big and has what I need. I'm in the process of modding it now which was what I wanted originally but never would have worked out with the original case. It was almost a year before I got the case I wanted. I would like to find an uncut left side panel, and some feet for it which will be hard as I don't have any idea what type of case it is. Keep looking, you'll find what you need. The internet has everything

 

[mikeblas]

I just don't understand the reasoning I guess,

I don't understand the reasoning, either. Tower cases are made to be put on the floor, but only a handful are carefully designed to be usable on the floor. Because of this, I can't imagine that even most of the people are pleased some of the time. Perhaps they haven't realized that the design could be so much better.

I'm not interested in folding. Thanks for the warning, though.

I develop and test software; if you're running Windows, code I wrote is ikely on your machine.

Regardless of my application, I think there are people who are not satifised with any of the current tower case offerings for some of the same reasons I'm not. A few of them have even added their input to this thread.

If you think the issue through, the number of machines isn't really relevant: one could hit the same issue with a smaller number of machines and smaller workarea.

At work, I connect and remove one device -- a USB memory key -- very frequently. It moves from machine to machine, depending on what rig has the files I want to take or which one needs the one I want to place. The key goes home, and there's a couple of other devices at home (a camera and some embedded systems harware tools) that are less than permanently connected.

I would have held it obvious that one shouldn't have to crawl around on the floor to get or retrieve the memory stick. Using a hub or an extension cable on top of the desk is fine, but that's another solution that doesn't scale to more than a couple of machines.

Indeed, I can't find a case that meets my needs. (A couple posted here have come close -- though they're still not perfect.) That's why I wrote my complaint in the first place. Yes, I'm being picky and demanding: I should be, since I use these rigs professionally all day, every day, for 60 or 80 hours each week.

How does a rack solve any of my problems? As far as I can tell, such a setup leaves me in the same boat: forward facing lights for machines that are on the floor and not in sight. I don't think a KVM is relevant to the issues I've raised; I'm already using them.

 

[Logan321]

Here's a question... don't decent network hubs/switches indicate activity? That'd be easy to put on the desktop so you could see your network usage, anyway. As for the rest, maybe you need to fabricate something specific to your needs.

While I do agree that the original use of "tower" systems was a floor placement (and indeed, that's where mine is) the increase in demand for "premodded" computers that are meant to be seen, and are frequently placed on the desktop, doesn't give the case manufacturers a lot of incentive to alter cases for top viewing.

The original tower cases were just desktop cases turned 90 degrees... in fact, some of them were convertable from tower to desktop. I had an old seanix case that did that, in the distant past.

If you made a box that protruded 1/2-3/4" from a 5 1/4" bay, and installed all your plugs, leds and switches in the top edge, it would perfectly suit your needs, yes? Or even an angled front piece.

I suspect that what you are looking for is specialized enough that you won't find a commercial product that accomplishes your goal. You may have to have something custom fabricated.

 

[Alchemic]

If you find people being rude to you, it's because they are trying to help you, yet you find ways to complain. Stop being difficult and accept the fact that nobody makes a case that will fit 100% of your needs. Fix it yourself. Obviously if you have enough time to come on this forum and whine about LEDs not facing you, you have enough time to fabricate the LEDs yourself. This is the truth. You brought up an interesting topic, but you're being unreasonable. Everything you want could be done in a weekend if you were in any way industrious. A network hub will solve your NIC LED requirements, and honestly, what are you doing swapping out USB sticks from pc to pc, just move what you need to a network drive, then d/l from there.

 

[Logan321]

Take some measurements, print out this:

and take it to a metal fabricator... get 10 made. Buy a bunch of LEDs and switches and install them or hire some college tech kid to do it. Problem solved.

 

[mikeblas]

Here's a question... don't decent network hubs/switches indicate activity? That'd be easy to put on the desktop so you could see your network usage, anyway.

While that's only a partial solution, I've looked into it a little. Right now, I'm using a Hawking Technologies "semi-managed" switch, which lets me do what I need to configure my network (most notably, set the packet size). When I discovered it about a year ago, it was the first gigabit managed switch that I found under $500.

Problem is, the cables exit from the front -- and obscure the view of the LEDs. For desktop use, I'd love to find a switch with indicators in the front and the connectors in the rear. The need for a properly configured gigabit network trumps the aesthetic desires, though.

The original tower cases were just desktop cases turned 90 degrees... in fact, some of them were convertable from tower to desktop. I had an old seanix case that did that, in the distant past.

I'm not sure that I agree with your history report. I know that "convertible" cases existed, but I thik they're pre-dated by dedicated tower cases. The first towers I remember seeing were for 286 machines; I could've ordered my PC's Limited 286/12 box as a tower, for instance. The tower case certainly wasn't convertable to a desktop and back.

If you made a box that protruded 1/2-3/4" from a 5 1/4" bay, and installed all your plugs, leds and switches in the top edge, it would perfectly suit your needs, yes? Or even an angled front piece.

Depends on the case. For the LianLi's at home, it might work. For the Dell boxes at work, and my old Chieftech at home, I don't think it'll help because the drive bays are recessed in the area the door used to cover. I'd have to protrude about 5 cm.

I suspect that what you are looking for is specialized enough that you won't find a commercial product that accomplishes your goal. You may have to have something custom fabricated.

Perhaps you're right, and maybe I'm just slow to come to the realization that something well-designed is highly specialized.

If you find people being rude to you, it's because they are trying to help you, yet you find ways to complain.

How does trying to help cause people to be rude? Regardless, this conversation is about cases, not people making generalizations about my work habits based only on the number of machines I own.

 

[Stellar]

I too am curious what it is EXACTLY that requires you to have several desktop-style PCs setting on the floor next to one desk. What with Virtualization software, hot-swappable hard drives, racks and rack-mounted enclosures, SSH, RDC, etc.

 

[madmat]

Perhaps you're right, and maybe I'm just slow to come to the realization that something well-designed is highly specialized.

Perhaps what you consider to be well designed holds appeal for 1 out of 100 people so to the other 99 it's specialized and holds little to none.

Nearly everyone that has posted has expressed their disbelief that you want your case under your desk, that should tell you something right there.

I fail to see how you can't see your case LEDs at 70 degrees off axis, I'm at close to 180 degrees off axis from mine and I see them just fine (Lian Li PC6070)

What case are you using now?

 

[mikeblas]

I too am curious what it is EXACTLY that requires you to have several desktop-style PCs setting on the floor next to one desk. What with Virtualization software, hot-swappable hard drives, racks and rack-mounted enclosures, SSH, RDC, etc.

I do performance work. Virtualization software isn't really appropriate for perf tuning, since I'd end up measuring the virtual machine and whatever interferes with it instead of the real hardware.

I've also been involved in some scale-out work. While it never came to the forefront, even doing prototypes would've been hard without a number of machines.

These days I work on server software, so it's convenient to have a server or two up and a client or two available to hit it.

My project is very large; more than ten million lines of code just for the server. The tools and side projects are more--adding another seven million LOC or so, depending on what subset I'm looking at. A full build takes just less than an hour; nominally, a rebuild takes about 15 or 20 minutes. Having multiple enlistments and the ability to compartmentalize work to different machines, do self-hosted verification builds, and work in parallel helps my productivity.

That's it, EXACTLY.

 

[Stellar]

Thanks for explaining.

Has anyone mentioned to you the Antec P160 yet? The front panel with LCD display (including temp), USB, Firewire, and Audio is on a swivel at the top of the case.

http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=81602#

 

[mikeblas]

I fail to see how you can't see your case LEDs at 70 degrees off axis, I'm at close to 180 degrees off axis from mine and I see them just fine (Lian Li PC6070)

Would you believe me if I posted some pictures?

Perhaps what you consider to be well designed holds appeal for 1 out of 100 people so to the other 99 it's specialized and holds little to none.

Perhaps. It wouldn't be the first time I found myself in the 99th percentile.

What case are you using now?

At work:
Three Dell Precision workstations (from 2002 or 2003, I guess). A Dell PowerEdge 600SC. A craptacular case for a machine that I built; some generic thing from the local computer store. And some other generic thing from NewEgg.

At home:
A Chieftech/Chenbro; the one that was really popular at the time. Three LianLi's; two PC-1000V and one PC-1200V, if I remember the model numbers right. An ancient tower case for my P3 dual proc, and another Dell PowerEdge 600SC. Plus, another generic beige special -- same case as the one at work.

At home, there's less of a problem seeing lights since I've got more room. Even then, the USB accessibility problems still apply.

The Dell boxes are particular problematic, since the curve of the front plastic facade is away from me, and the light pipe lens thingie over the LED is particularly craptacular.

 

[mikeblas]

Thanks for explaining.

Sure. And thanks for editing your post. That second paragraph was quite abrasive, and I'm glad to see it gone.

Has anyone mentioned to you the Antec P160 yet? The front panel with LCD display (including temp), USB, Firewire, and Audio is on a swivel at the top of the case.

Yep; it came up earlier. The top edge is cool, but the rest of the styling is, uh, not appealing.

 

[itsmikey]

oh my god i want that silver chenbro case so bad and I cant find anyone who sells it

 

[Auraka]

Supermicro SC733T addresses most of the items you are griping about. They use tubes to get light off the backplane to the front of the case, but under use the activity per drive is visible. Also sports LAN activity and overheat LEDs with the clustered power and standard HD LEDs.

The case lacks a firewire port but has two USB about two thirds of the way up. I did mod mine to improve airflow but mostly because I'm running a very hot X1900XT.

 

[cyks]

agree with you, ive never understood why people have their computer on their desks.. unless its a shuttle.

a lot of dust comes from the carpet. I don't like working on the floor. It is easier to just turn my chair to open the pc. Putting the PC on the ground just causes the OP to have numerous problems anyway, so why bother.

 

[Ockie]

a lot of dust comes from the carpet. I don't like working on the floor. It is easier to just turn my chair to open the pc. Putting the PC on the ground just causes the OP to have numerous problems anyway, so why bother.

My concern is basment flooding and creepy crawlers... so i keep it high and dry

 

[Apallohadas]

How does trying to help cause people to be rude? Regardless, this conversation is about cases, not people making generalizations about my work habits based only on the number of machines I own.

I think what he's saying is that your responses to some people have felt somewhat 'abrasive'.

While I do agree with some of your issues, it almost sounds like you're going to shoot down any constructive response with a counter.

For one of my systems, I use a Coolermaster Centurion 530 because I wanted the top power and reset button. (See, I agree with you there that I'd like them angled a bit and on top, as I keep my computer slightly elevated above the floor.)

For those that want to see their computers, but want to reclaim their desk space, I bought a side table from Target for 20 bucks on clearance. It looks like the side portion of THIS desk. Keeps my computer off the floor and has space for paper, cables, router, etc.

Before I had my tower as well as file storage under my desk, but I kept kicking the file cabinet or the tower and that was driving me crazy.

The iStarUSA S-10000BL is my primary case. Very well put together case without the bling bling crap of "gamer" cases. Frankly I don't want a billion LEDs staring me in the face. It's a personal preference. But I have to say the case is very well contructed and a breeze to build with.

 

[Jiggaman2576]

Get a case like mine. It has plenty of metal real estate in the front to put whatever you want. I added 4 switches. If you want to be able to see your HD activity, get a sunbeam light controller and hook it to some cold cathodes. You can have your lights all blink to your HD activity which you can see from anywhere around the case. This case holds 9 hard drives, no problem with space. Its big enough to put your whole head in when working on it, nice and easy there too. No fancy plastic bezels and BS like that. You can even get it with blank panels or fan cutouts. Check it:





BTW, my case handles and all those LED's in the front are also attatched to that controller and they blink with HD activity as well, or sound, or patterned.

OH yeah, this case doesn't have front USB's but you can get a front plate with all the crap you want on it for like 30 bux.

Sorry bout that, grabbed the wrong code. FYI, you can get this in 3 or 4 different colors, and I had mine powder coated that way. If you know exactly what you want, why don't you design one yourself?

 

[mikeblas]

Get a case like mine.

Your images don't enlarge, but I can already tell that design is a little too gaudy for me.

 

[Darkala]

the solution is to make a custom mouse pad with a control panel on it, and a VFD to show system info/LEDs and you can put the power buttons on there, make custom connectors on the back of each case to connect to the pads harness. allow for 4 computers to be controlled or more if you will ever desire it. an easy ass mod.

 

[Mayhs]

Thanks for explaining.

Has anyone mentioned to you the Antec P160 yet? The front panel with LCD display (including temp), USB, Firewire, and Audio is on a swivel at the top of the case.

http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=81602#

nice case

 

[Mayhs]

Get a case like mine. It has plenty of metal real estate in the front to put whatever you want. I added 4 switches. If you want to be able to see your HD activity, get a sunbeam light controller and hook it to some cold cathodes. You can have your lights all blink to your HD activity which you can see from anywhere around the case. This case holds 9 hard drives, no problem with space. Its big enough to put your whole head in when working on it, nice and easy there too. No fancy plastic bezels and BS like that. You can even get it with blank panels or fan cutouts. Check it:





BTW, my case handles and all those LED's in the front are also attatched to that controller and they blink with HD activity as well, or sound, or patterned.

OH yeah, this case doesn't have front USB's but you can get a front plate with all the crap you want on it for like 30 bux.

Sorry bout that, grabbed the wrong code. FYI, you can get this in 3 or 4 different colors, and I had mine powder coated that way. If you know exactly what you want, why don't you design one yourself?

thats what i call a proper case

 

[mikeblas]

the solution is to make a custom mouse pad with a control panel on it, and a VFD to show system info/LEDs and you can put the power buttons on there, make custom connectors on the back of each case to connect to the pads harness. allow for 4 computers to be controlled or more if you will ever desire it. an easy ass mod.

This was previously suggested. I thin the point to point wiring required would be very cumbersome. Do you have a suggestion that will mitigate that?

 

[InorganicMatter]

I can't believe that this thread has gone four pages and not once has the Antec P180 been mentioned. Yeah it has a front door, but it's one of the cases you can remove the front door and still look good. Check it out man, I think you'll like.

 

[tacticus]

maybe rack it all and have a look at http://www.matrox.com/mga/pid/products/extio/extio_f1400.cfm
add a usb2.0 cd drive and some of these

though i know this will not solve the issue of the leds and such

that part i will think about :\

 

[nigerian_businessman]

Brilliant! The top edge of the case is a lot like what I'm thinking about. The rest of the styling is nastay, though.



You will? When the network stops, it can be because of a bunch of different reasons. The light lets me know, as a first diagnostic, that I've got the cable plugged in and a physical link. Or that the computer isn't even trying to write to the net at the moment.

When the network or drive lights are flashing, I get a vauge sense of how much I/O I'm doing; that puts me in touch with the machine as I write software. If I need to actually measure it, of course, I fire up PerfMon or some other utility. But getting a coarse idea is often valuable enough.

That's what I want them for. Why? I'm old-school; I've been working with computers and digital electronics since data rates and clock speeds were low enough that a blinking LED was meaningful. I'm used to it, and miss it when it is not there.

My suggestion? stop bitching and install samurize. problem solved.

ps. sorry for the old thread bump. lol i should stop posting at 2:47 am