Enderman

My Dad will be turning 50 in March. And my grandparents are barely in their 70s. Bright side of having kids young is having your grandparents around that much longer. Arguably, Myself and my sister threw that trend straight out the window. 
 
Oh boy, kind of derailing this topic here, right off the side of a mountain. 

Font IO is not important

Mostly because well... I can't use it since my case is such an old case and I can't find which cable goes where XD

I probably wouldn't either, but I kind of built my PC wayyy back in 2015.
...
...
...
I was 24 then...
Now I'm 30...
 
 
Please excuse me while I go through this minor existential crisis.

My computer has no working Front IO
so i guess i can live wout it

I won't buy a motherboard without it anymore.

Luckily I included integrated wifi and bluetooth 😄

Well I prefer not to use front IO all the time. I've had USB ports and things break so that's why. Now, I use it from time to time, I connect USB flash memory and my HOTAS flight stick there. So while I tend to avoid using it at the same time I use it for convenience.
 
When it comes to aestethics, I don't like to have the front IO big and screaming in the front of the case. I like covers, maybe a bit of camouflage or like on my P400S they are simply placed on top. That's okay too.
 
I CAN live without it but I don't want to live without it. Despite having a USB 3.0 hub on my desk.

Well, it kind of matters if the system, desktop in this case, lacks Bluetooth entirely. 😝

Been using wireless or BT for ages...can't remember the last time I physically plugged in headphones.
 
I'm sure there's merit for audiophiles, but your typical user won't care

I use USB A very often, so having these only on the rear-panel would very quickly test my patience.
 
USB-C would probably be easier to do via rear panel only, however, their small size would still take time to line up the cable.
 
I probably wouldn't mind quite as much to lose front audio, as they tend to not be well-shielded anyway. Or otherwise, external solutions exist (if you like Shiit and the like) that would do better anyway.

Sometimes it's useful but it's not that important. I almost never see a use for USB-C plugs, since everything I have that uses C ports comes with cables that have an A on the other end anyway.
 
I can't really remember the last time I've used mine on my 5000D Airflow....testing peripherals? Then it just gets moved to the back anyway once I find out it works.

My front io is brokey atm and i havent mustered the energy to sort it yet so no front io for me 

Very cool project! 😄
I wasn't on the NCIX forum but I joined the LTT one when it was first made!
 
Also, this may come as a surprise, but the case isn't actually made of real wood...
It's an acrylic cube which is wrapped with textured vinyl 😉
I wanted a design that I could wrap with different materials depending on what customers prefer and sell them

 
PS - a tip to get back the wireless charging losses from the thickness of the veneer, take the coil out from the charger so that it has no enclosure and that should give you an extra mm or two which will make up for the veneer thickness

I used to post a lot more often, now less so due to work and life stuff but I still love PCs 🙂

Thanks! I kinda picked the easiest possible shape to wrap!
 
Always been a fan of precision woodworking 🙂
LTT desk builds were really sub par woodworking haha
Wasn't even real wood, just MDF lol
 

Wow, nice wrap job. You went vertical over the top which is a nice way to do that, especially if that is the normal view. That is how I did my rack server box, but with 3/4" Walnut veneer plywood ($200 a sheet from Windsor Plywood!). My desk is called "Project Overkill" since it is overbuilt in strength - I'm at about 400 pounds in the 3 cabinets before I add the top and monitor riser. It'll end up being about 500 pounds of solid wood and thick plywood when I am done. My main rig is about 100 pounds when all decked out so I need a solid foundation for it (not IKEA quality).
 
I'm into more high end finishes rather than a 5-foot "looks good enough" finish. When I watched Linus's team do the desk build, I cringed the whole way through because it was not "fine woodworking" that I like for my own projects. It was more like low-end wood gets painted black to hide the imperfections of the cheap wood choices. Butt joints that gets painted over is not going to look good on face fronts. But looks okay on YT videos I guess. "insert burns from LTT fans here". However the picture below shows a terrible joining decision that I would have never made. I would have used different joinery or design decisions to hide that mess but I hope Linus is happy looking at it every day. Up close it must be quite ugly but looking onto the top must be a joy to behold. Maybe they'll call me in one day to build a nice looking desk carcass - I'd do the labour for free and let them video it. 🙂
 
Thanks for that tip for taking out the coil. That totally makes sense and I had not thought of that before. We're trying to move out of our house and more into the valley so once that happens, will finish the top and incorporate that. However the housing real estate situation in the lower mainland is so absurd that buying/selling is very difficult without doing anything overly foolish.

To me, that seems like something you could accidentally hit with your hand or elbow, especially during a frantic multiplaermatch. 😄 Also, any spilled coffee or tea or w/e could easily spill right off the edge and onto the USB devices you got in that little hub.  
 
Also, if you have little kids, it's not a good idea to keep these small, swallow-able USB devices within their reach. 
 
The great thing about front IO on computer cases is that it keeps the USB evices easily accessible, but also safe and out of the way. 

Wouldn't necessairly agree. Pendrive maybe yes, but when yon need to plug in external hard drive, controller, or even phone, the cables at the back are going to prevent you from rotating fully, which would be optimal in this scenario.

For me it's exclusively a convenience thing. With that said it depends on the use case of the PC. If it's an HTPC in my living room I want it to look nice with no front IO. But my main PC in my room I want everything to be convenient at all costs so I don't care how it looks. I would pay great money for a modern full tower case that has hot swappable 3.5in bays like this 

I don't use them very often, but when i do they are absolutely a massive convenience.
This is only for USB ports, i don't even have my front audio connected to my motherboard at all.

I used to post a lot more often, now less so due to work and life stuff but I still love PCs 🙂

Honestly i think it looks better with front io like in the second picture, its also visually more clear what it is, first picture just looks like a wooden box … not necessarily a pc. btw i think the design is gorgeous, id just prefer the 2nd approach visually and from a practicality standpoint.
 
Yes, i use my front io daily.

 
also having it on the top like many new "fancy" cases is a no go and a practicality nightmare, that is going to kill cables so fast while having no technical advantages whatsoever.
 
 
ps: what is minimum required imo
2 USB
1 headphone
 
 
as you can see some devices gonna be plugged in 24/7 so its nice to have a second USB for a phone or something.
 
headphone jack, i personally dont use it, but can obviously see the need for a lot of people and having those in the back is just not ideal (cables bending etc)

My 2.1 speakers have a dongle with a 3.5mm jack.  I don't need anything plugged into front I/O for sound.
 
I've never seen a dongle/USB hub that takes up more space on/around a desk than a freaking PC tower.  Just out of principle, I'd rather have the dongle--especially if it can be designed in a minimalist way, unobtrusive, and possibly even with RGB functionality that can be synced to the tower itself, the keyboard, mouse, etc.
 
Combine the hub with a mouse bungee, headphone stand, etc.  Possibly even have it double as part of your 2.1 desktop speaker setup.
 
I really think the front I/O is a throwback, and exists today because the industry has failed to design better, more compelling alternatives than physically touching the front of your PC case.

This is the mini PC I have been working on for a while, someone mentioned they wouldn't want one because it has no front IO.
I'm considering adding front IO to future PCs.
What do you guys think?
 
 
A: With no front IO

 
B: with front IO (just an example, could be USB C or other)

I used to post a lot more often, now less so due to work and life stuff but I still love PCs 🙂