Horizontal PC cases: any cons?

[Uji Ninja]

HI,

 

so I'm still exploring the PC cases jungle, and some Silverstone cases recently caught my attention (such as the GD-10 among others).

Form factor would suit me, and the horizontal design is something I'd prefer over the usual vertical/tower design.

Basically, the case would fit perfectly either my small wooden wheeled TV stand, or a 6U rackmount I own and currently don't use.

 

While I don't want to discuss the pros and cons of any case in peculiar, I was wondering if there's any big disadvantage in using a horizontal case instead of a vertical one?

 

Thanks,

Larry

[Bombastinator]

AFAIK No.  In general, anyway.

All cases used to be horizontal.  The vertical thing happened as an attempt at space saving. The mobo/card system design was originally set up to be horizontal.

[Uji Ninja]

1 hour ago, Bombastinator said:

AFAIK No.  In general, anyway.

All cases used to be horizontal.  The vertical thing happened as an attempt at space saving. The mobo/card system design was originally set up to be horizontal.

Thanks.

 

I remember many (most) computers used to be horizontal in my youth.

I was just wondering, as PCs got more powerful, if there was a problem with air intake or something.

Glad to see it doesn't seem to be the case.

 

Larry

[Mick Naughty]

Think most would say the case footprint increasing would be a con. I wouldn’t say so as I don’t play on a grade-school desk. 

 

Same for dust but that can accumulate all the same. I love them as I can actually see my card and easy to work on the cpu if need be. 

[Bombastinator]

34 minutes ago, UjiLarry said:

Thanks.

 

I remember many (most) computers used to be horizontal in my youth.

I was just wondering, as PCs got more powerful, if there was a problem with air intake or something.

Glad to see it doesn't seem to be the case.

 

Larry

Hehe. Old farts talking.

 

Depends on which case you buy I think.  Covering an air intake by laying it on a table would do the same thing it always did.  
 

The internals layout appears to be identical and hasn’t changed.  Heat pipes/vapor chambers (I still think a heat pipe is a tubular vapor chamber and visa versa) have some gravity orientation but it’s not that big a deal often.  People are apparently even doing special sideways mounting brackets to turn their GPU cards vertical again.  Mechanical hard drives like their gravity orientation to remain the same throughout their life but they can run vertical as well as horizontal.  You just don’t want to change whatever you start with.  Also mechanical hard drives are nearly dead I think.

[Bombastinator]

19 minutes ago, Mick Naughty said:

Think most would say the case footprint increasing would be a con. I wouldn’t say so as I don’t play on a grade-school desk. 

 

Same for dust but that can accumulate all the same. I love them as I can actually see my card and easy to work on the cpu if need be. 

It depends on where you want to put it.  Tall computers are tall.  Many media PCs are horizontal because they need to fit in shelves.

[Uji Ninja]

5 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Hehe. Old farts talking.

So, were you Atari ST or Amiga?

 

5 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Depends on which case you buy I think.  Covering an air intake by laying it on a table would do the same thing it always did.  
 

It may end up in a rack roughly similar as this one

https://www.skbcases.com/music/products/proddetail.php?f=&id=1107&o=&offset=&c=80&s=80

and I'm quite worried about the air flow.

The rack-sized guitar pre-amp and fx processors that used to be racked didn't need that much room too breathe.

 

Or it may end up on something like this

https://store.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/nitori-net/8050776.html?sc_i=shp_pc_catelist_itemlist_shsrg_title

size is roughly the same, but mine has no side panel door, and the back is wide open, no panel there.

[Bombastinator]

13 minutes ago, UjiLarry said:

So, were you Atari ST or Amiga?

 

It may end up in a rack roughly similar as this one

https://www.skbcases.com/music/products/proddetail.php?f=&id=1107&o=&offset=&c=80&s=80

and I'm quite worried about the air flow.

The rack-sized guitar pre-amp and fx processors that used to be racked didn't need that much room too breathe.

 

Or it may end up on something like this

https://store.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/nitori-net/8050776.html?sc_i=shp_pc_catelist_itemlist_shsrg_title

size is roughly the same, but mine has no side panel door, and the back is wide open, no panel there.

Pong baby!  Parents didn’t think the original Atari 800 was “healthy”. Didn’t see an ST till I was in college.

 

my first PC was a Sanyo MBC 555. 4.0mhz (not even 4.77. Had the video ram in the wrong place.  They screwed up the reverse engineering.  It was a piece of junk)

 

racks have always sucked for airflow. Especially the low U number stuff.  Need more fans which make more noise.  I’ve seen 1U racks that were nothing but fans and ducts for the stuff below them.

[Uji Ninja]

1 minute ago, Bombastinator said:

Pong baby!  Parents didn’t think the original Atari 800 was “healthy”. Didn’t see an ST till I was in college.

Too be fair, my first computer was a Amstrad CPC 464.

The Atari came later, and its Midi ports were even sent.

But I'm waaaaay off topic here...

[Bombastinator]

7 minutes ago, UjiLarry said:

Too be fair, my first computer was a Amstrad CPC 464.

The Atari came later, and its Midi ports were even sent.

But I'm waaaaay off topic here...

True.  The whole point of those mini racks was they were rugged.  Musicians used them so they could just throw em in the back of a van.  If it’s not going to be humped around I’d go for option B myself.

[Mick Naughty]

34 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

It depends on where you want to put it.  Tall computers are tall.  Many media PCs are horizontal because they need to fit in shelves.

On my desk like every pc I’ve ever owned. 

 

If you are bound to a certain place then obviously the should reflect that. 

[Bombastinator]

31 minutes ago, Mick Naughty said:

On my desk like every pc I’ve ever owned. 

 

If you are bound to a certain place then obviously the should reflect that. 

Well there you go then.  Horizontal case might possibly be helpful anyway IF you can and your monitor stand is too short.  Horizontal cases worked good as monitor stands back when there were CRTs

[Lobstar]

I've been looking to do a watercooled build in this thing:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07B4QHDPJ/?coliid=IKNUE27UTZCK4&colid=11JT6SRTG6595&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

[Mick Naughty]

55 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Well there you go then.  Horizontal case might possibly be helpful anyway IF you can and your monitor stand is too short.  Horizontal cases worked good as monitor stands back when there were CRTs

Or just a normal case that isn’t being use to prop stuff up on. Doesn’t need to serve another purpose. 

 

[Bombastinator]

23 minutes ago, Mick Naughty said:

Or just a normal case that isn’t being use to prop stuff up on. Doesn’t need to serve another purpose. 

 

Normal means what one is used to or what is currently popular or well known.  People keep talking about “the new normal”.  They’re not wrong, but that doesn’t mean it won’t change again later.

[Mick Naughty]

37 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Normal means what one is used to or what is currently popular or well known.  People keep talking about “the new normal”.  They’re not wrong, but that doesn’t mean it won’t change again later.

So if it isn’t designed to have a monitor sat on it and has a horizontal layout it isn’t normal? 

 

[Bombastinator]

1 minute ago, Mick Naughty said:

So if it isn’t designed to have a monitor sat on it and has a horizontal layout it isn’t normal? 

 

Who’s normal?  I doubt there’s a case currently made that does.  CRTs are dead and gone.  Who wants 30lb of glass and lead shielding that needs a super annoying “screen saver” to prevent burn in?  I’m just saying “normal” is neither universal nor unchanging.

[Mick Naughty]

Just now, Bombastinator said:

Who’s normal?  I doubt there’s a case currently made that does.  CRTs are dead and gone.  Who wants 30lb of glass and lead shielding that needs a super annoying “screen saver” to prevent burn in?  I’m just saying “normal” is neither universal nor unchanging.

So just a regular case. 

[Bombastinator]

7 minutes ago, Mick Naughty said:

So just a regular case. 

Rofl.  Ok. That one was a bit too much even for the dense kids like me.   Let’s yank on it anyway though.  Maybe there will be bells.  I like bells.  Besides, the possibility exists that you’re serious.  The fundamental mosassumption of trolling is “no one could possibly not know that”.  There are people who don’t know all kinds of things and even more of them who think they know things that aren’t actually true.  That would be most everyone.

 

 Using “regular” as a synonym for “normal” changes nothing.

[Mick Naughty]

8 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Rofl.  Ok. That one was a bit too much even for the dense kids like me.   Let’s yank on it anyway though.  Maybe there will be bells.  I like bells.  Besides, the possibility exists that you’re serious.  The fundamental mosassumption of trolling is “no one could possibly not know that”.  There are people who don’t know all kinds of things and even more of them who think they know things that aren’t actually true.  That would be most everyone.

 

 Using “regular” as a synonym for “normal” changes nothing.

So the fact it uses a horizontal layout would make it irregular. K. That’s all I needed to know.

just trying to figure out why it needs a purpose to be horizontal.