Thoughts on transparent technology

[StephTheFox02]

As what my signature says, i prefer most tech which has an element of transparency or translucency at least as i find it incredibly cool that you can see into the guts of the things you use on a regular basis.

 

However, what i have to ask is what is what's your opinion on transparent tech as a whole, and do you think that the PCBs and wiring inside need to be engineered with looks in mind first over functionality?

[Arika]

I still love it. all my N64 controllers were transparent, my gameboy colour was transparent. it feels retro.

 

I don't think they need to design PCBs with it in mind, as long as it's not full of random wires all over the place

[Levent]

I love it, I too am a big fan of transparent controllers. I have a transparent 360 controller. If I could get every electronics transparent, I would. My previous controller was modded to have rapid fire and macro functions, I actually wired that all my self and it looked like a IED with this transparent case, I loved it.

Spoiler

 

[Elijah Kamski]

I think it's a bad idea... I will no longer be able to hide my expressions from other people XD

Wait, full transparent like those futuristic glass phones or we talking like those olden day controllers?

[Kilrah]

I just ordered a transparent black Odin Lite a couple of days ago 

 

[Arika]

12 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

I just ordered a transparent black Odin Lite a couple of days ago

I would have ordered one if the screen was slightly bigger

[Cyberspirit]

I adore transparent electronics, always have. I don't think PCBs need to be redesigned for a transparent case but it's always a nice plus when they put some thought behind it.

My dream is still to have a transparent HDD or something similar in my PC. Would be awesome to see it working but maybe light would cause some issues. Not sure.

[StephTheFox02]

57 minutes ago, Elijah Kamski said:

I think it's a bad idea... I will no longer be able to hide my expressions from other people XD

Wait, full transparent like those futuristic glass phones or we talking like those olden day controllers?

I mean like the ODIN lite or a transparent joycon mod

[Kilrah]

4 minutes ago, Arika S said:

I would have ordered one if the screen was slightly bigger

I only bought it because I need a recent and reasonably powerful android device with HDMI out for a specific purpose and there basically isn't any such thing on the market other than a specific one that costs 3 times more and has an even smaller screen... for my use the whole device being smaller is an advantage

[StephTheFox02]

Oh yeah, follow up to my post, i also really enjoy modding smaller electronics like game controllers to make them transparent. The only problem with this is that it's incredibly difficult to find shells for things like a 3ds due to no one making them outside of rare custom one offs and that makes me a bit sad ;w;

[Kilrah]

7 minutes ago, Cyberspirit said:

My dream is still to have a transparent HDD or something similar in my PC. Would be awesome to see it working but maybe light would cause some issues. Not sure.

Wow that's a nice idea, I should totally take an old HDD and cut an acrylic cover for it one day. Won't mind light, but rigidity usually matters.

[StephTheFox02]

2 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

I only bought it because I need a recent and reasonably powerful android device with HDMI out for a specific purpose and there basically isn't any such thing on the market other than a specific one that costs 3 times more and has an even smaller screen... for my use the whole device being smaller is an advantage

I know this is off topic but now i'm curious as to what you're trying to do?

[Kilrah]

1 minute ago, StephTheFox02 said:

I know this is off topic but now i'm curious as to what you're trying to do?

Getting HDMI out for a separate monitor / HMD when using DJI drones

[Cyberspirit]

1 minute ago, Kilrah said:

Wow that's a nice idea, I should totally take an old HDD and cut an acrylic cover for it one day. Won't mind light, but rigidity usually matters.

If you do, make sure to share it here! 

[Mihle]

2 hours ago, Kilrah said:

Wow that's a nice idea, I should totally take an old HDD and cut an acrylic cover for it one day. Won't mind light, but rigidity usually matters.

I wouldn't personally use and HDD you open yourself as of you aren't a place they is basically a clean room, its high risk to have some dust go in there's that can over time break it.

[Kilrah]

That's why I said "old HDD", I have enough laying around unused to do it with without caring if it fails after a few hours, some with SMART warnings I'd never use again anyway.

[tkitch]

3 hours ago, Mihle said:

I wouldn't personally use and HDD you open yourself as of you aren't a place they is basically a clean room, its high risk to have some dust go in there's that can over time break it.

HDD windows have been done for nearly the past 20 years.  It's not new.

 

Yes, it risks the drive, but nobody does it on hardware they're that worried about.  There are ways to reduce risk at home and make it work for you.  

[8tg]

It’s the one pc hardware trend I’m really surprised hasn’t come back.

 

[StephTheFox02]

1 hour ago, 8tg said:

It’s the one pc hardware trend I’m really surprised hasn’t come back.

 

Remove the tomato sauce and mustard cables with a modular system and i'm absolutely down to buy XD

[8tg]

1 hour ago, StephTheFox02 said:

Remove the tomato sauce and mustard cables with a modular system and i'm absolutely down to buy XD

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

2 hours ago, 8tg said:

Oh man I remember those

 

[StephTheFox02]

4 hours ago, 8tg said:

Judging by the sockets on the psu, it looks to be a lot of molex connectors lol. Also, i assume UV was the thing before RGB?

[StephTheFox02]

1 hour ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

Oh man I remember those

 

The mad lad truly has a video for everything

[8tg]

36 minutes ago, StephTheFox02 said:

Judging by the sockets on the psu, it looks to be a lot of molex connectors lol. Also, i assume UV was the thing before RGB?

it was 2004, molex then was how we treat sata power now, it can be used for a lot
 

2003/2004 was:

-everything is UV reactive

-bare metals were cool, as much polished chrome and copper as possible

-windows and little lcd screens on every possible component 

-water cool anything you possibly can

 

honestly modern PCs are extremely boring by comparison, you think of something as mundane as a sata cable and it’s like alright how far can a sata cable go

right now you can get colorful sleeved sata cables I guess?

in 2004 it was IDE roundcables, wrapped in a sparkly foil inlaid plastic tube, with electroluminescent wire wrapped around them, for a light up, glow in the dark and UV reactive cable

 

water cooling mounts for hard drives existed, because the faster your drives the better, and the fastest were extremely hot 10krpm drives in raid

 

the more fans your motherboard had the better, since large copper heat pipes as vrm heatsinks weren’t really a thing but you could OC to the moon just the same, so you installed tiny blower fans over your vrm 

 

ram with 7 segment LCD displays on it, that is all I need to say about that

 

the early 2000’s were a wild time 

[tkitch]

5 hours ago, 8tg said:

it was 2004, molex then was how we treat sata power now, it can be used for a lot
 

2003/2004 was:

-everything is UV reactive

-bare metals were cool, as much polished chrome and copper as possible

-windows and little lcd screens on every possible component 

-water cool anything you possibly can

 

honestly modern PCs are extremely boring by comparison, you think of something as mundane as a sata cable and it’s like alright how far can a sata cable go

right now you can get colorful sleeved sata cables I guess?

in 2004 it was IDE roundcables, wrapped in a sparkly foil inlaid plastic tube, with electroluminescent wire wrapped around them, for a light up, glow in the dark and UV reactive cable

 

water cooling mounts for hard drives existed, because the faster your drives the better, and the fastest were extremely hot 10krpm drives in raid

 

the more fans your motherboard had the better, since large copper heat pipes as vrm heatsinks weren’t really a thing but you could OC to the moon just the same, so you installed tiny blower fans over your vrm 

 

ram with 7 segment LCD displays on it, that is all I need to say about that

 

the early 2000’s were a wild time 

Having worked at a company that dealt in all this nonsense around this time, let me just say:

The man is /absolutely/ correct.  

 

The late 90's early 00's were crazy.  3D Accelerator cards that had no heatsink?  (Yes, really, no heatsinks on a GPU!)  Epoxying a heatsink & fan let you get another 10-15% on your GPU SPeeds, easily!

You also mention rounded cables, that's assuming you weren't trying to be super steady to make your own round 80 pin IDE Cables with a #$(@*($ razorblade!

 

Y'all kids got this shizz freaking EASY.  

Oh, and did we mention?  A single 80mm case intake fan was the /standard/ for most cases at the time.  2 80mm intakes WAS A LOT!!!!