Why did car door side panels never take off? It's really unfortunate.

[KarateHottie93]

I just got back into PC's after several years away...had to take a break when tempered glass and RGB went nuts. I'm so blown away by the cost of graphics cards. I was around for the first real mining boom back in like 2014 or so, and never thought we'd see the GPU prices and availability get like that again. I also collect firearms and it kinda reminds me of the current ammo shortage. I was around for the 2013 shortage...and just the same, I never thought we'd see a worse one. I was so mistaken in both cases.

 

Quick rant aside...there's one thing about this modern PC industry that has shocked me even more than the cost of graphics cards.

 

I came back with so much excitement to see what new cases are on the market. I was sure that car door latch side panels would have caught on by now. I was definitely wrong on that. There's still only two options I can find, and I already have both...the Corsair 780T and the Cougar Panzer Max. I honestly believe the Panzer Max is only still around because they're already making the shells for the other Panzer cases. The 780T was discontinued a good while back. Corsair started selling them again on their website within the past couple of weeks though.

 

I don't get it. If you've never tried either of these cases, they're game changers. I've owned a few great full towers. VA8003BWS, HAF X, 750D, 760T, 780T, Panzer Max, and Panzer Evo...in that order. The only two I still have are the ones with car door style latches. I know I just typed a novel to get a small point across but still. They're incredibly secure, incredibly convenient, and incredibly durable. It's literally as simple as lifting a latch and the whole thing just pops off with it. It's the fastest opening design ever made.

 

[bmx6454]

if there was high enough demand for it, i'm sure there would be more. afaik, there isn't. while it is cool imo, i don't open my case nearly enough for it to be worth it.

[KarateHottie93]

Interesting. I used to spend a lot of money on building computers for fun, back when it was a much more affordable hobby...which is crazy to believe today.  I was always in and out of them to borrow drives, ram, TPM mounted code readers, motherboard mounted USB sticks for WS boards, sound cards, wifi cards, header cards...just all the random stuff you forget to buy when doing new builds. Fortunately almost all of that stuff is built into the boards these days. I suppose if I just built something for actually using, I probably wouldn't be in it much either. If you move around a lot like I used to, being able to quickly pop them off for added protection is also super convenient. Plus I have one functional arm so I usually carry the 780T by the frame. It's a lot simpler when you don't gotta remove screws or swivel and lift it off hinges.

 

To me it's just a quality of life thing that I can't understand why it's not more common. I can't imagine it costs that much to do it. These two latches use entirely different mechanisms for the same function, but both are incredibly simple.

[Mattias Edeslatt]

3 hours ago, KarateHottie93 said:

It's literally as simple as lifting a latch and the whole thing just pops off with it. It's the fastest opening design ever made.

 

 

 

What's wrong with something that simple as one or two thump-screws and then you take tho whole side out? Or as on the old Corsair Obsidian-series, push a button and you remove the whole side. Simple and effective. 

 

With a hinged door you need space around the case to swing the door open. That is a fail in my book.

[Needfuldoer]

2 hours ago, Mattias Edeslatt said:

What's wrong with something that simple as one or two thump-screws and then you take tho whole side out?

Because everybody does that, so nobody's product stands out in the market anymore. Someone copied the car door latch idea from OEM workstations for their high end cases so they stood out, then everyone else copied the fancy new gizmo for their own high end cases, and everyone started trickling the feature down-market. Before you knew it, "regular" flat side panels with screws meant your case was old or out of fashion.

 

The same thing happened when side panels replaced cases that had single-piece bent steel that wrapped both sides and the top, and again when side vents and windows appeared.

[KarateHottie93]

2 hours ago, Mattias Edeslatt said:

 

What's wrong with something that simple as one or two thump-screws and then you take tho whole side out? Or as on the old Corsair Obsidian-series, push a button and you remove the whole side. Simple and effective. 

 

With a hinged door you need space around the case to swing the door open. That is a fail in my book.

 

26 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

Because everybody does that, so nobody's product stands out in the market anymore. Someone copied the car door latch idea from OEM workstations for their high end cases so they stood out, then everyone else copied the fancy new gizmo for their own high end cases, and everyone started trickling the feature down-market. Before you knew it, "regular" flat side panels with screws meant your case was old or out of fashion.

 

The same thing happened when side panels replaced cases that had single-piece bent steel that wrapped both sides and the top, and again when side vents and windows appeared.

 

Lol I'm not talking about hinged doors. Look at at the pictures. You literally pop the latch and the whole panel comes off. You can take the panels off In under a second with basically no clearance.

[Needfuldoer]

3 hours ago, KarateHottie93 said:

Lol I'm not talking about hinged doors. Look at at the pictures. You literally pop the latch and the whole panel comes off. You can take the panels off In under a second with basically no clearance.

Yeah, that's what I mean. Workstations have been doing that for years. You release the latch and the door only swings out an inch or so to clear the frame.

 

 

Not like the Power Mac G4, where the entire side hinged open and laid flat.

 

[KarateHottie93]

2 hours ago, Needfuldoer said:

Yeah, that's what I mean. Workstations have been doing that for years. You release the latch and the door only swings out an inch or so to clear the frame.

 

 

Not like the Power Mac G4, where the entire side hinged open and laid flat.

 

Omg that makes so much sense. Outside of people like myself who just love playing around on the inside, workstations are the one of the few scenarios where people have to get inside on a frequent basis. Again, I just feel it's so convenient that I can't understand why it's not more common.

[Middcore]

The car door latch system was incompatible with edge-to-edge tempered glass. 

[Hybris5112]

While convenient for getting in and out of from a manufacturing stand point they are more expensive to make and are yet another place where fitment can be messed up thus increasing QC costs and rejection rates maybe not by a lot but over thousands of cases those costs add up rapidly and to cover them would price the cases over non hinged cases.

 

If you really like the feature then you just have to shop within the market segment that has that feature and be prepared to pay heavily for it.

I do the same with both my work boots and computer cases. Mining boots are not commonly sold and if you can find a retailer they are special order only thus expensive. Full tower cases with 5.25 in bays are rare and expensive more so when paired with more mundane features like dust filters.

 

In either case the features justify the extreme expense for my use case. 

[thrasher_565]

the Antec Performance Series P120 Crystal case has hinged tempered glass side panel, tool less to remove latching handle. best there can get. imo no thumb screws anywhere.

 

 

[KarateHottie93]

17 minutes ago, thrasher_565 said:

the Antec Performance Series P120 Crystal case has hinged tempered glass side panel, tool less to remove latching handle. best there can get. imo no thumb screws anywhere.

 

 

That actually looks pretty awesome.

[thrasher_565]

1 minute ago, KarateHottie93 said:

That actually looks pretty awesome.

question is why dont other case do something like it? if your going to say it cost more ya but this was a $120-$150 case so...no excuses there

[KarateHottie93]

15 hours ago, thrasher_565 said:

question is why dont other case do something like it? if your going to say it cost more ya but this was a $120-$150 case so...no excuses there

Also look at InWin. I forgot to mention them but they have a few cases with a similar car door design to the ones I mentioned. I believe it started with the budget (by InWin standards) 303. Only real difference is it's a push button, instead of pulling like the Corsair or lifting like the Cougar. It's on tempered glass though.

 

Point being, I don't think a minor expense is really a valid reason. It can't cost that much to come up with something other than simple thumbscrews. There are a billion cases out there that are exactly the same. I feel like that one major quality of life feature would sell enough cases to make up the difference in production costs. It's easy for people to say "Nobody cares about stuff like that. What's wrong with thumbscrews?". Corsair just brought back a $200 case that doesn't use any premium materials though so there has to be some kind of demand.

[thrasher_565]

39 minutes ago, KarateHottie93 said:

Also look at InWin. I forgot to mention them but they have a few cases with a similar car door design to the ones I mentioned. I believe it started with the budget (by InWin standards) 303. Only real difference is it's a push button, instead of pulling like the Corsair or lifting like the Cougar. It's on tempered glass though.

 

Point being, I don't think a minor expense is really a valid reason. It can't cost that much to come up with something other than simple thumbscrews. There are a billion cases out there that are exactly the same. I feel like that one major quality of life feature would sell enough cases to make up the difference in production costs. It's easy for people to say "Nobody cares about stuff like that. What's wrong with thumbscrews?". Corsair just brought back a $200 case that doesn't use any premium materials though so there has to be some kind of demand.

well i think its more complicated that that. we dont really no how a case gets made and all the patents and processes need. one thing could be say corsair gets cases made from them from different manufactures and they might have different patents and corsair slaps a log on it. but who knows. its like back then with the tool les hdd,pcie,5.25 bay seems like every cases had something different you think it be cheaper to find one that works and keep using it?

 

prices have gone up and they found other ways of saving moeny like having the back of the case flat apos to having it recessed.

 

another thing is a case is well a case and you never build the "perfect" case or you will go out of business and some make problems that then off solutions to thow problems like it was planed. 

 

 the Antec Performance Series P120 Crystal was obves  up agents the lian li 011 d and maybe had to have enough features for people to consider it hence the hinged door and latch.

[Middcore]

My wife's Thermaltake case has the swinging door style side panel. It's nice in some ways, but it also has drawbacks that aren't immediately apparent. 

[Bitter]

On 2/19/2022 at 10:15 AM, Needfuldoer said:

Not like the Power Mac G4, where the entire side hinged open and laid flat.

 

There's some old Dell and HP towers and mini towers that hinged open like that too, a real pain if the mechanism got rusty or sticky from not being opened for 20yrs but otherwise nice because you just had all the parts out in the open. Some HP SFF systems have hinged drive bays that swing up and away to clear board components too which is handy.

[tkitch]

also if a side panel swings open, you need a LOT of space to open it functionally.

 

[Middcore]

33 minutes ago, tkitch said:

also if a side panel swings open, you need a LOT of space to open it functionally.

 

 

This is one of the drawbacks of my wife's case that has this style of side panel. On cases where the side comes off with thumbscrews, you can basically just lift it clear, it doesn't take any space. With the swinging-door side panel, however, you need room for the door to actually swing, which may or may not be the case depending on your desk setup - I dare say it won't be for most people, who will have their PC to the right of their monitor so they can see through the tempered glass, so then the monitor is in the way and you have to shift the whole case somewhere to get inside. 

 

Of course you can also remove the door from its hinges completely, but then it's a pain in the ass to put it back on. 

 

I did have a Corsair 600T back in the day and the "latches" certainly were convenient, but like I said, in an era when people want edge to edge tempered glass they just aren't feasible. The pop-out magnetic system with no thumbscrews on some (if not all) current Fractal Designs cases is the best system I've seen currently on the market. 

[KarateHottie93]

7 hours ago, Middcore said:

 

This is one of the drawbacks of my wife's case that has this style of side panel. On cases where the side comes off with thumbscrews, you can basically just lift it clear, it doesn't take any space. With the swinging-door side panel, however, you need room for the door to actually swing, which may or may not be the case depending on your desk setup - I dare say it won't be for most people, who will have their PC to the right of their monitor so they can see through the tempered glass, so then the monitor is in the way and you have to shift the whole case somewhere to get inside. 

 

Of course you can also remove the door from its hinges completely, but then it's a pain in the ass to put it back on. 

 

I did have a Corsair 600T back in the day and the "latches" certainly were convenient, but like I said, in an era when people want edge to edge tempered glass they just aren't feasible. The pop-out magnetic system with no thumbscrews on some (if not all) current Fractal Designs cases is the best system I've seen currently on the market. 

Look at the InWin 303, 309, and Airforce. They did it.

 

8 hours ago, tkitch said:

also if a side panel swings open, you need a LOT of space to open it functionally.

 

Again, not talking about swing out. They're actually fairly common these days. I'm talking about literally pulling the handle and lifting it straight up off the case. It requires less clearance than literally any other design.

[tkitch]

10 hours ago, KarateHottie93 said:

Look at the InWin 303, 309, and Airforce. They did it.

 

Again, not talking about swing out. They're actually fairly common these days. I'm talking about literally pulling the handle and lifting it straight up off the case. It requires less clearance than literally any other design.

I'd argue that.  I need more space to fit my hand next to my side panel, than it needs to be removed from the case.  

Same goes for a ton of standard designs. 

[KarateHottie93]

On 2/22/2022 at 9:20 AM, tkitch said:

I'd argue that.  I need more space to fit my hand next to my side panel, than it needs to be removed from the case.  

Same goes for a ton of standard designs. 

You can argue it but you're grasping at straws. You only need a couple inches of clearance. If it's right up against the wall, just pull the case out slightly or tilt it. No matter how you look at it, it's a much faster and simpler method.

 

There are no scenarios where it isn't.

[IPD]

Reminds me of the Alienware I had back in 2002.

[Bitter]

Best side panels are the slide back and pull off that only need like 3 inches behind the case and one inch next to it that then never line up right until you move whole computer out to stare straight at it and then magically it goes on just fine making what should have taken 30 seconds a 10 minute frustration.

[IPD]

Personally, I'd like to see cases that lay flat.  Latched at the top.  Hinged on all the sides/bottom.  2 seconds to undo the latches and the entire assembly lays out flat.

 

Like that Powermac G4, but the other side would fold flat, and the top flat next to that.  Front of the case is attached (or hinged) to the left side and the back of the case is attached (or hinged) to the right side (or vice versa, etc).