computer case styling kinda sucks , thoughts?

[emosun]

I blame myself for being exposed too much to linus/jay other youtubers , plus forum posts with build lists.....

..... but I'm kind of sick of seeing plain black boxes with tempered glass windows and rgb lights. I don't know why but it feels very cookie cutter , very uninspired , very boring , very lazy , and heavily dependent on the rgb lights to make it seem interesting or alive. The only occasional variant being a "white" build or "black" build.

I actually kind of miss seeing people mod cases , and paint them COLORS. Not just assemble pre made parts , or barely change a case because it's initial cost was high.

I suppose being tasteful comes with the penalty of being boring , or investing lots of money has the penalty of going with a "safe" "resalable" style.

 

I don't know , anyone else sick of black rgb boxes yet?

[Slottr]

Might sound cliche, but I kinda see the case as a canvas? At least for ones which have that glass side panel.

Then everything you put inside and orient it gives it character.

 

On cases with no side panel I completely get where you're coming from.

 

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

I think its cause people got sick of cheap platic

[PlayStation 2]

Honestly, I just don't like the flashy RGB tempered glass cases fad; I'm much more of a plain jane business box type of guy. It's why I fucking LOVE custom PCs in prebuilt cases or old-school beige cases.

That being said, I prefer when people go all out on modifying their cases, adding an actual spin to it rather than relying on software to make their PC flashy.

[MegaDave91]

The formula works though, and it's a neutral color which works for most themes. You are correct about playing it "safe"; after all, case manufacturers are trying to turn a profit and employing a reliable formula definitely facilitates that.

 

 

[emosun]

4 minutes ago, Slottr said:

Might sound cliche, but I kinda see the case as a canvas? At least for ones which have that glass side panel.

Then everything you put inside and orient it gives it character.

 

On cases with no side panel I completely get where you're coming from.

i suppose we differ a lot then

I kind of hate how the internal parts look as well , again mostly using rgb as a crutch and just a sea of black and white pcbs. 

[aezakmi]

You won't see too much modding on this forum in particular because it isn't a modding forum, but I know what you mean though.

 

Putting prebuilt parts inside prebuilt cases isn't modding, I think that trend whatever is called is more related to gamers and their particular subculture inside the PC world, I still mod some stuff with friends

 

one of my first mods was for a friend, on an old Dell case, drilled new mounting holes for ATX mobo standoffs (it had a custom board inside) cut holes for two 120mm fans on top and a bottom intake because it only had a small 80mm fan and it was useless, spray painted it with white paint (it was a grey) and added a black/pink hello kitty on the left side with a stencil also painted the front plastics pink

 

she still has that case, did that when we both were like 16

modding isn't dead, just hiding behind all this rgb and glass stupidity manufacturers made, it all started with the TT Xaser and its "pre modded side window" then everyone made cases with side window, then when the GTX 5XX came out they started adding fans everywhere, nothing happened for a few years until the overly expensive NZXT and Phanteks junk started flooding the market, then every manufacturer ditched the fans and well that's how cases look now, like dumb plain fridges with a glass window and no fucking airflow

I was lucky to buy my 730T and plan to keep it for a few more years... or decades if this trend continues.

 

730T is gonna be the next modding project, I'm working on it already, need to find a place that can make some custom metal frames and supports for a 480mm rad, already bought a simple kit just for the CPU, just need to get the custom mounting for it (case just supports 280mm on its front) I'll need to get rid of the 5.25" bays and part of the front to add more mesh to it, I'll use the stock design because it's simple and effective, just more plastic and mesh and MAYBE replacing one of the side vents with a small window so the CPU block is visible but that's optional, and the paint is gonna be a bright orange, only the front and the top cover will remain black

performance over looks always

[Underi]

The companies make the stuff that most customers are willing to buy, aka black cases with side-windows and RGB stuffed into everything, motherboard, GPU, the RAM sticks, CPU cooler, and just plain old RGB strips inside a case. A lot of people think that's cool and sure it looks nice when you have a lightshow inside your PC.

I went to Assembly Summer 2018 about two months ago, which is the biggest LAN party in Finland and almost everyone had at least some kind of RGB in their cases. (Except me )

 

 

I admit that putting a couple of chinese RGB strips inside my 7 years old Elite 310 made the case look a bit better, especially in the dark. It doesn't have a side-panel, but the light leaks out from cooling vents.

 

[Fasauceome]

7 hours ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

I think its cause people got sick of cheap platic

Yeah I agree with this, the flair that cases had wasn't paint, it was pretty flimsy material. I painted a case for a friend of mine and it turned out so well, there's a lot more to decorating your own case now

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

I'm probably going to get beaten up for saying this. But I think OEMs are the only ones who can design cases properly nowadays. It's not over the top, but still some distinction from rubber stamped $20 plain metal boxes from Newegg. 

[Curufinwe_wins]

35 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

I'm probably going to get beaten up for saying this. But I think OEMs are the only ones who can design cases properly nowadays. It's not over the top, but still some distinction from rubber stamped $20 plain metal boxes from Newegg. 

 

But that just looks like shit... I'd rather have a completely featureless unobtrusive box than that.

 

@OP

I much prefer cases that function over ones that just "look good", since they don't really look good anyways. But if you want to buy something with a unique ID, there are more options than ever. You just have to look for it that's all.

[emosun]

4 minutes ago, Curufinwe_wins said:

@OP

I much prefer cases that function over ones that just "look good", since they don't really look good anyways. But if you want to buy something with a unique ID, there are more options than ever. You just have to look for it that's all.

to imply that cases that look good aren't functional gives me the general gist of what your statement means to me but thanks anyway

[emosun]

2 hours ago, aezakmi said:

 

I think you've got the idea , put down that screw driver and pick up that dremel and paint 

[Curufinwe_wins]

2 minutes ago, emosun said:

to imply that cases that look good aren't functional gives me the general gist of what your statement means to me but thanks anyway

I did put the "just" there in for you.

 

But yes a case that is louder and/or hotter in order to allow for some different ID, or has less effective room/support as a result is a downside to me, unless it looks REALLY good and is BARELY worse. 

 

Feel free to link some cases you think look good while being functional if you want. I don't mind of course.

[emosun]

1 minute ago, Curufinwe_wins said:

Feel free to link some cases you think look good while being functional if you want. I don't mind of course.

no it's quite clear you're set on criticizing anything that isn't 100% functional via whatever arbitrary qualifiers you need. I don't exist to feed you so no thanks find someone else who will.

[Curufinwe_wins]

10 minutes ago, emosun said:

no it's quite clear you're set on criticizing anything that isn't 100% functional via whatever arbitrary qualifiers you need. I don't exist to feed you so no thanks find someone else who will.

Quote

I much prefer cases that function over ones that just "look good", since they don't really look good anyways. But if you want to buy something with a unique ID, there are more options than ever. You just have to look for it that's all.

 

I mean for shit's sake, I'm running a custom hardline build from before Kyle 'did hotline' (around the same time as Artic Panther). I took the shitty soft sidepanel off, filed down the edges, replaced it with standard glass held on with silicone, and patching up the job with some fresh black paint. The stock white pcie covers, I painted those black the first day I had my computer. I cut out and attached black foam board inside the top case vent to prevent dust from dropping in the moduvents behind the top radiator.  I current have reflective tape installed all around the inside of my panel, so that the one color of light I run is more diffusely reflected back in.

 

I'm no stranger to modding or random trials of things I haven't seen other do. I'm so very sorry that my personal preference doesn't align with yours. 

 

Fractal has some random mods of various complexity on their website taking black boxes and doing some prucing to taste. I definitely wouldn't want to do most of them myself, as I just don't find them particularly nice to look at for more than a couple of minutes at once. If I did, I would have already.

 

http://www.fractal-design.com/home/product/case-modding

 

[emosun]

3 minutes ago, Curufinwe_wins said:

I much prefer cases that function over ones that just "look good", since they don't really look good anyways. But if you want to buy something with a unique ID, there are more options than ever. You just have to look for it that's all.

 

I mean for shit's sake, I'm running a custom hardline build from before Kyle 'did hotline'. I took the shitty soft sidepanel off, filed down the edges, replaced it with standard glass held on with silicone, and patching up the job with some fresh black paint. The stock white pcie covers, I painted those black the first day I had my computer. I current have reflective tape installed all around the inside of my panel, so that the one color of light I run is more diffusely reflected back in.

 

I'm no stranger to modding or random trials of things I haven't seen other do. I'm so very sorry that my personal preference doesn't align with yours. 

 

Fractal has some random mods of various complexity on their website taking black boxes and doing some prucing to taste. I definitely wouldn't want to do most of them myself, as I just don't find them particularly nice to look at for more than a couple of minutes at once. If I did, I would have already.

k neat

[TVwazhere]

Case Styling? You mean case "copy a minimalistic neutral design"?

 

I do miss the days where PC parts came in a variety of colors, not just black or white. Green, purple and and pink are exceedingly rare to find (at least of quality anyways) I dont think anyones done orange other than Cougar, the last Yellow case I remember is the Corsair 780T/380T

 

Then again, there's only so much you can do with the internal layout while accommodating existing hardware. In Win did a decent job with their 303/101 (101 in white/pink)