Alright, so I’ve been thinking about this project for a while. I’ve been trying to follow the custom PC market through some blogs and youtube channels. I even built my own small ITX desktop. - More on that later.
So here are some cases that I came across that to me represent something significant.
For me, the Mac Pro G4 Cube is a very significant. As a computer that came out in 2000, in my eyes it’s the first computer of its kind. Or at least the first well executed one. It’s a sturdy little cube of a computer that’s passively cooled and hits a nice spot of being a serious looking machine yet, especially for its time has something a bit carefree and funny about it. I guess I can’t really talk about the cube without talking about the current Mac Pro. It’s just an evolution of the same design. It’s quite smart the way all the hot components are hooked up to a very large center heat sink that also acts as a structural piece. The whole thing can be efficiently cooled with a single large fan.
From an architecture standpoint, they are very dense computer. And contrarily to popular belief that a large computer should run cooler, it’s much easier to change the air in a small volume. The tricky bit is making sure there’s no hot spots. Also, contrarily to most other computers that have a wobbly center frame that becomes slightly stiffer with outer paneling. These two have a sturdy centralized base with a single cover piece. Also, these two computers are heavily dependent on using custom parts to match the mechanical design.
Mind you, I don’t want to make an Apple product. It seems like the CE market is just finally getting over it’s huge boner for Apple styling. I want to make something that can stand on it’s own. I really don’t want to go down this road DUNE CASE: Mini-ITX PC Case w/ Superior Thermal Dynamics by Alexander Gomez — Kickstarter . To me this is such a compromised case just to get the cylindrical shape. Mind you it’s interesting to see that they did get 55k backing in just a few days.
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So now for the ‘build your own’ PCs. The EVGA is interesting because it keeps a fairly traditional tower design but can be much smaller by bundling the case with a custom slim server type power supply (PSU). One thing to realize is that the PSU is one of the issues with small PCs. Traditional PSUs are very bulky. And just in the last years have the small alternatives likes SFX size have become recommendable.
The A4 is a community effort and is part of a larger trend of using PCI extension cables to put the graphics card elsewhere than directly on the mother board. These configurations can be very flat like Silverstone’s RVZ series or extremely dense like the A4.
I put the Prodigy M because it’s a very popular case. And it seems to me like the popularity of that case is mostly due to aesthetics. It’s a unique looking machine (kind of looks like an old Mac Pro). It’s also one of the largest ITX cases yet that hasn’t stopped sales. If anything, the large size makes it well known as a fairly easy case to build in.
TL;DR Possibility of bundling some components. PCI extension for different configurations. And there seems to be an interest in cases that don’t look like boomboxes from the 00’s even if there are sacrifices to get there.