brostenen wrote:

When I worked as a system builder between late 2003 to early 2006. I was building roughly 85% to 90% of all PC's in flimsy low g […]
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Tetrium wrote:

I mean, they are never used, probably of reasonably good quality instead of being as thin as paper (except for maybe having razorsharp edges 🤣) and the space they occupied probably wasn't free also.

When I worked as a system builder between late 2003 to early 2006. I was building roughly 85% to 90% of all PC's in flimsy low grade Codegen cases. They were horrible and did nothing for noise. Imagine a 3ghz Socket 478 or a Socket 775 P4 cooler without copper core, screaming inside one of those cases. 🤣

Just look at these....
https://www.google.dk/search?q=codegen+3307&c … iw=1366&bih=631

I bet they will become retro, and people actually looking after these shitty cases.

I know about these cases. These ones are almost as flimsy as tin foil. PC cases from before 2000 were usually of thicker material though, but had poorer cooling.

I agree however that many AT cases weren't build to excellent quality, but at least the sides were thicker than the newer el-cheapo cases that got produced roughly 10 years later. PC cases also became lighter, even though they did become larger.

Ehh...you may actually be right about that bet of yours, but there are plenty better quality period-correct cases made those days as well.

If you're looking for sturdy cases from that era that are actually of decent quality, I'd recommend AOpen (especially the beige ones, I liked those so much I got several more of them when I got the chance. Even got myself a driver to come help me pick them up 2 hours drive 🤣)

Someone really ought to start making new AT cases. Preferably with several front bezels to choose from! 😁

Tetrium wrote:

Someone really ought to start making new AT cases. Preferably with several front bezels to choose from! 😁

are you referring to the ones I currently own 2 midi towers off? I noticed the big tower on MP recently, but wasn't impressed by them 😐 , if not plz send me a link. Always on the look out for better looking ones, same goes with AT cases. Even though there are quite a few out there currently most of them are either ugly or big towers (They rarely get big tower done well enough).

I know about these cases. These ones are almost as flimsy as tin foil. PC cases from before 2000 were usually of thicker material though, but had poorer cooling.

Early 00's towers are just bad, I went through towers like nothing because they broke down 1 way or another (I admit that most didn't go above €200 back then and were mod towers aswell).
I learned the hard way and the last 2 cases I bought actually survived for more then 3 years a piece (previous one was sold in good order and my current is working great, A CM Silencio 550 I believe)

Tetrium wrote:

Ehh...you may actually be right about that bet of yours, but there are plenty better quality period-correct cases made those days as well.

People just went the el'cheapo way here in Denmark, back in the mid 00's. As computers usually were a lot more expensive before that.
Now you could get a shiny new machine for around 280 US dollars back then, and that was only one of the reasons to why.

- Pricedrop of 50 to 60% i a couple of weeks.
- People did only care for the pricetag, not quality.
- It was the time of people needing to replace the old machine.

So people just bought the cheapest cheap solution they could get their hands on. Only replacing the machine it self.
People kept their keyboards, mouse, monitor and other stuff.

A standard cheap machine that I build hundreds of, was the following machine.

- Codegen white beige case
- Asrock K7s41gx motherboard
- 128mb DDR1 Ram
- 40gb Harddrive
- AthlonXP 2200 or 2400 CPU

The price was around those 280 to 350 US Dollars.... I did so many, I could have done it in my sleep.
Around 8 to 10 machines a day, 5 days a week.

Richo wrote:

but wasn't impressed by them 😐

To me they are some of the best, for a 1998/99 build. A few are good for P4/AthlonXP, as they have space for rear fan.
It's not about the look, what makes those A-Open cases so special. It is all about how they are build and how thick the
plates are in a cases like that. If you want to, you can get an all beige HX-45 case, as the counterpart to the HQ-45.

What makes them so special?

- You can mount an AT board in them.
- Thick plates. Build like a tank.
- Space for full sized (length) cards.
- Heavy weighing PSU, meaning quality.
- Havy sounding click noise from the Power-On button.

There is another thing with these cases, wich are that the expansion cards wil not slide up and down before you
seat them firmley with a screw. They are allready seated halfway, without a screw.
On low grade or bad constructed cases, the cards will move up and down, or "hang" without a screw.

To make it short.... I will not trade or sell my HQ-45 and HX-45 cases. Ugly, no... Just not the best looking cases.
Everything else just makes up for it in the biggest possible way. Especially because it is thick steel and not aluminium.

yawetaG wrote:

Right now I so wish I hadn't thrown away all my old 1990s computer magazines a few years back, because if I showed you how crazi […]
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konc wrote:

Just because such prices for RARE!!!!11/NOS/Boxed old products are common and we're getting used to them, it doesn't also mean that they're logical/fair.

Right now I so wish I hadn't thrown away all my old 1990s computer magazines a few years back, because if I showed you how crazily expensive old products were back in the day you would probably have a heart attack. 🤣

Oh, wait, I still have one...Pentium 60 on VLB board, 4 Mb RAM, 256 Kb cache, 420 Mb HDD + FDD (no CD-ROM), S3 VGA, HP Deskjet B&W printer, MS-DOS 6.2 and Windows 3.1...5800 Dutch guilders back in 1994, or approx. 9002 Dutch guilders corrected for inflation (hopefully I did that correctly), or approx. 4092 Euros. 😲

I don't think you would end up anywhere near that if you bought all those components NOS now.

I can see paying the price it was when new -- when it was actually new -- because, at least in the case of a computer, it would still have a utilitarian purpose -- you could actually use it for then-present-day computing. Now, let's face it, it's a hobby box, a curiosity, something to tinker with -- you're not getting online with it, your not doing "contemporary" computing tasks. I'm sure we'll all agree, though, that that doesn't really matter in our hobby, but the vast majority of people would consider retro gear to be trash. I mean, it literally pains me when I go to the county landfill and see retro computers sitting there waiting to be scrapped, and I can't take them home. A few EBay sellers know this gear is valuable to us, and try to price gouge, but come on, give me a break. You can almost ship a wood stove in the US for less than $80, why not a computer case?

All that being said, I'll probably still eventually buy one. 😀

Gramcon wrote:

You can almost ship a wood stove in the US for less than $80, why not a computer case?

Then consider you the lucky one... It will cost me at leat 150 to 190 US Dollars for the shipping alone. 🤣

I actually have one of these, if you're referring to that "cdsurplus99" guy! 😁 It's a full tower, came without a psu for $110. I got a working power supply later for about $30.

I was going to use it for my 486 build but I moved it to a baby AT case I have. Gonna probably switch back, only problem is some of the expansion cards don't fit correctly. Also the motherboard panel seems to be upside down 😕

Also beware, the display was set to "20" with turbo off and "158" with turbo on. But afaik these are NOS, come with brand new screws and everything.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?It … N82E16811154017

Most popular case in my area of Texas at least from 2003-2008 very flimsy 🤣