There are some white cases, but I don't think we'll see older looking beige cases anytime soon. The market for them is probably very niche.

I don't know, so many styles tend to come back around. I wouldn't be surprised if beige gear made a comeback at some point.

A lot of stuff like movies, fashion, TV shows, remakes/reboots, cars, etc. are marketed by nostalgia fuel. That's why every other new movie is a freshened version of a decades-ago iteration; some cars even (look at the Toyota FJ Cruiser, the Jeep Wrangler, the Mercedes G class, etc.). For the past several years people have found ways of making money off nostalgia and it's gonna keep happening. But some things many people aren't nostalgic for... old computers is a bit of a niche in terms of marketing. Nowadays, a significant amount of the PC building market wants fancy insanely designed cases and RGB LEDs everywhere.

Yesterday I told a coworker about my 1996 HP Pavilion project and he just laughed at me.

I'm not sure. I like silver faced receivers and amplifiers, but beige boxes is not something I really miss.

I cant see beige coming back main stream, like wood grain, its now associated with "old"
Always thought it bit of a strange colour to start with really "off white"
White will be as close as we get but think darker colours will be around as the primary colour for good while yet
I'm glad as well! black ages much better then lighter colours.

Nice beige Unicomp in that 2nd photo.. I have one too.

I wonder what originally motivated the industrial designers to go with beige. One opinion I came across says that beige is closest to the color of dust, so even if you don't clean the machine every day, it's not that noticeable. 🤣

Office machinery (type-writers, teleprinters and the like) have been beige since forever. It's probably just the color of undyed (i.e. the cheapest) plastic.

I never liked black -- I have to keep a flashlight near the computer in order to find the buttons.
I get a silver case when possible, but last time I built a new computer I had to go with black because the appropriate silver models were sold out -- which suggests I'm not the only person tired of black.

I don't mind beige, though I'd rather have some other color like metallic blue, metallic green, or metallic red -- colors like you might see on a car.

I'm fairly certain there is a not-so-niche untapped market for beige, simple, no-rgb, no-window, no-nonsense, retro looking ATX cases with modern spacious interiors and cable management.

I would pay good money for a few of them, and that includes replacing my current white modern looking PC housing with one too.

The case in that second pic is a SuperMicro SC-750A, which was last sold in the early 2000s - ARS Technica chose it for their year-2000 God Box build. I've got one (and its AT variant the 750S) and while it's a nice case it's definitely not contemporary tech. Unless you actually need a half-dozen 5.25" drive bays (unlikely in 2017) it's probably overkill.

MMaximus wrote:

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By the way, I didn't know AudioEngine A5+ has beige version.

Back to the topic, I'd prefer black though. Silverface receivers and beige computers look nicely vintage, but black is timeless. My AU-7900, for example, doesn't really look out of place in modern times.

Not all black is timeless IMO. Take Piano Black. It will be one of those 2000s things that make us go SMH in not a long while.. I detest Piano Black. It's timelessly bad.

appiah4 wrote:

Not all black is timeless IMO. Take Piano Black. It will be one of those 2000s things that make us go SMH in not a long while.. I detest Piano Black. It's timelessly bad.

Ditto. I hate Piano Black. Damn fingerprint magnet.

I can't say as I like beige much either. It's ok, but I don't really have any particular love for it. I prefer a basic flat or satin black finish. Or something really different like SGI's case colors. Now there was a company that never could be accused of having boring cases, except for maybe the earliest systems (Personal Iris, and 4D series).

Piano black trip in cars... no thanks

VileRancour wrote:

I wonder what originally motivated the industrial designers to go with beige. One opinion I came across says that beige is closest to the color of dust, so even if you don't clean the machine every day, it's not that noticeable. 🤣

Errius wrote:

Office machinery (type-writers, teleprinters and the like) have been beige since forever. It's probably just the color of undyed (i.e. the cheapest) plastic.

I've often wondered as well why they chose beige in the first place... This theory of undyed plastic makes sense. A quick google search seems to indicate some people believe manufacturers chose beige so that the machines would blend more easily in the office environment. Others believe it was so that the plastic discoloration wouldn't show as much... but I guess you'll all agree there's not much truth to that 🤣

appiah4 wrote:

I'm fairly certain there is a not-so-niche untapped market for beige, simple, no-rgb, no-window, no-nonsense, retro looking ATX cases with modern spacious interiors and cable management.

I would pay good money for a few of them, and that includes replacing my current white modern looking PC housing with one too.

I'd actually buy one too, but it seems we're still in the small minority, even on a forum like Vogons! 😊

Regarding black/grey computers in the '80s, it seems they were ahead of the trend in Japan:

I don't know much about the X68000 or the FM Towns, but I guess these were home machines and not business oriented, which may explain the choice of color.

In europe Amstrad was making black computers as well with the CPC series... although it's interesting that they switched to beige in the '90s, possibly to give their machines a more "serious" look!

The Japanese did like black computers in the 80s.

Except for the Sharp X1 which (at least the early models) was bright red.

Well this is fun. I'm trying to type in the dark on a black Compaq keyboard with faded lettering. I immediately thought of this thread.

Just want to point out it's the same with cameras. My dad thinks it's funny I prefer silver/black bodies over black/black. The "i'm cool because i'm all black" thing has kinda gone away. Now people want the brightest colors possible.

Back on topic. As far as beige/black goes. At least black doesn't yellow, still cracks though. I hate to admit it, but my favourite is the apple G4 lucite styling.