Depends on what you like yourself. I want it all to be period correct.

Cyrix200+ wrote:

Depends on what you like yourself. I want it all to be period correct.

I agree except when the right case can't be found or is too expensive 😀

why not both 😁
I plan to do several period correct systems for my basement "museum", while I want to build some compact more usable machines for daily use, I also want to put some old systems in new cases and some new systems in old cases ^^

Ok ... Period correct is an outweighing point. Not only the inner parts and the software but also the .... Dress... is important for many.
I don't look at it like a 😀 Dresscode. For me it is great to see the hardware through a window. I love it to stare at these well arranged parts. Often the cooling is far more better than in older cases. And not to forget It is something people wouldn't expect when they first see the case. Also my bureau is designed in a special way. So it is important for me, that every computer I own fits into the room concept. It is a bit like best of both worlds.

I bought four identical cases for my retro builds. All modern ATX.

I think I would prefer a lovely beige tower for the retro sex appeal, but tracking down four of them in good shape, nonetheless all identical, is too hard.

From a quality of life standpoint, modern cases have a lot going for them compared to retro stuff.

I use whatever case that I am sure will provide enough cooling for the hardware I am going to be using.

Old cases are getting really hard to get for a decent price.

Lazar81 wrote:

Also my bureau is designed in a special way. So it is important for me, that every computer I own fits into the room concept.

K, you got me curious. Post a pic.

A huge part of the incentive for me, WRT building retro PCs, is to have again something that I had back when it was new. Stuff I had given away or discarded somewhere when I upgraded. So, going with new cases is antithetical. The old case is one of the most essential components of that nostalgia, and I was lucky enough to run across the ones that were most important to me. I'm only missing one I feel is critical to my computing history, so for now that build is in a cheap modern Antec case as a way to hold the components in a safe place that also happens to be functional.

There are builds in between the ones I've rebuilt from the past, and those just go into something representative of the era. If I find a modern case with the right aesthetic, that's OK with me.

Besides. Old PCs tended to be a cluttered mess of cards and ribbon cables. Is that really something you need to see through an acrylic window, under bright LED lights? I love the look of old motherboards, sure, but you can hardly see them with all the riff-raff in there. (Possibly biased by my taste for cramped baby AT towers.)

My only real rule for classic systems and their cases is that systems without onboard USB support are not to be placed in cases that have USB ports and the like on them. Heck, my rule for modern systems is that there will ALWAYS be an optical drive installed, so at least one external 5" bay has to be available. My older systems, save my first computer, are in their original cases, so it's not like I had to hunt for a ten ton iron monolith on craigslist for years or anything.

My first computer was originally in a white and lavender tower, but that case eventually fell apart, so I have its motherboard and power supply in a black (with silver trim) Cooler Master Elite 330, though it has no connectors on the board for extra USB ports. I may recover my Zip drive and install it below my 3.5" floppy drive, to justify removing the front panel audio and USB. Alas, I don't have a 5.25" floppy drive with a black faceplate, but I'm not opposed to using some Krylon Fusion to remedy that. The satin finish looks injection-molded.

SirNickity wrote:

Besides. Old PCs tended to be a cluttered mess of cards and ribbon cables. Is that really something you need to see through an acrylic window, under bright LED lights? I love the look of old motherboards, sure, but you can hardly see them with all the riff-raff in there. (Possibly biased by my taste for cramped baby AT towers.)

Sure they do... But there are ways to get sort of cable management. And then it looks real nice. If nothing more important coming up until friday I will build my Pentium III into a Fractal Design Focus G Mini. I am confident it will look great. 😀
Oh... I don't use LED lights... I don't like them.

my pre 2000 PCs were better cable managed with tidy flat cable routing than anything I had between 2000 and 2018 ^^
I very much enjoyed doing origami with my IDE and floppy cables.

cases are subjective

I don't care a lot about period correctness. For ATX systems, my favorite is the Cooler Master Elite 361, simply because it's a (very) compact tower case with adequate build quality at a reasonable price point. Its somewhat unorthodox layout also leaves the area around the mainboard quite open, which is nice, it's generally easy to work with. As you all know, you're never really finished with your retro rigs 😀

Baby AT towers are generally quite compact, and it's easier to get hold of those than any newly produced alternatives here, so for AT rigs, I get period correctness no matter if I want it or not 😀

Those Desktop AT cases horizontal, or tower vertical 😘

Hard to say. Can't give a concrete answer as to which I prefer overall Right now im enjoying a horizontal AT clone case with a 286.. it stands apart from anything modern since horizontal has been mostly abandoned for decades. Its also taking up less desk space since the monitor goes on top of the case.

I can't discount vertical baby AT cases with a rocker power switch and turbo display though..

As for usability and working inside of the case, I love to hate both equally compared to modern cases :p

/Rant

1980s XT and AT desktop cases. If I could make a modern desktop in that style, I would.

My top 5

1 GEM 386 "Deskpro" Style Full AT (Songcheer or Magitronic?)

Basically a standard Full AT version of the Compaq Deskpro 8086/386/early 386 style case right on down to the front keyboard jack and aluminum drive rails and rubber shock drive cage. I wish I could find another one. I'm toying with making a reproduction using a metal brake and some plastic fab.

2 Suncheer/Songcheer XT

my 486's case. I bought this N.O.S. in 2004 and it's been a P233, an XT, and a 486 in it's time with me. It's like a smaller lightweight version of above.

3 XT "Flip-Top" IBM clone (Suncheer/Kingspao/Magitronic?)

This thing was a joy to work on.

4 Generic Full AT 3 EXT style

My 286 GEM has this but there seems to be a ton of them still out there. Uses that same panel as the Songcheer XT #2 case so I think these are Songcheer/Suncheer parts.

5 Everex Step 386 Style

Never seen one in the steel but they look cool as heck with that fancy vertical panel and weird HDD bay on the middle.

Personally I love desktops, but do keep in mind that they tend to be somewhat cramped compared to towers. Drive cages might obstruct memory slots or event make it impossible to install longer cards into some of the slots. Unless we’re talking about huge cases from XT/286 era.

Desktop AT and XT. I posted my top five in another thread on this.

Typically on a Retro Box I only need 4 HH 5.25" bays since I run pretty much the same config on all of them (1.44 FDD, 1.2 FDD, HDD 5.25" mobile rack/caddy system, Optical Drive....the latter two usually being super fast "modern" PATA/SATA devices in ginormous capacities).

Modding, tinkering, and repairing is a little less on the menu for me these days since I optimize the heck out of everything to a point I never have to open it again.

And I'm an 80s retro junkie so beige, boxy industrial design of the period appeals to me more than the later stuff. My interest stops around 1996 or so. I even like my Pentium gear with lots of beige, gray, black, multicolored buttons, readouts, and vents everywhere. The Compaq Deskpro and Amdek/Wyse 286a are two of my favorite designs aesthetically.

I love a good compact desktop style case.
I use them whenever I can.

I've got one really slim one for Baby AT boards that can just BARELY fit a Hercules Dynamite VLB if you're careful to not let the lip of the case scrape the top of the card.

Sure, they're a pain to set up and very cramped, but once everything is done they're great.
You can even stack them.

The only thing I hate are all the cuts from the unpolished sheet metal edges.

I prefer towers. The more bays, the more better. Horizontal desktop configurations are tolerated as a necessity, but they're usually full of proprietary parts that are a pain and a score more to source. I'll have to find some scrap plastic to fabricate retention rails for the 5.25" bay on my desktop HP Vectra 486, since nothing I've been able to find will fit. Heck, even the HDD mounting bracket is a mess, but I have three of those.

Basically, I'll appreciate whatever I acquire, and I won't turn my nose up at an interesting project in a case I'm not necessarily enamored with.