My main retro rig is in a Lian Li case. Just like the styling of it. It has my Via C3 system inside.

And some of my other cases. Mix of Mini, Midi and desktop cases

Oh, if only I could find a good, cheap AOpen HX08 ... Loved that back in the day ...

Bancho wrote on 2023-09-28, 07:49:

My main retro rig is in a Lian Li case. Just like the styling of it. It has my Via C3 system inside. […]
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My main retro rig is in a Lian Li case. Just like the styling of it. It has my Via C3 system inside.

And some of my other cases. Mix of Mini, Midi and desktop cases

The design of the fourth beige one is pretty slick, with all those curves around the drive bays, and one single button 😀

Bacause i cant decide i made myself a simple rule.

I take only compuers/cases from the scrap. And then im turning them back into usable systems.
Its always a surprise what you will get. if i like them i keep them ... if not i keep them anyway 😏

This is my tower ... if this can be considered a tower of course. 😄

jakethompson1 wrote on 2023-09-28, 05:24:

VivienM wrote on 2023-09-28, 01:16:

But I thought most of their lineup now was very, very, very light on drive bays? And I admit that this new trend... I just don't understand. If I build a new modern system tomorrow, I'd want to move over my bluray burner... even though I don't use it very much. (I have Macs for systems without expansion, thank you very much...)

If they offer a case with drive bays it gets mocked by the reviewers/influencers. That they complicate cable management, or block airflow, or whatever, and that they are just in the way internally because no one uses any removable media other than USB sticks.

So basically, just to get this straight, the reviewers/influencers want desktop PCs to turn into... almost the equivalent of the trash can Mac Pro, which they universally disliked for its lack of expandability ten years ago. IIRC the trash can Mac Pro had upgradable graphics cards, too, except no newer cards other than the three initial models were ever made available due to thermal/form factor issues.

It's one of those things where, to be honest, I have no idea what I might want to add in a 5.25/3.5 drive bay or a PCI-E slot in a modern system, but I guess I'm just so old and used to expanding desktop PCs that it feels weird to pick a case design (or motherboard design - a lot of motherboards nowadays barely have PCI-E slots except for GPUs, they use all the lanes for NVMe storage) that removes that possibility.

Cases with drive bays have been falling out of favor in the west. Strange enough the Japanese market has had the demand for cases with drive bays for the longest.

I just look through my pile of cases for something I like for any build. I'm not too fussy, except for avoiding rust and deep scratches 😀

Some of the images are a little bit old and were made early into the projects:

AMD K5 build, since disassembled, case sold:

Don't know what kind of case was this.

Pentium MMX build, since mostly completed:

Don't know what kind of case is this, it came with the mobo and the graphics card.

Pentium II build, work in progress:

There are indications this might be a Yeong Yang case.

Pentium III build, work in progress, but it's something I had the longest time. It was my sister's PC back in the day.

Don't know what kind of case is this.

Athlon XP build, finished, though I'll polish taht bezel:

Yeong Yang YY-A203

Prescott build, finished:

Apparently a Mercury Oscar case, I haven't find anything about it.

Core2Quad build, finished:

Gigabyte GZ-M1

This is my main PC a quad core xeon, i dont build a computer in any case newer than this one, no way

One more vote for Fractal Design Focus G. Affordable, good-looking, has a transparent window to see ye olde hardware, can fit a full-size ATX, good cooling (two big fans already included), available in a variety of colors, and two external 5.25“ bays (I have an optical drive in one, and a 3,5“ floppy drive in the other using those 5,25“-to-3,5“ mounting frames).

And once the hobby gets boring, you can throw out the old innards and reuse the case for a modern build 😀

paradigital wrote on 2023-09-27, 12:54:

I've tended to swing towards Cooler Master ATCS cases for custom builds. […]
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I've tended to swing towards Cooler Master ATCS cases for custom builds.

I've got an ATCS-111C-SX1, ATCS-201-SXK, ATCS-210-AX1, and ATC-620-BX1. These are "nice" cases, so hold my retro systems that see more use and look prettier on the desk.

I've then got some generic beige ATX tower cases, a desktop M-ATX/Baby-AT case, and some OEM beige towers (one Time and one Fujitsu).

Then there's also the three Shuttle XPC mini-PCs that I've got, a Sun Ultra 40 and some other stuff like two Olivetti PCS machines (11 and 33).

Some images of some of them here.

v2-sli-rig4.jpg

a7n8x-build5.jpg

ATCS-620-BX1-1.jpg

oldies.jpg

k6-3-fujitsu4.jpg

I can't direct message you because I'm too new of a member but do you still have the ATCS-111C-SX1 and is there any way you'd part ways with it?

Only original for my opinion…

10 years ago i put this thing in a dark corner and never looked at it again...
After i moved 2 years ago i saw that this box got wet and starts to fall apart.
Today i finally looked inside and found this neat new case.

After years of just hoarding stuff its neat to find parts that actually are not going into the bin 😁

Well, I just found the "right" case for my Windows XP machine. It's not that pretty but the simple lines combined with that front acrylic with 2 blue LEDs lighting it up when powered on got me into it. And I found 2 of them!

DerBaum wrote on 2023-09-29, 14:33:

10 years ago i put this thing in a dark corner and never looked at it again... After i moved 2 years ago i saw that this box got […]
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10 years ago i put this thing in a dark corner and never looked at it again...
After i moved 2 years ago i saw that this box got wet and starts to fall apart.
Today i finally looked inside and found this neat new case.

2023-09-28 14.49.36.jpg

After years of just hoarding stuff its neat to find parts that actually are not going into the bin 😁

Lol, I usually just throw things out or sell it all the time like: *find random thing* "what is this sh*t? Nah, I don't need that anymore" *ff some time* "didn't I have that {random item} last time? Where did I put it?" *searching through every nook and cranny until I get half-mad* "dang I {sold/trashed} that" * buying it again for double the price*

Beige 😀 A 90's classic.

Grem Five wrote on 2023-09-28, 00:19:

A year or so back I picked up this system just for the case as I didnt have any real interest in the hardware inside. Figured if I sold off the hardware inside I would probably get my $$ back.

Behind the front grill it has 2 120mm fans, rarely see that in a 90's case

That's because it is a server case. Probably came with the n440bx motherboard. I got three of those for free, kept one for server purposes. It probably could function as body armor too.

I placed my 486 dx2 66 mhz in this nice tower case. That led display is soo cool.
The original vintage floppy was damaged so I made a case from it for the ide-cf adapter.