devius wrote on 2026-08-18, 20:47:

This thang that I have yet to restore:

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Oh my! I like the design but it looks straight out of a horror film. 😨
As if it was walled up in a secret chamber in a boiler room for 35 years or something.

I have a question. In the 80s and 90s (I'm interested in this period), computer cases were made with black-painted metal parts. Some models were available in both painted and unpainted versions. What was the reason for this? Were the painted ones in any way better than the unpainted versions or it was just the looks aspect?

Jo22 wrote on 2026-08-18, 22:21:

Oh my! I like the design but it looks straight out of a horror film. 😨
As if it was walled up in a secret chamber in a boiler room for 35 years or something.

Yeah, it's in very rough shape but I'm confident I can restore it to its former glory. I acquired it in 2017 and it was behind a counter in a secondhand store with some other random items on top and to the sides. It wasn't even for sale, since it was hidden away, but the guy was clearly eager to get rid of it, so there's a fair chance it had been sitting there for decades. It houses a 486DX-33 system as it is, but feels like it's older than that era.

informatyk wrote on 2026-08-19, 09:16:

Were the painted ones in any way better than the unpainted versions or it was just the looks aspect?

Yes, painting the case black gives you 5MHz extra, which was very important back then!

Just kidding, I think it's only aesthetics.

I assume black and silver cases became a thing because PCs in 1990s were increasingly found in the home instead of the office, and so should look more like hi-fi systems, TVs and VCRs than like typewriters, photocopiers and fax machines.

Errius wrote on 2026-08-29, 17:36:

I assume black and silver cases became a thing because PCs in 1990s were increasingly found in the home instead of the office, and so should look more like hi-fi systems, TVs and VCRs than like typewriters, photocopiers and fax machines.

Black actually became a thing in the 00s ime, and not even in early 00s. Early 00s was an entirely different gonzo anything goes period with everything ranging from metallic to weird shit like trans-teal etc in all kinds of shapes. People really tried to be different and colorful for a while before manufacturers decided to focus on making affordable and functional cases. The boring black box came to be as we got close tonthe Athlon/P4 era.