So I was sitting in class today, being bored, and I got an idea for a cool casemod - at least I think it looks cool. I sketched it out (rather small, I'm afraid), and I just modeled it in everyone's favourite 3D editor. The idea is that you kind of have half the case made of brushed aluminum, and the rest of it would be made to look like rusted girders. I still need to figure out where fans + such would go, but since it's an "open-air" design anyways, you'd get a lot of airflow naturally. Another consideration is case lighting; I don't know if the standard "blue LED" design will work with this.

The initial sketch:



The 3d model:



Comments? Suggestions?

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want my case all.. rusty. Hehehe

OMG I SEE DFLT.

Personally I hate case mods, and being so open-air would invite dust & hair and leave the computer vulnerable to small projectile attack (or rodent attack, which caused the firey death of one of my hard drives).

From a style stand-point, I think it's clever and would look really neat. I once saw a case that was a milk crate and looked liked the guts of a computer just tossed inside, but it was all carefully mounted inside to look like a mess. You wouldn't need case fans; just the standard CPU, video card and power supply ones that would be there already would do the trick. The slots in the back for PCI cards would be sorta weird, you'd probably want a "rusty" bar across back there to fasten them to.

I'd actually rather see you develop the idea as a JK level rather than a case. Steel girder building frame levels are in short supply.

QM

Take rough concrete instead of aluminium and it will be great.

going along with Quib's open-airness, i suggest putting glass/plexiglass over the holes, with smaller holes for air to go through

Or use some sort of mesh (There a Voodoo PC with a completely mesh case reviewed in PCGamer, I couldn't be bothered to dig it out :P) as opposed to open air.

Here's a couple more sketches I did today of it.

Note the little LCD display on the front, above the optical drives, and also the row of fans:


Here's the back; and how I envisioned everything fitting in a smaller area (I drew this one too wide, but you can see how it would work for a narrower one). It's roughly based on the layout on the back of my computer:


EDIT: I like the idea of putting plexiglas in all the gaps. Still need ideas for lighting.

I think its a cool idea, though it needs to be covered so its not open to the elements.

But.. I don't see how those are I beems... I beems are like huge supports in your house and they call them I beems because if you look at them from the front they shape the letter "I"

Actually, anything with a cross-section that looks like an "I" could be called an I-beam. The huge ones that you are thinking of are actually called "wide-flanged rolled steel beams". (Ah, the things you learn in a first-year engineering course)

Don't know CAD? Doesn't matter.

Yeah, having the insides to your computer open generally isnt the best idea... it will allow all kinds of dust and crud to get in. Additionally, many cases are designed so that there is a constant vacuum inside. This improves air flow across the components. When you take the side off of your computer, there is no more vacuum, and so your components actually run hotter when exposed.

You could easily put plexiglass at the open side to protect the insides.

Or sapphire glass...

or mesh >_>

In addition, if you did have an open case, that fan wouldn't do diddily squat.

or there could be glass between the bars?

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Looks spiff, but I would agree that those open areas need to be covered with glass or something for the sake of your PC's insides.

Yah, upon more consideration, there would definitely be some sort of glass/plastic in the sides so it wasn't open to the air.

Learn something new everyday

I was thinking about designing a case when I go to university but is it really worth the work? I guess glass would be the coolest suggestion for the inbetween parts, and you could make a cool air flow system if you position your fans correctly.

... it's going to be really ugly when you put a powersupply / standard motherboard in it. Your PS won't fit in that "half case" setup you have and leave you any airflow unless you make this thing a doublewide.