[geeks] Case-Mods

Frank Van Damme frank.vandamme at student.kuleuven.ac.be
Sun Apr 13 12:15:40 CDT 2003


On Sunday 13 April 2003 18:39, Jonathan C. Patschke wrote:
> On Sun, 13 Apr 2003, Frank Van Damme wrote:
>
> ...moving to geeks because it's drifing so far off-topic isn't not even
> funny...
>
> > problem with some peoples creative hobby of changing a sting-in-the-eye
> > ugly boring beige box you'd rather put away in a closet like this one:
> > http://www.rjross.com/ever_mid_e4252_beige.gif (yawn) into something that
> > at least fits nicely in a teenagers bedroom, that is, without coughing up
> > for a 50000 $ sgi box?
>
> Well, my problems with it are:
>
>   1) Replacing a large chunk of the side of the case with a "window"
>      means your machine is no-longer FCC class B compliant.  This means
>      you're broadcasting a lot of EM noise.  I'd assume that if your CPU
>      is running at 2.4GHz, you're going to be putting out a lot of that
>      crap in that band, interfereing with 802.11 nodes nearby, cordless
>      phones, and the like.

Ahha! Now that's a valuable reason. I don't exactly know what "EM noise" 
means...?

>   2) Neon/florescent tubes in the chassis is just stupid.  That's just
>      -adding- to the EM noise, causing only slightly dodgy/weakly-
>      shielded components to exhibit their erratic behavior more often.

You mean, such as monitors? Hm..., what if you just have neon light in your 
room... they interfere with the phone too? 

>   3) Most of the time, it just looks tacky, but that's, of course, a
>      matter of opinion.

Depends. A lot are exxagerated. A while ago I entered a local computer store, 
and they had put an all-plexi case on the desk - the whole thing was 
assembled of plexi plates. 
- damd unhandy to repair, you had to disassemble the whole thing to get near 
any component
- all-shine through, I mean... c'mon.
- expensive (250 euro). 

Otoh, I just dig fun projects like the guy who tried building a pc into a 
wooden model house, or a pumpkin (seriously), or a model car.


-- 
Frank Van Damme    | "Saying 8MB of RAM doesn't do as much anymore is
http://www.        | like saying a gallon of water holds more than it
openstandaarden.be | did in 1988."                    --George Adkins


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