Why glass?

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DHR

DHR

DHR

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Honestly hadn't thought on it before but my wife asked me earlier, why do many cases now use tempered glass on both sides?

I understand there are more that are now reversible, in those cases it makes sense but if you have to have the machine on the left, you'd be looking at little more than the backplate.

Presuming it's cheaper to use tempered glass now instead of metal? Or hangover from the original ATX standard?

Anyone done anything creative in this space?
 
I guess it's an economy of scale thing...easier to make 2 identical glass pannels than one side Aluminium and one side glass? easier tooling production lines at the factory etc?

Personally I'd rather just have aluminium panels but the kids love thier flashing lights and whatnot I guess, so we are stuck with glass everything.

And you can't hide your lazy cable management behind a nice solid metal side panel!

Lian li have done something cool--- glass rear window, but extra interior metal panels to hide the snakes nest of cables, lol :confused::D

 
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I'm about to build a new machine. It'll be my first ATX-sized PC since my first build almost 20 years ago!

I'm surprised how few interesting, glass-free ATX cases exist. There's plenty of choice in the ITX space, and even a fair bit for MATX. But for an ATX build, so many cases seem designed solely with RGB bling in mind. There are exceptions, but the exceptions aren't particularly interesting (e.g. the Fractal North is just a standard mid-tower design with a mesh front & some decorative wood).

I'll probably wind up with a fish tank case as I've never had this style of case. But it's interesting how much the ATX space conforms to just a few layouts.
 
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DHR said:
Crazy isn't it :eek:
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My only previous ATX case was the Antec Nine Hundred. Standard layout, window on the side (albeit acrylic, but it was 2007), mesh front, 200mm fan in the roof. The quality of finish and quality of materials has certainly improved. But beyond that, surprisingly little has changed :cry:
 
So you can see my wonderful cable management

wft1KGS.jpeg


I actually don't know why this is a thing. I didn't want it on my case but it is what it is.
 
I thought it was so the case is stable on both sides. Right now, given the weight of the glass vs the rest of the case, it's actually fairly easy to accidentally topple on the side with glass. With glass on both sides (left and right), it's much harder to topple the case one side vs another.
 
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Meddling-Monk said:
I thought it was so the case is stable on both sides. Right now, given the weight of the glass vs the rest of the case, it's actually fairly easy to accidentally topple on the side with glass. With glass on both sides (left and right), it's much harder to topple the case one side vs another.
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I wouldn't have thought there was that much difference? But I can see it being true the more I think about it :confused:
 
DHR said:
I wouldn't have thought there was that much difference? But I can see it being true the more I think about it :confused:
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Yeah, I think we could probably ask someone like @Ace Modder to around to query their Antec designers about it to get a confirmation (on some designs at least). But my last two cases with glass panels on both sides were a lot more stable "out of the box" (before installing anything into them that then weighs them down and helps with stability). Given many designs are also going with mesh designs on the back (other side), then before installation of the system into the case, the glass case side will have a higher topple chance due to the weight being greater than the mesh side on the back. I don't think it would have been a problem compared to older case designs where the back was just a solid panel (and hence carries a bit more weight) or the case overall was not so open (by mesh design) and was more stable vs toppling out of the box.
 
Meddling-Monk said:
I thought it was so the case is stable on both sides. Right now, given the weight of the glass vs the rest of the case, it's actually fairly easy to accidentally topple on the side with glass. With glass on both sides (left and right), it's much harder to topple the case one side vs another.
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Depends how well built the actual chassis of the case is built I guess.. Especially when it's built up.. It would have to be very badly, no. Even exceptionally badly designed to be 'top heavy' and tip over easily.
 
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I think led lights look awful on most things. Especially bad on PCs. Glass sides are both impractical and awful looking. 95% of PC cases are pure visual muck. Fractal north at least are different and sit unobtrusively in a room.
 
Chieftec need to return with their Dragon. I'd buy a reimagined one.

:edit: I probably wouldn't but you know, I like to think I would at least for jokes.

:edit2: Windows are lame. Yes most of my cases have had windows but my latest doesn't and therefore everyone who still has one is lame.
 
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I hate glass cases, I really don't care what the inside of my case looks like. The obsession with pretty PCBs is annoying to me. Give me function over form anyday.
 
Glass cases are all about the upsell imo.

Now you can see inside then you need the RGB fans that cost £25 rather than £10 each, despite only costing the manufacturer a couple of quid more to make.

Same reason we no longer have cheap green or gold PCB motherboards. The manufacturers add a few pence of dye to make coloured boards, slap a few cheap heatsinks on, and suddenly boards have doubled in price even for low end models.

Same with AIO coolers becoming popular, when they don't generally perform much better than an air cooler. They look a bit more interesting in a glass case, but have a big profit margin for manufacturers - add in RGB bling or oled screens etc, and it's a license to print money, just so it looks good in a glass case
 
Armageus said:
Glass cases are all about the upsell imo.

Now you can see inside then you need the RGB fans that cost £25 rather than £10 each, despite only costing the manufacturer a couple of quid more to make.

Same reason we no longer have cheap green or gold PCB motherboards. The manufacturers add a few pence of dye to make coloured boards, slap a few cheap heatsinks on, and suddenly boards have doubled in price even for low end models.

Same with AIO coolers becoming popular, when they don't generally perform much better than an air cooler. They look a bit more interesting in a glass case, but have a big profit margin for manufacturers - add in RGB bling or oled screens etc, and it's a license to print money, just so it looks good in a glass case
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I remember my first ITX build. A repurposed OEM motherboard, because there weren't any consumer ITX boards with PCIe slots at the time. The case shipped with an integrated 300W SFX PSU with unsleeved red, black & yellow cabling, bundled together with cable ties. The case had a single intake fan. The PSU was the exhaust.

The peak power draw for the system was probably 250W, so cutting it quite close!
 
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Yeah, the glass thing was never my thing, nor RGB (I only look at my sceen, not what's in my case and would also prefer no distractions from my case; if you're looking in your case instead, something has seriously gone wrong :p).

It's just there's no basic option that's designed well also that's available. Hence why my two recent rigs have glass on them still.

mattyfez said:
Depends how well built the actual chassis of the case is built I guess.. Especially when it's built up.. It would have to be very badly, no. Even exceptionally badly designed to be 'top heavy' and tip over easily.
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That's why I said fresh out of the box (or at least I hope I did in my initial set of replies), when there's nothing to counter balance anything. If there's glass on one side, and mesh on the other, the centre of mavity is off slightly towards the glass side due to the mass and weight, and with no PSU in the case (causing it to be top and side heavy), that's a recipe for disaster if you accidentally knock it, or misjudge the centre of mavity and end up toppling the thing and damaging the glass and/or case as it goes down.

With glass on both sides, the weight is more equal and you only need to contend with being top heavy, which if the knock is not too bad, will stabilise from the weight from both glass sides going down by mavity from a minor knock. Whilst just one side would be more prone to accidents that a case manufacturer or retailer doesn't want to handle with (time and money).
 
I think I am going to stick to perspex next time.

Phanteks Glass Side panel exploded/shattered

As it was a nice day decided to clean our PC's, done this many times outside as you can blow the dust away. Did my two son's PC's outside (both have glass panels). Then took mine outside Phanteks 500A case. Took off the side panel and front and put them (in the shade) just as I had done with my...
forums.overclockers.co.uk forums.overclockers.co.uk
 
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