Is your PC boring?

February 20, 2005

The "beige box" PC industry has been slow to capitalize on Apple's proven track record of design. I may not be interested in the Mac Mini, but I sure hope it spurs Taiwanese manufacturers* to produce more interesting looking small form factor PCs designs. And some of that will, hopefully, spill over into desktop PCs as well. I've certainly never seen any Taiwanese manufactuer produce any cases as original as these new ASUS Vento models:

ASUS Vento PC cases

Kinda pricey at $149 via NewEgg, but you have to put that in perspective by viewing the vast wasteland of Taiwanese PC cases. Yes, you can get whatever PC case you want, as long as you want either hideous or boring. Don't make me bring up the Doggie case again.

You can read a review of the ASUS Vento 3600 at Extremetech, by the venerable Loyd Case. Loyd's been a fixture in the PC hardware community for ages.

* "Taiwanese manufacturers" is a synonym for "Dell's crack team of product designers".

Posted by Jeff Atwood
9 Comments

i got one of these cases, good case, very stout.

me on June 20, 2007 12:04 PM

This design would look great in beige or white. It'll be just like having a starwars stormtrooper under your desk.

ACL on August 16, 2007 11:35 AM

They do sell it in black:

http://www.xoxide.com/asus-vento-3600-pc-case-black.html

Jeff Atwood on August 16, 2007 12:49 PM

The case looks very similar to Alienware's cases, without the lighting.

But the one question that I have is why is the Antec P1xx line of cases the only sleek but elegant cases I can get (Of course, according to my girlfriend, "it looks like a fridge")? Some of us really aren't planning on taking our computers to LAN Parties, but we still want something nice to put in our offices.

Evan M. on August 16, 2007 12:58 PM

I have this case. This case is a beast. I would not want to lug it to lan parties. The case alone weighs over 20 pounds and by the time you add all the components it weighs close to 40 pounds. It is also very large. Much larger than I expected. But, overall it is a great case. Plenty of ventilation and enough room for anything you may need.

Brian C. on September 16, 2007 10:15 AM

The new Lenovo Thinkstation is not bad at all, design-wise:

http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/06/lenovos-new-thinkstations-look-pretty-sharp/

Jeff Atwood on November 8, 2007 9:53 AM

I bought ASUS Vento 3600 last year and slowly building my 1st DIY and I am quite happy with the case. However, I am trying to figure out how to make a clear panel on it's side so that I can sit back and look at what I have installed.

A decent space to work with and cable management can be tricky and soon I will cut through certain areas to make it more neat aand tidy. Tuck away all the cables etc.

Ray Christen Paul on February 28, 2008 8:13 AM

I own this case for almost two years now. I had 2 different configurations with it -DFI motherboard + x1950xtx the one i'm using right now, Gigabyte motherboard + 3870 single slot retail.

In both of them i cannot have crossfire unless i remove my 2nd hdd.
That's because in both configs my GPU bumps into the 2nd hdd. In fact i can't use the default PCI slot for graphics, i have to move my GPU further down to the next available slot!!! :(
Other than that i haven't really had any real problems with this case, but if i knew i had this kind of problem with dual GPU configs i'd look for an alternative.

John on March 16, 2008 10:26 AM

Dear Sir/Madam,
Rev. Berg Reed is my name, and I am sending you an email regarding an order of Cases.

Do you have a web site?.

I will be faith hear waiting for your email soon.

Stay Bless.

Rev. Berg Reed,
Samoan Wesleyan Methodist Church
Email : ReedManLtd@yahoo.com
Email : samoan.wesleyan_mc@yahoo.com


Rev. Berg Reed on July 17, 2009 2:58 AM

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