Dells cases are so awesome

[SherEPunjab]

Just popped 'da hood' of a couple Dell dimension 4500's i own. One word. WOW.

I've been building PC's since i was 15, i'm 25 now. They build 'em clean. everything is nice, and organized. the fan has a little dell hood scoop to direct the airflow to the heatsink.

The case opens up easily, halfway, with its arms, and there aren't even any thumbscrews. I can take out my devices easily with their plastic brackets. NO CUTS . Lots of space, seemingly good airflow, cables are neat and not obstructing vents and fans...

and apparently they are great at not attracting dust. i found only a very, very thin film of dust at the bottom of the case, and it is used in a commercial environment, and sits on the bare floor.

I'll admit, I'm used to using 'cheaper' cases, and haven't used what a lot of you guys probably use, Antecs, Lian-Li's, etc. But i've seen plenty of antecs (niether myself nor friends are bank enuff to have lian-li's, besides i think the money is better spent on other things... ), and even they aren't as nice as these imho.

I thought they were great value b4 (378 each for p4 1.8ghz) but now i'm even more impressed. i'm not pro dell by any means, in fact i think their service is pretty crappy, but anyone else think these cases are sweet?

 

[Keego]

I thought Dell was crap until I bought a cheap 4500, I love it

 

[SherEPunjab]

Originally posted by: Keego
I thought Dell was crap until I bought a cheap 4500, I love it

one problem: how do you know when its ON? this thing is like a mouse. no, its quieter!

edit: and the lil green light isn't very bright. I'm thinking of switching it for a red.

 

[compudog]

I do like the Dell cases. I just did a CD/RW install for a client and it was a piece of cake. Case opened up like a big clamshell, snapped the sliders on the side of the CD/RW and popped it in! Tool Free! Yes, the cases are very well designed.

 

[BeauJangles]

yeah. I bought my parents a $300 dell four months ago. Sooooooooooooooooooo quiet and nice to work inside.

 

[IamDavid]

I personally hate mine. I can't upgrade much at all. I had to remove my floppy to add a second HDD. Now that I have a DVD-r I have to unhook it and re attach my CDRW when I need to burn a normal cd at a decent speed.. I am getting rid of it soon.

 

[Keego]

It's silent, no problems leaving it on 24 hours a day at all

 

[edro]

The design is nice, but they never fit together correctly. They are real strong, but the plastic pieces that cover it are flimsy and crap.

 

[vi edit]

Optiplexes used to be the crown jewel of repair bliss, but recently they designed the dimensions the same way. Press two buttons and bam you're inside. Everything slides out of the way, and all cables and cords are neatly tucked and tied.

Very cool.

 

[SherEPunjab]

Originally posted by: IamDavid
I personally hate mine. I can't upgrade much at all. I had to remove my floppy to add a second HDD. Now that I have a DVD-r I have to unhook it and re attach my CDRW when I need to burn a normal cd at a decent speed.. I am getting rid of it soon.

what series do you have? the 4500 case seems to have plenty of space. btw, one thing I'd imagine that all us 'cheapies' would suffer from is the addition of devices. what kinda power supply do these guys use? most of us by it stripped down to add on ourselves, but will we then get an underpowered psu? i mean, like i didn't buy shiet except for cd-rom. now i need to add burner, dvd, maybe zip (doubt it but maybe someone else wants to), sound control unit, etc...

 

[SherEPunjab]

Originally posted by: edro13
The design is nice, but they never fit together correctly. They are real strong, but the plastic pieces that cover it are flimsy and crap.

i've noticed the outer shells don't close perfectly either. but the computer is still closed though, very little dust has been detected in the machines.

 

[Windogg]

Yea, Dell makes some amazing cases. I like the reaction of Apple people when they see how Dells case even shames their beloved G4s. Seems showing off is about the only benefit for the Apples because until recently, there was very little worthhile hardware to install.

 

[Kev]

Originally posted by: IamDavid
I personally hate mine. I can't upgrade much at all. I had to remove my floppy to add a second HDD. Now that I have a DVD-r I have to unhook it and re attach my CDRW when I need to burn a normal cd at a decent speed.. I am getting rid of it soon.

What model do you have? Is it one of those 2350's??

 

[IamDavid]

What model do you have?

GX260.. At the time I needed a nice small, quite, efficient PC which it is.. I had such a hard time finding a VC to fit in it, I had to find a "low profile" one..

 

[SherEPunjab]

Originally posted by: Windogg
Yea, Dell makes some amazing cases. I like the reaction of Apple people when they see how Dells case even shames their beloved G4s. Seems showing off is about the only benefit for the Apples because until recently, there was very little worthhile hardware to install.

Well anyone who shows off a friggin case as a benefit of either PC or Apple over one another is lame.

i'm all about performance. thats why i use AMD as my main machine.

 

[djheater]

I agree I always sing the praises of Dell cases when i have to work on them.

One thing is it can occasionally be a bit tricky to find the release on different models and then you look like an idiot, trying to spin the thing around and figure out how to open it

 

[Spac3d]

I have had horrible experience with my Dell case, although it is a few years old. It allowed for almost no expansion. 4harddrives and a CDRW and the thing was full:disgust: It was also covered in dust everytime I had to open the case. I will never

My new Antec case has 5 harddrives, floppy, cdrw, dvdrom, and space for 2 more drives.

Spac3d

 

[blackhawk]

I've worked on a tower and owned a low profile desk top and the engineering is very impressive to say the least. I can see why they're so popular.

 

[bentwookie]

Originally posted by: djheater
I agree I always sing the praises of Dell cases when i have to work on them.

One thing is it can occasionally be a bit tricky to find the release on different models and then you look like an idiot, trying to spin the thing around and figure out how to open it

haha that sounds like the dell dimension 200mmx I got 5 years ago...ended up almost breaking the shell cause I couldn't get the other side to open...it was a soldi machine through...still have it actually. Got a 4500 last year and it has been a breeze upgrading..everytime I added something,whether it be memory, another hd,burner,sound card...I was done in 1 minute.

 

[Gunbuster]

Are the new cases still made by Flextronics?

 

[OldSpooky]

4harddrives and a CDRW and the thing was full

4 HDD's and a CD-RW? :Q

That's actually a lot for a Dell minitower... I dont' think they're meant to hold that much junk.

 

[Ryan]

Hmm, you should check out Gateway's cases. They're also toolless

http://support.gateway.com/s/CASES/3501307/3501307tc.shtml - Used on their 500 Series systems

http://support.gateway.com/s/CASES/3501242/3501242tc.shtml - USed on their 700 Series systems

 

[SherEPunjab]

Originally posted by: rbloedow
Hmm, you should check out Gateway's cases. They're also toolless

<a href="http://support.gateway.com/s/CASES/3501307/3501307tc.shtml">http://support.gateway.com/s/CASES/3501307/3501307tc.shtml</A> - Used on their 500 Series systems

<a href="http://support.gateway.com/s/CASES/3501242/3501242tc.shtml">http://support.gateway.com/s/CASES/3501242/3501242tc.shtml</A> - USed on their 700 Series systems

looks nice, but the cool thing about the 4500 is that i have the system board on one side, and the hard drives, cd rom on the other once it has opened. it opens in a 'v' formation. Very smart thinking. The gateway design is tooless but pretty standard. Actually, tooless is'nt as big a deal as even my Enlight 7237 is tooless cuz I don't use the screws

 

[heartsurgeon]

the most amazing thing is how quickly they have reduced the noise level coming from the computer to almost nothing.
i bought a 4400 last year which was fairly quiet, but this year i bought a 4500 and it is completely quiet!
the Antec case and computer i built with my son last year sounds like a jet idling at the end of the runway compared to the dell.

in my humble opinion, other than the joy of shopping for component bargins, and the learning experience of building a computer yourself, there isn't any advantage price wise or quality wise in building versus buying from dell..

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: Spac3d
I have had horrible experience with my Dell case, although it is a few years old. It allowed for almost no expansion. 4harddrives and a CDRW and the thing was full:disgust: It was also covered in dust everytime I had to open the case. I will never

My new Antec case has 5 harddrives, floppy, cdrw, dvdrom, and space for 2 more drives.

Spac3d

jeez did you ever think that maybe you have too many drives?

i dunno which case you had either cuz looking at the one i have here from about 2 years ago i could put 4 hard drives and 2 opticals into it just fine.