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Magnesium or Titanium?

B

Biggs

Diamond Member
A quick question to everyone, which of the two is a "better" material for use in laptop enclosures? Better in the sense of longetivity, durability, cost, rigidness, lightness in weight, etc. Thanks.
 
titanium, of course. Both metals are considered to be brittle, but titanium is much, much sturdier. However, magnesium is better heat spreader...
ill go with titanium.
 
if you get it hot enough, the magnesium case will burn with a blindingly white hot flame and leave no ash.
but you probably wont do that on purpose.
 
Well, titanium is MUCH stronger.... magnesium is way up there on strength per unit weight--but its really really light. Just look at that periodic table. 🙂 Titanium is very very hateful to machine, though--so production costs are usually high.

But EdipisReks is right--as long as you're not intentionally using your laptop as a tool, you'll be fine with either... both are better than plastic. 🙂
 
Originally posted by: foofoo
if you get it hot enough, the magnesium case will burn with a blindingly white hot flame and leave no ash.
but you probably wont do that on purpose.
Click to expand...
Bwahahahahahahaha
 
titanium is VERY expensive. enough good titanium alloy to replace the magnesium in those magnesium cases should increase the price by 150% to 300%. this depends on how much magnesium is used of course...
 
So its not titanium. Either titanium paint, or just like: "TITAIUM MEGA-SUPER CASE 5000. (made of 98% aluminum, 2% ash)"
 
Originally posted by: KristopherKubicki
Mday,

Not really. Enermax's titanium case sells for about the same price as a high end aluminum chasis.

Kristopher
Click to expand...

read carefully, it's a titanium coat, the entire case is not made of titanium, otherwise it'd go for THOUSANDS of dollars.
 
3Al-2.5V titanium alloy makes a darn nice bicycle frame 🙂 6Al-4V titanium alloy has roughly the strength of chromium-molybdenum alloy steel at one-third the weight, but cannot be drawn & butted into frame tubes, so it's usually used for fasteners.

In the case of computer cases, the Ti could be cut with laser or waterjet equipment, instead of having to be machined, stamped, drawn or cold-formed, so I don't think it would have to be radically expensive compared to, say, aluminum. But unless they sold a lot of them, the cost of tooling would raise the price a lot.

My brother-in-law works for Itronix, who makes a super-rugged laptop for utility workers and such. They use magnesium, presumably cast magnesium.
 
What? magnesium? Have you ever seen that burn?

what if you accidentally light your computer on fire with, like, an arc welder or something? (*FWOOOOOOOSH* you: my eyes! my eyes! I can't see my eyes!)


hehehe, never trust magnesium. It burns too easily (not very, but more so than titanium.)

go with Ti, although saying your laptop was magnesium would lend a certain 'badassness' to your image, along the lines of "hey, that guys is so badass he walks around with a pouch of C4."
 
Magnesium is the only choice. Titanium is way heavier and lightness matters most for a laptop.

The sturdiness of the case is of limited usefulness since the screen would still be glass and can crack.
 
Titanium also scratches relatively easily. I have both a titanium watch and a titanium ring and neither took very long to scratch.
 
My laptop is a Titanium PowerBook and it rocks.

However, the new Aluminum enclosures are awesome too.
 
Originally posted by: LordMorpheus
What? magnesium? Have you ever seen that burn?

what if you accidentally light your computer on fire with, like, an arc welder or something? (*FWOOOOOOOSH* you: my eyes! my eyes! I can't see my eyes!)


hehehe, never trust magnesium. It burns too easily (not very, but more so than titanium.)

go with Ti, although saying your laptop was magnesium would lend a certain 'badassness' to your image, along the lines of "hey, that guys is so badass he walks around with a pouch of C4."
Click to expand...
As a person who has tried to deliberately light a large chunk of magnesium on fire, I can assure you it's not likely to happen by accident 😀
 
Magnesium, because it should be much lighter and cost less. But then again, depending on the way you intend to use it, maybe go with Titanium.
 
Originally posted by: LordMorpheus
What? magnesium? Have you ever seen that burn?

what if you accidentally light your computer on fire with, like, an arc welder or something? (*FWOOOOOOOSH* you: my eyes! my eyes! I can't see my eyes!)


hehehe, never trust magnesium. It burns too easily (not very, but more so than titanium.)
Click to expand...
Sorry Lord, But Magnesium as a solid chunk will not catch on fire. It needs to be more in the form of sanding dust or milled chips. I do this for a living(aircraft machinist) and have seen what it takes to get Mag to light.
 
The apple titanium, which is 98% pure titanium, weighs in a 5.3lbs with a 15.2" screen. I think the toshiba satellite (a great laptop) with a similary sized screen, wheighs in the 7 or 8lb range. So... You can make a light weight titanium case. Then again, apple can do amazing things... yes... I like apple... deal with it. Your just jealous! I'm trying to verify though if it's 98% coated or solid, because I can't honestly say one is true over the other.
 
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