Mfr asks: Clear Cast Acrylic Cases..Something You Want????

sobrien42

Member
Aug 14, 2003
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We manufacturer cast acrylic rod and hollow tube. We also deal with arylic sheet. We have been getting into the gaming market lately through mousepad products (C4 Mousepad, Teflon Mouse Tape, etc) and now we want to know if AT members are interested in Clear Acrylic Cases??? I've seen many awesome examples on the forum.

If members are interested, would you want the whole case fabricated for you or want just the acrylic parts to do this yourself???? We also do Lexan* (polycarbonate sheet, rod & tube). Maybe there's already a supplier for all this. All I know is that the cases look exceptionally cool and, if practical, we'd like to be a part of it.

Sher, CS Hyde Company
 
Apr 17, 2003
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personally, i have no desire for one.

i mean some on the ones i have seen on the market support 5-6 80mm fans which is cool and all, but i always try to make my case look as clean as possible. i.e. hide cables which i cannot do with acrylic cases
 

cheapgoose

Diamond Member
May 13, 2002
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so how much would a 4" dia. 1/4" thick cylinder cost? i might need a few feet of it.
 

Vonkhan

Diamond Member
Feb 27, 2003
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Originally posted by: sobrien42
We manufacturer cast acrylic rod and hollow tube. We also deal with arylic sheet. We have been getting into the gaming market lately through mousepad products (C4 Mousepad, Teflon Mouse Tape, etc) and now we want to know if AT members are interested in Clear Acrylic Cases??? I've seen many awesome examples on the forum.

If members are interested, would you want the whole case fabricated for you or want just the acrylic parts to do this yourself???? We also do Lexan* (polycarbonate sheet, rod & tube). Maybe there's already a supplier for all this. All I know is that the cases look exceptionally cool and, if practical, we'd like to be a part of it.

Sher, CS Hyde Company

The market is already flooded with clear cases, so u'd have to do something different ...

a cast acrylic, like u mention, would be an awesome idea

a cube acrylic case ... a non-standard design in which u u have "layers" ... a layer (or shelf) for the mobo, another layer for the optical drives, another for the PSU ... in a "stacked" layout on top of each other

the biggest problems with clear cases are the dust build ups and wiring. maybe if put in translucent tubes to hide the wiring in ... ?

just a few ideas :) I have a truckload of clear case ideas, lemme know if u're looking for anything specific
 

0roo0roo

No Lifer
Sep 21, 2002
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yea, hiding cables is a pain, and keeping it clean/dust free is too. i'm not sure how big the market is for clear cases. well the ones out right now are all made of screwed glued together flat pieces. building from total scratch is for a very few enthusiasts, and they get their lexan or whatever from home depot or the local plastics place. molded plastic seems interesting, i still remember that kewl plastic mac cube, but that wasn't clear i think. still, engineering a good case would be a challange. small cube like pc's already exist ..the sff pc's made by several companies..and ewll as said, there are quite a few clear cases out there now, prebuilt or kit.
 

stardust

Golden Member
May 17, 2003
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Have you tried the watercooling industry? maybe making a Bayrez-like resevoir that isn't prone to leaks. I think modders like originality, so maybe some new case designs for looks and practicality.
 

L00PY

Golden Member
Sep 14, 2001
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I have noticed that there are few (if any?) mATX acrylic cases. If you could make one with good airflow at a reasonable price, I'd buy it.
 

? (=Þ)

Golden Member
Oct 9, 1999
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how about a well designed function over form case? Something like a simple front bezel, 120mm fan in the front/rear, room for 120x38mm fans. HD rack in front of the front fan, removeable motherboard piece, and whatever small things that make a case nice... without the extra aesthetic things that may not appeal to everyone. Any extra fans in good locations would be nice (over AGP/PCI cards, top mounted exhaust, over hard drive rack, etc).

Something in opaque black acrylic would be nice, to compete w/ those black cases out there.
 

FPSguy

Golden Member
Oct 26, 2001
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I think there is room in the market for another manufacturer, and personally I think acrylic cases are awesome (see sig). I don't really care whether it is pre-made, since for all existing designs that I know of you have to remove the back to put drives in anyway. If you can design one that doesn't require taking off the back to add a drive and then fabricate the whole case for a reasonable price, I think that would be great.
 

Gravity

Diamond Member
Mar 21, 2003
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if you can make it quieter than a sonata then and only then, I'd be interested.
 

joebob23

Member
Mar 17, 2004
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dont' you have to worry about electrical interference cause those clear cause are made of plastic and plastic don't obsorb electirc field, something like that.
 

WinkOsmosis

Banned
Sep 18, 2002
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If you make them, use a unique design, like Lian Li's upside down cases. No one is going to look twice at another acrylic case. Or at least make sure the fan holes are 120mm and the harddrives are mounted sideways.

I would not buy an acrylic case though. Clear looks cheesy. Tinted grey would be cool.
 

yourdeardaniel

Golden Member
Mar 20, 2004
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I have a thing for acrylic case and thought about getting one before. there is just something about see through enclosures, seeing all the components of your system running. The only thing I wouldn't like is the dust buildup. I want one with many fans-- 2 80mm in the back, 2 80mm on the side, one 80mm on top, 2 80mm in front. Neon blue 80mm fans would look nice, with 2 blue neon lights on side, and neon blue PSU. The backplate should be acrylic too. Those ClearPC cases look alright.
 

sobrien42

Member
Aug 14, 2003
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Thanks for all the posts and ideas. We make cast acrylic (the high end stuff that looks like glass) rod, tube and Polycarbonate squares. However, we're not a Fabrication house. We were thinking more about providing the materials for custom case builders to build their own designs.

It sounds like this is very customized with lots of existing suppliers. it's probably something we won't pursue....with one exception--Polycarbonate (Lexan*) squares. I put them on our site. We'll see if there's any interest.

Thank you for all the feedback. It helped us make this decision.