Plz help!!!!!!! It only takes a few minutes

marklar911

Junior Member
Sep 1, 2001
5
0
0
Hi, I?m making a computer case for my design and technology GCSE next year and I would really appreciate it if you could take 2 minutes out of your time to fill out this questionnaire to help me design my case. Please don?t just look at it and think ?oh my god this is too long I can?t be bothered to? and just click that back button. Even though I?ve written a lot it?s really not that much for you to type, just put the question number and part down followed by the choice letter/answer
e.g. 1.a) b,c b) b,a,d (ports at front), c.
Have fun ?.

1.a) Would you buy a new case for
a) appearance,
b) cooling,
c) for more drive bays,
d) other (please specify e.g. ports on the front, space saving)
or d) you wouldn?t buy one if you already had a perfectly fine case but it looks really boring?
Note: You can put more than one choice.
b) Also for the first four please put them into order of the most important to least important?

2. What price would you pay for a case?
a) The price for one that had good cooling (had lots of fans everywhere), looked cool with a side window and a good paint job and say 4 5¼ bays and 4 3½ ones and also some USB and P/S 2 and sound ports on the front panel.
b) Also what price for a standard beige one with say only one a front panel fan and the power supply fan and 3 bays of each size.

3. a) How many bays (both 5¼ and 3½) would you ever use on a case (please be realistic)?
b) How many are you currently using?

4. Which is your favorite case material a) wood, b) plastic (also would a case totally made out of clear plastic appeal to you) or c) metal (also which one aluminum, steel, etc?)?
Note: I?m not to sure but I?ve heard somewhere that the case being metal earths the hard drives and if it is wood static will build up or something but could some one please confirm this it would help.

5.a) What colour would you like the case to be?
b) Would you like it multi-coloured?
c) Would you like any design painted on the case? E.g. A skull and crossbones, a flower, the radioactive hazard symbol or flames.

6. Do you move your PC around a lot? (e.g. to LAN parties) If so would you like it to have a handle and be made out of aluminum so its light?

7. Is air flow a concern today and should I put fans on to improve air flow? Also any tips to improve air flow, as I don?t know much, would be helpful e.g. but do the fans above the PCI and AGP slots blow in or out etc.. any links to sites with airflow tips would also be very helpful.
Where should the fans be and how many/what size do you recommend and should the fans blow in or out?

8. Do you change components a lot and need easy access to the PCI slots and also the drive bays? Lots of people have told me to have a slide out motherboard tray and slide out drives. Could someone please explain how this works and how I can incorporate it.

9. a) Do you have any problems with your current case or anything you would like to see changed with the current design of cases? If yes what are they?
b) Are there any features your case has or you have seen on a case which you thought looked cool or would be really useful? If yes what are they?

10. Would you prefer a case to have ports at the front? (the USB, P/S 2 and sound jacks).
Note: As I?m not a real case manufacturer and this is just a school project the only way I can have ports at the front is by repositioning the motherboard as in my idea below.
b) As all I can do is turn the motherboard would you prefer to have it with all the ports on the side (as in the idea below) or would it be better to have all the ports at the front (this might look bad and the wires would clutter the desk)?

10. Is your current case located a) to the left of the monitor b) to the right of the monitor c) under the desk or d) other.
Note: This may sound like a weird question but the reason is that if the majority of you have it to the left then it can do my idea below.


My idea so far is to put the motherboard horizontal and have the ports sticking out the right hand side of the case. This would mean that the P/S 2 and USB ports are closest to you while the ports for the monitor and network card (PCI/ISA) are at the back so the only the wires that come round the front any way can be seen and it would make it easy to attach USB devices and also headphones if you have integrated sound. I would have the hard drives and CD drives over the CPU and RAM slots and the power supply over the south bridge so you can still get to the PCI/AGP slots. The problem with this design is it would mean the case would have to be wider (the width of the motherboard) and also have to be to the left of the monitor. Is this an issue as this would mean you would need to have space for this and it would have to be on the left of the monitor (or you could put it under it if you wanted). However you could also put the printer/scanner on it to save space, but I was thinking of having a clear plastic window on the top as that would look pretty cool.
Please tell me what you think of this idea and also any problems you see with it or any modifications you thick I should make to it.

Also any other ideas like that one or any good tips or features you think I should include.

Thanks a lot for filling out the questionnaire (if you did). Your really helping me out a lot.
For those of you who are about to click that back button, please don?t. I really need a lot of people to fill this out and it only takes a couple of minutes.
Thanks in advance.
 

Ryan

Lifer
Oct 31, 2000
27,519
2
81
1.a
2.A - $100, B - $60
3.a - 3, b - 3
4.b
5.a - white, b - white and another color, c - no.
6.no
7.no
8.yes
9.a - no, b - yes, sscrewless designs, easy opening
10.a - USB, Firewire, b - no. I don't want a ps/2 port in the front of my case.
11. Under my desk, but still in CLEAR view (so looks are important)

;)
 

Haribo

Golden Member
Oct 23, 1999
1,080
0
0

sorry to much text in your post :(

you should make it smaller.. my little brain cant digest it :cool:
 

crawltheweb

Member
Aug 28, 2001
39
0
0
Having designed this kind of survey before, you may want to consider putting it on a website and using some sort of form handling to make it easier for people to get through the form. In its present format, by the time you get to the bottom, the top is history (sorry - must be old age or a bad memory - I forget what that's called :) )

1) cooling, then appearance.
2) Cost: depends on what is being paid for. Given that, I've never paid more than 50 USD for a case and power supply.

3) 3 HD bays, 3 51/4 bays, proper position for cooling without crowding the mb.

4) Material: who cares, just as long as it is not a holder of static charge.

5) Fluorescent orange with lime green stripes would be a bit much. Other than that, I really don't care about the color. come to think of it, a dark color would not be too good, if the pc was located in a sunny area.

6) Move it? not a chance with all the cables...I'm not feeling too athletic these days!

7) Cooling: extremely important: check around on the web for all the different discussions on PC cooling.

8) Yup, easy access. As for how to do it, that's up to you.

9) Sides of case come off separately on my case: kind of handy. Front speaker mount doubles as a fan bay.

10) Depends what you use the pc for. If you fiddle with sound or video sources, you'd probably want to have easy access to the ports. Having the sound/mic/what-not on the back is a pain.

The idea has potential. For example, some people cut holes in the side of the pc to cool the cpu (check on the web for references). A product called 2coolpc works on the same principle, is really a straight-forward idea and is quite easy to implement. My prediction:
the company manufacturing 2coolpc is going to be quite well off.

Good luck!

 

Pepsin

Member
Jul 28, 2000
29
0
0
1. a) d. Well my current case works perfectly fine, even though it's a beige, boring one...
1. b) b,a,c

2.
a) $150-$250 (depending on the quality of the paint job)
b) $40-$60

3
a) Four 5.25", two external, two internal 3.5"
b) Three 5.25", one internal 3.5", one external 3.5"

4. Aluminium, or clear plastic

5 a.) black, dark lilac, red or green
b) No
c) Absolutely. That is something I've been considering for a long time. The only problem is that having someone do a good paint job is expensive

6. Yes, yes.

7. In my view, airflow is very important. Intake fans should be placed in the lower and middle front of the case. Exhaust fans should be placed in the upper-rear and under or over the AGP slot. There should ideally be an intake fan on the side of the case, and an exhaust fan in the top of the case as well.

8. Yes. I'm not able to explain how it works though.

9. a) The problem with my current case is:
-No slide out motherboard tray
-When mounting certain 5.25" devices or coolers in the bottom 5.25" bay, it's hard to remove the front bezel because the device/cooler gets in the way
-Holes for the intake fan are not optimal, I had to use a drill to make more and larger holes and I also installed a dust filter

b) With my case, no screws at all, you just push a handle to open the case.

10. No, for me, that is not needed
b) I like it the way it usually is, with the ports at the back of the case. I have arranged my desktop so that this solution works.

11. I have my case to the left of the monitor, on a separate table, with the front facing me. I can walk around the table to access all the ports behind the case or open the case to easily add or remove hardware.

 

Soccerman

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
6,378
0
0
1) d. a combination of many factors goes into buying a new case. is it easy to install equipment inside? does it have a fan near the CPU to exhaust that hot air? does it have enough drive bays?

2) b. I'd rather not pay anything (and build my own case) because all tower cases are designed badly for airflow. it is best to have the hot air exhaust out the top, and come into the case through the bottom.

3) a. I would use a max of 3 5.5 inch bays and 2 3.5 inch bays.
3) b. I currently use 1 5.5 inch bay and 1 3.5 inch bay

4) c. aluminu m - I believe the cases are grounded through either contact with the motherboard or through the powersupply

5)a. I would like it to be the metal colour that it is made of.
5)b. I don't care for more then one colour
5)c. I wouldn't want a design on my case

6) yes I move my case around for upgrades and cleaning

7) airflow is a concern, but to improve it, you should use the fact that heat rises to suck in the cool air in the bottom and exhaust it out the top, rather then pure fan power.

8) I change components every so often

9)a. only that I'd like to see the power supply fan, CPU cavity exhaust fan, and the exposed backs of the expansion cards all at the top allowing hot air out the top. drive bays would have to be re-aligned to make them horizontal.
9)b. not really. there are thumbscrews, slide out trays, and even air filters (which could be useful if you decided you had way too much airflow that u could sacrifice some) but all in all, a decent case works perfectly fine.

10)a. my idea about rotating the case so that the hot air is expelled out the top would put all peripheral connections at the top as well, a far better position for me. I don't mind having wires go behind the desk, just as long as I can connect and disconnect them quickly
10)b. see my idea above.

I've been dieing to try this one day, but I'm lazy and don't really want to risk destroying a case! it would be much easier if I had the metal working tools to make my own pieces, should I need to do so. Also, maintaining the position of the drives on the front would be a thing to try to take into account with this design.
 

Rand

Lifer
Oct 11, 1999
11,071
1
81


<<


1. C, then D (quality of build, room for expansion), then C.

2. $100, $50

3. a) 3 5¼ drive bays, 1 external 3½, 4 internal 3½ drive bays.
b) How many are you currently using?
2 3 5¼ drive bays, 1 external 3½, 2 (soon to be 3) internal 3½ drive bays.

4. C. Aluminum

5.a) What colour would you like the case to be?
Beige, or lacquered "glazed" metallic shade. Or an IMAC style case (as long as it is functional too)
b) Only if it was an IMac style design.
c) No, definitely no designs.

6. I like aluminum for it's superior cooling properties, not for the fact that it's light. I don't move it around much at all.

7. Yes, air flow is a concern. 1 Fan in front of the HDD's, 2 fans at the back, one of them aimed towards the processor, and the other towards the AGP slot.
MUST not be too loud, so I'd like them to be temperature controlled, and you should be able to choose how fast they spin.

8. Yes, I definitely want easy access, and a lot of open area, and plenty of room for a large motherboard. A slide out motherboard tray would be a huge plus. Slide out drive bay is sorta nice but not a big thing really.
Another huge bonus is a screwless design, so you can open it without using any screws!

9. a)Most off the cases that have good air flow use fans that are too loud IMHO. Aluminum cases are over-priced.

b) I love IMac style designs, otherwise I'd just like a pretty plain case.

10. Would you prefer a case to have ports at the front? (the USB, P/S 2 and sound jacks).
Probably just room for 4 USB ports at the front, that's all.

b) Just the normal mobo layout.

10. To the left of my monitor and below it inside a hutch made for it.

>>

 

lazyboy

Senior member
Dec 22, 2000
389
0
0
1. c,b

2. a) 250 b) 90

3. a) 5 b) 4

4. b

5. a) Beige b) no c) no

6. no

7. Mmmm quiet but cool.

8. I want it to be easy to open the case. No screws. Slide out motherboard tray is a must if the case is small. Something as big as an Antec sx1030 isn't necessary but still nice.

9. a) sx1030, easy usb ports b) front acess to usb sound etc.

10. Ports in back in your case

11. Right of monitor.