<< i don't understand the big deal. you can't exactly show your case off to anybody and it doesn't have any practical use so why all the hype? >>
You know, unless you hide your computer under your desk (and I like mine ON the desk for easy access to drive bays...) you're staring at the thing whenever you use it.
I used to have a POS case with a huge crack along the front... ugliest thing. Yecch.... every time I looked at it I just thought, "I really don't like this ugly computer."
Some people don't care about aesthetics - they're the ones who buy ugly cars, ugly houses, date ugly people (just kidding!).
As an appliance in my living room that I see regularly, and visitors will also see, I don't want some hideous WART bulging out of my desk that I can announce: "Oh? That lump of discoloured plastic is my computer - it looks like crud... but it's really fast!"