Custom Chassis

[Michael McAllister]

Have you guys ever considered designing cases? There have been some pretty radical designs I've seen on YouTube. For instance, one individual built a case out of wood and hung it on the wall, so that it looked like a shelf.

[PCC-William]

Unique computer enclosures, like those you describe, are probably always going to be the realm of enthusiasts. I don't think such exotic designs would appeal to wide enough audiences to make their design and construction en masse a worthwhile effort. However, we have looked into desiging our own cases for more traditional computers - the difficulty is that the barrier to entry with most case manufacturers is quite high in terms of how many you have to order of a given design. We may eventually decide to go that direction, but for now manufacturers like Antec, Silverstone and Lian-Li seem to pretty well cover the range of options our customers want.

[Michael McAllister]

I would also imagine that it would be hard to figure out a price point for each individual customer given parts and labor costs, which could vary greatly from one customer to the next.

[Michael McAllister]

I was looking through your computer configurator recently, and I noticed in your case mod section, you do not offer the addition of casters. This would be a great addition to your selection of modifications! It would do a few things:

1. Raise the system slightly off the ground to prevent any possible static electricity from reaching the internal components.
2. Make modifying the system in future easier, which will be especially useful with heavier chassis.
3. The height provided by the casters will increase overall airflow as well.
4. If the customer needs to, for whatever reason, move the computer to a different room in their household, they will be able to do so very easily.

Thoughts?

[PCC-William]

I can see how casters might be helpful for some users, but I don't know if we'd be able to offer that on all of the cases we carry.

[Michael McAllister]

I imagine that would depend a lot on what type of casters would be used. Maybe an asterisk could be used in the configurator to let customers know that the caster option is only available on certain chassis, no?

[PCC-William]

Perhaps; I'll mention the idea to our product team

[PCC-William]

It looks like there are definitely some hurdles to offering casters on cases that aren't built for them: secure mounting, space in the shipping box, etc. After talking it over the general consensus here was that a caddy or cart with wheels is a better solution - something like this: http://www.everythingofficefurniture...#axzz1MB2E4hDG

[Michael McAllister]

Sweet! Thanks for following up. That seems like it would work quite well. I gather from the picture that the case would be secured in the caddy with mounting screws, no, or are the holes just for aesthetic purposes?

[PCC-William]

I think the holes are just aesthetic, but I imagine the reason the metal sides are bowed the way they are is to help hold a computer tower in place (just a guess - not seen this exact model in person).