Cooler Master Media 280

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2007/02/05/cooler_master_media_280/1.html

 

I like the idea, shame it isnt a bit of a smaller profile though

 

Useing a Mini Tower as a Desktop Media centre is just a bit big and bulky.

I dont have a media pc but if I wanted one under my tv then Id like it to be the size of a DVD/VHS player or smaller. Not a big ugly brick

Doesnt look bad as a mini tower. Just wouldnt have it in my living room. One for the spare room.

 

Firstly whats the point in that, you would buy one or the other. Secondly, it looks so out of date and 90's. Who would have that in their living room?

 

Retro styling f tw

 

retro F T W, would fit in with most ppls hi-fi very well

 

Retro is not cool; all retro means is that there is no good new designs around so you look backwards.

 

Oh dear someone's forgotten to add the I/O shield! And someone (most likely the same hooligan) has included a clamp in one piccy! The case it self looks rather dull.. There's two ways of making front bezels to HTPC-cases: the Zalman way (good) and the wrong way. (also silverstone has some nice designs, but it just didn't fit to one line )

 

My dad had a PC years ago that could be put in either desktop or tower format. This must have been one of the first ATX (as opposed to AT) cases I ever saw, so we're talking mid-90s. It was beige and had horrible sharp edges, but it was a Gateway so it was made of armour-plated adamantium. Sure, it weighed about as much as a Sherman tank, but it was equally indestructible.

It didn't have removable feet - rather, on each edge it had sort of rubber corner pieces that served to damp vibrations and stand the case off the desk in a stable fashion whether in desktop or tower 'mode'. I seem to remember the whole drive bay (3 x 5.25 + 1 x 3.5in external bays) unclipped and pulled out through the front of the case and slotted back in in the desired orientation. It was a pretty cool case, and I must say I'm surprised the idea hasn't been reprised since. Perhaps the extra costs don't make it worthwhile.

Quick q - I'm not sure I follow your reasoning that the case is WTX to ensure the airflow still 'works' when it's in desktop format - surely it could just have been normal ATX and had plopped down on its right side to go into desktop mode, rather than its left side as has been done? Unless you have some sort of passive cooling system, I don't believe orientation relative to gravity can make that much difference to cooling performance. Can you elaborate?

 

i see some modding potential in it. flip it upside down so that its the correct way. then unrivit the front panel, turn that around as well as the drive cages, and bam. you have a normal atx case(antec style). some bondo, some paint, a window, would make a nice project. too bad im saving up for a TJ-09

 

Old compaq deskpro's were exactly the same. quite handy being able to have it as desktop or tower depending on the office set up. they also had tool less assembly for the drives and stuff. it always amused me when people were going on about tool less assembly being fantastic etc when all the big manufacturers had been doing it for years

 

Better than I've seen it done before...

Compaq had a Convertible Mini Tower that could go from Tower Configuration to Desktop configuration, but it was a hideous over-engineered case that had plastic bits that ALWAYS broke when you did the conversion. This at least looks like some thought about it first.

My overall thought though is that if a case tries to do too many things, it never turns out to do any of them very well. You should either buy a desktop or you buy a tower. With the exception of a few of the Compaq machines that came back to IT, we never changed the case from its original configuration. So perhaps it is useful for a company to buy one model of computer but be able to please both people who want a tower or a desktop, but for an off-the-rack case... I don't see the market.

 

You forgot to mention that some pics have the case umop ap!sdn

 

agreed...you try to be something to all instead of everything to some, and it just never seems to work out for you. if the price was right, and i thought that far ahead in that i could retire this when i build a new uber rig, i wouldnt mind it. i like the look personally. but, i dont think that far ahead, and i want my gaming rig to look better (windows and...stuff)

 

What's a VFD? Otherwise it is very impressive

 

I too have seen a case with similar rotating drive bays - I almost bought one but then they went out of business.

I too am a little confused about the reasoning behind the flip. In almost every case review (that I've seen) in which the PSU is on the slot side of the motherboard (instead of the standard position next to the I/O plate) there is a mention of potential problems with routing the PSU wiring. This seems like a needless complication.

For me the welded on standoffs are major negative for the case. Additionally the doors look flimsy and inconvenient (esp the drop down door on the 5.25" bays). Except for the relative novelty of the rotating bays I fail to see why this was rated higher than the Antec 900

Wikipedia is your friend (link)

 

How much time did you use to do that?

Back OT, that case is too ugly..uhhh, period.

 

None, stole it from a tag line I saw on a BBS back in the days before the internet. The question is how long did it take you to figure out?

 

From the time you posted it until I posted about it.

 

Actually we had those "convertable" desktop/tower-compaqs at our school as well. Didn't remember them before someone mentioned. Pretty handy indeed.

And I actually did notice there's something being upsidedown with those piccys because it said the mobo was USD and whatever. I'm just too damn tired to understand a damn thing atm excuse me, I have a meeting with my pillow.