Case designs (was: New Definiton REQUIRED)

From: Tony Duell <ard_at_odin.phy.bris.ac.uk>
Date: Wed Nov 19 06:56:04 1997

On Tue, 18 Nov 1997 jpero_at_cgo.wave.ca wrote:
[...]

> > A Barco TV was nearly as good. Pop the back (4 screws), and there was a
> > motherboard mounted vertically around the CRT neck. Pull out any of the
> > plug-in cards, hinge the motherboard down, and plug it into pins on the
> > solder side of the motherboard. You can now trivially test it.
> Is that Barco company gone belly up or still existing making new
> monitors and TV's? And also that shows good design! :)

They're still going. Their modern stuff is not _as good_, but it's still
very well built. Oh, and the electronic design is up to the same high
standards.

I don't know if they ever built NTSC televisions (they're based in
Belgium), but I _know_ their RGB monitors can work at USA scan rates
(well, the TV-rate ones, anyway - they make a lot of different models,
including IIRC VGA, etc), and I would think their professional video
monitors certainly come in NTSC versions.

Be warned that they're not cheap. And their spares (while available) are
also very expensive.

> > I've never understood this love of screwdriver-less cases. If I'm going to
> > be fixing a computer I'm going to have a soldering station, scope, logic
> > analyser, cutters, etc with me. So having a screwdriver set is no big deal
> > either.
>
> Oh, Tony, we have to deal 5 or 12 computers a day when things get

I was not claiming that all modern cases were bad or anything like that.
It's just that these quick-release clips are often nothing of the sort
(_some_ are good), and you spend longer fiddling with those than it would
have taken to undo a couple of screws.


> work on it seperate from case. The low quality cases is so sharp
> that you can shave with it and also very wobbly without the cover. (I
> could crush the frame with hands. and I'm not that strong-armed like
> the weight lifter!) Also some have so bad metal and rough machined

Oh, agreed. I've seen some really bad build quality in no-name PCs - and I
don't like it. I also like well-engineered cases - ones that I could stand
on if necessary, ones that don't remove the skin from my hands when I
reach in to flip a DIP switch or pull a card, etc.

-tony
Received on Wed Nov 19 1997 - 06:56:04 GMT