Student Designs Cardboard PC Casing

[wildwell]

Cardboard cases may not be in our immediate future but some of the concepts could be further evolved into something more useful. What about flame retardant corrugated acrylic and plastic similar to what the US Post Office makes all those sorting bins out of? What about modular cases that can be reconfigured for whole new builds; a rack server one day, a mini-tower the next?

All the manufacturers are looking for ways to build their hardware for less and still take advantage of pro-environment incentives offered by the government while looking sexy and cutting-edge to consumers. Something unique, practical, and innovative may eventually come out of this. (But I'm not sure if a cardboard computer box passes for a post-grad thesis.)

 

[Guest]

twantko: You are so right, the CBC did an excellent piece about that, including video of poor Chinese people doing the dirty work...

 

[Rust In Peace]

Interesting idea but some serious issues:

1) As already mentioned, fire risk.
2) Durability. If it doesn't catch fire then the constant heat will cause the cardboard to degrade faster.
3) Strength. I want to protect my electrical components from physical harm. Young children or pets could annihilate this.

 

[jellico]

So this is what passes for a graduate thesis these days? A computer case made out of cardboard?

As many of you have already said, the durability and safety of such a case is dubious at best. Not to mention the fact that, the case is probably the least environmentally troublesome part of the computer. Since I started building my own computers back in the mid 90s, I've only ever used ATX mid-tower cases. The computers have been rebuild many times over, but I continue to reuse the same cases. The nice thing about steel is that it's easy enough to use a dremel to machine a hole for a side-mounted fan or front-mounted USB connectors.

Steel is a piece of cake to recycle, whether your throw it in a bin to be reused or it ends up in the landfill. When steel oxides, it turns to rust, which turns to dust and returns to the Earth whence it came.

Now PCBs... that's another matter. Old motherboards (and video cards, soundcards, modems, etc.), once they've given up the ghost, or outlived their usefulness, are basically inert. The plastic, which would normally photo-decay over a course of hundreds of years, could remain in tact for millennia given that the thin layer of gold is almost completely non-reactive and will never decay or degrade. Fortunately, these days, motherboards contain main of the modules which used to be disparate components (such as sound and ethernet).

Bottom line: cardboard box as a "case mod" project... kinda cool. As a graduate thesis... not so much.

 

[Parrdacc]

"You would be surprised how many homeless people buy computers."
The Big Hit

 

[Lowdown]

Now I could be wrong on this but isn't one of the reason most cases are metal for the EMI shielding that they can do? I like having a metal case, not sure what else I would want it made out of.

 

[Scott2009]

It wouldn't meet the EMI shileding requirements for various standards and as such the systems would be less stable.

IBM did a heap of research on this back in the 70's, computers should not be housed in plastic or cardboard for this very reason.

 

[Scott2009]

It wouldn't meet the EMI shileding requirements for various standards and as such the systems would be less stable.

IBM did a heap of research on this back in the 70's, computers should not be housed in plastic or cardboard for this very reason.