Annie and I have had many talks about computer cases. She finds that most of the ones on the market are ugly. I find that many of them are functional, but either boring or too over the top.
Recently, I was looking through some custom computer cases and I found something we both agree is beautiful. It is called the Cygnus X1 by Attila Lukacs.
It is a wood and metal desktop computer case that he built, and it both looks beautiful and is super functional.
What is even better is that Attila Lukacs posted a great article, and linked to his forum thread of his build. Check out the full post on the Cygnus X1 on bit-tech.
I am not sure what it would cost to build one of these, and I know that I don’t currently have the skill, but it definitely is an exciting idea. He did an amazing job, and I wish some company would contact him about making a production version of his design. I would easily pay a few hundred dollars to have a case like this, especially if it is durable enough to last through multiple components. It would be an art piece and not something that would have to be relegated to the floor or hidden away.
Malcolm's Ramblings 
8 responses to “Beautiful Computer Case”
http://www.nickfalzonedesign.com/computercases.html
I’ve seen them, and they are nice. Annie and I both agree that there is something special about a wooden computer case… The sad thing is that Nick’s Etsy store doesn’t have anything in it. I can’t even find a price listing of what something like that might even go for…
That was the only person I could find who’s doing this commercially. There are lots of them on “Instructables.com” and Lumberjocks.com for the DIY’er
The project you linked to above doesn’t have to be as complicated as he made it, though he stated he wanted something intricate with lots of parts. If you start with the internal structure of a relatively generic case, it is much easier to re-design the exterior case and plastic parts in wood. In fact if you are only wanting the look of wood, then solid pieces and carefully selected veneer’s attached to the original metal case can create a pleasing result. The trickiest part being the front face.
Funny you say that. I was thinking similarly. I was looking at cases on NCIX.com and thinking about how easy it would be to swap out things on this case (http://ncix.com/products/?sku=61950&vpn=PC-Z60B&manufacture=LIAN-LI) with wood. I hadn’t considered veneer…
Or maybe one of these – http://ncix.com/products/?sku=66726&vpn=CC-9011015-WW&manufacture=Corsair&promoid=1360
http://ncix.com/products/?sku=85697&vpn=CC-9011024-WW&manufacture=Corsair
http://ncix.com/products/?sku=65170&vpn=P280&manufacture=Antec
Use veneer on the front, and maybe glue wood pieces on the sides and top?
Exactly! The tough part is where the corners have a slight radius. There you need to use a full piece of wood cut to shape. I’ll see if I can find some examples
Here’s an example:
