What case would you put you CX16 board into?

Chat about anything CX16 related that doesn't fit elsewhere
Wertzui
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Joined: Mon Mar 01, 2021 7:06 pm

Hardware What case would you put you CX16 board into?

Post by Wertzui »

I am not the most up-to-date on Commander X16 developments. If I remember right, David Murray talked about that the kit/machine won't ship with any cases, and the ones seen in the videos are just one-offs.

Which is a shame!

Recently I was in the look-out for some PC cases, and MAN, I don't know how I didn't notice before, the offerings are total BORING! And if I search for "interesting PC cases" or something, then it's all the ridiculous gamer stuff that comes up.

Currently the best I can imagine dropping a CX16 into, is a 90s PC case, with desktop (as in, under the monitor) orietation, vents and lines all around, patches of gray around the LEDs and buttons, Turbo MHz LED display, and such.
While the offerings weren't much better even back then, there are some moderately exciting front bezel designs on shop-built PC configs from that era that I remember seeing.
It would be cool to see something living in such a case that is not a bog-standard PC board. (yeah-yeah AT vs ATX differences whatever)
Is this the best to come up with? I really hope that it is not!

1.) What would you put the Commander X16 into?
2.) Are there any mildly good looking modern PC cases to buy?
TomXP411
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Re: What case would you put you CX16 board into?

Post by TomXP411 »

For now, I'm going to set my computer inside of a 4U rack enclosure. There's a "sound base" sitting on the bottom, so the computer will sit nicely on top of that.

Eventually, David will have the bespoke X16 case, and I plan to order at least one of these:
case proto 2.jpg
case proto 2.jpg (219.94 KiB) Viewed 11897 times
kelli217
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Re: What case would you put you CX16 board into?

Post by kelli217 »

I think a Checkmate A1500 Plus case might be a good choice.
TomXP411
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Joined: Tue May 19, 2020 8:49 pm

Re: What case would you put you CX16 board into?

Post by TomXP411 »

kelli217 wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 9:27 pm I think a Checkmate A1500 Plus case might be a good choice.
Absolutely. I have their ITX case, and it's very well made and looks very good.
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Jestin
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Re: What case would you put you CX16 board into?

Post by Jestin »

I think there's been some ideas floating around about how to extend this 3D printed case to fully enclose the Gen1 board:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5170783

For now, it makes a neat keyboard to go in front of the case posted above.
DragWx
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Joined: Tue Mar 07, 2023 9:07 pm

Re: What case would you put you CX16 board into?

Post by DragWx »

I imagine the X16 looking kinda like this:
x16_cropped.png
x16_cropped.png (42.92 KiB) Viewed 11780 times
Like a sideways C64 GS or a C128D but smaller. :P

Barring the ability to physically sketch the case into existence, I think the Checkmate case looked really good too, I'd love to see what it looks like together with the monitor they're planning on releasing. :D
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AndyMt
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Location: Switzerland

Re: What case would you put you CX16 board into?

Post by AndyMt »

Eventually I will put mine into my own wedge case design (that's the one for Gen-2):
fronrightB.jpg
fronrightB.jpg (422.51 KiB) Viewed 11728 times
I plan to add a compartment in the back to allow space for the DEV board:
CaseX16largeB.png
CaseX16largeB.png (298.48 KiB) Viewed 11728 times
Those who are interested can find the design on Thingiverse
voidstar
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Joined: Thu Apr 15, 2021 8:05 am

Re: What case would you put you CX16 board into?

Post by voidstar »

In honor of one of the X16 questions asked at VCF East last month, I'd like to see a carbon fiber case and matching carbon fiber keyboard.

To help make the carbon footprint of the CX16 "legendary."
void_null

Re: What case would you put you CX16 board into?

Post by void_null »

Personally, I never cared for the white (I prefer black). To me the most beautiful case I've ever seen is the one for this machine:

https://c256foenix.com/a2560k/?v=7516fd43adaa

It reminds me a lot of something you would've seen in the 2000s when I was young. I would love to have a case or keyboard that looks like, regardless of the tech inside of it. Of course, I don't care for the rainbow leds in the thing (yes, this thing apparently has rainbow leds in it), which I think completely spoils the look. Of course, I would guess the cx16 wouldn't fit inside this thing. Honestly, I don't know what the board looks like that's supposed to go into this thing.

Honestly, I was planning on not really bothering with a case at all. If nothing else, I would leave the top off the official case so I'd always have access to those expansion ports.

I wonder though if its possible buy an off-the-shelf case that this board would fit in? I did see some video of a guy who put it in a tower case. I've never bought an empty computer case, so I really know nothing about it; I've just always used the case the computer came in. Of course, honestly I've never cared much for what my computer looked like (its not like you're looking at it while you're playing video games), then again these days all computers come in black cases. Haven't seen too many stark white cases either (though I have seen plenty of beige ones, which I'll be honest I also prefer over blank white).
blackadder
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Re: What case would you put you CX16 board into?

Post by blackadder »

Yes those are beautiful.
I also have a white VIC-20 ITX case from myretrocomputer.
Image
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