WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.620 I guess you could consider the wooden frame that the Advocus came in as the first computer 00:00:04.620 --> 00:00:11.100 case, but today we're going to start by talking about the case from the original 1981 IBM PC. 00:00:11.100 --> 00:00:16.440 The original personal computer from Big Blue was obviously a tremendously important computing 00:00:16.440 --> 00:00:21.760 platform, but the chassis was also notable for influencing what most PCs would look 00:00:21.760 --> 00:00:29.680 like for the next couple of decades. It was that standard beige box with a couple of floppy drives accessible on the front, 00:00:29.680 --> 00:00:33.280 as well as expansion slots and a keyboard port on the back. 00:00:33.280 --> 00:00:38.200 And if you're wondering why it was beige, well, the answer is that nobody knows for sure. 00:00:38.200 --> 00:00:42.800 But computer historians seem to think it had to do with businesses that bought PCs, wanting 00:00:42.800 --> 00:00:47.720 them to fit in with other office equipment at the time, which was, well, you guessed 00:00:47.720 --> 00:00:50.800 it, mostly beige. How exciting. 00:00:50.800 --> 00:00:56.400 Anywho, PC cases didn't change too much outwardly for about 20 years, aside from the addition 00:00:56.400 --> 00:01:00.120 of three and a half inch floppy and later optical drives. 00:01:00.120 --> 00:01:05.720 But there were some major changes on the inside when it came to form factor, the standardized 00:01:05.720 --> 00:01:09.480 size for key components like the motherboard and power supply. 00:01:09.480 --> 00:01:16.440 A form factor called AT was popular back when the 286 and 386 processors ruled the world. 00:01:16.440 --> 00:01:21.960 But unlike today's cases, many connectors had to be built into the case itself, kind 00:01:21.960 --> 00:01:25.640 of like the front panel IO that you see on cases today. 00:01:25.880 --> 00:01:35.040 And it's not to mention that the motherboards were larger. ATX came onto the scene in 1995, and not only did it make for smaller PCs, but it introduced 00:01:35.040 --> 00:01:39.360 the modern concept of the IO panel on the back of the motherboard. 00:01:39.360 --> 00:01:43.880 Because ATX didn't rely so much on connectors that were already built into the case, it 00:01:43.880 --> 00:01:49.080 gave motherboard manufacturers much more flexibility as to which interfaces they wanted to support 00:01:49.080 --> 00:01:54.240 and made it easier for users to upgrade their computer without changing out the case. 00:01:54.360 --> 00:02:00.040 ATX also introduced the familiar ATX power supply, which was really important because 00:02:00.040 --> 00:02:04.600 it allowed for software control of that front power button, so you could just press it to 00:02:04.600 --> 00:02:09.840 tell the PC to shut down properly instead of just killing the power. 00:02:09.840 --> 00:02:14.040 But it wasn't until the late 90s and early 2000s that there was a big push from the industry 00:02:14.040 --> 00:02:20.600 to move away from beige boxes and really rethink both how people would tinker with their PCs 00:02:20.600 --> 00:02:23.680 and how computers would look aesthetically. 00:02:23.680 --> 00:02:27.800 Now you're probably familiar with how black PCs started becoming more common around this 00:02:27.800 --> 00:02:33.200 time, including the next computer that Steve Jobs was pushing before he returned to Apple. 00:02:33.200 --> 00:02:38.440 Also, how mass-produced machines from companies like Compact started adding splashes of colored 00:02:38.440 --> 00:02:44.000 plastic. But one more interesting early trend was to give computers a more industrial look with 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:48.840 a shiny metal exterior, as we saw with the 2003 Antec Land Boy. 00:02:48.840 --> 00:02:53.120 It featured a lightweight aluminum chassis to allow it to be taken to LAN parties more 00:02:53.120 --> 00:02:59.120 easily, and even had a side panel window so you could show off your totally sick Athlon 00:02:59.120 --> 00:03:05.760 XP and be the envy of your fellow nerds. And it wasn't just custom builds by gamers that featured this aesthetic. 00:03:05.760 --> 00:03:11.320 Apple also jumped on this train with the PowerMac G5 with its famous Cheese Greater Front panel 00:03:11.320 --> 00:03:14.720 that inspired the Mac Pros that you can buy today. 00:03:14.720 --> 00:03:19.040 Of course, not all gamers wanted that look, as this was also around the time you started 00:03:19.040 --> 00:03:24.080 seeing those all-acrylic cases that people would often fill with neon parts. 00:03:24.080 --> 00:03:28.240 Those builds did look extremely messy, but hey, they were a heck of a lot more interesting 00:03:28.240 --> 00:03:35.520 than buying a beige box from Dell. Not long after, in the mid-2000s, 3.5-inch drive bays started to disappear, and when 00:03:35.520 --> 00:03:40.280 a case did still have them, users would often install a different device, like a card reader 00:03:40.280 --> 00:03:44.400 or a fan controller to make use of the space because people simply didn't need floppy 00:03:44.400 --> 00:03:48.000 drives much once USB drives became a thing. 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:53.600 So people were now thinking, then, about removing unnecessary features from cases rather than 00:03:53.600 --> 00:03:58.640 adding more. Combine this with the continued popularity of windowed cases and design philosophies 00:03:58.640 --> 00:04:04.460 shifted towards making builds look more tidy and elegant, hence built-in cable management 00:04:04.460 --> 00:04:09.840 features becoming popular in the late 2000s, tempered glass in the mid-2010s, and of course, 00:04:09.920 --> 00:04:15.360 minimalistic aesthetics overall, driven in no small part by fractal design. 00:04:15.360 --> 00:04:20.800 Even tackier designs like the infamous Antec Landboy Air, which could fit over two dozen 00:04:20.800 --> 00:04:26.920 fans and featured bungee supports for hard drives, used modularity as their ethos, so 00:04:26.920 --> 00:04:31.960 the case was supposed to be easy to rearrange or strip down as the user saw fit. 00:04:31.960 --> 00:04:37.160 It wasn't. This was also a time where components were becoming more powerful than ever, and real 00:04:37.160 --> 00:04:41.200 thought needed to be put into ensuring that systems were cooled properly. 00:04:41.200 --> 00:04:48.840 The Antec P180 from 2006 featured a separate chamber for power supply cooling, similar 00:04:48.840 --> 00:04:53.960 to today's power supply basements, and in the early 2010s, we started to see cases make 00:04:53.960 --> 00:04:59.240 excellent use of the space once taken up by clunky bays for optical drives and full-sized 00:04:59.240 --> 00:05:04.680 hard disks, and instead dedicated to water cooling radiators and reservoirs. 00:05:04.760 --> 00:05:10.440 Even gamers not running a fancy liquid cooling setup often could use that space as one gigantic 00:05:10.440 --> 00:05:14.720 air intake. Oh yeah, and somewhere in there, RGB happened. 00:05:14.720 --> 00:05:17.960 People really like RGB, that did merit a mention. 00:05:17.960 --> 00:05:21.640 Thanks for watching guys, leave a like or dislike depending how you felt, check out 00:05:21.640 --> 00:05:25.600 our other videos, and leave a comment if you have a suggestion for a future as fast as 00:05:25.600 --> 00:05:28.600 possible. And don't… don't forget to subscribe.