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Wooden Aerodyne PC makes you want to live in Rapture
If we were blessed with a fortune, a mansion and a butler, the first thing we'd do is contact Jeffrey Stephenson -- maker of truly beautiful art-deco wooden case mods. He's produced another stunner with the Aerodyne: a fanless mahogany case with Rocketeer-style accents and a radio grille (picture after the break) we'd expect to hear Andrew Ryan barking out of. Unlike his other mods, the amazing Mr Stephenson is planning a small run of these cases for people to buy, so the only thing left to ask is -- can anyone lend us a tenner?
Apple co-founder Ron Wayne's stash of early documents (eyes-on)
About a week ago, we traveled to the desert to spend two days with Ron Wayne. The 77-year-old Pahrump, Nevada resident has had a number of careers in his long life, working for Atari, a few slot machine companies, developing devices for use on the ocean floor and running a collectables shop in Northern California. In his semi-retired state, Wayne sells stamps and coins to supplement his checks from the government. He's no doubt best known, however, for his role in the founding of the Apple Computer company, alongside Steves Jobs and Wozniak, a role at which he spent a little more than a week. During our time in Pahrump, Wayne was kind enough to let us comb over a number of papers from his days with the nascent computer company. The documents, stashed in a USPS mailer kept by the door of his office, were a veritable treasure trove of information, including pages of pages of plans and pencils drawings of an Apple I enclosure Jobs asked Wayne to build -- his creation was ultimately rejected by Apple and lost to history as the company gained steam. Also stored in the envelope were a facsimile of the contract signed by Wayne, Woz and Jobs, which recently sold on auction for more than $1 million -- in fact, it was Wayne's original copy that hit the auction block. He had parted ways with it for far, far less some time ago. Wayne's Statement of Withdrawal is in the pile as well -- the document effectively ended his term with the company, filed for a $5 fee. Also inside are an Apple I operation manual, with the company's original logo, designed by Wayne himself and an Apple II order form. Check out all of the above in the gallery below.%Gallery-141277%
Ion iCade Arcade Cabinet review
The iCade Arcade Cabinet began as an April Fool's joke in 2010, but this golden unicorn of iPad accessories has actually made it to production, showing up at our door last week. iCade creator ThinkGeek partnered with Ion to make this former imaginary gadget a reality, and so far it appears to be a hit, backordered for weeks soon after hitting the online store in April. The $100 cabinet pairs with your iPad or iPad 2 over bluetooth, bringing familiar hardware arcade controls to the Atari's Greatest Hits app, which includes classics like Missile Command (free), and Pong, which you can download from within the free Atari app for $1. The iCade is an awesome addition to your gaming collection, but it won't replace the hours of coin-dropping at your local arcade. Read on to find out why this accessory may become a permanent fixture on our desk. %Gallery-124649%
Thermaltake Level 10 GT modded to the high heavens, shows off spacious interior (hands-on)
We'll readily admit that Thermaltake's Level 10 GT case isn't for everyone. Its exeskeleton-emulating protrusions don't exactly blend in well with living room decors, and the company seems to like it that way. Computex 2011 has been the victim host to a whole bevy of customized Level 10 GTs, which exhibit a love for all colors in the rainbow and a fascination with the humble LED light. Underneath the aesthetic excesses, however, you'll find a practical and very roomy case that'll happily serve as the fashion-challenged home to your next super rig. 200mm fans spin almost inaudibly, individual hard drive enclosures make hot-swapping storage a doddle, and as you'll see in the gallery below, all the mods feature retractable headphone hangers. What will they think of next? %Gallery-124852%
PC modding takes an architectural twist with Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired Usonian
We admit, we're pretty jaded when it comes to PC casemods, having seen everything from the inscrutable Edelweiss to Russian Ark of the Covenant-like monstrosities. Jeffrey Stephenson, though, charmed us with his wood-carved Level Eleven case, and now he's back with Usonian, inspired by the work of famed Fallingwater architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Split-level cantilevered roofs made of teak, mahogany highlights, all that Cherokee Red and Covered Wagon coloring – it's enough to make an architecture nerd swoon. Beneath all that fine styling it sports an Intel Core i7-875K on a Gigabyte Mini-ITX motherboard, with 8GB system memory. There's a 256GB SSD along with a 2TB hard drive, so it's not just built for looks; Wright, after all, emphasized utility over pointless fashion. Still, it's very pretty to look at. More pics in the source link and after the break.
Lian Li PC-U6 Cowry case: an aluminum seashell to keep your PC looking stylish
It takes quite a bit to get us excited about desktop case designs these days, but Lian Li's voluptuous new PC-U6 Cowry would seem to qualify pretty easily. It's fashioned after a seashell, giving it an appearance that's remarkably fresh and novel for such a well developed market, but it's also functionally useful -- the deepest part of the case is exactly where graphics cards would be expected to reside, permitting it to accommodate a video card as long as 310mm. There are also two 120mm side-mounted fans, a red LED kit, room for a full-sized power supply, and tool-free mounts for three 3.5-inch and two 2.5-inch storage drives plus an external 5.25-inch ODD. All that goodness is encased in an aluminum body and coming at you later this month for $349. How could you possibly resist? Video of the Cowry follows after the break.
Thermaltake's Level 10 GT enclosure gets reviewed, deemed more practical than its predecessor
If you've never heard the words "form over function" used to describe a computer case, you must've missed Thermaltake's Level 10 last year. Sure, it made us do a double take with its BMW-designed, super modular chassis, but its 50-pound weight and $750 price made it an impractical choice for a sizable chunk of the enthusiast crowd. Almost a year later, The Tech Report has gotten its hands on its successor, the $270 Level 10 GT, and deemed it much more fit for real-world use. This time, the company decompartmentalized the 3.5-inch hard drive bays -- all while adding an extra 5.25-inch bay and making room for an external 2.5-incher. Nonetheless, the GT isn't without imperfections -- the reviewer found a few spots where the build quality was lacking. If you've had your eye on one of these, we highly recommend perusing the extremely thorough review at the source link.
iCade arcade cabinet for iPad starts selling at $100, already on backorder
Humans, they just love mixing the old with the new. To wit, the iCade gaming cabinet for the iPad, an April Fools' joke that was just a fun idea this time last year, has gone and turned very real, replete with FCC certification and now a pre-order page. The Bluetooth-communicating iPad enclosure seems to have originally been on sale for immediate delivery, but ThinkGeek has burned through its first shipment of units faster than you can say "Atari's Greatest Hits." The second batch of $100 iCades is expected by May 20th at the very latest, although orders are being taken only from the US for now. The rest of the world needn't despair, however -- we hear building one of your own is a pleasurable and rewarding experience.
Ask Engadget: best non-garish ATX mid-tower for the budget gamer?
We know you've got questions, and if you're brave enough to ask the world for answers, here's the outlet to do so. This week's Ask Engadget question is coming to us from Zach, who needs a new home for his PC internals. If you're looking to send in an inquiry of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com. "For various reasons, I am going to be moving my computer around a lot more frequently soon, and I am looking for a new computer case that's relatively easy to take around. Basically, I mean the type of case with handle(s) on the top. It needs to be an ATX mid-tower, and I'd like it as cheap as I can get without it being horrible (I do have an overclocked CPU and a dedicated cooling unit, so it needs to be well-vented). I'm not a fan of garish cases with lots of LEDs -- I especially really dislike green / blue LEDs (I'm getting really sick of my current case, which is decked-out in blue). I might be cool with red or orange, though. However, any aesthetics come second to utility and price." Zach, we like your style. You're probably well on your way to becoming a man, and a sophisticated one at that. Here's hoping you'll receive loads of similarly sophisticated answers from sophisticated men and women below.
Thermaltake's Max 5G dual-fan USB 3.0 HDD enclosure cools your platters with style
We know what you were thinking: my external hard drive enclosure is nice and all, but why is it so quiet? Well, Thermaltake is here to fix that with its new Max 5G dual-fan enclosure. Outside the fans and the fancy LED lights (which can be switched off, if you're feeling unextreme one particular morning), the enclosure is pretty great itself, with a smokin' USB 3.0 plug and support for high-end 3.5-inch SATA 3.0 drives. The fans are to promote long life on your hard drive and "data integrity" and all that, but pretty much they just say to your SATA drive: "I care." And isn't that all that matters? The enclosure is available for pre-order right now for $52, no word on release.
Rugged LaCie Tank enclosure protects external HDDs, gaming handhelds, family heirlooms
Hard to say why being "manufactured in Italy" is the reason for this thing's "guaranteed durability," but hey, there it is! LaCie's tough-as-nails Tank is little more than a robust, rugged, waterproof enclosure for anything small enough to sneak inside of it, but the internal foam cubes can be repositioned in order to house a top-secret external HDD, your cousin's DSi or your wife's gargantuan wedding band. Heck, you may even get two out of three in there. It's IP-63 certified to protect against dust and "pouring rain," and it measures 1.6- x 4.8- x 7.3-inches. Humorously, the warranty stops after 365 days, but look, it's built "like a fortress," okay? Now hand over your £19.99 ($31) and rest easy, bronco.
Screen Grabs: Thermaltake Level 10 plays coy on NCIS: Los Angeles
Screen Grabs chronicles the uses (and misuses) of real-world gadgets in today's movies and TV. Send in your sightings (with screen grab!) to screengrabs at engadget dt com. It ain't the first time we've seen fresh hardware hit the small screen, but we can't think of a chassis much larger than this making a cameo on the tele. Thermaltake's monstrous Level 10 enclosure popped up on NCIS: Los Angeles this week, with Chris O'Donnell doing his darnedest to lift valuable information off of the internal HDDs via telepathy. Or maybe we missed the point. [Thanks, Daniel]
Apple snags Liquidmetal IP, may just revive the eMac with an amorphous metal chassis
Ah, who are we kidding -- we're guessing a true, bona fide headless iMac would hit the market before the eMac ever makes a triumphant return, but it's surely a novel thought, no? In a recent 8-K filing with the SEC, Apple made public that it had essentially acquired "substantially all of [Liquidmetal's] intellectual property assets," not to mention a "perpetual, worldwide, fully-paid, exclusive license to commercialize such intellectual property in the field of consumer electronic products in exchange for a license fee." In other words, Apple just bought up the rights to integrate Liquidmetal's amorphous metal alloys into its product line, which would allow the company to create metallic wares without sweating the typical structural or strength limitations found in conventional metals. There's no mention of dollars exchanged here, nor any details on what exactly Apple plans to do with its newfound IP (shown after the break), but we're guessing the procurement team didn't sign the dotted line for kicks and giggles.
International bubble envelope conceals soft, fuzzy phone case
Not that we haven't seen unorthodox cases before, but there's just something -- how do you say? -- insanely awesome about this one. Disguised as a beat up, reused envelope from the LOL Post, this rip proof, water proof, writable Tyvek case is padded on the inside and perfectly ready for your mobile, PMP or iced-out Rough Riders chain. And those ill-willed jerks on the subway won't ever think to yank your finger for it. It's all yours for DKK 99,00, or around $16.22 in American dollars.
Thermaltake shoves SATA HDD docks into V9 BlacX Edition PC enclosure
PC chassis enthusiasts (yeah, there is such a thing) will surely know that Thermaltake's V9 Black Edition has been out for a couple of years now, but there's evidently quite a bit of difference in the V9 BlacX Edition. Aside from that awkward letter change, of course. The otherwise ho hum mid-tower enclosure -- complete with a black outer shell, seven PCI expansion slots and a grand total of ten drive bays -- spruces things up by offering a pair of SATA HDD docks right on the front panel. Basically, the company took one of these right here and smashed it into the front of its newest enclosure. With it, you'll able to shove any spare 2.5- or 3.5-inch SATA hard drive right into your system for quick access, all without needing an external peripheral to do it. In fact, we just made a promise to ourselves to never buy another case without this kind of magnificent integration. Check it this August for $99.
Lian Li's T1 Mini-ITX Spider case shakes it real good at Computex (video)
Lian Li's T1 Mini-ITX Spider case just started shipping to those with a thing for oddities in late May, and the strangest PC enclosure since the Thermaltake Level 10 made its way to Taiwan this week for Computex. 'Course, the Gigabyte system loaded onto it was fine and dandy, but it's the moves it made that truly stole the show. Hop on past the break to see a chassis shake the thing its momma gave it. Yeah, you read that right.
Wooden Level Eleven PC gets inspiration from Thermaltake Level 10 chassis
Let's face it -- if you had a never-ending stack of cash and a computer room with no particular size constraints, you too would own a Thermaltake Level 10 enclosure. Regrettably, both financial and square footage constraints do indeed play major roles in most of our lives, including one Jeffrey Stephenson. This fine gentleman is quickly becoming the Ben Heck of wood-grained mods, this time cranking out a lovingly crafted iteration of the aforesaid chassis, but with that special wooden flair. The Level Eleven gets its inspiration from the gargantuan Level 10, but rather than taking things even bigger, Jeff decided to scale things down a notch; in fact, he constructed a fully functional PC within the handmade enclosure, all based around a VIA Pico-ITX mainboard and a 1.2GHz VIA Nano CPU. Thanks to the onboard VX855 media processor, this (comparatively) diminutive machine boasts an HDMI output and enough horsepower to pump out 1080p sans lag -- but it doesn't seem as if this bad boy is officially for sale. Not that he'd reject a five-figure offer or anything...
Level 10 gaming chassis gains Asetek liquid cooling solution
We're guessing that most Level 10 owners spend more time dusting off their chassis than actually using it for "computing purposes," but those that have been pinching their pennies in order to snag one now have yet another reason to do so. Asetek, which knows a thing or two about system cooling, has teamed up with iBuyPower in order to deliver the first and only liquid cooling option for what's quite possibly the planet's most astounding PC enclosure. The pain? Not a dime, as the option is now standard equipment on systems that include the case. Huzzah! %Gallery-85267%
Lian Li masters PC chassis marketing, gets our attention with T1 'Spider' video
It's a well known fact ('round these parts, anyway) that Lian Li is one of the more creative PC chassis manufacturers on the planet, but who knew the company responsible for crafting a case in the likeness of Dubai's own Burj Al Arab had a top-notch marketing staff, too? In the video past the break, the company's innovative new open-air Mini-ITX benchmarking case is revealed to the world, and while the device itself is a fantastic creation, it's the pitch that really sells it. Essentially, the highly flexible T1 Pitstop "Spider" is made for hosting smaller systems for limited amounts of time, making it easier to test and benchmark a litany of systems without having to crack open a traditional case with each setup. We're still trying to determine whether or not Lian Li truly expects to build and sell this thing, but whatever the case, the clip awaiting you below is totally worth a watch.
Sarotech updates book-like Hardbox to version 3.0, embraces SuperSpeed USB
We'll just come at you straight -- the world needs a more varied selection of external hard drives. Aside from the occasional LaCie / Lego-inspired alternative, there's really a stark lack of style when perusing the storage shelves at Best Buy. Sarotech's been one to blaze its own trail before, but we've yet to see a serious update to the impossible-to-hate Wizplatz W-31... until today, of course. The Hardbox 3.0 is, for all intents and purposes, a refreshed version of the aforementioned unit, and this HDD enclosure sports a sleek, all-black exterior along with a full complement of updated hardware that supports USB 3.0. It's apparently available with 1TB, 1.5TB, 2TB or 3TB within, though it sounds as if you'll have to wait until at least February to find one available for shipping. It'll be worth it, though.
