'Dune Case' for PCs Copies Mac Pro's Cylindrical Design

[CEmajr]

But Apple didn't invent the cylindrical design, this is just the natural progression of PCs. Apple didn't innovate anything I swear!

 

[richwoodrocket]

This thing looks awfully small... I'm thinking cable management will be a nightmare, even though they say it won't be.

 

[SchneiderMan]

You'll be hard pressed to name one company who hasn't copied Apple yet.

 

[LLIBSETAG]

APPLE WILL SUE THEM INTO OBLIVION. THE DUNE WILL GET ZUNED!

 

[Toltepeceno]

I don`t get all the whining. After the first rectangular computer case was made there were and are tons of companies making rectangular cases. Where is the whining there?

It looks like apple stole the cylindrical idea from somewhere else anyway. 2005.

http://www.maximumpc.com/fic-piston/

Apple didn`t make tbe first rectangular phone, the first rectangular tablet. How about rectangle shaped monitors? Who made the first? The apple watch, rectangle, they copied rectangle watches. The apple watch is different than other rectangular watches? This case will hold a different computer than the mac pro. Same argument. Seriously I don't get the whining, would it be better if only one company made one shape of each thing? Christ.
[doublepost=1456034581][/doublepost]

You'll be hard pressed to name one company who hasn't copied Apple yet.

Apple has copied a lot of stuff also. Did anyone think the company that made the first rectangular case would be the only one to do it?

Is anyone getting upset about apple copying to make the pen for the ipad pro? The internals of this cylindrical case are different as are the pen so it IS the same thing. People getting upset over external shape.

Just happened to read this earlier.

http://www.applegazette.com/feature/6-things-apple-did-not-invent/

 

[JJayguy23]

I love it, yay for competition.

 

[Toltepeceno]

I love it, yay for competition.

It`s not competition though, this is just a case.

 

[APlotdevice]

I don`t get all the whining. After the first rectangular computer case was made there were and are tons of companies making rectangular cases. Where is the whining there?

It looks like apple stole the cylindrical idea from somewhere else anyway. 2005.

http://www.maximumpc.com/fic-piston/

The resemblance this case has to the Mac Pro goes beyond its basic geometric shape. The vents on the bottom, the way it curves on the top, and the IO panel on the back are all dead ringers.

I won't belittle the engineering skills of this group, as I'm sure they put a lot of time and effort into it. I'm frankly impressed that they managed to make this work with a standard motherboard form factor. But still, it's obviously meant to look like a Mac Pro.

 

[daveeasa]

Id buy this if it fit my GTX 970. But I'd love a case that looked like the classic G5 design, with maybe more ergonomic handles.

It is unfortunate that so much time and effort has been spent to create a good looking PC case that Apple will just shut down. PC cases are universally terrible, and there's really a market there.

One of these days I'll probably bite the bullet and buy a modified G5 case from eBay for my hackintosh.

I've done two G5 conversions now, first mATX and 2nd full ATX, using kits from David Chugg @ thelaserhive and I gotta say, I think I genuinely think it is worth it for the following reasons:

1. Re-purposing is even cooler than recycling, it makes me feel good and saves something beautiful from the landfill
2. The cases are attractive, airflow is awesome, and the pop out side door design totally rules. Swap a drive or card in seconds.
3. Apple logo with no risk of lawsuit
4. Tons of room inside, no limitations on any reasonable customization, full size graphics card no problem, liquid cool if you like.
5. Sense of accomplishment from the experience, just-right level of complexity, better pride of ownership
6. Ability to upgrade to your heart's content, no need to buy another case for the indefinite future.

I encourage anyone considering this to go for it regardless of your OS preference. You can get an old G5 case for less than $100 on eBay or Craigslist, they are past 10 years old now and have reached end of life so everyone is dumping them. From there you can spend another $100-$200 for a kit or just hack n slash and do it all yourself if you have more time than money.

Caveat, I seem to spend 3-5 full days on each mod and my wife hates me for it.

Photos, mostly of the ATX build with a few of the mATX at the end.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/phryr461b4ub7k1/AAASBcLx3i-H7resqrn1l7R-a?dl=0

 

[Toltepeceno]

Apple doesn't sell cases and as a whole there is more unlike the mac pro than like it as the internals are/will be completely different and there is far more to the inside of a computer than the outside. I won't be getting one OR a mac pro but people are too emotionally attached to a billion dollar company that could care less about them. Does the outside of the case look a lot like a mac pro? Sure but the outside of an apple watch looks a lot like just about any rectangular watch.

If apple were selling cases then it would be different.

In fact there is already another company selling cases like this.


http://m.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=I...m2428.l1313.TR7.TRC2.Ximagic+pi&sqp=imagic+pi

The resemblance this case has to the Mac Pro goes beyond its basic geometric shape. The vents on the bottom, the way it curves on the top, and the IO panel on the back are all dead ringers.

I won't belittle the engineering skills of this group, as I'm sure they put a lot of time an effort into it. I'm frankly impressed that they managed to make this work with a standard motherboard form factor. But still, it's obviously meant to look like a Mac Pro.

 

[H2SO4]

The triangular core was designed to fit inside a cylinder.

If the Mac Pro didn't have the triangular core... they could have made a cube.
[doublepost=1456002836][/doublepost]

Perhaps because round cases aren't really a good idea?

Any symmetrical shape is ‘designed’ to fit inside a cylinder. A cube would have fit just as well and the additional side could house CPU No.2? As it happens they have a single CPU and dual graphics cards, three parts that produce significant heat, hence the three sides.
A Banana Guard is designed, (shaped specifically), to fit a banana. They could just have easily put it into a square box and distributed packing and then said it’s designed to fit a banana.
[doublepost=1456037878][/doublepost]

In a way I agree, but consider this: if you were to make a cylindrical PC case, how much different can you make a cylinder design from a trash can or Mac Pro? Seriously, think about it. In fact people can find trash cans that look almost the same as the mac pro.

The 'real' innovation in the mac pro is the unified heatsink, and Dune isn't doing that, I think people are just overreacting to appearances.

Not even sure I’d call it real innovation. Our large power modules weigh about 60kg and have a ‘unified' heatsink that carries the IGBTs. On the smaller power supplies we make each transistor has its own heatsink.
It’s not a big leap of technology to put everything on one conductor. It works here because the device is small.

 

[trifid]

I've done two G5 conversions now, first mATX and 2nd full ATX, using kits from David Chugg @ thelaserhive and I gotta say, I think I genuinely think it is worth it for the following reasons:

1. Re-purposing is even cooler than recycling, it makes me feel good and saves something beautiful from the landfill
2. The cases are attractive, airflow is awesome, and the pop out side door design totally rules. Swap a drive or card in seconds.
3. Apple logo with no risk of lawsuit
4. Tons of room inside, no limitations on any reasonable customization, full size graphics card no problem, liquid cool if you like.
5. Sense of accomplishment from the experience, just-right level of complexity, better pride of ownership
6. Ability to upgrade to your heart's content, no need to buy another case for the indefinite future.

I encourage anyone considering this to go for it regardless of your OS preference. You can get an old G5 case for less than $100 on eBay or Craigslist, they are past 10 years old now and have reached end of life so everyone is dumping them. From there you can spend another $100-$200 for a kit or just hack n slash and do it all yourself if you have more time than money.

Caveat, I seem to spend 3-5 full days on each mod and my wife hates me for it.

Photos, mostly of the ATX build with a few of the mATX at the end.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/phryr461b4ub7k1/AAASBcLx3i-H7resqrn1l7R-a?dl=0

Great stuff, congrats. Modding can take a lot of time but it's a great hobby, definitely worth it. By the way, I hope you changed that stock intel heatsink, it doesn't seem noisy but under load it can get annoying...

 

[alexandercgomez]

Thanks for the positive comments guys. One thing I love about the community like macrumor is that its a place where you hear peoples opinions about various topics. There have been some really intelligent people commenting in these forums and I value the comments that have been made regardless if they like the Dune Case or not. The Dune Case is not for everyone and my purpose here in this thread is to help the readers understand that the Dune Case is simply a PC Case not a desktop computer. I had a vision to do something different for the PC and one year later we have the Dune Case. I made a lot of sacrifices away from family to bring something to the community that I think they would like which is not the conventional case made out of sheet metal but rather a case built with quality materials. We are a small startup and I hope we can get as much support for the Dune Case to enable us to continue to make a difference in design and build quality for the PC Case. Thanks everyone here for your contribution so far.

 

[Michael Scrip]

Any symmetrical shape is ‘designed’ to fit inside a cylinder. A cube would have fit just as well and the additional side could house CPU No.2? As it happens they have a single CPU and dual graphics cards, three parts that produce significant heat, hence the three sides.
A Banana Guard is designed, (shaped specifically), to fit a banana. They could just have easily put it into a square box and distributed packing and then said it’s designed to fit a banana.

So you think Apple started out making a small computer... settled on the radical triangular core... and THEN decided to wrap a cylinder around it?

That doesn't sound right.

I think Apple wanted to make a cylindrical computer... and the triangular core was the best way distribute the internals.

But hey.... we'll never know.

 

[alexandercgomez]

Great stuff, congrats. Modding can take a lot of time but it's a great hobby, definitely worth it. By the way, I hope you changed that stock intel heatsink, it doesn't seem noisy but under load it can get annoying...

Thanks for the comment .. one of the advantages of the case is you can put your own preferred parts .. I did test with a standard cooler but you can use another cooler

 

[APlotdevice]

Apple doesn't sell cases and as a whole there is more unlike the mac pro than like it as the internals are/will be completely different and there is far more to the inside of a computer than the outside. I won't be getting one OR a mac pro but people are running on emotion for a billion dollar company over logic.

If apple were selling cases then it would be different. I really will be surprised if apple shuts them down.

In fact tgere is already at least one company selling full computers.


http://m.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=I...m2428.l1313.TR7.TRC2.Ximagic+pi&sqp=imagic+pi

Internally it is very different, yes. But for all the talk of improved airflow, the point of this product is its appearance. Apple doesn't make cases, no. And that fact leaves the market open for things like this.

Now if this company or its representatives admitted to the aesthetic similarities, they would incur Apples wrath for sure. But please, lets not pretend that this wasn't their intent.

(And again, I'm not criticizing the engineering skills involved)

 

[emm386]

Of all this truly beautiful AND practical industrial design iterations that Apple engineers crafted, invented and brought to perfection, they seriously copy THIS??? The only one I remember, that is NEITHER?

This case iteration was not only hard to look at, but at the same time impractical. It requires about as little desk space as it offers internal peripherals. But "pro" users that attach a lot of external storage sure did not care..

 

[trifid]

Of all this truly beautiful AND practical industrial design iterations that Apple engineers crafted, invented and brought to perfection, they seriously copy THIS??? The only one I remember, that is NEITHER?

This case iteration was not only hard to look at, but at the same time impractical. It requires about as little desk space as it offers internal peripherals. But "pro" users that attach a lot of external storage sure did not care..

In today's Mac world of soldered ram, soldered ssd cable, soldered cpu, glued stuff etc, I miss this thing's easy access, so convenient... Someone should copy this

 

[H2SO4]

So you think Apple started out making a small computer... settled on the radical triangular core... and THEN decided to wrap a cylinder around it?

That doesn't sound right.

I think Apple wanted to make a cylindrical computer... and the triangular core was the best way distribute the internals.

But hey.... we'll never know.

Either way is just as likely. As I said before. They know that they will base everything around three major heat producers. They they ask themselves, ‘Hmm what’s a neat way to package this?’
There aren’t that may ways to do it.

 

[576316]

Thanks for the positive comments guys. One thing I love about the community like macrumor is that its a place where you hear peoples opinions about various topics. There have been some really intelligent people commenting in these forums and I value the comments that have been made regardless if they like the Dune Case or not. The Dune Case is not for everyone and my purpose here in this thread is to help the readers understand that the Dune Case is simply a PC Case not a desktop computer. I had a vision to do something different for the PC and one year later we have the Dune Case. I made a lot of sacrifices away from family to bring something to the community that I think they would like which is not the conventional case made out of sheet metal but rather a case built with quality materials. We are a small startup and I hope we can get as much support for the Dune Case to enable us to continue to make a difference in design and build quality for the PC Case. Thanks everyone here for your contribution so far.

You could have done all those things without copying Apple's designs. We're not saying you've made your own Mac Pro, so stop suggesting that. We're saying you've made a blatant copy CASE design. Which Apple could still sue you for!

 

[sudo1996]

The Mac Pro is a workstation, not a desktop PC, so it's no surprise it contains a Xeon and ECC RAM. It is overkill for most, but most people shouldn't be considering a Mac Pro.

Yes. But there are people who want a very powerful consumer-level machine. Other PC manufacturers cover that really well, and Apple doesn't at all. So we either make Hackintoshes or get old Mac Pros because Apple hates us. I'd say Windows users have it easy... if they weren't stuck using Windows.
[doublepost=1456046548][/doublepost]

So you think Apple started out making a small computer... settled on the radical triangular core... and THEN decided to wrap a cylinder around it?

That doesn't sound right.

I think Apple wanted to make a cylindrical computer... and the triangular core was the best way distribute the internals.

But hey.... we'll never know.

It's meant to be the same shape as the fan. Doesn't the fan have almost the same radius as the case? I don't know how well a triangular case would have worked; it would have required a much smaller fan or a much larger case.
[doublepost=1456046883][/doublepost]

In a way I agree, but consider this: if you were to make a cylindrical PC case, how much different can you make a cylinder design from a trash can or Mac Pro? Seriously, think about it. In fact people can find trash cans that look almost the same as the mac pro.

The 'real' innovation in the mac pro is the unified heatsink, and Dune isn't doing that, I think people are just overreacting to appearances.

They've got the exact same vent layout and tapering on the top and bottom. There are definitely ways they could have done it differently.
[doublepost=1456047094][/doublepost]

Whats so great about OSX.

Unix is one big reason. Also the non-janky UI and excellent developer tools.

 

[MH01]

In a way I agree, but consider this: if you were to make a cylindrical PC case, how much different can you make a cylinder design from a trash can or Mac Pro? Seriously, think about it. In fact people can find trash cans that look almost the same as the mac pro.

The 'real' innovation in the mac pro is the unified heatsink, and Dune isn't doing that, I think people are just overreacting to appearances.

you can make cylinder PC case that asthetically does not rip off the Mac Pro to the extend the Dune does.

Though you did ask how much different can a trash can look. Here is a quick google jobbie, cylinder PC, original design. I'd argue this is very different to the Mac Pro ripoff that dune has put together.

The real innovation in the Mac Pro is $$$$$$ apple has the funds to create customs Components that fit into it, for instance good luck getting 2xfull GPUs in a PC version.

Soooo....given the PC components you can buy these days, a cylinder case is kinda a waste of time due to the design/space restrictions. If your want a mini factor , get a cube. Cannot see any company making components that will fit cylinder cases anytime soon. A shuttle PC cube can take 2xgpu.

 

[emm386]

Unix is one big reason.

Unix? It's horrible and sluggish. Back when it was fitst released and still is today. On any hardware.

Try out A/UX - this is a "real" UNIX... big and clunky, not intended for desktop computers. Slow and greedy, no matter what hardware you throw at it...

Too good OS X is based on a BSD.. originally. Today not so much anymore...which is a pity, I think.

Apples UNIX - certification is mostly eye-candy. OS X is about as POSIX - compliant as a Windows NT Server with an installed Unix services subsystem..

 

[MH01]

I don`t get all the whining. After the first rectangular computer case was made there were and are tons of companies making rectangular cases. Where is the whining there?

It looks like apple stole the cylindrical idea from somewhere else anyway. 2005.

http://www.maximumpc.com/fic-piston/

Apple didn`t make tbe first rectangular phone, the first rectangular tablet. How about rectangle shaped monitors? Who made the first? The apple watch, rectangle, they copied rectangle watches. The apple watch is different than other rectangular watches? This case will hold a different computer than the mac pro. Same argument. Seriously I don't get the whining, would it be better if only one company made one shape of each thing? Christ.
[doublepost=1456034581][/doublepost]Apple has copied a lot of stuff also. Did anyone think the company that made the first rectangular case would be the only one to do it?

Is anyone getting upset about apple copying to make the pen for the ipad pro? The internals of this cylindrical case are different as are the pen so it IS the same thing. People getting upset over external shape.

Just happened to read this earlier.

http://www.applegazette.com/feature/6-things-apple-did-not-invent/

You are completely right, though it's not the shape people have issues with, and I'm the furthest from an apple fanboy on MR as I love PCs and Macs alike .

In relation to a cylinder case, yeah, apple did not event it, though when apple built own, they designed a unique aesthetic. The dune case copied aesthetically the Mac Pro very very closely.

There is not a single apple product ever made that had copied another product to the level this dune case has (in looks)copied the Mac Pro , and apple has copied a hell of a lot of things overtime.

I have one simple test , seeing the story for the first time, I thought this was a new colour for the actual Mac Pro. So basically a lot of people will confuse this with the Apple Mac Pro. Build a cylinder PC case , but don't pretend you did not ripoff the apple case almost identically . Lots of example of PC cylinder cases that are unique.

Had dune bothered to actually design a cool cylinder PC case, I would have considered buying it . It's what I miss in our industry right now innovation!

 

[Michael Scrip]

The real innovation in the Mac Pro is $$$$$$ apple has the funds to create customs Components that fit into it, for instance good luck getting 2xfull GPUs in a PC version.

MSI made an interesting gaming PC called the MSI Vortex.

They managed to put two Nvidia GTX 980 in SLI inside... but they are MXM cards. That's supposedly a standard for smaller graphics cards which, I think, was originally designed for laptops.

But you're right... normal PCIe graphics cards have a tough time fitting inside such small cases.

And forget about two of them

Not sure about the upgrade path... I doubt there will be an abundance of MXM cards in the future. But at least it's somewhat of a standard versus Apple's custom FirePro cards!

Soooo....given the PC components you can buy these days, a cylinder case is kinda a waste of time due to the design/space restrictions. If your want a mini factor , get a cube. Cannot see any company making components that will fit cylinder cases anytime soon. A shuttle PC cube can take 2xgpu.

Agreed. And that's what it all comes down to. You can already get tiny cube-shaped cases that accept normal PC components without all the tradeoffs of cylindrical cases.

Sure... this Dune case is less than 9 inches across... but where are you putting it where need it to take up so little space?

If I had to build a Mini-ITX PC for one GPU... I'd use this case:

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2014/01/10/cooler-master-elite-110-mini-itx-case-launc/

It's tiny... accepts a normal ATX power supply... accepts up to 210mm GPUs... accepts three standard 3.5" hard drives or four 2.5" drives... accepts watercooling... etc.

And if you need two GPUs... you gonna have to step up to a larger motherboard and a larger case anyway.