Well, well...quite the breadth of opinions here...where do I jump in?
I love the current design, but I do see room for improvement. The plastic clasp is a little flimsy, mischief, but I think moving the mobo off of the door would be a step backwards. I have worked in my fair share of cases (PC and Mac), and the current Mac tower design...well...towers above the rest in terms of ease of opening/closing and working on the mobo. I'd much rather have the parts out from the case, than have to dig around in the dark and cramped recesses of the case.
Yes, the cables do take a lot of wear and tear. What do you foresee: rounded ATA, or Firewire for the interior cabling?
A new more heat/noise efficient design would be wonderful. Now that we've broken the GHz barrier, we need more/better cooling in our Macs. But I don't want a HSF screaming at me while I have the machine on. Moving the PSU out of the case would achieve a lot of good heat dispersion, but would be very difficult to implement. Then again, they did a pretty good job eliminating the brick adapte from the new iMac, so who knows?
I think the secret may lie in new materials. Aluminum cases are well-known as good for reducing heat. And Apple definitely has a thing for metallic looks in its Pro models. Could be...
I love the current design, but I do see room for improvement. The plastic clasp is a little flimsy, mischief, but I think moving the mobo off of the door would be a step backwards. I have worked in my fair share of cases (PC and Mac), and the current Mac tower design...well...towers above the rest in terms of ease of opening/closing and working on the mobo. I'd much rather have the parts out from the case, than have to dig around in the dark and cramped recesses of the case.
Yes, the cables do take a lot of wear and tear. What do you foresee: rounded ATA, or Firewire for the interior cabling?
A new more heat/noise efficient design would be wonderful. Now that we've broken the GHz barrier, we need more/better cooling in our Macs. But I don't want a HSF screaming at me while I have the machine on. Moving the PSU out of the case would achieve a lot of good heat dispersion, but would be very difficult to implement. Then again, they did a pretty good job eliminating the brick adapte from the new iMac, so who knows?
I think the secret may lie in new materials. Aluminum cases are well-known as good for reducing heat. And Apple definitely has a thing for metallic looks in its Pro models. Could be...
