Why are no new computers white?

[CJ Master]

It seems that after a point almost every computer case and monitor switched to black instead of white. Why is that? (I actually somewhat prefer the white cases.)

[MasterNetra]

It seems that after a point almost every computer case and monitor switched to black instead of white. Why is that? (I actually somewhat prefer the white cases.)

http://www.system76.com/product_info.php?cPath=28&products_id=103

Black sold better so apparently Black is now the normal color.

[Dustin2128]

popular demand. I for one prefer black to white. Of course, I'm also likely to modify my case with LEDs and large windows on the sides. If you don't like it, you could always transfer your hardware to a new case (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811164143). One good thing about those older style cases is that they tend to be dirt cheap because nobody wants them anymore.

[speedwell68]

Back in the day everything was that horrid off white colour, IIRC it was officially called Yuk. Then the odd machine started to come in black and that was considered cooler in some way and now they are all black or black and silver. Macs are still white and Dell have those awful choose your own colour laptops. Actually my Acer netbook is white.

[forrestcupp]

White is ugly and it makes it look like a cheap toy.

[WalmartSniperLX]

Oh man I remember the good days when the top selling, "in style" color was off-white beige. -shrugs-. I wouldn't mind a white case for a desktop but for laptops and input devices, the white gets dirtier in a shorter span of time. ;)

[schauerlich]

http://grab.by/grabs/aebe9f25573f79d673086bbd0eab7290.png

[BrockStrongo]

Apple is trying to copyright the colour white. So in the meantime their lawyers have issued a cease and desist to all companies making white cases :)

[WalmartSniperLX]

http://grab.by/grabs/aebe9f25573f79d673086bbd0eab7290.png

Exactly what I was thinking about when I talked about white getting dirty with use.

[73ckn797]

If you do not like the white Mac, you can always buy a colored cover.

[mamamia88]

black looks cooler

[blithen]

Heh oddly enough I just read an article on this something that could pretain to this.

back in the day plastics (Such as a computer monitor, and many consoles at the time) had to be mixed with flame retardent chemicals, which over time turned to a horrible yellow color (I'm sure some of you remember that)And you can't see them in a black color.

[schauerlich]

Exactly what I was thinking about when I talked about white getting dirty with use.

I have one, it's really not that bad. As long as you're not a total slob and take a damp cloth to it once a month it'll be fine. That should go for any computer, really.

[Austin25]

I wish there were more clear cases. Also, no glow in the dark?

[Usabent]

For some reason this thread feels racist to computers LOL

[drawkcab]

I got a hot deal on a white eeepc and I don't like it so much.

I really like my MSI 1561 which is black brushed aluminum on the top with a silver interior.

My Acer Revo is a hideous mix of black and white. Gotta <3 Acer. :P

A clear laptop or tablet would be pretty intense!!!

[CharlesA]

Heh oddly enough I just read an article on this something that could pretain to this.

back in the day plastics (Such as a computer monitor, and many consoles at the time) had to be mixed with flame retardent chemicals, which over time turned to a horrible yellow color (I'm sure some of you remember that)And you can't see them in a black color.

Interesting. I suppose that makes sense.

I think black looks better then white tbh, as it doesn't stand out as much.

Now if I could get a nice large case without having to swap out all of the fans for non-LED ones, I'd be set.

[pwnst*r]

It seems that after a point almost every computer case and monitor switched to black instead of white. Why is that? (I actually somewhat prefer the white cases.)

Actually most were off-white or beige. Ugh. I hated all of them.

[mendhak]

A generic, futuristic dull-gray would be nice as it's probably the best at hiding dirt/grime.
Next best would be black.

I said this in another thread, but there's nothing quite as ugly as a piece of technology that's white. It just looks cheap and tacky.

(I do, however, have a white Kindle and white EEE, thanks for reminding me of the things that embarrass me...)

[andras artois]

White gets filthy fast and shows up blemishes/scratches more.

[gnomeuser]

Once you go black you never go back.

[LarsKongo]

The only white case that I've seen lately is the Fractal Design Define R3. I haven't seen any other white mid-tower cases for a while, and I'm either getting that or a common black Lian-Li LanCool PC-K62. White looks nicer in my room, but the screwless design in the black lancool case may be better for me in the end. :p

[samalex]

I could be wrong, but I think most people think of Apple when they see a white case or Dell when they see a black case.... and beige looks very old-school. There's not much originality in case colors anymore.

For me my System76 laptop is white on the keyboard side and black around the monitor, so I guess it's the best of both worlds :)

Sam

[blueturtl]

I wouldn't mind the transition to black if it was the expensive hi-fi kind of black. Most black computer hardware is the cheap plastic crap we're used to today. A black keyboard where the text wears off the keys, yay.

Computers before were rarely white (the milky white color you see in Macs) but were actually kind of gray. As it is gray is a very non-intrusive color. The computers back then were so ugly they had to be hidden from view, which is what the color supported. Of course they are still mostly butt ugly but now they stand out everywhere except where a goth might live.

Oh but your question is why this is? I have no idea. I blame marketing.

[Tigerclawz]

Hope you're not hating on goths. ^^ Personally, I think the Halo/Iron Man/etc. futuristic 'military' look would be nice. As for what will be popular in the future, I'm thinkiiing, clear. I prefer black, but have light grey.

[Lancro]

My case is black and I love it, black is the best.

[slackthumbz]

Once you go black you never go back.

Gah! You beat me to it! :)

[MasterNetra]

Would like to see more color variants personally. but meh.

[cpmman]

Some got it right first time.

[forrestcupp]

Gah! You beat me to it! :)

By about three months. :)

[weasel fierce]

Give me a nice amiga grey any day.

[mips]

Heh oddly enough I just read an article on this something that could pretain to this.

back in the day plastics (Such as a computer monitor, and many consoles at the time) had to be mixed with flame retardent chemicals, which over time turned to a horrible yellow color (I'm sure some of you remember that)And you can't see them in a black color.

Dunno about that. That yellow discoloration was only on the surface, more so in an environment where people smoked.

It was pretty easy to get rid of the discoloration and restore the plastic to it's original colour. You just had to clean the surface with Clean Green or I think it's called Simple Green in the USA. Worked marvels and I restored many device to their original colour.

I still prefer the black though.

[mips]

Give me a nice amiga grey any day.

That was actually a very nice colour. A very light grey, just off white.

I also used to love the A1000 pizza box case design, I never owned one though. I wish they would bring the pizza box case designs back.

http://www.vibrant.com/images/products/sun_sparc10.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/db/Macintosh_LC.jpg/220px-Macintosh_LC.jpg
http://www.pugo.org/media/collection/computer/Amiga1000-2.jpg

[blueturtl]

Hope you're not hating on goths. ^^ ...

Oh absolutely not. I'm married to one, actually. :D

I just wish the PCs today would have more class to them. Being black with tons of stickers and different color leds just comes off a little tacky.

[c00lwaterz]

all colors is nice but depends on shading and style. also the kind of color use. some white are good and some is not. some black is good and some black color is not.

today most computer is black maybe it's more easy to clean and the stain is not obvious. they make different colors for you to choose.

[steev182]

Simple... To paraphrase Kanye West:

Barack Obama doesn't care about White computers.

Nah, seriously, Apple is transitioning to aluminium almost everywhere, which is nice, so we'll probaly start to see White cases now... I think the MacBook is going to be phased out and it'll be iPad, MacBook air and MacBook pro. Which isn't a bad thing, for laptop/mobile computing, it's either Apple or Lenovo for me.

[Shining Arcanine]

It seems that after a point almost every computer case and monitor switched to black instead of white. Why is that? (I actually somewhat prefer the white cases.)

They were beige, not white. Anyway, you can thank Steve Jobs and all of the other fashion oriented people. They decided that computers had to look different, which ruined things for the rest of us.

[johnb820]

That was actually a very nice colour. A very light grey, just off white.

I also used to love the A1000 pizza box case design, I never owned one though. I wish they would bring the pizza box case designs back.

http://www.vibrant.com/images/products/sun_sparc10.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/db/Macintosh_LC.jpg/220px-Macintosh_LC.jpg
http://www.pugo.org/media/collection/computer/Amiga1000-2.jpg

Yup, and the big old CRT monitor would sit right on top the pizza box.

[Old_Grey_Wolf]

Heh oddly enough I just read an article on this something that could pretain to this.

back in the day plastics (Such as a computer monitor, and many consoles at the time) had to be mixed with flame retardent chemicals, which over time turned to a horrible yellow color (I'm sure some of you remember that)And you can't see them in a black color.

"back in the day"

:lolflag:

I always thought that the horrible yellow colour came from all the people smoking cigarettes in the computer room. :)

Edit: Sorry mips, I see you already pointed that out.

[Quadunit404]

back in the day plastics (Such as a computer monitor, and many consoles at the time) had to be mixed with flame retardent chemicals, which over time turned to a horrible yellow color (I'm sure some of you remember that)And you can't see them in a black color.

I know what you're talking about, my SNES (both the broken one and the new one) are some sort of yellowish puke-like color.

Oh, and my sister's laptop (which was mfd. 2007) has a silver finish, does that count as white? :P

[mips]

Yup, and the big old CRT monitor would sit right on top the pizza box.

I still have a huge 22" HP CRT in the cupboard with a Mitsubishi diamondtron tube. Absolutely spectacular images, I'm not parting with it.
These days the LCD can take the place of CRTs. Would be nice if the pizza boxes could be orientated flat & upright.



"back in the day"

:lolflag:

I always thought that the horrible yellow colour came from all the people smoking cigarettes in the computer room. :)

Edit: Sorry mips, I see you already pointed that out.

Even without cigarette smoke the plastic turned yellowish, smoking just made it 10x worse. Either way the situation could be remedied with simple green.

[The Real Dave]

White is ugly and it makes it look like a cheap toy.

Cream was ugly ;) That said, it makes sense not to have white laptops, they get dirty easily >.<

[Nightstrike2009]

Originally PS's were all cream or Beige, this quickly became associated to business PC'S and gradually the home users got fed up and went to black or silver as they were made available.

Black seems more suited to home PC than silver or white, Apple think different but I run Linux so why would I care anyhow LOL :-)

[RabbitWho]

When silver was in fashion and all DVD players and VCRs and TVs were silver every single person I know bar none wanted everything to be black again.
All of the companies must have actually agreed with each other "Okay, none of us will make anything black, because everyone would buy that and it wouldn't be fair.. We'll wait till everyone has ugly silver stuff, then finally let them have the choice of black things again so that they upgrade even if they don't need to just to escape the awful awful silver."

Why do they **** with stuff? Almost everyone always wants black. Dell realize this.

Look at this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/SegaMegadrive2.jpg

Everything should look like this by default! How cool is that? That was the high point of human design.

[Sean Moran]

I'd really like it if my keyboard was white with nice big letters on the keys in black, so I could see what keys I'm typing from the reflection off the screen when I type on web forums in the dark of night.

There's obviously no correlation between computer science and ergonomics, or else the boffins would have worked out the practicalities many years ago. It's very hard to type on cute little gunmetal grey keyboards with tiny little beige letters with the reflection of a small LCD screen, but what IT genius would ever have thought of that?

[Easy Limits]

White computers are soooo last decade.

[Nightstrike2009]

I to I am a big fan of black, My PC is black with blue fans/lights, white PC's are better suited to hospitals where they belong (With the rest of the pale white bright rooms) LMAO

[JOHNNYG713]

have you ever tried to keep a white box clean ? My box silver alien ! still hard to keep clean!

[Sean Moran]

have you ever tried to keep a white box clean ? My box silver alien ! still hard to keep clean!
Isopropynol and a wet rag every morning takes off yesterday's fingerprints and dust without harming the internals. Only takes five minutes at most.


---o0o---

By 'wet rag' I mean NOT WATER, because water is dangerous to electronics, but spray the iso' onto the rag. Alcohol is kind to electronics in moderation. Now I've just been told over the phone that anymore alcohol for me tonight is not looking all that kind to my future re: relationships, so I have been instructed to logout and shutdown, turn on HBO and drink water in bed until I fall asleep with the tv on, so see you tomorrow, everyone.

[drawkcab]

I'm still waiting for a clear laptop.

Also my white eeepc is still chugging along. It hasn't discolored in a year and a half but the power cord is looking nasty. :(

[CJ Master]

Thanks for the replies, everyone. I guess black is just easier to clean and more in demand.

[NMFTM]

Hope you're not hating on goths. ^^ Personally, I think the Halo/Iron Man/etc. futuristic 'military' look would be nice. As for what will be popular in the future, I'm thinkiiing, clear. I prefer black, but have light grey.
You might like the HAF 932 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=HAF+932&x=0&y=0) as a case and the SideWinder X5 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826105223&Tpk=sidewinder%20x5) for a mouse. I have both. Currently, the only part of my setup that isn't black is my old school Compaq keyboard (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41xSdmccyaL._SL500_AA300_.jpg). Which I won't get rid of until it breaks. Because while gaming I like to push my keyboard back far enough that it overlaps the monitor stand and this keyboard's legs seem to raise it up a little higher than other keyboards I've looked at. Making it better for that purpose. It even has a credit card slot on the right side! It's completely useless because 1) no website that I know of supports that service and 2) it would only work with certain types of odd ball credit cards. But, it's still legit because I'm the only guy at the LAN parties who has a keyboard with a credit card slot. The response I usually get is "...wait, is that a credit card slot? I've never seen that before".

[HermanAB]

Black is the new white. You did not get the memo?

The original off-white colour came about when Apple created the Apple II in the 1980s. It was the cheapest colour for the then new ABS plastic.

[deanjm1963]

Coolermaster has a brand new white case - yes WHITE. Check it out!

[mips]

I was browsing the www.amibay.com site today and came across something very interesting there. If you want to restore old plastics to their original colour look into Retr0bright.

http://retr0bright.wikispaces.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retr0bright

Retr0bright is a public domain[1] chemical mixture used to remove yellowing from ABS plastic computer cases that were popular in the 1980s and 1990s, such as Commodore, Apple and Amiga computers.[2]. Yellowing is caused by both bromine and exposure to UV light. Bromine is added to ABS plastic, acting as a fire retardant.
Retr0bright is hydrogen peroxide, a small amount of an ‘active oxygen' laundry booster TAED as a catalyst and a UV lamp. Sunlight can be used instead of UV lamp.[3]
The optimum mixture and conditions for reversing yellowing of plastics:
Hydrogen peroxide solution, the stronger the better. 12% works fine. 6% works also, just slower.
UV light, either as sunlight or a UV lamp;
Approx 1/4 teaspoonful per gallon of "Oxy" laundry booster.
Xanthan Gum or Arrow Root can be added to mixture, creating an easier to apply gel.[4]
When making and applying the mixture, one should take proper safety precautions and wear protective gloves and goggles. Hydrogen peroxide can cause serious chemical burns and blindness if splashed in the eyes.

[handy]

lol

Or blonding of the hair.

mips you keep on knocking me out. Thanks.

Is this ground hog day or what?

[mips]

Is this ground hog day or what?

:D Nope, but that is classic movie though ;)

Do yourself a favour and go browse http://www.amibay.com/forumdisplay.php?f=83 for some cool DIY Amiga projects. Amazing what upgrades the guys performs on the likes of a lowly A1200. Probably spent a good 3hrs today just reading some of the peoples projects.

[mips]

http://retr0bright.wikispaces.com/

[handy]

:D Nope, but that is classic movie though ;)

Do yourself a favour and go browse http://www.amibay.com/forumdisplay.php?f=83 for some cool DIY Amiga projects. Amazing what upgrades the guys performs on the likes of a lowly A1200. Probably spent a good 3hrs today just reading some of the peoples projects.

So the surf was still no good eh?

[handy]

I enjoyed the Amibay site; found it educational & encouraging.

I fitted a Phoenix board (http://users.picknowl.com.au/~sirius/phoenix.htm) to an A1000 many years ago. It was a real blast as I was new to that kind of thing at the time. These days it is still a bit like work even after having been out of the game for over 5 years.

[ubunterooster]

Popular demand makes black more common. However, I have seen white in low-end laptops and in high-end systems

[MisterGaribaldi]

Most Macs are brushed aluminum with black details. The non-"pro" MacBook pictured up-thread is white polycarbonite. And no, I wouldn't want a white computer, unless it was a classic Macintosh.

[handy]

Popular demand makes black more common. However, I have seen white in low-end laptops and in high-end systems

Apart from the iMac, I wouldn't know what the story is on cases these days. I live in the country away from the big stores. I don't go looking in the one electrical goods store in town at computer stuff as I'd never buy that kind of equipment from them anyway.

When it comes to computers apart from the aforementioned exception I build my own & have multiple salvaged cases here apart from the full tower case which is in use & would keep its job of containing the gizzards if/when it needs a rebuild anyway. :)

[ubunterooster]

Very nice white case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146067

[coolbrook]

ASUS has some pretty white cases. The popularity of black may be attributed to the rest of the set up (monitor, keyboard.)

[MisterGaribaldi]

No thanks... I'll stick with black or metallic colors, tyvm.

[Gremlinzzz]

I blame Cheetos

[Evil-Ernie]

I prefer good finishes rather than colours, all my cases are custom built so I can have whatever colours I like. My live PC is matt black, its built from an old 2 channel mixer that was shiny blach so I repainted it :D

Ive just installed my old PC from a barebone frame into a drawer on my pine computer desk so its all hidden from view, just my screen and wireless keyboard/mouse on the work surface.

My next PC project will be to utilise my new skill of French polishing. I had to refinish my old oak round dining table last year, rather than spend a lot of money to get the traditional finish I wanted I just got hold of some shellac and taught myself! :)