Nevertheless, no rule dictates that a computer can’t have any shape different from a box, as long as you have some kind of control over its hardware components shape and size.įurthermore, a box certainly isn’t the best form factor when ventilation is taken into account since it doesn’t facilitate convective airflow inside the case that’s why most PCs need one or more cooling fans.Īpple experimented with some innovative designs in the late 1990s, such as the Power Mac G4 Cube which still was a box, of course, but fanless, tiny, and square.
Indeed, it’s not a coincidence that the English word case originates from the Latin word capsa which indicates a (usually wooden) box and, if we look, for example, at the good old Apple I, we realize why this term is quite appropriate.Īn Apple I (1976) and its wooden case photo: Ed Uthman Trying something different: the Power Mac G4 Cube Furthermore, such a box should be large enough to accommodate all the above-mentioned parts, and still leave enough room to properly ventilate and cool the machine. The most natural shape for an enclosure into which all that stuff fits better is a rectangular box, you’d agree with me. Since the late Seventies, a typical PC is composed of flat rectangular components, usually configured as a relatively large motherboard into which a series of smaller boards, also flat and rectangular, are vertically plugged – video cards, network controllers, communication port cards, sound cards, and so on -, plus a series of other boxes of various sizes, such as disk drives and power supply units. Why are so many computers shaped like a rectangular box?
Have you ever wondered why so many desktop personal computers are shaped like a massive rectangular box? The reason, along with a certain lack of creativity by their designers, is mostly technical.
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Mac Pro 2nd generation, when Apple failed to change computer design Mac Pro 2, top view photo courtesy of Apple Inc.
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