Interesting topic

[rickcr42]

Sadly, that would be too true of many people's PCs. However, it's more due to lack of education . How many PC makers stress the importance of regular internal maintenance ?In any case the majority of users would be too frightened to open their PCs, and too "frugal" to take them to a PC repair establishment on a regular basis, if they were unable to do this preventative maintenance themselves.SandyK

the manufacturers are beginning to make that task a difficult one.

EVERY computer I have ever owned once they introduced the tower syle chassis (anything past Windows 3.0 ) had a way to slide the cover off either entirely or one side so you could do just that (as well as do easy card inserts) but looking at a computer identical to the one i just blew up but a generation removed and looking at the rows of PCs in the store it seems they no longer WANT you to have easy access and are making it more difficult to access the internals.

Why this is i have zero clue but that it IS becoming a "norm" I have no doubts going on the evidence I see and may be just another example of inverse design where "if it works leave it alone" is no longer the rule but is in fact rapidly becoming the exception

[Spirit]

Rick I'm going to have to argue the opposite - I do a fair bit of maintenance work on a number of client's pcs, and if anything, I would have said it's getting easier to get into cases. I've seen more easily removed side panels - with thumb screws - in the past couple of years than ever before.

Can't argue with tool-less access to the innards of your pc...

[rickcr42]

we must shop in different quarters brother because the one thing that turned me off from getting prettymuch an identical computer to the Dell I just blew up is the lack of easy access to the "innards" and going to the local outlets I see pretty much the same trend in evidence and that trend is ?

More pretty lights,more pretty dress up sub panels on the front but less functionality actually showing until you open a "secret panel",more of those IDIOTIC vertical disc drives that are a bitch to use and less tool-less access to the down and dirty