Computer Design Thoughts

[Admiral X]

So the vast majority of home computers these days are towers it seems. But, remembering with some nostalgia, I rather liked the design of the old desktops like the Compaq Prolinea 433 and the Apple Macintosh IIsi. Whatever caused the old desktop designs to go out of fashion, and do you think they could ever make a comeback?

[SlackerinDeNile]

Possibly, they're rather effective in office workplaces, particularly large-scale layouts with a lot of people separated by cubicles.
For the home environment nowadays I don't personally see the point in them but similar case designs still exist so you can build one
in that shape.

[PerrySimm]

Moving from the classic "desktop" to the minitower had two advantages.

First, the computer does not need to actually take up your whole desktop,
Second, the system can be effectively cooled by vertical airflow within the case.

You still see the general shape in some portable gamer cases and HTPC-type cases. Unless you use the wide, low form factor for, I dunno, a liquid cooling bath, I don't see it as a substantial advantage in an way.

[Durandal_1707]

So the vast majority of home computers these days are towers it seems.

Don't laptops outnumber them?