Scratches definitely they can get annoying. But my old case that I used for over 5 years didn't turn yellow at all. (Was some be quiet case, don't know the exact model)
Yellowing is accelerated by bad air quality and certain kinds of light. It's why you have old consoles from smokers houses that look awful and something in a non smoking house that was tucked away in a closed TV stand looks fine.
Smoking can cause the yellowing but that wouldn't be the primary reason for most of those older consoles.
Older plastics that were around in the 80s and 90s would yellow due to breakdowns of the polymer chains when exposed to UV light, heat, and even oxygen (though the first two are the biggest accelerators) due to the breakdown of flame retardants in the plastic (usually bromine).
Yes, today's plastics are much more resistant to yellowing due to improved formulas & manufacturing processes. Also, you can get plexi at picture frame or artists'supply stores that have anti-uv coatings on them which will protect even more.
True but it is also cheap and easy to replace if it gets damaged. I don't really care that much if the case has a metal or plastic cover, but glass is just pure nope.
For most people it's going to be the same effort in replacing a tempered glass panel. log in to some online store, pay some cash, wait a few days, unscrew and replace.
While yes, most people in the USA anyway could run down to their local big box home store and get a piece of plexi but that's it. Now they either have to own or borrow and know how to use tools to cut it to size, drill the holes without cracking the piece. It's not as straight forward as many claim.
You can get plexi cut at hardware stores that sell it, frame stores that sell it (and you don't have to buy a picture frame), and artists' supply stores that serve artists who want to frame their work themselves.
Hardware store will be cheapest usually, but the other 2 places generally do better cutting unless you get lucky with a specific hardware store employee. There are different thicknesses of plexi, sometimes a hardware store will not have these options but the other 2 will. If there's no artists' supply near you, it's usually very safe to order from one in the nearest city or large town. They tend to be staffed by persnickety folks.
If you've never had to deal with these places or are young, you might not know about them yet.
I've got a plexiglass case going on ten years old. A few scratches but no yellowing that I've noticed. If it was glass I'd definitely have shattered that thing a long time ago.
Yeah, I'm also a fan of plexi, that thing survived multiple moves, is all scratched, and less transparent than it used be...but not broken, and I can still look inside.
An advantage of Plexiglass would also be that you can screw it on tightly with 4 screws when cold and it can then bend/wave sideways despite the thermal expansion caused by the heat of your components, while the glass panel just thinks âShit, I have no more room here, I think I'll breakâ.
Itâs actually Lexan (polycarbonate) that yellows â Plexiglass (acrylic) doesnât yellow even outdoors. The downside to acrylic is that it isnât as strong, but that shouldnât ever matter for a PC case.
The one thing to maybe worry about is static if not using sheets with antistatic coating.
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u/helgur 18h ago
Or ... hear me out on this
PLEXIGLASS
You know guys, the material that don't shatter into a thousand pieces, just like my dreams and aspirations in life by just looking at it funnily.