My dad was a computer network engineer in the 90s. His job was to build computer labs—that’s what they called server rooms back then—and by extension he also built one in our dining room, so my house was filled with the hum and whirr of beige boxes. Boxes that looked a whole lot like Silverstone’s newest throwback PC case, which PCWorld’s Adam Patrick Murray got to hug on the Computex show floor.
The new FLP-02 design is similar to the horizontal retro case SilverStone released last year, a former April Fool’s joke made real. But that one was for the 80s kids, whereas this new beige tower is for those of us who know Kevin Conroy will always be the best Batman. It’s a fully standard ATX case even if it looks like it fell out of a time machine, and it’s the first one I’ve seen in a long time that has real 5.25-inch external drive bays. Those faux floppy spacers don’t do anything, but they sure sell the effect.
Just beneath them is a custom 5.25-inch control panel. You get a physical power switch, a lock (that works!), and a gen-you-ine “Turbo” button with LED display where actually pressing that button will adjust your fan speed with the internal manager. Finishing external touches include a magnetic cover for the modern USB ports and a period-accurate “puffy” sticker for the SilverStone logo. On the inside, you get pretty much everything you need to build a full-sized gaming machine, including support for 360mm coolers, vertical-mounted GPUs, and all that jazz.
SilverStone says it’s going to bring this to market, but no specific date or price announced yet. Adam says the worst-case scenario is about $220. For more on the latest PC hardware from Computex, be sure to subscribe to PCWorld on YouTube and check out The Full Nerd podcast.