Back in the good ole days of the GeForce2 and Pentium 4’s, tweaking a gaming machine led to one literally hot box. The overclocked processor generated so much heat that lack of adequate cooling literally melted hapless processors of the board. Workarounds ranged from installing large fans to even removing the case itself and having a deskfan blow at the PC. Now here’s a company resurrecting this 1999 practice.

Digital Cowboy from Japan announced its Acrylic Cowboy computer case  that eliminates  exterior case walls, which bring a rush of air to your PC. The lack of walls ensure no heat buildup. So even without monster cooling fans, the system stays cool. In fact this setup should be healthier for the PC than one of those custom build Thermaltake cases with gigantic fans enclosed into a constrictive shell. There’s a caveat, however. It leaves your computer innards open to all sorts of accidents - and dust assault. 

The company offers various styles to choose from, ranging from the minimal orange platform design of the ACPC3 to the burning fuschia ACPCD and the somber grey/black ACPC4. These models work with ATX or Micro ATX logic boards and come with the necessary bays to mount hard drives as well as other optical drives without much hassle. You can buy these Acrylic Cowboy cases  $37.

If you live in a clean place like at Sweden where the only dirt comes from someone coughing, it’s a superb setup that’d trounce a $400 Thermaltake. However, run this in Mexico and it’d choke on dust from all those mules running around.