It’s a niche market for people who enjoy showing off their computer cabinets

The problem is that it is not a niche market for producers…and practically the standard.

We now have a situation where almost every computer case needs to be glass, ready for water cooling, preferably hidden cables, no visible hard drive or other components, and 10+ RGB fans.

Then there are people like me who want a lot of hard drives in a case or a fancy NAS solution? Well… Sure, here are 1 or 2 at the bottom or at the top, where there is not good airflow or other conditions. Oh, no, you want more hard drives, well, here’s a water cooling RGB case where you can buy slots for 20€/2. See, for just 100€ extra, you can install 10 hard drives held in place by a single screw and A thin piece of metal. But it looks pretty, doesn’t it!

It’s too bad, if you want a little storage, you often have to buy a 15 year old can or find something via China (often out of stock because demand is greater than production). You simply won’t find anything new here anymore. Or expensive backplane server cases (or old used servers) must be used (suitable for audio/power usage).

The truth is that it is no longer a niche field, with glass/water cooling becoming the norm. Worst of all is that many systems do not require water cooling, and a simple €30-40 air cooler is sufficient for quiet operation. But then you have crazy situations where people over-engineer water cooling. Cases can have up to six fans and no airflow. “Producer: But it looks nice, doesn’t it!” The entire outlook for jobs over the past 10 years is a big problem…

And yes, I understand that not everyone needs SSDs, but it has turned out to be such that the other market is simply too scarce (or you are paying too much). But calling it niche is a very poor wording.