Smart PC cases are of course nothing new with some amazingly creative designs being created by case makers as well as keen enthusiasts and modders.
In the past, we have witnessed from some of the larger (and smaller) case makers, e.g. Cougars FV270 aquarium case which has an RGB turntable inside. Or to venture into more left-field experimental territory, how about Cooler Master’s shark-shaped gaming case? Or indeed some of the really elaborate case designs seen at previous Computex shows.
Two are actual PC cases and one is just a DIY concept that mods your existing case – but I love it so much I feel it needs to be mentioned. And anyone who played arcade games with coin will probably appreciate it just as much.
1. NextGear Clear Shift
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The NextGear Clear Shift, as highlighted by PC Watch (a Japanese tech site), has a built-in cloaking device, Star Trek style. Well, such a one. What Clear Shift actually does is turn the cabinet window panels (front and side) from transparent to opaque with the push of a button.
One minute the case is transparent and you can see the CPU, GPU and other hardware inside; the next minute it is opaque and you cannot see the insides at all. When the PC is off, it defaults to opaque, in case you were wondering.
Pretty cool? Definitely. Pretty pointless? Well, what’s the point of any of these fancy custom cases, other than to do something strikingly different that takes us away from the land of plain black mini towers?
That said, there could be a practical use for this case after all, given what we’ve heard about RAM being a new target for burglars, smashing and grabbing the stuff out of desktop PCs – at least with the NextGear Clear Shift, they won’t be able to tell if you’ve loaded 128GB of DDR5 inside your machine (at least not for a moment).
2. InWin Aeon
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Showcased at CES 2026, where it turned some heads to say the least, InWin’s Aeon case is described as a “vision beyond convention” and a “mechanized architectural statement”. Hyperbole? Well, yes, but in fairness this is a stunning case and definitely a statement.
It uses reflective mosaic panels to achieve a really smart, modern look, and the chassis shape makes the Aeon seem more like a futuristic artefact from a sci-fi movie than a PC case. On top of that, the chassis has an RFID card reader, and when the included card is swiped, the case opens to give super-slick access to the components (check it out in the promo video above).
3. Coin-op gaming PC
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Do you remember coin-ops or coin-operated machines in old-fashioned arcades? Here we have an external addition to a PC case: a coin mechanism. You have to put a certain coin in your machine to turn it on.
This is the brainchild of Mr Yeester, a hardware engineer with his own YouTube channel, which Tom’s Hardware discovered, and you can see the process of making this creation in the video clip above.
The end result is a separate coin receiver box that is connected to the gaming PC, and although the engineer uses a makeshift enclosure to save time, it could obviously be something a little more advanced. This is a very novel idea, and there’s also a safety element here: if you don’t have the right coin – the acceptor box checks the size and thickness of the metal using phototransistors and infrared LEDs – you can’t turn on the computer. Top marks for ingenuity here.
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