LOOP concept makes your PC (almost) immortal

(Credit: Ecofriend)

For those not IT-savvy enough to build and upgrade their own PCs, what happens is that once the machine becomes impossibly obsolete, the owner will buy a new desktop and ditch the old one. Meanwhile, before buying a new computer, the user is essentially stuck with the same old components unless he can get someone to upgrade the hardware for him.

Hong Kong industrial designer Jocko Chan has a better idea. He created a PC design for Dell that uses no screws at all, making disassembly and upgrades a breeze. Part of his LOOP concept sees the consumer renting the internal hardware (for a fee), and engineers regularly upgrading the internal components for a fee and recycling those that are obsolete. Keeping the same chassis and just changing the essential parts cuts down on waste as well.

It's still a pipe dream at this point, but we must say that even if the LOOP doesn't take off, the PC design is droolworthy enough that we hope Dell will at least adopt this unique chassis in the future.

(Credit: Ecofriend)

(Source: Crave Asia via Ecofriend)

[albertsoler]

This article makes no sense to me.

First of all: Renting components? As opposed to leasing a whole PC? Leasing always has a higher TCO than buying unless you apply some sort of tax saving mojo. If you're leasing or renting, just get a whole new PC every year or so.

Second: "..no screws at all, making disassembly and upgrades a breeze." Is that supposed to be a new concept? If it's such a breeze, why do you need to pay an "Engineer" to upgrade your stuff?

There's no there there in this story.

[nihilisticmystic]

It makes no sense to you because you are a smeghead

[DanVogelsong]

This is a brilliant idea.
Most computers are borderline obsolete once they're sold, and the general populace has a bad track record of upgrading their own equipment. A Computer that you can upgrade any of the hardware as new things come available? Heck YES I want one.

As for the second point Albert brought up, a engineer would be available for some hardware upgrades. While some hardware is plug-in-play, most is not. The average Joe won't know how to transfer his files from a multi-Gigbyte to a TB hard drive. Some people don't even know where to get drivers for a new mouse, so looking for drivers for a video card is out of the question, and lets not even touch BIOS settings(for windows) or Drive partitioning (for linux)

[jlt0x]

Interesting concept.

I guess the 1st step to really making the LOOP concept successful would be to set up more Dell stores to do these hardware "swaps". Most PC/laptop users aren't savvy at installing software/hardware updates. A store or tech center is most-definitely required. Think of it like the Apple & Sony shops that have tech professions on site ready to help.

Most of the exterior components can be designed to simply snap in-place, with some sort of release tab or button. I would caution against making too many internal components as easy to remove to prevent the novice from pulling out something that could render the entire system inoperable.

My name is Michelle and I work at Dell. We were all inspired by Jocko?s design, along with all the other ideas entered alongside his in last year?s ReGeneration International Green Computing Technology Design Competition. To be clear, though, LOOP isn?t a real Dell product and isn?t on our roadmap. That said, our design teams continue working hard to ensure our computers are as environmentally-responsible as possible, from the materials used to construct them, to the energy it takes to power them, to the ease of recycling them. You can learn more about Dell?s green initiatives at www.dell.com/earth.