Aluminium case were one of the first casing trends to hit the desktop PC market, the first models arriving well before the waves of uber-customized cases, windows, cold-cathode tubes and other gimmicks flooded computer stores near you. There's a good reason for their early arrival too, since aluminium makes a lot of sense as case material. Besides the aesthetic appeal of brushed aluminium, it's also massively lighter than steel.

While fancy plastic and steel cases are now the order of the day, aluminium cases still have a high-end niche in the market and have retained a lot of their initial cachet (and high prices; aluminium is not cheap).