iBuypower’s Project Snowblind Coming To Market With LCD Side Panel (Updated: Now Available For Preorder)

By Derek Forrest
published

Update - 1/17/17, 10:57am PT: iBuyPower announced that the Snowblind is now available for preorder on the company's website (opens in new tab). The minimum configuration features an Intel Core i5-7400, 8GB of DDR4-3000 RAM, a 1TB HDD, and a GTX 1070, with a price tag of $1,499. The motherboard selection is between an MSI Z270 Tomahawk Arctic and a Z270 XPower Gaming Titanium.

Original article, published 1/7/17, 1:30pm PT:

iBuypower revealed that its LCD side panel-equipped Project Snowblind has graduated from a concept device to a real thing, with the new Snowblind PC coming to market this February.

The Snowblind is a custom desktop PC with a tempered glass side panel, which sports a translucent 19-inch 1280x1024 LCD display. Although it appears to be regular clear tempered glass with a hinge, it can be programmed to display multiple effects and colors using Rainmeter (an open-source overlay that does the same for standard displays). You can customize it with user-created backgrounds, animations, and widgets that can show your system specifications and real-time CPU, storage, and memory usage.

The display was developed by Intel and iBuypower, and the companies went through five iterations of the panel before approving the final production model we saw at CES. The system we were shown was configured with an Intel Core i7-7700K on an MSI Z270 motherboard (the specific model of the motherboard is not finalized, but we know that it will be white) with 16GB of DDR4, an Intel 240GB SSD, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070. iBuypower said we can expect to see similar configurations with GTX 1080 GPUs under the video-screened hood.

iBuypower insisted that the case and LCD side panel cost only about $250 to make and said that it wanted to be aggressive in offering its customers a compelling aesthetic technology without launching the total cost into the stratosphere. Although pricing for the Snowblind gaming PC is not yet finalized (pending a decision on which white motherboard the company will offer), iBuypower told us that the aforementioned configuration would fetch between $1,700 and $1,800 when Snowblind arrives at retail outlets (including BestBuy) in February.

If you’re looking for something with a "wow" factor (that isn’t RGB) that won’t break the bank (as hard as you’d think it would), the Snowblind is one of the most compelling and unique aesthetic offerings we’ve seen in recent memory.

Derek Forrest
Derek Forrest
Derek Forrest is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He writes hardware news and reviews gaming desktops and laptops.
13 Comments Comment from the forums
  • darkguy2
    Very cool. Hopefully they will be available to buy in separate cases in the near future.
    Reply
  • hdmark
    This is a VERY cool piece of tech. Not sure the exact market for it, but none the less... awesome!
    Reply
  • WFang
    If you don't see the market for this, then you need to exercise your brain-storming skills. They even spell it out in the article. Since you can display widgets and systems stats, as well as configure and mess with the colors and patterns, I would expect high end boutique customizers to be ALL over this. The market for 'bling' is huge, even if you and I don't necessarily partake or see value in it... :)

    This is all based on my idea that there MUST be a reason for all these dang LED's and RGB customization systems flooding every crevice of the market.. I mean, they must be selling?
    Reply
  • JamesSneed
    I could see having the front as the LCD like the Corsair Crystal Series 460X is setup with the glass front panel. That could be pretty useful to have the widgets displaying all your temps, fan speeds etc.
    Reply
  • George Phillips
    This is a piece of true innovation!
    Reply
  • hdmark
    19131106 said:
    If you don't see the market for this, then you need to exercise your brain-storming skills. They even spell it out in the article. Since you can display widgets and systems stats, as well as configure and mess with the colors and patterns, I would expect high end boutique customizers to be ALL over this. The market for 'bling' is huge, even if you and I don't necessarily partake or see value in it... :)

    This is all based on my idea that there MUST be a reason for all these dang LED's and RGB customization systems flooding every crevice of the market.. I mean, they must be selling?

    that makes sense to me. I figured the majority of people spending that kind of money already have LED monitors set up but then this would be much nicer
    Reply
  • RomeoReject
    19126887 said:
    Very cool. Hopefully they will be available to buy in separate cases in the near future.
    iBuyPower has an irritating habit of never selling their cases stand-alone.

    I know because I wanted to buy the Chimera case they did a few years back. :kaola:
    Reply
  • nycalex
    very cool innovation.

    i'll bite. the only problem with CES announced items is that they take FORVER to release to retail.

    they need to release these products in a timely manner, not after 6+ months of product announcement.
    Reply
  • lorfa
    Not a fan of gimmicky lights and things, but if you're going to go that route, this is the best way I've ever seen it done!
    Reply
  • TMTOWTSAC
    Still waiting for the windshields with this tech to come out. Also dreading it. Drivers with cell phones are bad enough, I can't imagine what they would do with this. And yet it doesn't stop me from wanting one...
    Reply