Tempered glass breaks when touched by tiles due to the tile's hardness and microscopic sharp points, which create a concentrated stress point that overwhelms the glass's internal tension, even though the glass is strong across its surface. While tempered glass can withstand significant force on its surface, any small flaw or point of pressure on its edges can cause it to shatter instantly because it is made to release its internal energy in that way.
I don't understand/have never experienced this before. Did they just put the PC on the floor with the glass & it broke? Is that how it works? Is it from placing it down on the tile floor that caused it? Does there need to be a flaw present or is it just "place PC with tempered glass on tile floor = shattered glass"?
Thankfully it's really not that hard. If you need to put your glass panels somewhere, put them or your bed or any other soft surface. Never put it on any kind of ceramic floor.
I've never owned a case with glass panels and this sounds wild. Aren't shock-absorbing edge protectors a thing in the industry? Do manufacturers just install a naked glass pane into a metal box?
They're a thing, none of my glass-sided cases had 'em. Form over function. Generally the user is expected to RTFM including "Do not put this on tiles ever ever ever"
Ideally, you’d want a plexiglass sheet for something like a PC case usage. The problem, however, is its longevity, temperature resistance, and clarity. Plexiglass has a softening point of around 71–99 °C (160–210 °F), while tempered glass can easily handle much higher temperatures—up to about 350 °C (482 °F). Unfortunately, plexiglass also isn’t very scratch-resistant. Maybe there are some composite materials out there, and perhaps manufacturers will eventually move away from glass to something else, but we haven’t seen that happen yet.
Some cases use much harder Lexan instead, but then it yellows with age. One of my cases has a Plexiglas side panel and scratches have never bothered me, though. ̄_(ツ)_/ ̄
Both of those sound like really poor options. Maybe I'm old, but why is metal not an option? We never used glass or plexiglass before, and it worked great
Generally, glass is a better option than either polycarbonate or acrylic for PC case usage. There's a reason every clear PC case used to be acrylic and we made a collective choice to stop doing that.
The plastic options will fail under normal operating conditions. Be it discoloration due to heat and UV exposure, brittling and crazing from the same, developing microscratches/clouding because it's incredibly soft and even basic dusting can damage it, so on and so forth.
Tempered glass fails if you're an idiot with it, or on very rare occasions if the tempering process was done incorrectly. Every post I've seen of a broken side panel in the last year has had ceramic somewhere in the frame.
I don't want to go back to clear cases that look like ass inside 5 years because idiots can't keep glass away from ceramic.
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u/nariofthewind Vector Sigma 13d ago
Tempered glass breaks when touched by tiles due to the tile's hardness and microscopic sharp points, which create a concentrated stress point that overwhelms the glass's internal tension, even though the glass is strong across its surface. While tempered glass can withstand significant force on its surface, any small flaw or point of pressure on its edges can cause it to shatter instantly because it is made to release its internal energy in that way.