Sarah Stokely11 September 2006, 5:24 AM
Australian case modding store PC Case Gear will mark six years in business by unveiling a brand new online shopfront by the end of the year. I talked to company founder James Cameron.
Australian case modding store PC Case Gear www.pccasegear.com.au will mark its sixth year in business by unveiling a brand new online shopfront by the end of the year.
Founder James Cameron said the company’s growth from a home garage operation to a business with seven staff working from premises at Cheltenham in Melbourne’s south meant it was time for the website to grow up too.
“It’s time to step it up a bit with heaps of added functionality, newsletters, loyalty club discounts, member case gallery, as well as a fresh new look," he told APC.
Visitors to www.pccasegear.com.au can access a impressively vast array of products for boosting PC performance and appearance.
With around 1,500 products on offer, and around five to ten new products added each week, www.pccasegear.com.au covers case modding, fans and cooling products, silent PC gear, home theatre PC products, gaming accessories and headphones, IT-related T-shirts, gadgets, and more recently, mainstream hardware such as the latest XFX graphics cards.
Above: PCCaseGear's ... PC case gear.
“There’s always new products on the horizon, such as the high-end DJ CD/DVD storage cases from SLAPPA (Canada), to the cool new Sirius gaming cases from Raidmax,” says Cameron.
Cameron says the shop was designed to fulfil the needs of hardware and gaming enthusiasts like himself. ”I found a lot of the cool parts I wanted simply weren’t available in Australia, or at least very hard to get.
PC Case Gear imports products from Canada, the United States, China, Taiwan, Korea and the Netherlands.
“We have quite a few product lines that are unique to PC Case Gear, or at the very least are only carried by only a few online stores in Australia. In fact, we specialise in hard to get items, the latest products that have just surfaced in the US market, or just items that attract a certain niche.”
These can range from foldable keyboards, and fan controllers, through to 1000W power supplies and high-end thermoelectric liquid cooling kits.
As a destination for PC enthusiasts, Cameron says www.pccasegear.com.au prides itself on quality products delivered fast.
"We don’t aim to be the cheapest out there. Rather than offer cut-throat pricing with zero support or flexibility, we focus on holding stock, getting the products to the customer as quickly as possible, and providing prompt and excellent pre-sales and after-sales customer service.”
“We try to ship all orders placed before 3pm same day. Delivery across Australia is remarkably quick, and we’re often surprising customers with the level of turnaround (often within 24 hours!). For example, we have customers in Perth that demand next day delivery, and we provide this.”
He may have been sourcing products for the enthusiast market for nearly six years, but Cameron says it’s still difficult to pick the trends case modders will go for next.
“Lian Li aluminium cases and clear cases with lighting have been popular throughout the past five years, and continue to sell well. You'll have people that want a sleek stylish minimalist case, or those who want an extroverted gaming themed case, as well as those who then want to mod either one up with improved cooling or lights," he says.
Case modders wanting to show off their creations will be able to contribute to the member’s case mod gallery when PC Case Gear unveils its new website later this year.