Eh, face
plate, trim piece, bezel, whatever you call it... Yer pickin' on
me, aren't ya?
No, I meant I hardly ever see a machine with the bezel intact. Or
even present. I thought they were *born* with the gaps there.
That's because you need custom ones for each case design (no simple PC
plates will work), but the Mac will use stock PC parts for the most part
(when it comes to HD and CD drives... all bets are off for any other
parts prior to the iMac days).
Since you can use a stock PC CD drive, many people did... PC drives
naturally don't ship with the special bezel needed for a mac case. You
have to buy it from an apple dealer (because apple doesn't like to sell
things to the public). That means you pay Apple prices AND the Apple
dealer markup... that makes them VERY expensive (you can expect to pay
$25+ for a new bezel for most macs). That is when you can even find
someone to sell them to you (the local CompUSA, which prior to the Apple
Store opening down the road, was the ONLY authorized apple repair center
in the area... and they couldn't be bothered ordering you a bezel...
tried once... they game me shit for even asking... then finally agreed to
order it and call when it came in... a month later and many calls asking
the status, I gave up).
Even going to the online parts dealers will nail you for serious costs
(have you looked at any recently... MacResQ which tends to be the
cheapest, will ask $30-$40 for a bezel)
As a result... you find many home upgraded macs that are missing the
correct bezel for the opening.
-chris
<http://www.mythtech.net>
