In search of the perfect binder

Something I've never really voiced was that I HATE 3-RING BINDERS.  They are so ubiquitous and even now that I am not a student still find a need to keep at least some; loose-leaf paper is still inescapable and sometimes a file-folder is just not adequate.  Over the years I have had a LOT of them.  And nearly universally I've always been annoyed by them.

1. What I hate the most is that they don't stack cleanly.  Most binders are not filled to the maximum and therefore end up in this triangle shape.
2. Circular rings are the most common and I don't know why.  It adds to the stress around the hole, the beginning and ending pages are especially affected. How many times have you had the top and bottom papers rip out, right?  
3. They put the circular rings on the spine most of the time.  So the pages always have to slide simply by opening the binder.
4. Circular rings also cause the pages to not line up (observe the papers edges).  The D ring is better, especially when it is not on the spine (and the cover of the binder essentially wraps around it).  But why make a D when you can make an upside down U instead so that both halves of an open binder lay cleanly?
5. They're not that convenient to write in unless you have a big table.  As a student I'd just write on loose paper and put it in later.  I guess that's ok.  But viewing is still a bit annoying on those tiny student desks in the lecture halls.

Anyhow, for those reasons I got rid of almost all of my 3-ring binders.  For the orphaned contents that I wanted archived, I bound them using the comb binding system.  Not the perfect solution either but better than 3-ring binder; they stack better if you have the right comb size.

Then many years ago I came across Unikeep and they had box-binders: 3 ring binders that

• were a box, so the stacked nice and cleanly both horizontally and vertically
• since they were enclosed, you could put pens and other loose things in there without falling out.
• the rings were off-spine and rectangular

I bought a whole box of them and use them to store negatives, documents, pictures, etc in those 3-ring sleeves and sheet protectors.  By and large, I had the perfect binder.  Or so I thought.

There is one fatal flaw with the collection of binders that I bought:  They were made completely of some kind of plastic, including the "rings".  That in and of itself was not a big deal except when it came time to move and ship.  The plastic rings was the problem, many of them snapped off or came loose.  They were just not robust or sturdy.  The box itself, was ok, even when closing tab didn't line up correctly anymore.  Still the perfect binder in form, just not sturdy enough.

It's coming up on time to move again so I was considering this predicament and am pleased to see that i may have another solution.  The company I see has added a new line of the same binder with metal rings.  When I get the chance I will test some out.

UPDATE:  Horror of horrors, it looks from the picture the metal rings are round.