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The Best Case Mods From 2010
arcticstoat writes "Who says PC modding is dead? UK tech site bit-tech has rounded up the best case mods of the year, showcasing an incredible amount of innovation, skill and craftsmanship. From a PC made of concrete to a replica of a Cray-1 chassis to an Art Deco style wooden radio, these are just amazing pieces of work."
...It's just not cost effective anymore...
Case modding is a *hobby*, it was never "cost effective". Perhaps you're thinking about building a work box from parts verse some commodity brand X box (or even a Dell)?
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(1) The weight you gave of 353,430t / 4 =88357.5t which probably refers to the RMS ship, perhaps in a fully laden configuration.
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I am sick and tired of gamer-looking cases, loud fans (even my Antec Sonatas are louder than I'd like), and uber-bright blue LEDs. To me the ultimate case mod would involve:
I like running certain cables under the motherboard, so I beg to differ with the folks above who hate it. I have a better idea to make everybody happy though: instead of the motherboard mount being a flat plate, why not make a chassis with a steel or forged aluminum spaceframe, and as far as EMF rejection/ground plane/etc. are concerned, the stamped steel or aluminum chassis will handle shielding? That way, the back/bottom side of the motherboard remains accessible which allows for easy servicing in the event you do want to run cables under the board, and CPU heatsinks will be much, much easier to swap. This would hold doubly true for servers; make a sort of a space subframe assembly which can be removed to service systems more easily.It would be kind of like some of Inwin's and Enlight's from the '90s, but with sturdier and more open construction to make the back side of the heatsink mounts fully acccessible.
The case should not intrude on my bedroom, living room, or any other room any more than a box of tissues. In other words, while it doesn't have to win Martha Stewart's approval, let's try to make it so it will be right at home regardless of decor, kind of like a set top box. I don't want to notice the case at all; all I want is enough space inside to house the components, enough quiet airflow to keep it cool, indicator lights to be very dim, and easy access to a DVD or Blu-Ray drive. It should be nondescript so the only time I notice it is if I need to insert a disc. As an HTPC it should be quiet and fit well into a living room, and as a productivity PC in my bedroom, it should be quiet and not have bright search lights for power or HDD activity indicators. Don't get me wrong - blue LEDs are cool. I love blue LEDs. However, like the old blink tag years ago, and HDR in photography, blue LEDs are everywhere now, are over-used and mis-used in so many ways that I don't care to see another one for quite a while.
I don't want to even think about the chassis until it's time to insert an optical disc, or to service the unit. Otherwise, the case should be unnoticeable.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
What the hell is wrong with you people? Case modding certainly isn't cost effective, nor does it stick to its roots, but in my mind that doesn't matter. What matters is that ordinary everyday people are looking at modern PC cases, thinking "That's not cool enough, I can make it better", and then _doing it._ Several of those entries are first or second time builds, done by people who've never even considered this kind of thing before.
Believe it or not, "because it's awesome" _is_ a valid reason to do something. These people are creating art, and they happen to be building high-end computers into it. Get your collective heads out of your collective asses and revel in the beauty of well constructed and beautiful pieces of functional art. DIY is something that our consumerist society is rapidly losing its grip on, and any evidence to the contrary should be welcomed, not decried.
You should turn signatures off.
Case modding is still interesting to those still interested. The times have changed due to demand. Back when case modding was widespread, it was mainly because your computer case came in two or three options: Beige, Tan, or Ugly.
Nowadays, you can buy an aesthetically-interesting molded plastic case, for $40. Hell, they practically shove the clear plexi windows and LEDs down your throat. I had to go out of my way to get a full-featured case with good quality, but still a nondescript black-box appearance. (The CoolerMaster Centurion series are good for this. Nice, light, cool semi-mesh build, without stupid side windows and crap.)
Case modding has become less of a hardcore-computer-geek past time, and more of an artist-who-likes-computers-too concentration. Look at some of the hardware specs of the systems these cases were built around; they're lackluster, old tech. Nowadays you can build a quad-core AMD AM3 3Ghz setup, with 16GB DDR3-1333 RAM, SATA III, USB 3.0, a 1TB WD:Black drive at 7200rpm and 64MB cache, and an Antec 640watt PSU - all for $525 from Newegg.com, shipped. One would think they could at least come up to par on these hardware specs, if they have the time and money to spend on the external pretties.
I mean, there's even this kickass antique-lookalike case from Red Wood for the people that want something Steampunk. It's $120 on Newegg, but can be purchased new from other online retailers for $89. I have a hard time convincing myself it's even worth the 2 hours to mod up cases for water cooling purposes anymore.
So, in tl;dr summary: Case modding isn't really about the geeks anymore. It's about the artists who like tech.
There's a spot in User Info for World of Warcraft account names? Really?
You know, I used to think that too, but the last time I built a machine I bought a CoolerMaster Storm at MicroCenter that was marked down because it was scuffed. Man, having a nice case really made every part of the build more pleasant. It's not a crazy-expensive case to begin with, but it's really well made and it has a nice sturdy handle on top and a great canted panel on the top-front with eSata and USB and audio. It's easy to clean the dustbunnies out without having to take everything apart and open the case, too, which is great. There's lots of room inside and except for one audio jack connector that I would have like to be a little longer, it was well thought out with the builder in mind. You don't need tools to do stuff and there are no sharp edges to cut up your hands.
I plan on figuring the extra few bucks that a decent case costs into all of my future builds.
You are welcome on my lawn.
I'll put forth that Dell suffered because they sucked. They used to be great. I swore by them in the 90's. Then they got greedy, started putting cheap crap in the boxes and scaled back customer service to where you couldn't get a warranty fix unless you practically got the Mafia involved.
I'll also say the same thing I say about the ricermobiles: As long as it's not dangerous, and you like it, do it and be happy. And unlike the ricers who do stupid shit like cutting their springs so that their handling goes in the toilet, it's pretty hard to be unsafe with a PC mod unless you get a cheap inverter for the CCD's.
I build computers from time to time for people who want extreme gaming machines, and sometimes they ask me to doll them up. And I do it, because it's cheap and makes them happy.
I'm also glad that the era of the beige box is at an end. As functional as it was, my black TT Armor looks much better (in addition to being a fantastic case for airflow). Maybe I have an untapped artistic side or something, but I kind of like some of the cooler case mods, just like I like hot rods. No, making your case look like the warp core from the Enterprise doesn't add any functionality, but. . .actually that would be pretty cool. I might have to look in to doing that ;)
"I disagree with you" does not equal "flamebait."
I agree. Most of the designs appear to have upgrades in mind. Also, consider that
- It's unnecessary to update cabling.
- The 3.5" drive bay is still around after these many years.
- Motherboard form factor and power supply sizes are standard.
It's a pretty safe bet you case can be around for years. When it finally is not longer useful, I'm sure the creator would be ready with 2.0.
For every benefit you receive a tax is levied. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
You are wrong.
Part 15 says:
1) Your device MAY NOT cause harmful interference.
2) Your device must ACCEPT any interference received, including that which may cause undesired operation.
Let's face it. Here we do not enjoy the company of fine industrial designers.
/. crowd will either wear interesting spectacles or smoke stylish pipes. This is one of the few certainties in life. We're just not conceived to be designers and we could just well have a go at astrology or at table arrangement.
From time to time we may churn out well designed software, but nobody in the
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
He has a bit of a point. Back in the days when ATX first came out, it was normal for a PC to have 8 expansion slots. These days, how many expansion cards do you have in a typical high-end desktop system? 1: the video card. Most self-built PCs probably use more expansion slots for add-on ports (like USB/Firewire ports with cables going to the motherboard) than for actual cards. At the very most, you might want two PCIe x 16 slots, one PCIe x 1 slot, and one old-fashioned PCI slot in a system these days, but most people building systems would probably be happy with one of each, with enough room south of the video card slot for a big heatsink/fan. PC motherboards just don't need to be that large any more.
In addition to that, people don't use all the drive bays they used to. Back in the 90s, I remember tower cases with 4, 6, or even 8 5.25" drive bays. The only thing people use those for these days is one optical drive, and maybe a fan controller add-on, so most of that room is wasted. I don't see people with a lot of hard drives any more either; at the most, someone might have 4 3.5" HDs in a RAID array, but with today's giant drives, a dual-drive RAID1 array makes more sense IMO.
You could build a case today with plenty of room for expansion, and still make it much smaller than a typical full-size tower: a motherboard with 3 slots, a built-in 4-drive hot-swap SATA backplane, and two 5.25" bays, and probably one 3.5" external bay for a card reader, would be probably as much as anyone would want, while still being about half the size of a full-size tower.
It's great that people enjoy creating or being around art, but it is important to be aware of the functional aspects of case design. Besides providing for ventilation, cases also should act as Faraday cages to contain R.F. electromagnetic radiation which could interfere with a great variety of services. Some mods are bad from a functional standpoint.
Unless internal electronics is already fully sheilded, like with the original colorful iMac, cases are normally metal or are treated with foil, screening, or conductive-coating shielding. All ports/cables going in and out must have suitable filtering. As with the doors seen on microwave ovens, it is possible to have visible openings if they are small enough compared to the shortest wavelength that needs to be blocked.
Many engineers that are very skilled at other aspects of product design may still overlook such things as r.f. leakage. Although there are F.C.C. rules (and similar rules outside the U.S.) to restrict radiation, it isn't uncommon to find imported products in violation. Also, many selling systems build from various pieces using standard or custom cases have failed to do the required testing and certification for retail sale. They risk huge fines. I've seen retail chains illegally selling PCs they built up in-house, and the practice is even more common with small computer shops. Generally every retail device that uses radio-frequency energy should have an F.C.C. ID number on it.
The digital circuitry deals with pulse (non-sinusoidal) signals so the harmonics present extend much higher in frequency than the pulse and clock rates. Switching power supplies, including those in energy efficient lighting, will create troublesome r.f. noise if not properly designed.
You have several different boards that need higher bandwidth than USB 3.0? Where'd you get a motherboard for that? It's hard to even find a motherboard with more than, say, 5 slots now, and PCI slots are already on the way out in favor of PCIe. Pretty soon, there won't be any PCI slot motherboards available, just like ISA slot boards are completely gone now and have been for some time.
I'm not even talking about "most people": "most people" don't have ANY cards in their system, because they have integrated video (and audio). I'm actually talking about the high-end gamers out there: even they only have 1, 2, and at most 3 cards in their systems (that's for the people with dual video cards and a separate audio card). 4 or 5? Forget it.
As for 5.25" bays, I can't think of many uses for them except 1) optical drives, 2) hot-swap HD bays (which wouldn't be necessary if they built this into the case in place of the standard internal 3.5" bays; SATA makes this much easier these days), and 3) fan controller gadgets. So some who really wanted to deck out their system would only need 2, and then a single 3.5" bay for a card reader accessory.