How do you feel about it?

I run into an article in Wired News about a guy building a pyramid-tower based PC, looks pretty cool



So how many of you are case modders?

What a god damn way of wasting money. I much prefer modding internal components which makes a impact on the system's performance, ie, taking out prepressed fan grills, a la Antec cases. These skin deep flashing mods are not my bag. And the fscking LED fans? Man, talk about playskool, or fisher price.

No case is complete without a CCD-tube!

This is nice.. good looks etc! I just don't want to know the amount of money that was spent on making this case.

Ah well... I modded mine as well, but not in such an expensive way

So, ok , Airhead and D-N are modders - whos the 3rd guy?

Why not make the computer look human female?

i feel exactly the same way. i'm a case modder, but i'd rather spend my time and money on something that'll make my comp perform better or run cooler, not on something that'll turn it into a rave-in-a-box. not that i don't think some of these mods look nice, but i don't have that kind of money to throw around on something with no tangible benefits.

OK, here is my most expensive system. 640x480, Sony DSC-F717, Gigabyte SiS board with Serial ATA RAID, 4 HDD, 2 DVD writers, 1 combo, 1 512MB, etc.



Forgive me for being lazy. I didn't do much to make it look better.

How to mod it?



Another aluminum case. The system can have up to 12 hard drives using the IDE channels.

Shame on you for having such a messy system. I'm a clean freak, and here's what mine looks like (doing a fresh install atm and install as little as possible so I can ghost it in minty condition). Notice the brown stuff in the bottom and right panel; Premium Dynamat to dampen fan noises. Not pictured are the top and left panel, which are also covered.

You are luckier. The PC has 4 Serial ATA hard drives (two are native and the other two use converters) and 3 Parallel ATA DVD drives. 2 LAN, add-on PCI S-ATA RAID, 4 Parallel ATA channels on the board. There is a large Zalman HSF with 80mm fan instead of the original Intel HSF. The case is smaller than yours and there are more devices. The fan runs at 1,500 RPM. 3.2GHz, overclocking FSB 133 to 166.

Anyway, I just bought it from one of my friends who built it. He needed 3,000,000 Won in cash and that was mainly why I bought it. If it were me who built it, I would have chosen one of the largest server-type cases on the market with room for 20 drives, 10 120GB HDDs, and Gigabit.

I don't like to spend time trying to make a PC's inside look good while I have 10 to 100 PC systems at once. That very PC was moved at least five times from Seoul to Chungju to Inchon to the new office and back home, and finally in this room since May.

The Lian-Li aluminum case (US$200) is not meant for maximum space. It is expensive and light. Antec 530 watt PSU. 560GB HDD. 1GB DDR. Two 4x DVD writers (NEC and Pioneer). Samsung SM-352B. FDD. An ATI card connected via DVI to a Samsung 19-inch LCD.

I have cleaner systems as well. The notebooks.

Kenny, it seems like you're ready to open a store
Where do you put all this staff? And 10x120Gb hdd? Geez!!

Hey Guys,

I'm not so much into case modding for aesthetic purposes but I hate noise, as my pc sets on my desk and is mere inches from my right ear I waont it as quiet as possible.

@Stoner how much noise reduction do you get from the Dynamat you have attached to the inside of your case. Also has it affected air flow/heat dissipation inside your case?

Thanks for any info.

You mean like this

Spunkser: Although the case uses 1.0mm steel, it still feels kind of "light" when you tap on it. Adding Dynamat to the case adds more stiffness to it. So now when I tap on it, it feels like knocking on wood. I don't have any sound meter w/ me so I can't give you an actual number on how my dba the system noise dropped, but the I'd say moderate. System temp does rise a couple of Cs.

@ Kenshin, I had to laugh at your wiring. Just so chaotic. Does it overheat? And why the apple symbol on the front? BTW I think I can see a DPS in there, do you have the SINXP1394?

Like stoner here, I'm more concerned about the inside. Next time I build a computer I want one that's quiet. My current Thermaltake Xaser is pretty loud (looks a lot like yours inside stoner except more cards). Great sight about silencing is http://www.silentpcreview.com

The guy who built it only wanted one PC at home. He wanted to these things in it:

1. Small and light case
2. Big and high-quality LCD
3. Big and fast HDD (RAID striping)
4. Easy and simple cabling (Serial ATA and rounded Parallel ATA cables)
5. Fast CPU (2.4C was not available then)
6. Silence (Zalman's one of the best, among air-cooling solutions)

But he also liked the Apple logo so he just added it on the front. He runs a oil station, actually rented from LG Caltex, somewhere middle of South Korea, plans to run a business in Auckland, New Zealand, and has been a friend of mine and my wife's. Both he and I once or twice worked and owned computer shops so it's not always we buy only things that are most appropriate for our home use. I usually do not. Even after marriage, my home life and outside life are not so clearly divided.

Yep, it is chaotic. When I first looked at his PC inside, I instantly gave up doing anything. There are HDDs and cards that I can use in other systems but I haven't removed anything there except the two unused P-ATA rounded cables. Even the Antec 530 watt PSU is an overkill there, supplying power to just three 5.25 inch drives and five 3.5 inch drives. I own three big tower cases, all unused for now.

One of the problems is that the aluminum case is too fragile while being also small inside. I was afraid of hurting the surface. The case was more than two times more expensive than the NEC ND-1100A 4x writer.

@Hemispasm

Anytime. I can sell more 50 systems at once right now but then I do not care much anymore since my priority has fundamentally changed recently. I still have offices and was going to open a store on the first floor at a good location but well...

Anyway, the pictured PC above is silent and looks good outside which was the creator's prime objective. There are two doors between our bedroom and the computer room - I use the largest bed room solely for running PC - so noise does not matter at our home.

Well here's my case (sorry for the bad pics, I didn't take the time to make good ones):






From up to down: NEC1300a, Toshiba SDM1712, 2x Maxtor Diamond plus 9 (120GB each, 8mb cache, 7200rpm), Plextor premium, Liteon 48246S, FDD , WD Raptor (10krpm 8mb cache, 37Gb) and a shitload of fans..

My case is kinda messy right? Well Maybe I'll clean it up... although I really don't think so!

Since you mentioned you had lots of fans, got a question.. my mobo only supports giving caurretn to 3 fans. @ of them being the cpu and the power supply's fans, that leaves me with only one.

How can i get more in there? Is there a way (adaptor) to use the supply's plugs or something?

Yes you can.... there are adapters for using a fan on a standard molex connection. Another option is to do the wiring yourself...

Thanx D-N , will have to check whether i can find such adaptors around here.

They are only about $1 here.


Woops I should really pay more attention.

Then i'd have to move form Greece to the Aussie Land to get them

Thanx for the photo though, now i know what i am looking for

Whoa. Now theres an idea, imagine what could be achieved with imagination [evil laugh] hehehehehehe [/evil laugh]

*idea*
Make one that sat in a small chair with a small monitor, 'I call it, Mini-Sav!'

Know Chobits?