Mod of the Month - August 2007

Project ORION

By Koradhil
Worklog

Ah, our good friend Koradhil - this is not the first mod he's made that has found its way onto our monthly highlights! Some of you may remember his last project, Mystique - it was a great job of accenting an already attractive case with handsome additions.

It seems this must be Koradhil's style, as Orion is shaping up to be much like it. His work is variations on a simple but attractive theme, much like that of our guru of simplicity, Modsquad. In fact, Black Narcissus is one of Koradhil's inspirations for this mod.

That being said, Orion is a great case on its own, starting from my out-and-out favourite case of all time, the Silverstone TJ-07. Few cases match its sleek elegance, as it's a totally different "feel" than that of the boxy Lian Li creations. It's also a unibody frame, which makes it a lot more difficult to mod than a case where you can pop off a flat front or top panel.


Orion is based around a simple but attractive theme. Minimalism is the name of the game here, with an understated exterior that really highlights the case's natural beauty. The biggest discussion so far has been determining how many slits would be in the front of it, a question that was finally answered when Koradhil decided exactly in bewteen the two contestants (lots of little and little of big). Okay, so it's not exactly life-or-death voting, but hey. It's still important!


The front plate along with a backing of acrylic were drilled and then cut with a scroll saw. Of course, you don't want brand names here - Koradhil claims that he got this one from an Aldi supermarket. Nice!


The finished bay covers, along with a painted mesh, go together perfectly and are just the right size for the TJ-07's front panel - at least, once you add a CD drive above them.


To keep up the theme (and because he liked the paint), Koradhil went a little spray-happy. The Aquacomputer Aqua-Grafix for his 1900 series card got a touch of red, as did the keyboard and mouse. He even painted the WASD keys specially - perfect for LAN events!


Koradhil also scalped his waterblock from Mystique, which he had built by hand. SInce it didn't fit the AM2 setup, he had to cut a new acrylic top for it, which he then accented with some metal and painted over. The finished product will match the theme of the mod nicely.

Orion is still a pretty young project, but it hails from great lineage. We'll be keeping a close eye in his worklog to see how brightly this one shines, and we hope you will too.

If you think this mod should win this month's competition, don't forget to vote for it in this thread! Voting closes on 9th September 2007.