Mod of the Month - April 2008

Sinuskurve

by Sonnenschein
Worklog

We go from one crazy German to another this month – I think there's something in the water over there! I bring you, once again, a finished product that has landed in our forums – but from a totally different inspiration.

Drawn to the beautiful wave of the sine curve, new (to our forums anyhow) modder Sonnenschein decided to use the smooth design as inspiration for his mod. Of course, we all know that a sine curve is hardly a practical shape for a computer, right? Right?

Apparently, one of us missed that lesson – and we're all lucky that he did. Sonnenschein actually shaped his case with the waves of the curve, creating a modding masterpiece that's more modern sculpture than computer. Clean lines and bold curves are accented with wiring that could make anyone's jaw drop.

But hey, why take my word for it? Let's let the pictures say the rest.

Sinuskurve (German for Sine Curve, for those of you who really needed that translated) started life as some forms and fibreglass. Plexi was bent over the forms to create the distinctive sine shape of the final product.

What great mod doesn't have a bit of watercooling? With this one, Sonnenschein was really looking to make it a focal point – but not the radiator. Since he could do as he wanted with it, he created his own – using copper pipe, aluminium fins and a bit of soldering. The final product uses four 120mm fans to push air through.

Wiring up Sinuskurve is not your average LED job. The project contains almost 1300 of the little buggers in five colours, which are all wired to a central USB control.

The end result of Sonnenschein's hard work is amazing, particularly once the outer white cover and black machine screws lock into place. The whole PC has a glow to it (maybe that has something to do with the 1300 lights!) and the finish is top-notch.

As you can see, the final product is jaw-droppingly beautiful. It's clean, it's attractive, and it's got more bells and whistles than you could have ever expected. And most of all, it's true to its design philosophies. Believe it or not, Sonnenschein only got fourth place in the DCMM competition.

You can find out more about the incredibly amazing amount of effort put into this over 800-hour build in Sonnenschein's rather sparse
worklog. I'd highly recommend that you do, because even just the LED wiring is absolutely amazing and quite an interesting read, particularly for someone like me who can't wire enough to turn a lightbulb on.

On your way to the worklog, though, why don't you take a quick stop and vote for Sinuskurve as April's Mod of the Month and give Sonnenschein a second chance for glory?