Mod of the Year 2006

Silent ContexYZ by Mr Kholl

As a musician for the last 22 years, Kholl has always been involved in building his own audio equipment. Having built his own studio and split it into two parts - one for the high tech and one for the vintage - he decided he wanted to mod a PC based along the same theme. The result is this awesomely intricate mod, which blends high performance technology with old-school gauges and design cues.

The mod is an interesting blend of lasers and hand-cut. The design for the side panel was done in CAD, and a vinyl sticker of the design printed professionally to act as a template. However, the actual cutting - the difficult bit - was all done by hand according to the template. The amount of control and precision shown in the metalwork is pretty insane.

• Original bit-tech article
  
• Article discussion

The use of the gauges to measure the various different voltages and temperatures in the system is a nice touch which adds some real distinctiveness, alongside the kill-your-eyes lighting scheme!