Guild Wars Factions

More modding

This case is more than just a slick paintjob. Under the hood is a pretty handy, watercooled, gaming machine.

• AMD 64+ 3200 processor
• Gigabyte K8NF-9 Pro motherboard
• 1GIG GEIL memory
• ATI X850 XT graphics card
• Maxtor 200GB hard drive

The watercooling is a bit of a mixed bag, but Keirin assures us that it all works well together. The waterblocks are Polarflo, the tubing is tygon, the pump is Danger Den, the rad and pump are from XSPC.




Is it quiet? "It’s not that loud, but when it's turned on full it sounds like a wind tunnel," he said. "But I don't really need to have it on full just to play games - at standard, it runs about 20 or 22 degrees with the fans on low. I've had it down to about 15 degrees with the fans on full."

Window detailing

Each side panel window - created by hand - features more artwork. The left side window features something we haven't seen much of before: the pile of skulls was shot-blasted onto the plexi. Rather than outsource this to a company, Keirin actually has his own shotblasting machine in his basement. As you do. On the right is some Necromancer concept art from Guildwars.com. This was simply printed on acetate and fixed to the window - nothing much to brag about.

LCD

The case is so big, it is destined to sit on the floor beside you, so rather than mount an LCD display on the front, Keirin has tried something a bit different and mounted it in a window at the rear of the top panel. It is powered by LCD Studio software, though being limited to 1-bit colour, the output isn't quite the same as the original source art. Even so, it's adds that little bit more to the project and being multi-purpose, can still display things like Winamp information.

The second photo shows another neat trick - he printed the same Necromancer image onto acetate and mounted it on a small sheet of plexi. He then mounted a second copy on the back side of the plexi, creating a sandwich. The second layer is slightly offset, to give the effect of depth, give the appearance of a hologram. The effect is topped off with by backlighting it with a cathode. "People keep asking me where I get the holograms done and I have to say 'In this place, where this guy works in a basement!' "


The overall build time was roughly a month of non-stop work, said Keirin, and the cost of materials plus tools like the airbrush gear was between £400 and £500. He already owned the computer hardware, so for the cost of your average Dell system, Keirin has built himself a top case mod.