Mod of the Month - October 2007

CRAZY BLOBZ

by alonso_bistro
Worklog

There are mods made out of great cases. There are mods made out of cheap cases. There are mods made by hand from top-end products or high end machines. And then there are mods made out of junk. The first few each stand a good shot of becoming at least a semi-attractive case, if not a top project. The last one...well, we'll just say I've seen one that has come out well.

Now, we'll go ahead and make that two.

For those of you who aren't familiar with alonso_bistro here on our forums, I would suggest that you click over to his work log and check out some of the former projects. He often takes things to the "next level," with spacey designs that are halfway between something our resident mod-god G-gnome and one of our favourite up-and-comers Sleepstreamer might create if they collaborated.

His latest project, CRAZY BLOBZ, is already a year in the making - and by the speed of updates, we may not see it finished for another few months. However, all the time seems to be very much worth it - his unique styling has brought a lot of life to a bunch of old junk, which has beem scraped and moulded into a cyber-punk creation that's oddly reminiscent of (though bearing no inspiration from) the Half-Life games.


This mod started out with a VARTA advertisement board. The box underneath the sign happens to be a perfect case as far as alonso_bistro is concerned - he already used one on his last project, known simply as 40.


A couple of cuts on the backplate of the box and a scalped PCI bracket later, and the motherboard was already mountable. A few standoffs screwed right through the mesh provide the support with no need to drill anything. A few cuts through the mesh on the upper portion leaves a clean hole for a digital temp display, a laptop drive, and the radiator.


The tubing for the watercooling has been brought front and centre, supported by acrylic brackets. At first, alonso_bistro gave it a zig-zag appearance across the painted mesh. However, it didn't take too long before he went back to the white acrylic used before, opting for a straight, clean line across the acrylic.


The almost Orac-esque acrylic work continued as alonso_bistro redid the temperature retainer, as well as adding a four-line serial-controlled LCD display. He then created a side panel out of the white acrylic, decorating it with a side fan and a rather abstract grille design that is edged with snake skin and an old Pioneer speaker cover.


Further accents were added before a test fit, including a lot more orange UV acrylic and white acrylic. The snake skin and tubing designs have also been carried onto the front of the case, creating a very unique look.

Whether the actual mod is to your taste or not, one thing is for sure - alonso_bistro is showing himself to be the master of the junk pile. Though updates aren't exactly bi-weekly, it's definitely worth subscribing to his worklog to see how this one turns out!

Until then, if you think that CRAZY BLOBZ is just what you're looking for in terms of using what you've got to build something awesome, then make sure to give it your vote for October's Mod of the Month.