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OS Xbox Pro casemod build video is mesmerizing
We've certainly seen plenty of hackintoshes in our time, but Will Urbina's OS Xbox Pro is also one of the cleanest casemods we've ever seen. Built so that Will can run Final Cut Pro for his job as a video editor, the machine is based on an EFI-X hackintosh dongle, and inside it sports an 2.93GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550s paired with an NVIDIA GeForce 9800GT card, 8GB of RAM, an 16GB SSD, and four traditional hard drives: one each to boot Windows 7 and OS X, and two 500GB 7,200rpm drives in a RAID0 array for video editing. Will says his total parts cost was under $1,500 for a system that matches a $4,500 Mac Pro, but that obviously doesn't include the value of his time -- which, judging by the totally captivating build video, should be plenty expensive. Check it below.
Neptune's Trident case mod honors the god of liquid cooling
What do you do if your Battlestar Galactica case mod has conquered Earth and space with its awesomeness? Why, you conquer the seas, of course. Brian Carter is back with this Neptune's Trident mod, a lovely blue thing with three separate cooling loops, one for each of the three EVGA GeForce GTX260 video cards inside. The result? A powerhouse for sure and something that we think would look quite appropriate in Tron Legacy. You reading this, Mr. Bridges?
ION Cube case mod wins NVIDIA design contest
We haven't seen a ton of ION-based case mods just yet, but it looks like NVIDIA itself has kick started the scene in a pretty big way with a case mod design contest, and it's now crowned a winner. Built by Bill Owen of Mnpctech.com, the so-called ION Cube draws on a few fairly obvious influences, and makes use of a combination of CNC milled sheets of aluminum and laser cut pieces of acrylic which, combined with the rest of the build, apparently took over a hundred hours to complete. On the inside, and one of the impetuses for the contest, is the ZOTAC ION ITX 330 motherboard, which is intended for small, low-power systems just like this (and less flashy ones, too). Head on past the break a video, and hit up the link below for a look at the build.
Mission-style PC casemod easily slides into your La-Z-Boy collection
Jeffrey Stephenson is to case mods what Benjamin Heckendorn is to console mods. There, we said it. After watching the former pump out wood-grained mod after wood-grained mod, Sir Jeff has issued yet another -- wait for it -- wood-grained mod. The black walnut mission-style side table is actually a full-blown PC in disguise, with a standard ATX mid-tower within that's equipped with an Intel Core i7 CPU, NVIDIA graphics and dual stage temperature-controlled exhaust fans. He notes that it'll be available next Spring for those with fine tastes, though we're sure he'd customize it to fit your living room suite for the right price.
Ben Heck's Atari 800 laptop is 800 kinds of awesome
We find it hard to keep from gushing about every Ben Heck project, and his latest is no different. Heckendorn crams the inner workings of an Atari 800 (mostly rainbows and magic) into a laptop-style case (much like every other project of his), but what makes this one special is that we want it and we don't have it. Seriously, look at that sweet keyboard. We can totally imagine the siren's song of those keys clicking and clacking as we boot up some Centipede. If the image above only managed to whet your appetite, head past the break for a pair of videos showing it in use.[Via Engadget]
Xbox Micro makes the Wii look overweight
Welcome to Micro Saturday at Engadget! In the absence of hard hitting stories and shocking exposés, we thought we'd turn to the lighter -- and thinner -- side of the news. Enter the Xbox Micro, a 1-inch thick celebration of all that is good and holy about the world of DIY mods. It took six months to make, with a few clever design decisions along the way, but it looks good enough to make even the ninja-black Wii suck its gut in. Comparison pics with the original behemoth are after the break, and hit the read link to see the exposed guts of this little beauty. [Thanks, Matt and Jesse]
Edelweiss PC casemod goes above and beyond insanity
Sure, these days, it can be pretty hard to get super-stoked over a casemod... after all, they're basically a dime a dozen. We're always impressed with the crazy ones though, and this one over at Million Dollar PC -- the Edelweiss (possibly named after our least-favorite song and flower), really takes the crazy and turns it up to 11. We're not even sure what's going on, to be honest, but we can assure you of this much: we're really, really fond of it. Two more shots after the break.[Via Case Mod Blog]
SNES PC Case Mod scores endless style wins; can never bring back your childhood
Face it, not all mods are created equal. Take this SNES PC Case Mod, for instance, built by quangDX and DuPPs (their real names? we think not). Sure, they could've just crammed some PC guts in there and called it a day, but with love, care and some Lego spacers, they've crafted a true piece of art. The gutted Super Mario World cartridge acts as a slot-loading CD drive, there's a perfect lineup of connectivity in the back, and the real piece of magic: USB extenders disguised as regular controller plugs, and a reworked SNES controller to plug into 'em. The main guts are courtesy of an Acer Aspire One, and even the webcam and mic have been crammed into the front of that poor shredded cartridge. This is how it's done, folks.[Via Gossip Gamers]
ECS stuffs Atom, ION and Blu-ray into a vase for all the right reasons
This is really more of what we'd expect out of some slightly deranged basement hacker, not a company like ECS at a major tradeshow, but we'll take any entrants in the burgeoning "nettop in a vase" space we can get. To be serious for a moment, this is actually a pretty interesting illustration of the future afforded by small, low-power components: ECS has stuffed a full Intel Atom 230 system, including NVIDA ION graphics, 1GB of RAM, a 2.5-inch HDD and a Blu-ray drive into what looks like a family heirloom. There's even room for a couple USB ports, Ethernet and HDMI plugs on the bottom, which keeps the main body uninterrupted other than the tray-loading drive. Basically, we're floored.
Insane Russian casemod shamelessly puts good taste to bed once and for all
We see plenty of wild casemods around here -- staying on the pulse of what's new with the cool kids is part of our jobs. We've never really seen anything like this one, however. We don't know a terrible lot about the case -- just that it's made of what appears to be solid evil dipped in bronze, and lit by the blood of a terrifying hellbeast. Regardless: it's going to look great in your living room... once you convince Satan to sell it to you for a reasonable price, that is. One more terrifically horrendous photo after the break.
Vertex aluminum pyramid PC case looks better in the forest than on your desk
Something about the mystical look of the pyramid must entice and seduce people into shaping PC casemods into them, because this isn't the first one we've seen. This one -- called the Vertex -- is laser cut aluminum, has an LED power indicator, Scythe Kama-Flex sleeved fans, and suspension for the hard drive. The case also comes with a motherboard, power supply, and a DVD bay, plus side-mounted USB, Firewire and audio ports. For $400, one of these can be yours in red, black or blue, but don't blame us if it doesn't make your desk seem less cluttered -- looks like a real space hog to us. There's one more photo after the break... if you dare.[Via Technabob]
R2D2 casemod is affordable, convincing evidence of our continued love for old sci-fi epic
We'll let you in on a little secret: we find the constant stream of Star Wars-inspired you-name-it to be a little, shall we say... played? That said, this R2D2 casemod is totally, impressively rad. Made from a grabage can, it's obviously a labor of love, and the results are insanely "real" looking -- yup, that's Artoo-Deetoo, hanging out in that guy's humble abode. This droid's got a webcam, speakers, LEDs -- all the good stuff you'd expect from a highly detailed piece of nerdery, and if you're action-oriented, you can make one of your very own for roughly $150. Hit the read link for tons of photos and detailed instructions. One more shot of the little dude after the break.
Aliens PS3 case mod is staggeringly ugly to non-fans
Adding even more credibility to the whole "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" mantra is this... masterpiece / abomination. Inspired by the iconic Aliens films, this completely over the top PlayStation 3 case mod is about as ridiculous as it gets. We're not really told how the modder went about crafting this lovely interpretation, but we are given a few more snapshots to gawk at in the read link -- which you won't visit unless you too are an Aliens freak, but hey, that's cool. [Thanks, Jeremiah]
Pyramid PC casemod will look really cool on your desk next to your Crysis poster
Casemods range from the peculiar to the spaceage, but this one -- a pyramid PC case -- kinda takes things to the next level of outrageousness. Weighing in at 7.5 pounds (just for the case) this 25-inch high beast is not exactly compact, with a 19 x 19-inch base. Modder polo360x made it from a customized Luxor pyramid case, and, and in our opinion, it fits in nicely with his home decor choices. Check out another two shots and hit the read link for many, many more, plus a full specsheet.[Via Geeky Gadgets]
SteamPunk Frankenstein casemod sure to anger Luddites
We see plenty of Steampunk mods around these parts, but this one surely takes things to a new level of insanity. Constructed by D. Maddocks, the SteamPunk Frankenstein PC case mod is monstrously, beautifully cobbled from -- among other things -- a church vent and some cold cathode tubes. When the backlighting is fired up it's quite breataking to behold, though -- at over eight feet tall -- we're not sure we'd like to see it in our own parlor, we can certainly admire the beast from afar. One more daguerreotype after the break, but hit the read link for the whole set. [Via Slashgear]
Project Monolith case mod takes water cooling to unbelievable extremes
It's not often that pictures truly are worth a thousand words, but this is one of those rare exceptions. We won't even bother explaining what kind of hardware is packed within Project Monolith, but it's clear that its creator is at least partially off his rocker -- not that said condition is a bad one. Hit the read link for loads more images, but don't expect it to get any easier to comprehend.
Chiaroscuro case mod riffs on Beijing Olympics building
Arboreal case modder Nick "Greensabbath" Falzone's latest creation is an Ebony and Maple Frankenstein inspired by the Beijing Digital Building. Dubbed Chiaroscuro -- meaning a contrast between light and dark -- the tower sports an AMD Phenom X4 9350e quad core, 4GB of RAM and a Radeon HD 4850. Hit up the read link for a full breakdown of the creation, with pictures galore (not pictured: the requisite wooden mouse and keyboard). Your move, Suissa.
Lego console wars: NES vs. PSX... fight!
The been-there-done-that competition of the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii are a total yawn this holiday season, so we thought we'd give you a console war with a few more interlocking plastic building blocks mixed in to keep things interesting. These two otherwise-unrelated case mods each bring their own strengths to the competition: while the Lego PSX mod might be more technically impressive, it looks totally amateurish next to the classy Lego NES stylings. But, like with all things in life, there can only be one winner. This is America, after all.Read - PlayStation in a LEGO castleRead - Console Nintendo NES LEGO Red Project CaseMod
Xbox 360 modder adds 7-inch LCD to chassis for reasons unknown
One could argue that adding an LCD monitor into the casing of an Xbox 360 would certainly make it a more viable gaming solution on-the-go, but given just how many cables are still connected here, we're wondering if it's not worth the extra effort to lug around a decent sized LCD. 'Course, we certainly commend the effort here -- though it's not entirely original or anything -- and we can't deny that it took some serious blood, sweat and lost Halo 3 time to fix it up. To that end, we present to you an emphatic golf clap and a recommendation to hit up the read link for a short demonstration vid.[Via NowhereElse]
A tale of two Pico-ITX mods
As William Gibson once wrote, "the street finds its own uses for things." Of course, the future he envisioned was populated by cut-throat characters with names like Dex Cowb0t, mercenary-types who made their money the only way they knew how: with custom cyberspace decks, hopped up on designer drugs like "splurge" and "spazz." What he never understood was that the only true measure of a technology is its ability to aid a bored populace in its pursuit of nostalgia and novelty. And by these standards, the Pico-ITX board might be one of the most important technological breakthroughs of its time (roughly 2007-2010 CE). Where would the hackers and case modders of our humble era be if it weren't for this guy? They wouldn't be shoving PCs into old Game Boy cases, that's for sure. Case in point: the Linksys Bt320g seedbox project places VIA's EPIA PX10000G mobo and a 320GB HDD in an old Linksys shell (and a 400GB HDD in a second router). The man responsible doesn't say whether or not this one was intended to thwart they copyright police in the event of a search and seizure, but on the other hand we're assuming that he isn't going to be seeding OpenOffice on the thing either. If retro computing's your bag, we've found a Timex Sinclair ZX81 case mod that should bring you considerable joy. Unfortunately the membrane keyboard's been disabled, but if you don't mind using a USB keyboard with a machine that originally sported 1KB RAM (at a whopping 3.25MHz), you might want to hit the read link and see how it's done. Read - Linksys BT320G case modRead - Sinclair ZX81 turned into PC
