超强UV效果的MOD作品

We here at Creativemods.com are starting the new year off with a bang. This month's modder of the month has been doing his thing for over 5 years and has come up with some absolutely brilliant stuff. Please read on if you enjoy looking at ridiculously well modded cases.

Tell us a bit about yourself:
I am currently employed as a Painter/Powder coater at a local agricultural machinery plant. I have two daughters that keep me busy when I'm not modding or doing something on the PC. I also like to keep up on new trends in computer hardware. I read four or five hardware reviews everyday to try and keep up to date on new products. I do a lot of custom built computers for various customers and find keeping current on computer hardware to be an asset. I must admit I get bored quite easily and change my interests often. One week it could be home theater, next it could be time to try that new AMD processor or maybe digital photography. For example I have just finished building my first HTPC (another learning experience) and am quite happy with the results. Gaming on a wide screen HDTV is something every gamer should try at least once.

How long have you been modding?
I have been modding for about five years, but only seriously for the last two. From a simple 80mm blowhole mod to my most recent water cooled rig卛t has been a great adventure! The early days when you first start out are the best. My brother use to come over and we would spend a full day modding, drinking beers and having some laughs. I think half the fun was trying to come up with new mods to hide our screw ups. After you have gained some basic knowledge of modding, you loose the fear you once had and are ready to try something a little more extreme, water cooling for example. I still enjoy the more complex mods, but find them to be a bit more stressful mainly due to the time and money involved卭ne mistake and your masterpiece could be toast. But in the end there is still no better feeling than firing up you creation for the first time and take her for a couple loops of 3DMark!

What is your favorite part about modding and why?
My favorite part about modding has to be coming up with the initial concept/design of the mod. This is by far the most time consuming part of any of my case mods. I start out with an idea and then try and picture the end result. Each step is carefully thought out and changes are made even before you start. As you consider each step of the mod you have to try to determine if any potential problems lie ahead. I see many people not spending enough time with the design, rushing to build, only to run into major problems halfway through the build. I also like to see the look on peoples faces when you tell them "It's a computer". Most people tend to believe computers can only come in boring square beige boxes.

How did you get started modding? What was your first mod?
I remember getting started after reading an article about cooling on some website. I was interested in achieving the best possible cooling at the time to help increase any overclocking potential of my system. The site had a couple pictures of various blowhole mods and I recall thinking that this was a great idea.

My first mod was a simple 80mm blowhole in the door of my $45 case. I still remember how scared I was that I would screw up and ruin my new case! Next up was the dreaded window mod卼ook awhile (and a few sheets) to figure out how to cut Lexan without cracking it. After a couple years of basic modding, the next step was to put everything together that I had learned and add water to the mix. Almost all my new mods will include water cooling.

Talk about the process of making your case
I first got the idea from the "Mountain Mods Cube Case", but there were a couple things I did not like about their design at the time. The case they were selling had too many fans and did not have even air flow (air in = air out). It also would have been difficult to mount dual rads or any type of water cooling in the case. With this in mind I set out to improve the design.

I started with a 4 x 6 sheet of 18g aluminum that I had cut to size (case dimensions: 18"x18"x 18"). I then I proceeded to measure and cut all the fan holes, windows and all other openings. After the cutting was finished, I had the aluminum bent and any braces welded on. I also decided to put a divider in the case to help even out the airflow on either side. I now had the basic shell finished.

The next step was to build the 5.25" and 3.5" drive rails into the case. I used the rails out of an old case I had lying around. The 5.25" rail was riveted to the aluminum extrusion outside the bay opening to make the drive bay removable. The 3.5" would then slide in under the 5.25" bay and attach with two clips also making it removable. I made the motherboard tray removable by using a tray from an old case that was riveted on to a piece of aluminum that was cut to size.

With all the parts built it was time for paint. I tried to stay with the Lanparty theme when it came time to coat the parts, thus the UV orange and green. First up were the knobs, thumb screws and grills. They were first painted with a couple coats of white enamel to make it easier to get good coverage with the UV paint witch is quite transparent. The UV paint was now applied. The cube case was cleaned inside and out with solvent and was then sprayed with a couple coats of flat black enamel. I use flat black for the interiors of most of my mods because it adds depth and helps make the colors stand out. The paint was allowed to cure for three days before assembly began.

Now we begin the assembly of the water cooling loops. At this point it is a good idea to sit back and review your water cooling layout to make sure everything will work as planed. I installed the motherboard into the case so I could get the proper length of the hose needed for the various blocks. The pumps are mounted and then we work the tubing to the blocks then to the reservoirs and back to the pumps. I decided to go with two loops for this mod so I could use two different colors of dye, green and orange. The system was tested for 24hrs to check for leaks before the hardware was installed. After I had the cooling installed I decided I did not like how the hoses were run and had to tear it down re-do the entire thing. It sounds like a pain but in the end I was much happier with the way the tubing was run after the second installation.

The pumps and PSU's were than wire to relays. The fans and controllers were wired, and then the rest of the hardware was installed. The two fan controllers are the DIY type that fit the mod perfectly. The mod was done over several weekends, can't say exactly how long it took but there were some long days.

Do you have any future plans for it? If you could own any case, which would it be?
This case will be sold like the other mods I have done. I like to do a case mod, sell it and then use the money to build another. There are not too many cases out there that I like. At the moment I am using a CoolerMaster Stacker, but would still prefer a custom built case.