My first big LAN party in 2004, I was introduced and loved the idea of computer case modding. The idea of taking a case that you purchased and customizing it for your personal needs, or putting a computer into something you wouldn't ordinarilly see.

Capture the Flag - Army Men 

The first case mods included putting customized windows and lighting into a computer to draw attention to the hardware. I didn't exactly have the hardware to show off, so I cut up my Antec server case and painted army men with UV reactive blue and red paint to create a capture the flag scenario in my case. I also added a plexiglass tile on the top of the case that I would custom paint the logo of the next LAN event. The case was customized for each event I took it to. I liked the attention it drew and discussing future modding plans with people.

TV BOX 

The next case mod actually came from a dare. I had been to a few LAN parties by this time and had seen some interesting things, but all of them were done to a pre-built case from a computer store. I wanted to do something different and had no idea what. I had been to a number of thrift stores and finally walked into the Lacey Value Village. We walked all over the store thinking to ourselves, what can we put the guts of a computer into. We had just about given up, when my wife said, "I bet you could put it in that." She pointed to a 1984, 13" old school television, completely equipped with rabbit ears and a UHF dial. The dare was set and I had exactly one week to put it together before PDXLAN 3.04.

I wanted to keep the tv intact, perhaps use the rabbit ears for wireless LAN, use the power switch for just that, use the channel dials for fan speed, etc. Unfortunately, being inexperienced with cutting plastic and only having a vintage 70's one-speed dremel, I could only cut for about two minutes before having to let the dremel cool down. This was ok, because the toxic smoke from the burning plastics needed to clear out of my garage before I could continue. The first day was removing the innerds from the old tv.

I then used a motherboard tray from an old case I salvaged and installed it to the shell. The two CDROMs were placed below the motherboard tray and the hard drive and power supply were hung from the top of the tv shell. Unfortunately, the case was never really finished as I moved on to a new case mod.

Fish Tank Monitor

This was probably the case mod I hated the most. After completing the TV Box, I saw someone use a 21" monitor to create a hampster cage. I located a broken 19" flat screen monitor and gutted it. I then created a plexi glass aquarium to fit into the front of the monitor. The aquarium was easily removed and was fully equipped with air pump and sunken pirate ship. I reused the motherboard tray from the tv mod and set it on rollers. Adding a swinging door to the back of the monitor, I could easily extract and work on the computer without disturbing the fishes. Unfortunately, the shell of the monitor was stabilized by the removed guts and since the guts were removed, the case was very shakey. Also, this was my first experience cutting and gluing plexi glass, so it took me a few tries to prevent it from leaking. I also added a five inch LCD screen to show movies such as Finding Nemo and Jaws behind the fish aquarium. I wanted to add a full size screen for effect, but did not have the funding for such a venture. At this time 10" LCD screens still cost a couple hundred dollars. Ultimately, this case was too heavy and unstable to continually move to LAN parties. It was only viewed at PDXLAN 4.05.

Bug's Borg Box

This was the first case mod I had actually sat down and created plans. All others were put together using the piecemeal approach. At PDXLAN 4.05, a new case had been introduced by Mountain Mods called the UFO. It was a rather large cube that you could easily fit two computers into it. I found this a very nice design, but very impracticle for taking to LAN parties. The amount of space wasted in this UFO case could easily be scaled down to just fit a motherboard on the top half of the cube and the other components on the bottom. The questions became:

• what light weight, redily available material would the frame be made using
• what flat, light items could be used to for the walls

The first question was easy to answer after a quick trip to Home Depot where I located aluminum 'c' bracket. The other question was answered at a computer surplus store and a notebook I had seen. Browsing a catalogue, I saw that someone was recycling old circuit boards and creating notebooks. After drawing up the dimensions for the case, I walked into a surplus computer store and noticed how server motherboards just happen to be the right dimensions and definitely the right price. I could pick up a stack of these motherboards for pennies, since no one else would buy them. A couple of hours work and all the components were stripped away except for the processors and selected LEDs that would be used in the case mod. I also used the five-inch LCD from the previous case mod. The only downfall I found with this case was ventilation for the lower half of the case. With three hard drives running on top of each other, they would overheat and cause system hick-ups. Future plans are to add additional cooling fans to the lower section, but for now it is running a single hard drive and has no need for extra cooling.

This case took "Best of Show" the GeForce LAN 2.0 winning a brand new XFX 7800GTX 256 MB video card.

Keg o' Rum

As you build cases, you gain experience putting them together and knowing what you like. I liked the cube in its simplicity. It just wasn't me. My next case mod was something to reflect what I like. If you know me, I wish I could have been born 200 years ago. This one had to be pirate related. I located a keg at a local thrift shop by accident and knew it was fate. I wanted to go authentic and tried to make everything out of cedar wood and by hand. I created a custom cedar stand for it so it wouldn't roll off the table. Being a custom case, it would need custom cooling. The keg opening was almost exactly 10", so I scoured google and ebay for fitting fan that could be run from the computer power supply. I located a vw radiator fan that runs in excess of 14k RPM if it is given full power. This of course would blow all my electronics right out of the case. I located ceramic resistors from a local shop and set up a switch to provide two speeds: 'gale force' and 'gentle breeze.'

I created a custom motherboard tray, hdd tray, cdrom tray, and power supply cover made from cedar. I also added brass trim for the opening and rusted some hinges to give it that authentic look. The ends were laser cut from drawings I created. One end a ship and the other a custom pirate flag with my 'bug' logo.

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