Gizmodo: Casemod

BBQ Grill Casemod is Cookin' Up Some Gaming Goodness

Sean Fallon — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 22:00:00 EDT

With all of the heat a serious gaming rig can produce, it was only a matter of time before someone got the bright idea to turn a grill into a PC case. There isn't any information as far as specs are concerned, but we can see that this QuakeCon competitor has a decent sized monitor mounted inside the lid with some orange glowing fans in the range representing hot coals. It's a nice casemod—but unless he has some sort of setup that can cook burgers with processor heat I'm not all that impressed.

[Big Download via Technabob via DVICE]

HybRed PC Casemod Gives the iMac a Severe Inferiority Complex

Jack Loftus — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 13:00:00 EDT

Before we get into the details of this compact HybRed PC casemod from modder Ville "Willek" Kyrö, let's set the scene, shall we? An iMac sits comfortably at a local coffee shop, its wifi at 100%, eagerly sucking down megabytes of the latest Natasha Bedingfield mp3 from iTunes when all of a sudden, the HybRed bursts through the door and orders *gulp* a medium coffee, black, and pays with cash! Que the scratching record as the iMac wets itself and shorts out. And... scene. More seriously, the all-in-one design is really all the Hybred shares with the iMac, because as you'll see this is one serious gaming rig.

Inside the glowing custom-built aluminum chassis of the HybRed Gaming PC is an Athlon64 3500+ CPU. Graphics are handled by an nVidia GeForce 6800GT on a PCI-e bus. The power supply, as you can see, is kept separate in its own illuminated case. Red LEDs (HybRed, get it?) keep the rig illuminated when the lights go down low. [Metku Mods via Technabob]

Geiger Counter PC Casemod Looks Good In Places That Can Kill You

Jack Loftus — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 21:00:00 EDT

This Russian Geiger Counter casemod (technically an Ion Detector) won't let you know if you're standing waist deep in nuclear radiation, but flick the power switch and the meter jumps to life, letting you know the relatively weak CPU housed inside is working properly. As for the specs inside the box, there's a 300 MHz CPU, 256MB of RAM and a 4GB Compact Flash card for storage. That's more Pong than Half-Life, but it still looks sharp. Just be sure not to mistake it for your real Geiger counter when you're packing for that vacation trip to Chernobyl. [Modding.ru via Technabob]

Commodore 64 Midibox Mod Trades In Games for Beeps, Boops

Jack Loftus — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 15:30:00 EDT

What you see here was once a Commodore 64, but no longer. Now it's a MIDIboxSID, which translates roughly into, this thing looks killer in the dark and can lay down a serious series of beeps and pew pew's. Best thing is that, thanks to the C64's mod-friendly SID chips, this is a synthesizer that uses SID 6582 sound chips from the original C64 personal computer. Hooray for recycling!

The technical specs:

The synth is built into an original Commodore 64 computer case. And features 8 SID chips (4 stereo pairs - one SID per ear x 4 voices). Each SID chip has 3 oscillators and a variety of other features like filters, ADSR, ringmod, sync. The synth has a very flexible (and simple to use) modulation matrix, LFO, bassline sequencers, and stores patches in presets.

[Flickr via Technabob]

XCM Xbox 360 Casemod Glows Whether Console is Overheating or Not

Jack Loftus — Sun, 25 May 2008 14:00:00 EDT

Irresistible Xbox 360 red ring of death heatsink jokes aside, this glow-in-the-dark replacement shell from XCM is the bee's knees for gamers who like to do it in the dark. Even with the lights on the case is still pretty cool, as it sports a semi-translucent look, allowing onlookers to marvel at the melting electronics housed within.

[Technabob]

16-Year-Old Builds Elaborate S.T.A.L.K.E.R, Chernobyl Themed PC

Sean Fallon — Mon, 12 May 2008 19:40:00 EDT

It took around a year to put together from scratch, but a German PC modder going by the name "Froop" managed to build an elaborate PC casemod inspired by the Chernobyl theme in the game S.T.A.L.K.E.R. The result is "Unit 4," a working PC model of Chernobyl complete with a flip-top that allows you to peer into the bowels of the destroyed power plant. The construction process is outlined in its entirety in the following links, but you can check out some pics of the early stages as well as the final product in the gallery. [Thebestcasescenario and bit-tech forums via TechEBlog]

Batman Utility Belt PC is Better Than a Face Full of Acid

Jason Chen — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 18:00:00 EDT

Made for the Mod Shop's Comic Book Challenge, this Batman Utility Belt PC is, well, it is what it is. There are wires interconnecting the various parts—you can see the power supply's yellow tentacles snaking all throughout the setup—as well as green liquid cooling tubes making sure everything is cool. Cool in the way that this PC is not. We're sorry to hate on this after the creator spent so much effort in building it (especially since we love the Bat), but it's pretty impractical. And dangerous. A much better mod would be to make something Batman-inspired that wouldn't cause a house fire if one of the pieces toppled over. [Modshop]

Roadrunner Beware: Real-Life Crotch Rocket Spotted in the Wild

Jack Loftus — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 13:30:00 EDT

Hope and doubt are at war today as we pore over this picture of a literal crotch rocket. On the one hand, it looks pretty legit, right down to the stabilizing fins, exhaust port for the motorcycle housed within, and blast marks that are no doubt from one of the many instances where this beast dumped out while breaking the sound barrier. On the other hand, the kids and their Photoshoppin' these days means everything online is suspect (isn't that right, Steve?). Perhaps most damning of all, however, is the fact that the only creature capable of conceiving such a bike is nowhere to be found. Wile E. Coyote, could you please step forward and lay claim to your glorious invention? [Accordion Guy via Neatorama]

NVIDIA Motorcycle Casemod is the Fastest Computer On Two Wheels, Kinda

Jack Loftus — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 19:59:51 EDT

There are roadwarriors with their ultraportables and then there's master modder Dennis Ilyin, who took computing on the go literally with this ambitious motorcycle casemod. While the two-wheeled computing wonder lacks an engine, it more than makes up for it with massive LED-lit water tanks and what's sure to be ample processing power. The compu-bike was part of an NVIDIA-sponsored modding contest and actually came in second to this green thing. Fair? Unfair? Take a look at additional pics after the jump and you tell us.

[TopMods, via TechnaBob]

DIY Case Mod Turns Your PC Into a Gigantic Heatsink

Sean Fallon — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:00:15 EST

Once PC case modder has taken his battle with heat to a whole new level using a design that is 100% passively cooled. That is to say, the entire case is one gigantic heatsink. Unfortunately, numerous problems were encountered during the project and in the end, a faulty motherboard and power supply issues made a proper test of the case problematic. So, even though the mod is flawed, there are plenty of ideas that can be gleaned from the process itself that could result in something a little more practical. Hit the link for instructions. [Metku via Hack n Mod via Gearfuse]

Crappy Casemod Contest Still Ongoing

Jason Chen — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 16:00:53 EST

Don't forget to send in your pictures for the lousiest casemods you can find. They don't have to be ones you made personally—although we've gotten a few personal entries from Gizmodo readers that make us shake our heads in shame—so send them in to contests@gizmodo.com with the subject "Crappy Casemod Contest."

Crappy Coca Cola Casemod Creates Crappy Casemod Contest

Jason Chen — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 15:30:24 EST

Can you guess what this is? It's a PC mod made out of a 20-case of Coca Cola cans. It even includes the carrying case. On a scale of 1 to 10 we'd have to rate it a "pretty fucking lousy". Can you do better? Or worse? Send in pictures of the lousiest casemods you can find to contests@gizmodo.com with the subject "Crappy Casemod Contest". We'll post the lousiest ones in a lousy-off. Get to lousying. [Instructables - Thanks Jason!]

Wooden Art Deco Old-Tyme Clock Casemod

Jason Chen — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 15:27:52 EST

The world's number one consumer of wood for casemods, Jeffrey Stephenson, has created another machine called the Pico Bayard. It's got a 1GHz Via C7 CPU, an 8-inch EarthLCD touchscreen LCD on the front, 1GB Crucial DDR2 memory, and integrated Wi-Fi.

The most important part is how this guy looks, and it looks great with flame mahogany and chrome accents. It looks like an old clock, but it's inspired by French clockmaker Bayard and takes art deco cues as well. Definitely another classy addition to Jeffrey's wooden stable. [Jeffrey Stephenson]

Humidor Casemod Master Puts New PC In Tiny Wooden Box

Wilson Rothman — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 09:36:26 EST

Jeffrey Stephenson, the man who first looked at a cigar humidor and said, "I can turn that into a PC," has made another Art Deco PC out of wood. The G-metric Nano, which will be unveiled publicly at CES this year, is the smallest enclosure Stephenson could design that contained a VIA NX15000 Nano-ITX mainboard, 1GB of RAM, and a slot-loading DVD player. The case itself is hard Pennsylvania cherry, but Stephenson's signature inlay is done with walnut, mahogany, basswood and cherry veneers. The feet serve a dual purpose of adding style and hiding the fact that the large heatsink extends out of the box a tad. [Jeffrey Stephenson]

Halo 3 Xbox 360 Mod

Jason Chen — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 13:30:57 EDT

This Halo 3 console mod wasn't created by our buddy Ramon of Wii, PSP and DS fame, but still looks pretty damn fantastic. As you can see, creator Craget from the UK added blue neon trim, Halo Collector's edition stylings, two posable Spartans on either side, and what seems to be splooge on top of the fake moss. It'll soon be on eBay so you can pick it up for yourself so that when you're playing Halo 3 multiplayer and you get killed and teabagged by a twelve-year-old for the fiftieth time, you at least have something nice to look at. [Maxconsole via Kotaku]

Silver Inhaler Case Makes Asthma Stylish

Annalee Newitz — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 16:20:34 EDT

Does your inhaler look as drab as an IBM Thinkpad? Never fear—your asthma meds get a stylish makeover with Respire's magnetic silver container. On sale for about $15, these sleek geek accessories come in two sizes, with glossy or satin finish. I love the weird ad copy from Respire, which claims its cases are made with "the latest technology" in order to "keep your inhaler away from dust and fluff." Plus, as a bonus, they "feel good in the hand." Asthma chic has arrived, my friends! Huff on over to Respire. [Medgadget]

Optimus Prime Case Mod Almost Seven Feet Tall, Eats Mac Minis

Jason Chen — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 14:00:10 EDT

Modder John entered this Optimus Prime case mod into the Extreme Tech case mod contest, and well, it's probably the best Transformers-based case mod we've seen yet. It's six feet ten inches tall, transforms into a smaller desktop mode, has a seven-inch LCD on its body, two windows on its chest (like the actual Optimus prime), Autobot symbols, and even has storage compartments on the legs to hold your mouse and keyboard and other junk. Autobots, transform and level grind. [Extreme Tech]

Zoozen Makes Complete Ovo 360 Shell

Jason Chen — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 17:15:00 EDT

If you thought the Xbox 360 Elite was good-looking, check out this complete body mod from Zoozen. It's only a prototype for now, but the Ovo mod replaces the entire shell of the Xbox with a spaced-out looking breadmaker-type case.

We're digging the blue lights and complete roundedness, so we're hoping Zoozen actually takes this into production sometime soon. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Zoozen via Kotaku]

Legend of Zelda Wii Mod Benefits Charity, Knocks Socks off Feet

Jason Chen — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 16:54:16 EDT

It's safe to say that this incredibly great Legend of Zelda Wii mod wins the Gizmodo award for best mod of all time. Just looking at the pictures in his eBay auction (now up to $700) brings us back to a simpler time. A time of video games, PB&J sandwiches from mom, and giggling at magazines with naked girls that our friend Tom brought over. Ahh, good old 2006.

As for the casemod itself, a portion of the proceeds from the eBay auction goes to Penny Arcade's Child's Play charity, so you can feel good about spending (probably) over a grand for this. – Jason Chen

Pretty much the best Wii case mod ever [eBay via Nintendo Wii Fanboy]

Update: Fixed the link, as the old auction was de-listed due to a technicality.

Hangar 101 Casemod Inspired By the Lousy Star Trek Series. No, the Other One.

Jason Chen — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 19:05:49 EST

Inspired by the killed-just-as-it-was-getting-good series Enterprise, this casemod is probably the most orange thing we've seen this side of Half-Life 2. It features external hard disks, crazy paneling, custom acrylic, and hours and hours of time that would have been spent playing Dungeons and Dragons Online.

This casemod is a thing to admire for those of us who pat ourselves on the back when we successfully install a water-cooling unit in our cases without completely flooding all our hard disks. – Jason Chen

Hangar 101 by SleepStreamer [Bit-Tech]

Crazy Stained Glass PC Sanitizes Your Porn Addiction

Jason Chen — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 17:30:15 EST

Theory: This modder was so guilt-ridden with all the tubgirl and goatse porn he was downloading he had to go all stained-glass to get the demon spirits out of his machine.

Did it work? Well, we don't see any lemonparty demons, do you?

– Jason Chen

Stained Glass PC Case [Boredstop]

Dark Blade PC Mod Finally Complete - Even More Godly Than Before

Jason Chen — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 20:30:29 EDT

We covered the Dark Blade aluminum and stainless steel case here and here last year, when it was still in its infancy. Gianluca, the case-modder, has finally completed this thing after more than a year's worth of hard work during which his wife divorced him, his kids died from malnutrition and his boss fired him from using company time to build this case (only two of those things are true).

Check out the final product and tell us you wouldn't pay good money for one of these yourself? Click the image to see the full version. – Jason Chen

More pics after the jump.

Dark Blade [Bit-Tech]

Battle-worn Xbox 360 Casemod

Jason Chen — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 20:45:46 EDT

This Xbox looks like it's straight from the set of the nonexistent Fallout movie. Post-apocalyptic scratches, dings, and peeled paint make you feel like this Xbox 360 has seen more than just the inside of your home theatre cabinet. Too bad you can only swap out the faceplate on Xbox 360s, or someone could make a killing manufacturing these for the public. – Jason Chen

Best Xbox 360 Casemods [Cybernetnews via Kotaku]

Anime-Inspired Case Mod

Jason Chen — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 12:30:51 EDT

Similar to the Bikini Babe casemod and the wife torso casemod, this casemod combines two things that are dear to our hearts, women and computers.

This one though, however impressive the construction may be—software modeling, sand papering, painting, and more—is kinda weird. The girl's positioned like a sexy maid, staring off blankly into the distance.

The thought of her being connected to a monitor she's positioned in front of, staring with her cold, dead eyes at the images produced by her own innards gives us a case of the heebs. – Jason Chen

ERN005-PC [Thanks Mike!]

EA FIFA Casemod

Jason Chen — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 16:59:35 EDT

All we can say to this one is "Wow". That, and the stuff between this sentence and the end of the post.

A soccer (futbol) fan made an EA sports FIFA casemod that has actual players playing on a pitch adorned with the EA logo. Not only that, there's a crowd, stands, and working lights.

The modder made a sketch using actual CAD software to plan out how he wanted it to look like first before getting busy cutting aluminum sheets with lasers! As you can see, the end product is definitely high class. If they were to sell something like this in stores, it would probably run you over $3,000.

The only question is, why EA? – Jason Chen

EA FIFA mod by Butterkneter [Bit-tech]

Batman Begins Casemod

Jason Chen — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 19:10:10 EDT

As the resident Batman fanboy, the mere sight of this awesome case-mod gave me shivers, quivers, goose bumps, heart palpitations and a woody. Simultaneously.

Reader Alex took the Batman Begins-style Batman symbol and modded the guts to hold his PC. It's not just the front that looks good, like some case-mods, but the entire back looks great too. There's Batman logos, lights, grills, and everything is black, black metal.

Our only complaint is that this setup is in a corner! Nobody puts ~~baby~~ Batman in the corner! – Jason Chen

Gallery [Computer Choppers - Thanks Alex!]

Case Mod: Skinned iBook G3

Jason Chen — Sat, 06 May 2006 04:34:29 EDT

Reader Aaron, being a fan of 80s pop culture and voiding warranties, skinned an old G3 iBook and took pictures. And with laptops, just like exes, naked pictures always wind up on the internet. Another thing they have in common: they both have the nickname Skeletor.

Well, the one originally made by Apple, after being cleared of its shell, has much better airport reception and runs lots cooler—both expected since it's the cover that's keeping all the air trapped inside and interfering with reception. Not that we actually recommend this. The case is what prevents stuff like, oh, half a can of diet coke, from destroying your entire system. But it is pretty cool to see done to an old G3. We salute your de-casing skills.

Skeletor [Thanks Aaron!]

Sweet Cases: Humidor NX

gizmodo.com — Tue, 08 Nov 2005 10:56:16 EST

Given all the steroidally over-muscled PC case mods out there, it's nice to see a refined and sophisticated one like that Humidor NX (pictured right). This is the sequel to Jeffrey Stephenson's Humidor PC. It's made of old cedar wood with a gorgeous cherry finish. Too bad Jeffrey had to go and put a blue light inside there (never seen that before). Instead of a fine Romeo y Julieta, the Humidor holds an AMD Geode CPU running at 1GHz, a 120 GB Seagate SATA drive and a 1 GB of Corsair RAM. Next up is the DECOmputer (as in art deco). Jeffrey took an old Caulkins Appliance Co. Breakfaster and turned it into a great looking case (pic after the jump). It sports a 1.8 GHz Pentium M CPU, and a 40 GB hard drive. If you're looking to get your hands on these though, tough luck — they're not for sale!

The Humidor NX [via The Inquirer]

Yes, God Is a PC Case

gizmodo.com — Mon, 24 Oct 2005 11:12:19 EDT

Bow down before your God. He is now known as "Dark Blade", the most awesomest PC case ever invented by Bit-Tech forum user G69T . This PC case is almost near completion and has taken countless months to produce. It comes with 2 seperate hydraulic pumps for cooling the bastard. The case is lit up in a beautiful blue and green combo that flows through the tubing with a sex-tastic luminosity. In other words, it's pretty. Custom venting also helps cool this beast down. If you're wondering where you can get one, don't hold your breath. This baby is one of a kind. More sexy pics after the jump. Mmm. Case fetish.

Dark Blade by G69T [Bit-Tech Forums]

Inside-Out Computer

Noah R — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 12:20:44 EDT

It's finally time to dump the beige box once for all. This limited edition translucent case mod made of oak hardwood and 1/4" amber-tinted Plexiglas is perfect for showing off your nerdiness at the office. Now you can flaunt your graphics card geek style as co-workers stroll by your desk. This baby comes standard with Windows XP, an AMD Athlon64 3000+ processor, 312 RAM, and a slot loading DVD/CD-RW drive plus a year of tech support rolled into the 2,000 USD asking price. Definitely worth the cash if hardware is as important to you as getting a date.

Product Page