Modding Contest Winner

[Slug Toy]

well first off i want to say that im very disappointed in all of you... well not really. its a mild disappointment because this didnt turn out to be a HUGE success like i had hoped. its a first try though.

so anyways, lets announce the winner. if anyone besides the people directly involved have been paying attention, you can probably expect that we have a very low turnout this time... namely ONE submission. it could have been two, but no, its down to one this time. so who's the lucky guy? well its none other than silverdemon with his spiffy red dragon.

lets get some pictures to admire.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f26/z1gg3rm4n/Contest1/RedDragon02.jpg

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f26/z1gg3rm4n/Contest1/RedDragon06.jpg

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f26/z1gg3rm4n/Contest1/RedDragon05.jpg

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f26/z1gg3rm4n/Contest1/RedDragon04.jpg

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f26/z1gg3rm4n/Contest1/RedDragon03.jpg

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f26/z1gg3rm4n/Contest1/RedDragon12-1.jpg

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f26/z1gg3rm4n/Contest1/RedDragon14.jpg

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f26/z1gg3rm4n/Contest1/RedDragon09.jpg

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f26/z1gg3rm4n/Contest1/RedDragon15.jpg

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f26/z1gg3rm4n/Contest1/RedDragon11.jpg

so those are all the pictures needed to really get the idea of whats going on. take it all in people...

i think for this time around im not going to call on the judges in particular. im going to open this up to constructive criticism from anyone. ill throw in my take on this after a few people have had a go at it first. its late, and i cant think at a 100% creative/analytical level right now, and i want to see how other people are "judging" first.

so i call on people in general this time. make comments about anything you see fit. remember... its not being picky, its being HELPFUL. ill make my comments tomorrow.

oh, and while we're at it here, lets give silverdemon a big round of default applause for his win-by-default. seeming as there is no one to compete with, he wins everything this time... each and every category... and lets say a million points for the heck of it. it doesnt even matter anyways...

[Scotty]

Congrats Silverdemon! :)

So we comment now? eh..

I like the modding on the window very nice, The inside maybe could have been made a little neater so the wires couldn't be seen as much. Its a good clean paint job (i take it you painted it) the colours you have chose go together nicley, the black seems to have been a little worn out, maybe greasy fingers. Im thinking that there is a small fan in the front? Its a nice touch and the mesh stands out but not too much, it fits in nicley. The keyboard is my only worry, without there being any letters on it, its not really a keyboard i think that mabe some tranfer letters could be applied, unless you can type without looking at the keyboard.

[Airbozo]

Since I am a judge on this competition, I will post my comments;

Theme: Nice theme. should have been Orange Dragon though?

Paint: Looks good with the flat black and contrasting orange and red colors. Not sure if the black needed to be cleaned up but I see what you mean scotty.

Details: Could use some cable management such as hiding them or working them into your theme. Overall looks good. I like the red power button in the middle of the black case and the cdrom door and button. Nice touch. Looks like some of the pictures were taken before you finished painting, but the orange inside is nice.

Other: I agree with scotty about the keyboard. I would need the letters, but you may not (My SO does not need them). They do make black and red transfer letters if that would help. Plenty of case light.

Great submission! Keep em coming!

[silverdemon]

Congrats Silverdemon! :)

thnx very much, but I must say it is not a satisfying victory... I had expected at least an other 4 or 5 contenders in this contest...
being the only entry also means I came in last...


The inside maybe could have been made a little neater so the wires couldn't be seen as much.

Could use some cable management such as hiding them or working them into your theme.

Yeah, I've tried to clean it up, but I couldn't do a real good job. As you can see on the second picture there is only about 2-3cm (1 inch) space between my PSU and my CD-Drive... I will try to fix it, but I think I can't do much better :(


Its a good clean paint job (i take it you painted it) the colours you have chose go together nicley, the black seems to have been a little worn out, maybe greasy fingers.

The paint was meant to be matte black (blackboard paint) and you're right about the greasy fingerprints... but in normal light you don't really see it


Im thinking that there is a small fan in the front? Its a nice touch and the mesh stands out but not too much, it fits in nicley.

There is a 80mm fan in the front, to cool the three HDDs that are directly behind it. The hole is a bit small maybe, but if I wanted it bigger I would have needed to use bondo or something like that.


The keyboard is my only worry, without there being any letters on it, its not really a keyboard i think that mabe some tranfer letters could be applied, unless you can type without looking at the keyboard.

The keyboard is no problem. I can type without looking at the keyboard. But more importantly, the computer is a fileserver. I only use it to transfer files and I can acces it remotely. The keyboard and mouse are only there for installing software and that kind of stuff. I think I haven't touched them the last month or so;)


They do make black and red transfer letters if that would help. Plenty of case light.

Can you tell me where I can get those (red) letters? I actually planned doing letters, but I was too lazy to look for them and since I don't use the keyboard much I left it blank...

thanks for the reactions!

[Airbozo]

This is an example of the cable management I did on a case for a customer.

http://www.lotechdesigns.com/host/images/3402DSC01150small.jpg

I used the empty drive bays to stuff wires, shortened the fan wires (using tie-wraps, but bread/garbage bag wraps can look good too), and generally hid everything I could. the case I used was great because there was room behind the mobo plate to hide the extra lenght of PS wires.

http://www.lotechdesigns.com/host/images/6879DSC01140small.jpg

Try a stationary store or even a hardware store for the transfer letters. anything besides white or black is _usually_ found at the stationary store, although my local tap plastics carries a couple of different colors and sizes. You might want to put a spot of clear paint on the key once you put the transfer letter on it or you will wear it off quick.

[silverdemon]

I would like to have my wires like in that case you posted, but there are two things:

1. that case is huge compared to mine, my case is only 36cm (14inch) long and like I said I have about 2-3cm of room for my cables.

and 2. I have made a custom drive-bay. It can hold exactly 1 optical drive and 3 HDDs. So I don't have any spare bay for my cables... but thanks for the tips, I am gonna look into _trying_ to get it nicer ;)

[Airbozo]

I would like to have my wires like in that case you posted, but there are two things:

1. that case is huge compared to mine, my case is only 36cm (14inch) long and like I said I have about 2-3cm of room for my cables.

and 2. I have made a custom drive-bay. It can hold exactly 1 optical drive and 3 HDDs. So I don't have any spare bay for my cables... but thanks for the tips, I am gonna look into _trying_ to get it nicer ;)

Yeah that case was nice, I wish I had that kind of room in my system at home. Since my system at home has no window I just tie wrapped them out of the way of the cooling fans...

Yours looks much nicer than my home system...

[Slug Toy]

ok heres my take on all this. im not going to list what i like. ill list the things i think can be done better or added on. i for one think its more helpful to point out the bad things.

in no particular order...

1. on the window, there are three screws on the top and bottom holding the acrylic, and two screws on the sides. kind of looks uneven. not that its a HUGE deal, but three all around would count towards fine details in my mind, and would probably get more points.

2. i couldnt tell for sure, but it looks as though the fan for the hard drives was the only intake fan, and there was only one output fan... and it was in the power supply. i think one on the bottom of the front would have been a good idea, and possibly one just under the power supply in the back. granted, its not like you used any monster hardware that needs awesome airflow, but two fans is cutting it close.

3. the flat black DOES show fingerprints very bad in pictures. my suggestion (to everyone who submits something) is to wipe everything down before you take pictures. do whatever you have to do in order to have thigns looking the best.

4. speaking of paint... orange peel! the interior paint is showing some orange peel (the wavy bumpy look) that never looks all that great. if it were black instead of orange paint, that would look very bad. i know for a fact taht in automotive competitions orange peel loses you lots of points. you can get rid of it by putting on a couple coats of paint, then sanding with something like 1000 grit or higher sandpaper, then paint again, sand again, and paint again. do that until you can see any orange peel when the paint is dry.

5. as other people have said, cables cables cables. there isnt a lot of space, so you probably couldnt do any better than it is right now, but you CAN do better as a whole. this would be sort of a space management and planning issue. it might have been smart of keep the cd drive at the top, and drop the hard drives down 2 or 3 inches... maybe even all the way to the bottom. this probably could have lessened the clutter effect.

6. paint the screws and mesh. this is a small thing, but the silver screws and mesh stand out a lot. painting them orange or black would make things much better.

i think thats all i need to say. everything else looks fine to me. those 6 things i mentioned could probably gain you 10 or 15 points. its all about the details, always. im very thourough when i look through this stuff, and there is a category called continuity so every little bit counts.

so dont let that get you down... but now at least you know for future mods/competitions.

[silverdemon]

Thanks Slug Toy, some really good feedback there!
I can make excuses on all the points, but I'll just make one eneral excuse:
it's my first mod, so I have a lot to learn. As you said (and I knew that) I should pay a bit more attention to the small details. But then again it was my first mod and it is for a system I don't want to spend a lot of money on...

anyways, thanks for the feedback and if you're going to do another contest, good luck with it. I hope there will be a lot more entries though!!

[Scotty]

6. paint the screws and mesh. this is a small thing, but the silver screws and mesh stand out a lot. painting them orange or black would make things much better.



I agree with most the stuff you said Slug but in my opinion i like the way the screws and mesh stick out i think it just adds a little extra, if they were the same colour as the case i think they would be duller