This is the second mod I am posting here, this one I made in 2005/6. Please excuse spelling and/or grammatical errors as english is not my first language. I will post this mod in about 8 posts ( need more time for the translations )
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Frenkie
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The Machine
Basis for this casemod is again a barebone, the Extreme barebone from XFX. The case has a unique form to start with
and the hardware inside is of good quality and will be used a lot .
The idea of this mod is primairely based upon its shape and the concept behind the games Quake4 and Doom3.
It will not be a look-a-like like the superb Doom3 Project Mars City case from Crimson Sky. ( TBCS RULEZ! )
This is my own case, my personal taste and view.
What struck my attention in these games, were the horrible interaction between man and machine.
I am trying to grasp this interaction in this casemod and the name I choose reflects that: The Machine.
As addicted Star Trek fan, I can't be help notice similarities between the Borg. These were IMHO more human
( were actors after all with lots of make-up ). In a digital game, youre mind is your only limitation.
In this real world I am bound by law of physics. My case will try to bind the human Borg to the digital Strogg.
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The Zalman parts are in, and I immediatly started working with the two HD-coolers.
Milling the 2 mm hard-aluminium won't be a problem.
But after that, ..... I know allready that the outer shellls won't fit on the plastic interior casing.
I'm sure I need my creativity skills a lot there.
The Parts.
On Crimson Sky's worklog, I came upon a few pictures of a scale model tank (http://www.tamiya.com/),
from which he used parts for his case. He called this Kit-Bashing.
To get a higher degree of details in your case, this is a excellent way to go. After some Googling,
I came upon the Dutch import adress, Rez. After some mailing between us, I was able to order a box
filled with spare parts for scale models for a reasonable price. They use these parts to help customers out,
who miss one or two pieces of their scale modell. When the box arrived it turned out enough parts
to use in 8 casemods. Here is a sample of what was inside.
I loosened the parts, and sorted them out on size en started transforming the parts so that you
wouldnt recognize a car, airplane, ship or tank in it.
I'm going to use these parts all over the case, just to get more details. For example on both arms,
I experimented with small scale modell parts, after which I gave them the matt-black finish to get
the look I was aiming after.
The Pipes
I had two aluminium pipes laying about here, with nice curves on it, really desinger stuff.
I really had to use those.
I decided to use them as exhausts on the case, somewhere on the back. Because they were quit long,
I shortened them to my liking, so they wouldnt stick out too much. At the same time, I made that cut diagonal,
to get a bit more depth in it.
I suspected the case to run warm, so these babies would be a welcome addon. To get even more flow going,
I modified two old Intel CPU cooling fans, and fitted them inside the tubes.
With some wiring to the powersupply these would pull the hot air out.
Today I finished the milling of the Zalman brackets. Lucky for me, the aluminium is the good kind,
very hard, short chipping ( whats that english word ) and the material doesnt stick.
The milling was finished soon, ( as expected, the building of the brackets was not so easy.
I had to manufacter new handles, because of the limited space.
Not satisfied for a complete 100 %, but most of the workis done.