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By slaveofconvention at 2012-08-14 04:03
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It's always nice to be in a situation when the hard work and creativity of being a modder gets noticed and/or rewarded. ASUS has announced a competition which is absolutely 100% aimed at you lot - modders! ASUS wants people to enter mods, I assume current and past, into a competition where your creation will be on display at the 2012 Work Maker Faire in New York.
The contest opened on 23rd July and is open until 22nd August so while you may have missed a couple of weeks of eligibility, there are still a couple to go so have a scoot on over to the ASUS competition page at http://promos.asus.com/US/Makerfaire2012/ and take a look.
The prize on offer is Hotel & Entry into the World Maker Faire 2012. Even if you aren't in a position to enter, it's worth a couple of minutes just to look over (and vote for) the entries currently submitted. At the time of writing, there only appeared to be 10 entries so if you have something you want to add, it's definitely worth a shot!
Even though the competition has officially been open since 23rd July, the rules are a little thin on the ground - the official rules page simply says "Rules to come" but we can tell you that you need to be residing either in the US or Canada, and be 18 years or older.
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By Cale_Hagan at 2012-07-16 04:24
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In the last few years, many individuals looking to spice up their computers or consoles have made the choice to do steampunk styled case mods. Steampunk is a style that can be very appealing to the eye, but requires a certain reservation when it comes to additions of copper and other pieces. ArgOs’s SteamPlanet case mod finds the beautiful middle ground to steampunk design.
ArgOs started with a detailed sketch of where he wanted to be with his mod when finished. Once all the extra baubles were where he wanted them on paper, he began.
With his design perfected, he set to the task of making his art come to life. ArgOs started with a basic Sentey case, stripping it and prepping the case for modification. After stripping the case, he checked to see that the pieces he was not fabricating himself would fit according to his sketch.
As with any proper modder, he measures twice, and cuts once, with aid of a full sized paper side panel mock up. A lot of the pieces on SteamPlanet were hand made, and as such required a fair amount of time to perfect.
Once ArgOs has all his pieces fabricated, he has them painted and pieced together according to his sketch up in an artful fashion. The result is one of the most amazingly crafted steampunk case mods TBCS has seen in recent history.
ArgOs is still working on finishing up the detail work, and as such it is still a work in progress but for the most part, this is done. View his full work log here, and give ArgOs some much deserved kudos!
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By slaveofconvention at 2012-06-25 16:09
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If you recall the original review of the Noctua NH-C14 CPU Cooler, back in June of 2011, all of the testing was carried out on a relatively modest AMD Athlon II X2 250 CPU running at 3.0Ghz. Like most of us, the upgrade bug has bitten me and my main PC is now running on an AMD FX-8120 - 8 cores at 3.1GHZ which self-overclocks to 3.9 under load. The question is, can this Editors Choice winning 10/10 CPU Cooler handle it? Read on to find out...
It isn't often we here at TBCS go back and look once again at a review but we're making an exception today. It is relatively obvious that Noctua are aiming it's NH-C14 CPU Cooler at higher end system, considering the size and price of the unit. Our original testing was carried out on a fairly mid-range system in order to acknowledge the coolers' HTPC suitability.
Having recently moved the cooler from the HTPC and into a much more powerful PC, it seemed only reasonable to re-test it in the interests being thorough.
In the original HTPC, the cooler was installed to cool an Athlon II X2 250 running two cores at 3.0Ghz and as the original review (available here) attested, the NH-C14 did an outstanding job, knocking almost 20 degrees C off of the stock cooler and 15 off of the Arctic Cooling PWM64 cooler, as you can see in the following chart.
The question before us today, however is will the cooler be as impressive on a 125W 8 Core CPU as it was on the 65W 2 core unit?
The revised core specifications of the test PC are as follows.
Antec 900 PC Case
AsRock 970 Extreme 3 Motherboard
AMD FX-8120 8-Core Bulldozer CPU
16GB PNY DDR3
As before, the tests were carried out using freshly applied thermal paste, although in this case a quality generic paste was used instead of the Noctua NT-H1 paste originally provided with the cooler. The same paste was used on all three coolers in this test for the sake of continuity.
The "stock" AMD cooler is different unit to the stock cooler used in the original testing - AMD provides a much better stock cooler with the FX-8120 than with the Athlon II X2 250, and the mid-range cooler used for comparison is a step up from the original Arctic Cooling unit - this time it's a Freezer Pro 64 with a single 120mm fan as opposed to the PWM64 with an 80mm unit installed.
The results....
Simply stunning. There is a MUCH much better level of airflow in the current case than in the Thermaltake unit used in the original review. The Thermaltake had no case fans whatsoever, relying utterly on the PSU fan to expel hot air whereas the Antec 900 has a pair of front mounted 120mm intakes, a rear mounted 120mm exhaust and a top mounted 200mm exhaust all of which almost certainly helped but there's no denying the difference between the coolers in the same system. Give or take a week or so, the time of year is the same, so ambient temperatures will be fairly close between the systems, and the tests were carried out in the same room.
The NH-C14 actually managed lower temperatures on the 125W 8-core CPU than on the 65W 2-core unit although the case airflow has to have been a contributing factor. Nevertheless, a drop in temperature from 47C (stock cooler) down to 29 is a great result and fully reinforces my previous conclusions.
With these results in mind, I have no problem whatsoever confirming both the Editors Choice award and the original 10/10 score. This is a serious CPU cooler which is more than capable of taming mid and high-end CPU's alike.
This product was provided free of charge by the manufacturer for the purpose of review.
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By slaveofconvention at 2012-06-11 21:11
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It isn't often we give a frontpage shout-out to a project which seems to be fairly early in the construction stages here at TBCS but the sheer amount of time, money and imagination which has already gone into this utterly breathtaking scratchbuild leaves us fairly confident that this is one project which won't fall by the wayside and end up incomplete. Three screens, huge amounts of fabrication and some nice custom parts are just the start for ARTbyTROY....
If you are yet to stumble across this worklog chronicling one of the largest scratchbuilds I've seen to date, it's well past time you got caught up. ARTbyTROY is undertaking a custom build the size of, well, a pinball machine.
Starting with some well spent time planning in Sketchup, Troy has his blueprints ready for what will become a colossal custom build....
And of course, half of the fun of any build is what goes inside. Many of us choose to buy parts as we go, or recycle old gear to do the job. Troy has himself all set up with a pile of parts all assembled and ready to integrate...
You have to have something to look at while you play pinball - all the flashy lights and cool sounds - well it seems we're going all digital and Troy wasted no time in tearing apart what appears to be a perfectly good, brand new television set....
Mix in a small pile of aluminum angle section and acrylic sheeting (along with another part or two) he got to this stage - one constructed carcass of a Pinball machine....
Of course, as with most custom builds we see here at TBCS there's always room for an extra LED or two. Strips of SMD LEDS seem to be the order of the day. Think this'll be enough???
All told, the progress he's made already is pretty impressive - at the time of writing, he was at this point in the build....
And we can only assume there's a LOT more to come. If this is the first you're seeing of any of this, it's well past time you went and checked out the full worklog here on the TBCS forums - we can't wait to see how this beast of a mod turns out - c'mon Troy.....!
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By TheGreatSatan at 2012-05-29 14:26
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Today's review is my first for 2012! We’ll be covering the new Toshiba Z835 Ultrabook available at Newegg for $829 The Z835 has a 13.3 inch screen and weighs only 2.47lbs! The similar sized Macbook air weighs another half a pound and will cost you an additional $500. The last laptop I reviewed of similar size was my Alienware M11x which was only one inch smaller, but weighed a lot more. Obviously, it had a huge battery and was made with a thicker shell to contain the beefy graphics. An Ultrabook is not a gaming machine by any stretch of the imagination, but more suited for business or casual use on the go.
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By SXRguyinMA at 2012-05-18 16:02
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Fans can be a touchy subject in the PC world. There's a billion different fans and fan designs on the market today. Some are just general, inexpensive all-purpose fans while others are designed for specific purposes. The new FZ fans we'll be looking at from NZXT today fall into the latter category. Read on for the details....
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By SXRguyinMA at 2012-05-15 01:30
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When NZXT debuted the Phantom full tower it was an instant hit. From the unusual styling to the laundry list of features, it was quite the impressive case. Building off of the Phantom platform came the Phantom 410. A mid-tower version of the famed Phantom. How does it stack up to it's big brother? Well lets take a look.
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By Kayin at 2012-05-12 13:15
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By Kayin TBCS (and many other places) member John Hanlon lives with mesothelioma, an incurable form of lung cancer caused by asbestos exposure. He went many months with no income until last month, when his disability finally started. As someone who's disabled myself, I know that it's a pittance to live on, and I'm sure that he has many expenses caused by his condition that it doesn't cover properly. But when people out there on the intertubes heard that John needed help, it's been pouring in from across the world.
John is seen as a mentor to many of us, considering that he's been there and done that (and probably designed) for a massive amount of our hobby. Because he gave so much, to our country, to the hobby, and to us individually, we've decided to give back. We've created a PC with parts from many of the biggest names in modding and we're auctioning it off on Ebay, the proceeds to benefit John.
Exterior mods done by MNPCTech
Interior mods by DarthBeavis
And a list of sponsors so long you'll be shocked. You can find the worklog here and the Ebay auction here. There's also a support John Hanlon FB group here, or you can donate directly through PayPal.
Some people have given a lot to the hobby. Now, it's the hobby's turn to give back. Take a look at the log, bid if you've got the money, or just drop by the FB group and leave a word of encouragement.
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By SXRguyinMA at 2012-04-06 03:12
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Help support a great cause and get a chance to win this custom rig built buy me. This rig includes lots of time and parts graciously donated by many great people and great companies! Huntington's Disease is a (currently) incurable and debilitating genetic disorder. You can help the HDSA to further their research and try to find a treatment or cure for this horrible disease. I personally am also giving away myr Arctic Cat computer to one lucky person who donates! All donations received will go go to the Huntington's Disease Society of America. The funds will enable the HDSA to continue their ongoing efforts to find a treatment or even a cure for Huntington's Disease. Just like with any other disease-related research they need all the help they can get! Me wife's best friend's mother died from Huntington's so the donations will be made to the HDSA in her name.
The hardware specs are as follows:
* NZXT Phantom Case
* NZXT White 24-Pin, 8-Pin and 6-Pin sleeved extensions
* Thermaltake TR2 RX 1000W PSU
* Crucial 4GB DDR3-1333 Ballistic Tracer Green
* Intel Core i3-2100 3.1 GHz (1155)
* MSI H61M-E33 (B3)
* XFX HD-585x-ZAFC 1GB Radeon 5850
* Cooler Master V6 GT CPU Cooler
* Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (installed and fully updated)
* NEW! NZXT FZ fan setup. Set includes: 1x 140mm green LED in front intake, 1x 120mm non LED in rear exhaust and 2x 120mm green LED in side panel intake!
This is a rockin' machine and one lucky person who donates is going to win it! Here's the details:
1. Limited to U.S. residents only due to shipping restrictions
2. Minimum donation amount is $10.00
3. Donators receive entries based on their donation amount, where $10 = 1 entry, $50 = 6 entries, $100 = 13 entries.
4. Donations will be collected until June 30th, 2012 at 11:59 PM Eastern Time
5. Donations can only be made via the PayPal widget on the Computers And Circuits donations page (link)
6. Prize includes one (1) custom built and painted Arctic Cat themed computer built by me, one (1) Arctic Cat 50th Anniversary mouse pad and one (1) TBCS T-shirt.
7. No other peripherals are included (mouse, keyboard, monitor, etc.)
8. A winner will be picked via random.org and announced on ComptuersAndCircuits.com, Computers And Circuits Facebook page and notified by email.
9. The winner will have 48 hours to respond with their shipping information.
If the chosen winner does not respond within 48 hours their winning will be forfeited and a new entry will be chosen.
10. Odds of winning depend on total number of entries received.
For any other info and any questions contact me via PM.
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By slaveofconvention at 2012-03-07 12:10
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Microsoft pretty much nailed it for many of us with Windows 7. We got the reliability of Windows XP along with the features and "bling" of Windows Vista. The question then arose, what next? In the last week or so, Microsoft officially released a Consumer Preview of Windows 8. This is (or should be) a very good indication of how the final RTM version will look and act, so now the question is "Well?" - Let's find out.....
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By jdbnsn at 2012-03-04 22:45
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Welcome to duty! It's time to grip and rip and I can't think of a better way to gear up for combat than to load up on a magnificent custom PC with full metal jackets. Our friend Richie123 has been with us for just under a year and he's been making some explosive changes to a Thermaltake Level 10 GT case. Here's the sit-rep... One of my favorite features of this build (for obvious reasons) is the custom etched plexi side window. The detail in this image is breath-taking and if I understand it correctly was done by Dremel-in-hand by his "misses". That's right modders, you have a right to be jealous that you can't can't get you're girl to mod... The other eye-candy imagery is the airbrushed tank from the Battlefield 3 artwork theme, terrific work dude! Richie123 has decked out this modern solution to computerized conflict with lots of realistic war replicas, not an easy thing to get your hands on in the strictly gun-unfriendly U.K. Vega Force Company decided to chip in an amazing replica-model MK 18 Mod 1 AEG which will be seated on the top of the chassis and you must see the detail on this weapon, it's surreal. Calibur11 also tossed him a Battlefield 3 Vault xbox chassis which provided him with a very realistic claymore and canister grenade for the side architecture. And as always, point toward enemy! He has been milling over the choices of decor adding ammo linings and soon to come modeled soldier gear for the Fallen Soldier tribute. Some great use of camo-wrap very cleverly completes the BF3 feel you would expect from a well thought out theme. Although I'm not certain how it will play in yet, an orange helix dual bay res was fronted by FrozenQ which is definitely cool looking and I am curious how it will tie into the BF3 theme. Stay tuned for more updates to this battle-ready PC as Richie123 and the "misses" continue to blow us away like pawns on the field. Guns, girls, and camo....does it get any better? Thanks for sharing the great project Richie, I'm digging it all the way!!! -jdbnsn
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By SXRguyinMA at 2012-02-25 08:43
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Every case manufacturer has a variety of cases. In addition to standard cases each one has their flagship case. It's their pride and joy. It's the one that has the most features and supports the most hardware. Today we'll be looking at NZXT's new flagship - the Switch 810. Read more...
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By jdbnsn at 2012-02-21 16:49
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While scoping out a new line of water-centric cases by CaseLabs at overclock.net, his holiness saw the light. Cases designed as "high end enthusiast watercooling cases" are surely taken to the highest level possible right? If you think so, you don't know p0Pe. This crazy little dude from Denmark went all sea-sick on this case, stripped it down to the fish bones and started over. His prior project PC-Beto while a dazzling success left him with ideas for improvement in the design of his water system. PC-Beto had some wicked flows though he was not satisfied with how difficult it was to drain, tune, and replace parts. So his new focus on M8 was not only a heavenly state of cooling ability but also practicality in terms of maintenance. He starts by custom milling some aluminum plate and "glass-blasting" them to a very cool looking rough finish only to learn that he is not an credentialed aluminum welder. Minor set back but no big deal. He switched to steel and re-cut a framework to mount the pumps using a custom rail-mount on the radiator. The result is quite harmonious in design. Moving on to the cable management portion he tosses in a little anti-hater hate with respect to the grand CNC vs artisan debate but don't get distracted, his ideas are unique and exquisite. He designs a block to route wires through and does the 3D printer mills routine to produce a very clean looking wire passage behind the motherboard tray. He also made a very sleek PSU wire harness fastener branded with the Papal seal of p0Pe though that will be on the inside (sorta like a Vatican secret). I'm also nervously anticipating an explanation of the mysterious "go through thingy". When it comes to the reservoirs, you can really start to see the plan come together with slip out filters built into his sassy "show-off" reservoirs complete with angled flow guides.
p0Pe is a long time member here at TBCS and one of our good friends, he's even done some work for us in 3D animation and video editing and we're glad to have him in our ranks. Keep up the great work on the project and thanks for sharing with us my friend! -jdbnsn
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By jdbnsn at 2012-02-13 00:53
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I love a good contrast. Light and dark, good and evil, paper or plastic, life simply cannot be fully appreciated without recognizing the beauty of differences. Maybe that is what I love about Smasher. Smasher is a relatively new forum member and if I were to guess by the broken English he is from one of the Latin countries, probably Argentina. Smasher, hehe, what a brute. Don't you just picture a dude with a leather jacket, no neck, and a tattoo which says "suck it" across his bicep? Well you will be surprised if you do. Because Smasher is a man who introduces his case mod project with words like "ideology", "neatness", "extreme beauty", and "sobriety".....well he had me until the last one anyway. Either his vision is one of an artist who strives for the elegance of shape or Google translation went wild with his real intention. The bottom line is, his work delivers what his words promise. Our fine Latino (remember, I am just guessing there) friend has put together a very clean design based on a very openly exposed system built onto a fully custom crafted MDF backbone. This project which is designated "White Timantti" (Finnish for White Diamond) may contradict my assumption of his origin but certainly doesn't contradict his ideology. With an overall shape resembling a sail as it's primary skeleton, he cuts and shapes his MDF with care and finds a very clever solution for tucking a thin DVD drive within the thickness of the board itself and mounted on the sail. Another addition that to me just screams "neatness" is his solution to mounting a small HDD on the reverse side of the sail using L-angle plastic strips fed through slots cut through the sail. The PSU is also dismantled and all wires sleeved in the standard fashion following with the "ideology" of cleanliness being next to Godliness. Well executed though. With the PSU on one side of the sail and the components on the other, Smasher feeds the cables through various slots and a bulk of them curve nicely though what I originally though was a handle to transport the mod with. The flow of the wiring creates a great composition which is not subtle but defines with "extreme beauty". Though the components are open to air in the design thus far, additional measure of thermal "sobriety" are achieved with the combination of a peltier with a custom water block/reservoir which he mounts above a radiator framed into the base. His project is unfinished at this stage so it is an excellent opportunity to drop in and make a new friend while watching the visionary "White Timantti" come to life. Just try not to upset Bruiser...I mean Smasher... 
Welcome to TBCS Smasher!!!
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By jdbnsn at 2012-02-05 19:57
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Meet AnG3L. AnG3L has been with TBCS for a little over a year now and has already shown us some strong work. This time he chose to construct a totally custom PC mod from the ground up based on some architectural designs by Zaha Hadid. While not a direct likeness, it is certainly a beautifully conceptual homage to the famous architect. As you will see in this plan he had to wrestle with some of the classic arguments of architecture, does form follow function, or the other way around? After studying some of the architects numerous designs, he chose one her builds that fit the needs of component placement and free heat control while retaining the crucial element of a bad ass facade. Apparently he has the dedication of professional architect as well since he dedicated a full 200 hours to the plans alone! AnG3L used a combination of high-tech machinery and good old fashioned hand-craftsmanship with a variety of material including fiberglass, acrylic, and modeling paste. One of my favorite features of this mod is the custom designed reservoir made from acrylic tube and stock, definitely unique and elegant and fits his design well. And though he uses state of the art cutters and designing, he also shows that he isn't afraid to get his hands dirty and work with his hands. His meticulous nature shows in the fiberglass shaping and the use of wooden blocks for aluminum bending. There is something in this project for everyone to be inspired from and the members agree. They shouted "feature this mod!", and I couldn't agree more. Congratulations AnG3L, you've won the hearts and minds of the TBCS citizens, and that of my own. Welcome to the hall of featured mods!
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