Modding The ATI PC (Old thread, mods please lock)

Unlike the veteran that you are.

I reckon the (flurry of) posts about the overt branding are pretty dead-on.

Take mashie's "3" for example. It was understated beauty, and yet still had an advertising message. Or the p4 cube (forget who that was, mashie again?) which did have a rather blatent message but wasn't too over the top.

This shuttle is so in your face with its "OMG I'M AN AMD 64 WITH AN ATI GRAPHICS CARD!!!!" that it loses any special impact. Also, and I hadn't thought about this before... it's so small, I hope they have some magnifying display box to put it in so it actually gets seen...

I couldn't do anything better, fo' sho', but once you've built yourself up you have to expect harsher criticism and I for one think you probably thrive on it - more of a challenge to create something amazing!
I hope you do anyway otherwise you'll probably be getting kinda pissed off, huh?

 

I think you are referring to Cold Dogs NeXT Cube with the P4 case badge on the front.

 

Jealous you didn't get the gig?

I think it's a real nice design. What is it being created for? To be a blatant marketing tool. Mashie's 3 design was a nice piece of work, but blatant marketing it ain't. Zap's design will go down well at trade shows and the like, but most of you foo's nobbing his design, I daresay, will never have been near one and, consequently, have no idea of what is needed from a project like this.

Keep up the good work Zap! Looking forward to seeing this finished.

As for taking Zap down a peg or two? That's verging on blatant insult, and is against the rules of this forum. When we see something as good as Zap's previous work from you, then we might listen to your criticism.

 

Is it just me or are these forums getting more and more hostile???

I've been lurking for a long time and whilst i don't post massive amounts it does seem that in the last couple of months that an awful lot of negative posts have been flying around.

Flame me all you like but I reckon this design stands up to be exactly what its meant to be.

Mashie, I love the 3 design, I think its fantastic... but i wouldn't have known it was advertising/marketing anything,

Zap, Looking forward to seeing this progress, your work is cool!

 

Great work so far zap, I can't wait for some pictures!

Where do you get off saying something like this? Lets see some of your work. I doubt its even close to being as good as zaps work. Your just jealous of all the attention he gets from his great work.

 

I think we should all calm down here before we have a flame war. Zap does some really nce work, this isnt what we usually expect from him. Thats about it.

 

Ehm, right...

I mod for fun and for people that actually pay for my time.

Are you still annoyed I got a 9700 pro two months before bit-tech and refused to review it?

 

You're not the only one to notice it, I'm not sure what the heck is going on, but I don't like it, don't like it at all.

//back on topic

Yeah it is a bit gimicy, yeah it's an blatant add for ATI/AMD, etc. It's what they are paying him to do! I'm not saying I like the way in which he is doing it, but that's up to him.

If you don't like it, you are not being forced to read this log

 

There are different kind of marketing cases, one that is attracting the audience so they take a closer look, preferably by entering the stand showing off the case. The other is when you have computer running some game and you want to know why the game is running so smooth and reading "Intel inside". 3 belong to the former while the Zap cube belong to the latter, that's all.

 

I think we are just agreeing that this case is not living up to the hype that has been created about his first work. ...not that every project has to be more amazing than the last, but it just seems like a backwards step.

 

Stop the flame wars, they are not needed.

Mashie and CrimsonSky,
You are both hostile to other modders who threaten to take away from your modding business.
You have already nearly destroyed another forum, don't target bit-tech also.
I don't come and flame your threads at Gruntville, so don't flame mine.

It is very simple: Do not post in any of my threads.

 

Yeah, nice to see that's working out for ya. That would so far be Intel, and er?

/thinks about passing of 2 years
/thinks about consequences of breaking ATI NDAs
/looks at FX5950

Erm, no?

What I object to is your flaming of a respected member of the bit community. Whilst I think Zap asking you not to post is perhaps a little OTT, you could at least keep your comments constructive.

Welcome, esteemed forum members, to the backstabbing and bitchy world of so-called 'professional' casemodding.

I can feel a new topic coming on... "Commercialisation destroys community. Discuss."

 

Yeah the hype that you and other people have created. He doesn't go around saying how good he is a modding or how much better he is than us. It is those who see his mods who praise him and await his every mod that create the hype. And not matter how amazing he makes it there will always be someone whoe doesnt like how one little detail works.

Say you had a job of custom building computers for people. Would you change the way the computer was built even though it was exactly what the client wanted simply because some person who didnt even know what the intended use of the computer was came in and said they didnt like they way it looked? I wouldn't, I mean come on he is just trying to make it as good as he can while still following the requested parameters of the end users so give him a break.

He simply is being kind enough to share his projects and plans with fellow modders. And when he does this he gets flak about it. If he wanted instructions on how he should build the case and go against the parameters that were given to him then he would have asked.

He doesn't have to show us the projects that he is working on, he could just moderate what he is supposed to (he doesn't even have to do that) and not interact with the forums members and offer advice. He could just stop posting about his projects and explaining how he did them. But no, he is nice enough to show us his work, he doesn't post trying to get flack from people about how they dont like how it works. He gladly offers advice to those who reqest it and contributes a great deal of inspiration to the modding community.

Remember this is meant to be an advertisement not just for cool looks. If you just made it static and plain it would atract as much attention as one of the basic windowed cases. But if you make it dynamic it will draw people towards it. Then when they get close to it they see what components are powering this amazing looking little rig. It is meant to be like a signature symobl.

Simply put...

He is just showing us his work cause we want to see it. He doesn't have to do this so give him a break!!

*gets off of soapbox*

 

can I jump on the fan boy train

woo woo, woo woo, Zaps the greatest, woo woo, woo woo, Zaps the greatest, woo woo, woo woo, zaps the "OH F**K, his ego just self combusted"

God dam thats a flame war straight out of his eyes

If people don't like criticism, don't post your stuff into the public eye.

 

while I kind of agree with some of the negative comments being made, I don't agree with the lack of tact that certain people have used when posting their opinions on this case modding project. Hell, I never said I liked the designs myself, but I put forward my opinions with some reasoning behind them. I hope that they were useful to Zap, afterall I was trying to be constructively critical of the project, not just slating the project for the sake of slating it and joining on a morally high horse.

I read the project logs forum a lot, but rarely post here because I rarely have anything useful to say. I don't see the point in saying "woah looks great" because just about everyone else says that and it ends up cluttering the threads up, people get annoyed at it don't they? I feel that unless the comment is constructively positive or constructively critical/negative, it doesn't need to be made in a project log thread; afterall this was where this thread started up, right?

Lets stop the personal digs, k?

 

Zap, I'm sorry but you havent taken anything away from peoples modding business, in fact a few of us are doing it full time and doing quite nicely.

As far as 'destroying another forum', all we did was leave the forum. I'm flattered that you believe a handful of modders leaving a forum could actually destroy it. Seems to me it must have been hanging on a thread, pardon the pun.

Back on topic, you are right, if the client agreed to the design then go for it. Was it the first design you showed them or are there revisions?

 

Of course there are different revisions that have been shown to the vendors.
(The parts were supposed to be here already so I had started the project log)

This is in fact the middle of the road, as far as actual mods and added modifications. But ATI wants this project as fast as they can get it, so certain things such as extra painting, cutting, and circuits were omitted.

Original plans had powder-coating, air-brushing, and even more extreme lighting effects.
Already this PC is planned to have 158 LEDs, that is a lot for such a small case. There are no cold cathodes in the plans.

--------------------------------------

To get things back on topic:

the security circuit.
A security circuit was developed as this PC will be at many events, and will have times when there is no-one around to keep an eye on it. The PC may also be in the BYOC being used by random gamer, and not in a booth at some events.
So to protect the PC, and the connecter perephrials from theft the case will be protected by a security circuit I designed.

The circuit will protect any parts plugged into the custom jacks at the front, along with protecting the case from being opened or the power dis-connected.
If there is a power outage at an event, the alarm will go off, and an offical would have to come and disarm the PC.

The PC will have a key-lock switch that will allow for arming and dis-arming the circuit. (With Red/Green indicator light)

The unique feature of the circuit is that it is auto-arming on each connection.
For example, the front custom jacks will have connections for the keyboard, mouse, headset, and USB Hub.
But not all four perephrials may be connected to the system depending on the event.
(The USB hub would not be needed for a booth event for example)

So the circuit detects when a device is plugged in, and automaticly arms the device.
If the device is removed after being plugged in, then the alarm goes off.
This makes setup easy, as and offical doesn't have to worry about any specific configurations for the front connections.

I won't be posting the security circuit online for obvious reasons.

 

I would be wary of having a standard keyswitch to disarm it, for that exact reason: The keys are the same type used on everything, someone could just bring one, disarm it, and steal it. It would probably safer to use keys other than the standard cylindrical ones. And don't tell anyone which speficic non-standard key you used.

I must concur with some of the people that this is blatant advertising, but that's what he was hired to do. I don't care much for the design, but that doesn't mean I won't try to offer helpful suggestions.

 

would it be easier/better to use some kind of dongle?

 

I'm not a big fan of the security circuit either, but wouldn't it be cool if instead of an annoying alarm that it said something cool like "Put that keyboard back fool" or if power was disconected "Begining self destruct sequence. Reconnect power to abort. T minus 10, 9, ...."