Mod of the Year 2006

This is gonna be hard to choose.

 

Tis true what they say its a difficult field to choose from, personally i'd like to see two catagorys next year, case mods and scratch builds with perhaps 5 or 6 in each catagory. Havent a clue how to vote yet, will require much thought and consideration.

 

Had to wait until I got home & thought this over myself.

Note to builders: : All of you do work and I think these are all great. The opinions expressed below say more about my personal tastes than they do about your work (Which is great)

Battlefield 2142: Very well done and the Shuttle is the perfect case for this. An excelent sculpture but to me it misses the point of having a Shuttle.

Biomech 550: Unique, well done, awesome attention to detail, but not to my personal tastes.

BOSS: FX57: I love the air cleaner on the CPU heatsink and the hood-scoop but I'm not that dedicated of a car fan.

Cold Fusion: Very nicely done skin on a case but not yet complete in my eyes (if only his latest was in the contest - I'd vote for that one)

Dark Blade: Wonderful job and an excellent level of detail - but almost more of a cabinet than a case - Awesome but too much for me.

Epia Alloy: That's a pretty sweet bit of work and a great addition to a car themed room - but I don't' think I would want a wheel in my living room.

Extreme LianLi: A nice bit of work, A few new ideas - but too big and bright for me (I much prefer the green to the more common glaringly bright blue though)

Sangaku: Now that's some woodworking skill! I love the attention to detail. I really like the theme and the look but I like my metal EMI shielding.

Silent ContexYZ: A beautiful window, some great work on the gauges, And I really really like the orange lighting - but analog just isn't my thing.

Spiderman 3: Very nice paint and an excellent execution of a popular theme. I love the spider etched into the hard drives and the eye-hole windows - but, though the work is great, the theme is everywhere already.

Temple of Nod: Now this is a gorgeous piece of sculpture, a wonderful work of art that not only pays tribute to a game but also allows you to play that game. Beautiful but too fragile for me - something I'd want to take to a lan-party but be afraid to move.

WMD: "da bomb" (/me runs for cover) - Perfect execution of a theme and an amazing level of detail - but over 45KG with a SFF Shuttle motherboard??

How can this be a fair contest?: Some have access to sponsors and materials and machinery that others could only dream of. There are some great mods out there and I'm almost disappointed in myself to be voting for a mod that had some edges: industry connections and sponsors. In the end though, this contest isn't about fairness - This contest is about the best mod. - So - WMD for me - Something I could take to a lan-party or park next to a large monitor. And just seeing it sitting there it begs to played with.

Note to motherboard manufacturers: more powerful Micro-ATX boards PLEASE.

 

I can't make up my mind.

WMD gets huge bonus points simply because Stainless Steel is such a huge pain in the ass to work with and yet G-Gnome stuck with it and executed the whole project really REALLY well.

On the other hand Dark Blade is monumental in the amount of time and work involved. I may side with it not only for the amount of man hours that went into it, but the many well engineered functional features inside the case.

 

I agree with you Captain, and may you be well for the next year so yours can be voted upon.

 

wow!!! I need to say, for me it's a great honor to be among these amazing works!! it's my prize! thanks a lot!! very happy to see it!

 

Hi [WP@]WOLVERINE]

When you gave me tips about engraving back in the days, I never thought I'd be competing against you. GL to you =D


I'm glad I won't have to vote, because I can't make up my mind. There's a lot of excellent craftmanship here, and I wish you all good luck!

 

Im not surprised that you are in this because youve got some major skills and the Temple is a stunning mod so Good luck to you to

 

wow you dont realise you tallent in the comunity till you see a load of work in one place like that, I already have my mind on who to vote for but im at work. When i get home i'll have a crack!

 

Voted.

I was erring towards WMD... but when I read through the write-ups, I changed my mind when I got to Dark Blade.

Until I got to the end and looked at WMD again....!

As others have mentioned, I'm not a bling person so flashy lights don't win any points off me.

Although there were characteristics of other cases I liked, WMD just looks cool, it's a feat of engineering/craftsmanship, and... guess what... there's actually a computer in there somewhere. I think it would have still got my vote if it was hollow.

Still, wouldn't like to carry it to a LAN party...

 

im going to vote for the Boss-FX57 when i get in

and the reason is simple

while the others are just massively impressive, Darkblade and WMD being the prime examples of just what can be achieved with premium materials and equipment, i feel they go too far and completely overshoot the term "modding"

those cases are works of art, they are sublime and well executed creations, but thats just it, they are more creation than mod.

i like the Boss-FX57 because it is a simple yet effective mod with nice touches, i especially like the air-filter on the CPU HSF, that is a great touch along with the stunning automotive paint job. but most of all, it is attainable. any self proclaimed modder could pull something like that...and thats what i like about it, its realistic.

the others require too many specialist materials, tools and skills. but i dont wanna detract from the fact that they are UNBE-FRIGGIN-LIEVABLE!

Biomech would get my 2nd place....fantastic mod, lots of good work there, alot of effort. love the Hard disk mountings and the windows, but im not fond of that style, and for me its almost like theres too much going on. as an actual mod its fantastic, and dare i say it alot more imaginative than the Boss FX57, but what can i say? i love cars and i love simplicity and cleanliness

3rd place would be the Music studio guys' one i love the colour of the lighting and the dials along the bottom.

 

I hope to see the two competitions separated next year, one for modifications and one for scratch builds. My personal opinion aside; I wish all of the participants good luck.

Last but not least; I would also like to thank all the modders in this great community for sharing their work with those of us (me for instance) that have yet to attempt a modd, you’re all a source of inspiration.

Cheers

 

Having been to church to understand creationism (scratch builds) and understanding Darwin's evolution theory (modding a case), that part of the vote is kinda straight-forward and simple. One's just a lot harder to do, its as simple as that. You would think that following that idea to someone who recognizes the Sabbath would be simple... But there's that stainless bomb from down under and the Italian CNC mastery... anyone wanna sell me two more votes?

A big high five to everyone's work. There's certainly no shortage of creativity, craftsmanship and artistry here.

 

I think that they can both be equally hard to do, a full build from scratch requires a lot of effort and skills. But a case mod requires a lot of different skills, like manipulating what you have to get the components in or placing bits where they shouldn't be.

But making something do something its not designed to do is always the hardest, which is why I like mods which use existing bits and pieces from around an area to build.

 

I also agree with sentiments in this thread about two categories for "from scratch" and "existing" mods in future competitions. In terms of design conception they are two totally different starting points.

I voted WMD, but had there been two categories, I'd have definitely voted for the Boss as well. Boss is pimpadelic.

 

My criteria was both about clean style aesthetic and design premise. To me an exceptional mod changes the case into a new visual experience. The most polished and complete mods for me were Sangaku, Temple of Nod, and WMD.

Once I compared those three more closely, I realized that while WMD is *very* polished and took a great deal of effort, it's not really a case, and perhaps never was. The WMD is a piece of metal art that just happens to have a motherboard in it. It's plenty cool, but doesn't look or feel remotely like a computer, and to me that's enough to cross it off my list.

For the remaining two, Sangaku is the mod I'd personally want on my desk. I would be very happy looking at it year-round. But that said, my vote went to the Temple of Nod. I feel Nod is more complex, original, and ultimately the better overall mod. Plus while it's a subtle connection, the fact Nod is based on a game makes the mod even more connected to its PC roots.

 

If you think modifying an existing case is harder than making one from scratch, then you've never tried to make a case from scratch and don't understand how much work it involves.

 

The debate between scratch-made and modded stock cases is tricky.

For Sangaku, getting everything to line up and do what it was supposed to was a royal pain in the A; all of which would have been automatically taken care of with a stock case (or even a stock motherboard tray.) so in that way scratch builds are harder. But, when i modded my brother's Tsunami case, there was so much useless crap in there that had seemingly no purpose. This made modding that a pain too, if not for a different reason, but I don't think it was harder. For scratch builds though, the modder has the ultimate in customizability and knows what everything is and why it is there, which makes it easier in some repsects. The hard part is getting there, but that's also the fun part.

 

my vote is for Dark Blade

I love all the other mods but this is the one that got me to join the forums and got me into modding, he is very inspirational and doesnt mind answering a bunch of annoying questions ^^

 

I'm a little disappointed with the epia alloy....why is that a top mod again? Especially from Gotall. I personally think his other mods are substantially better than that one. Not that I don't like it I just don't think of it as TOP material. Anyways, as much as I hate cnc machines and people who have access to them (jealousy) I'm voteing Dark Blade.