I wasn't suggesting a budget as in handing out cash, but a ceiling limit of expenditures between the two competing projects. And possibly some sponsorships to make the competition less financially draining.
Get Coolermaster lian Li and other after market product makers like AC ryan to sponsor bittech's build off. And if possible have hardware companies sponsor 2 identical hardwar lists and supply said hardware.
Sounds like fun. Problem is, tho, a lot of us folks already work a full time job! I know that's what slows me down modding...darn medical career and all. Personally, I'd also suggest either a subcompetition or some sort of weighting for pc performance not just looks, but maybe that's just me.
A competition for PC performance would be good, but you don't actually have to do skill or do any work to get good performance out of your PC, you just have to spend cash. With modding, you actually have to put work into doing it.
As already mentioned, unlike the bike builders most of us have jobs other than modding (or are full time students). Besides that, I'd rather see a labour of love that took a year to hand build than mod with parts others pick and built on a short deadline - the quality just isn't the same. It's an interesting idea and if you can make it work but...
In the US, there's the "FIRST" robotics competition for high school students. Every team buys two crates of parts (a blue and a red). Every blue crate and red crate has the exact same set of parts. Each team is allowed to purchase certain other parts but there's a limit and criteria involved here. Plexiglass is ok, but you're only allowed certain components for the drivetrain. You get the picture. I think this type of competition is a very good idea, but how are you going to set things to be equal? Start everybody off with a case, maybe a few sheets of plexy, and a few sheets of aluminum, and throw in a selection of electronics. You could make the participants purchase the kits or supply them to pre-selected participants. That way, everyone starts off on the same page. You could also require photos of the fabrication process and set the rules such as "every participant must do all the work themselves" to prevent custom chromings or shop laser-etched work.
I'll go back to my previous suggestion - totally open - any parts - any money - pro modders only (like pro bike builders on the TV show.) - get sponsorship from an existing TV show - show a 5 or 10 minute update each week on the show of what the builders have been up to - the project can take an agreed upon 1 month or 2 months or 6 months. The TV spots can run after completion of the project so that it can be edited into good television. Upon completion, you can have secure internet voting. After all the TV stuff and the voting stuff is totally complete you can put them online as a build article. (You wouldn't put them on before that so that TV viewers would be surprised every week.) That's the way to go. There are several shows on TV in the US that would be appropriate.
I guess my point about performance is this: for some reason I sort of just don't jibe with folks who create giant beautiful artistic sculptures, then stick a mini-itx system in a corner of it, and call it a case mod. Perhaps just like the Biker build off, there can be themes to the competition. One might be, start with this CM stacker! Another might be the Movie Theme Build. Or Extreme Water Cooling.
Note what you just said there..."and call it a case mod". That's EXACTLY what it is. They're modifying the case, not the hardware. Hardware modifcation != Case modification. This has been mentioned loads of times before, but the main reason of why a crappy system is put in at the end is merely because they spend so much on the case that, by the end, there's no cash left over for hardware.
I think he's talking more about people modding random objects or as he said, making a sculpture and slapping a tiny system in at the end to actually make it a computer. Kind of like if i build a house, slapped some parts somewhere inside the floorboards or something, and called the entire house a casemod. Hmm, maybe i'm on to something
I think this exactly describes what Navig was trying to say. I would call this kind of project "shoe-horning" and not a true case mod. Shoe-horning computer hardware into a random container is very common in the ITX realm. It's not done for functional or even aesthetic reasons and is typically just a quaint "hey look at what I shoved a working computer into".
Don't forget I'm takeing you on if this works out Modsquad : ). I've already got Idea's for a theme and components and I must say that if my idea turns out like I want it too then you better bring your best....although I've never really worked with bondo so it could be a big goey mess.
The WhiskeyPC comes to mind... I agree though when "shoe-horn" mods have a purpose (for example, a car PC) they are certainly still computer mods, even though its more like a car mod.
I'm not entirely sure what I'm saying, altho cs is feeling me. I think its just my brand of modding--weighting both aesthetics and functionality. For example if you have 2 carputers, one is a Shuttle with nice paint job mounted in the trunk vs a custom shock resistant frame overclocked conroe 8800 SLI so that you can actually game on the pop out 1080p plasma, I think you know which will get my vote. Which brings me to my next technical hurdle about such a project--how would you do voting in a secure way? navig
like a scrapheap(junkyard wars) challenge for modders 2 teams of 2 get dumped in workshop and have 2 days to produce a work of art that contains the same hardware in each (extra marks for cooling etc) or like ready steady cook where 2 teams are allowed to bring in components limited by a set budget then get supplied with fairly generic parts LEDS CCFLS fans couple of cases and ofc tools etc and get given a time period to complete if you could do this once every other month as maybe a weekend thing or at Lan parties and post a 1/2 hour video on this website or youtube / google videoand attract some sponsership im sure this would spark massive interest within the modding community (and ofcourse outside the community) and generate huge publicity for the site
Origionally Modsquad had suggested that it should be compared to the biker buildoff. If we stick to that then I think we should go by these guidelines. Case - Unlimited budget here. You can buy a $20 beige or a $300 Lian-li Mod supplies - $200 max. I find it lame when someone spends 10 hours makeing a fan grill only to have it beat out by a person who put up the cash for some AQ gear. Watercooling - $300 limit. See above for reasoning Hardware not included in scoreing - This should be all about the case Judgeing - Should be done in a few different ways. I think there should be a panel as well as an open vote to the public. This way we have some knowledgeable votes to help make up for the "ohh that's shinier" votes. Sponsors - They're great but they greatly influence the build which is kind of lame. Nobody wants to spend 40 hours bondoing their case just to end up sticking a silver coolermaster fan controller in the front to satisfy a sponsor. Then again you do get some nice goodies that may help the mod. Junkyard bonus points - I think it would be great if people got points for re-useing or finding new uses for older components. It's easy to use the newest flashiest stuff on the market but it can prove a challenge to make something older look new. And my vote for time is over the summer. That way all of the college kids have time and there is also the least ammount of holidays to interfere with the competetion.
Time and money is the big-problem with the idea.. I had "high-hopes" bit-tech would respond in this thread. I understand they could not "do" (10) of these build off's, but lets start with one: G-gnome VS Dark Blade And go from there. It will-not work without there help, that is a fact.. I still think the build off idea would inject a good amount of enthusiasm into these (or any) forums.. Being a "so-called" sponsored modder with A.C. RYAN I will run the very-same idea past them and see if they are more responsive that the BIT has proven to be.. I will keep you posted: MS
