I was reading the "Ammo PC" by ZapWizard thread over, what a project log. But I found a discussion going on in that thread that interested me. People were debating the integrity of the Millenium Falcon and Matrix Rebirth mods that competed against ZapWizard's Ammo PC in the TechTV Contest a while back. Why? After all, they are good-looking mods. Zap's argument was their power. They were works of art, but people used ITX boards with measly 1 GHz processors, integrated everything, low-powered everything. Zap compared those to ATM machines in terms of performance. That's a little hard, but they aren't going to compete with Zap's AMD XP 3200+, with dual channel Corsair PC3200 and ATi 9600SE. But they are beautiful works of art, and modding, according to many, is the art, rather than the performance. People critisized Zap for his conceidedness and his inability to accept art just because the computer's performance wasn't brutally powerful. My question is: Do you think, that when you mod, art and performance are equally important, or is it art THEN performance in terms of importance?
The Millenium Falcon is not art, it was/is a crappy hack of a mod. Sorry, but I HATE that mod with a passion. Way below the level of 90% of the people here... The Matrix Rebirth (and everything else he does) are certaily artwork and worthy of praise. EDIT: I voted, that was my response. Anyways, to be mroe specific, I feel it is an even balance of both. If I am making a custom, slick-ass Kitchen Computer - power takes a backseat. If it's a Mod with a focus on gaming, different story - power is what matters first, make the art fit around the powerful components. My Apple mod is all about looks, a small focus on increasing the speed of the system. My next rig, different story...
That's not the question (although I happen to agree with you, he basically stuffed a board inside of a model). If you are going to post, respond.
I work out the best way to get the optimum performance when it comes to cooling, then work to make it look Pretttttie
Its not the size its what you do with it Is your competition to find the best modification or the best modified computer? If you design your mod to say, be the centerpeice of your digital entertainment system, then a mini-itx is fine, anything else would be overkill for tasks like mp3 playing, photo viewing, dvd playback, etc.
What's the point of going to all that work if in the end all you're left with is a slow and boring machine?
Exactly! Take Slug's Flame Cube for example, he could have shoved a Epia 1ghz pidly doo in there, but he put a Mini-ITX P4(3?) system instead. Absolutely beautiful work plus huge performance for the size. People will shove Epia Mini-ITX boards ANYWHERE. Everytime I see one I just think of another Epia cleverly stuck in something that isn't regularly a case. Reminds me of my very first case modification. I was practicing my Dremel skills making a VCR HTPC. Started out with a PII Slot 1 setup, but eventually went to a Epia in the end because of space constraints. In the end I was happy with the look, but it couldn't even play DVDs. I believe that if you make a great looking case, you have should have something respectable in there as well.
Like they said... HTPCs don't nessesarly need the power... so make them as stylish as you want. Gaming is another story... power then style... You can always build a case to do both as in all my projects. Look at project divergence. The mod is going to be completely upgradable but is going to have the style to back it up...
I brought this up on PheatonForums a while ago. Got some pretty strong reactions from some of the bigger modders. I have a strong dislike for computers (or anything for that matter) that are all looks and little function. The 'grey box' computer is pure function. Encloses all the components, protects them and keeps them isolated. Modded cases generally take care of all the same functions as a standard case, but (perhaps arguably) is more asthetically pleasing. Where I start to lose touch is with the 'art' cases. Cases that look nothing like their function or start taking on random functions that have nothing to do with cumputing. I'd like to point out several examples, but that'd start unnecessary crap, so just use your imagination.
It depends on what you're trying to achieve with the finished article. Theres no point shelling out on a fast system if all you want is a HTPC. Although actually, I've found that the EPIA boards can do just about everything I want from a non-gaming PC. If you want to play games or do anything particularly taxing, then performance is important. If you just was to browse the internet and send email, then performance is just more bragging rights.
I have been involved in "modding" for my entire life ( first cars and motorcycles, now computers) and my opinion is that to sacrifice performance for looks violates the whole point of the mod to begin with. Anyone can make a pretty mod...the hard part is to improve the aesthetics AND maintain ( if not increase) the performance.
Mmmm.... I think it's Performance and Art. As many people have said, it all depends on what the PC will be used for - it should look awesome, but the looks should not compromise the performance. I think a good idea in the major modding competitions would be to have classes - ie, HTPC, Gaming machine, general office work, freestyle, etc etc. So a machine entered in the HTPC class needs to perform decently as a HTPC, as well as being an awesome mod. Whereas a machine in 'freestyle', as long as it boots an OS, anything goes Artag
I think it's first art and then performance, but the most important is, that the pc is silent, very, very silent
I like to think about that wonderful design philosophy coined by the great Amercian architect, Louis Sullivan. In 1896, Sullivan wrote an article titled "A Tall Office Building Artistically Considered," in which he formulated his now-famous philosophy: "...form ever follows function." Sullivan's philosphy is more aften applied to architecture, but he formulated his theory through the careful observation of the natural world. Everywhere he looked he saw beautiful and magnificent things, but they were all functional first, beautiful second. I think the same philosophy extends to modding. The computer first needs to operate for its intended purpose. Once that has been established, shape the parts into whatever object looks best to you. If you can manage to fit a powerful gaming machine into a Millenium Falcon, then by all means, do so. If the function is to sit on the kitchen counter and act as a file server for recipes and general web-browsing, then mod your computer into a toaster. But i have to agree with some of the people above...first, figure out the machine's purpose, its function, then figure out how to make it fit in that box. And make that box as nice as possible Just my 2 cents -monkey
i can tell you from personal experience, that performance > looks. I started modding for performance reasons. Dremeled out a hole to fit a new psu when my 235w that my gateway pII box came with blew out. then, i rigged a 60mm panaflo l1a out of a copier to cool my hdd (under that god awful gateway bezel. added a dual 50mm fan to a radeon 7200 (because i could) and built my first switchbus. then i painted it black. it just dissappeared. then i windowed, basically so i could see my new p3 mobo. and it snowballed from there. but in any puter i do, the function HAS to come before the fashion. i dont care how pretty yer box is, if it cant do what its supposed to.
i completly agree with what most people say here. I think that it's so obvious why would you want a pc when it can't do nothing, when you want to make a piece of art, then don't include a pc in it for god sake, just let it then be a piece of art. When you have a pc that satifies your needs and you can make a piece of art out of it, then stop reading and get to work.....
I was criticized quite a bit for my stand on Performance and Mods. I do feel that a modification must be both looks and performance. And yes, there are many different classes of performance. I agree with Artagra's comments. The hardware inside should fit the intended use. A EPIA board with on board video may fit into a tiny box, and be perfectly protable; an ideal LAN PC. But at 1ghz with shared video Ram, and a old graphics chipset, it is not ideal to take to a LAN and try to play games with. But it does make a great HTPC, Car PC, internet box or whatever.
this conversation is like the ongoing struggle between car enthusiast... all show and now go, or all go and no show, or both... i vote for both... if your talking about the case, then just the case matters, if your talking abou the computer as a whole... you should take both into consideration... but then again its just like the car debate... it all comes down to who has the most money to spend on a project.
I must say there has to be a balance. Modding is for MODIFING a computer. It is a type of art in itself, so when you ask the question art or power, I cant really answer it. Part of the ART OF MODDING is the balance. I don't think it is modding when you put jack **** into some amazing sculpture. This is just sculpting. I think that things such as that Matrix case are amazing, and I am NOT criticizing them, but I don't think they are a good MOD. They should win the sculpture (for example) contest but not the modding contest. Just my 2 cents.
