Someday I’ll have the time (but never the creativity) to build something like this. I’m not sure what it is that draws me to these steampunk creations, but they touch a special place in my nerdy little heart. Anyway… check out the entire Gizmodo gallery here.
Not sure about the details surrounding this thing, but all I can say is WOW! One might argue that this baby is a few years late to the scene, but that didn’t stop one intrepid modder from creating a thing of dreams (from about 15 years ago). I mean… how often did you used to wish that your Gameboy could do just a little more as you played yet another round of monochrome Tetris?
Here’s another slick case from the guys over at Extremetech.com. Apparently they’re having a case mod contest and this was another of the winners (along with Optimus Prime below).
There have been a few wood cases that have popped up over the past couple years, but you can tell that some serious time went into this one. I especially like this particular case because of the custom ninja star fan grills. I mean… who can deny the supreme awesomeness of ninjas? Not me.
Holy freaking mother of all things nerdy!
I’ve seen a few case mods in my day, but I think this one takes the cake. Not only is it a fantastic representation of our good buddy Optimus, but it’s also one of the largest pc cases I’ve ever seen standing at about 6″10′ when fully assembled (yeah… that’s six feet ten inches) and weighing in at around 125 lbs. And I thought my case was a pain to drag to lan parties. Head on over to ExtremeTech.com to check out several other pics as well as the specs on the machine that keeps the Leader of the Autobots up and running. Just hope he’s got sufficient cooling cause you’d hate to see him freeze up in the middle of a heated battle with Megatron.
A few months ago we directed your attention to a unique and truly inspired creation over on The Steampunk Workshop. The Steampunk Keyboard created by one of the members over there is indeed a work of art and although the usability of this unique design might be in question, the supreme coolness of this clever mod could never be. Well, it seems the creator is up to his same old tricks. Apparently he decided that his nifty old timey keyboard just didn’t look right in front of his Dell LCD so he decided to do the only logical thing…
Now, you might argue that this brass-embellished beauty would clash with your current art deco motif, but for me… I just wouldn’t care. I’ve seen a lot of case mods in my day and I have to say that of them all, this is the one mod that I would actually drop hard earned cash on in order to obtain. I can’t even express how giddy this thing makes me. My favorite part of the whole design is the update he’s made to the monitor control buttons (click on the pic to head to the gallery page). Maybe it’s just the anticipation of Bioshock’s impending arrival, but I love this thing.
One could easily make the argument that Ben Heckendorn is something like a modern day Michelangelo. His creations could easily be considered works of art, many of them on par with the Sistine Chapel (to us geeks anyway). However, there are others out there that have some mad hardware hax0ring skillz as well. Take, for instance, the following example:
Although not nearly as svelte as something Ben might have come up with, you have to give credit to the industrious young creator of this Gameboy PC. You can click the picture for the full gallery of this amazing creation as well as a description (if you can read Japanese). As you can see in the pictures, the screen was removed to make room for the guts, but even without a screen, it’s pretty impressive.
Apparently this tiny machine runs Windows XP off a 4gb flash card that slides into the game slot. It also sports 2 usb ports, a built in nic and a vga port (so you can connect a monitor to compensate for the lack of a built-in screen). I’m sure the video specs aren’t anything to get excited about, but just imagine taking a pc that size to a lan party….
“Dude… where’s your machine?”
“In my pocket.”
“Heh… not THAT machine. I was talking about your computer.”
“I’m not kidding… it’s right here.”
<pulls Gameboy PC from pocket>
The group then collectively gasps and someone can be heard to say in a near whisper…
“woot!”
Sorry about the lack of posts lately (as if anyone out there really gives a shiz). I’ve been in the middle of changing jobs over the past few weeks and haven’t had too much extra time for blogging. However, I did run across this super cool DS lite mod yesterday over at DS Fanboy and knew immediately that I had to pass it along.
The gold plated DS (I’m gonna assume its just gold paint) that you see to the left is the creation of an obviously fanatical Zelda fan, but it’s difficult not to respect those mad modding skillz. You can click the pic for the full gallery, but apparently the die-cast crest actually swivels to maintain proper orientation so that it’s always right-side up. The insides are painted to match as well as both of the stylus and the charging dock. It truly is a creation that Gannon himself would lust after.
Usually a DS Lite such as this would be out of reach for most of us mere mortals who lack the modding skills to create such a masterpiece. Never fear though… this particular DS Lite is being auctioned off on eBay for the Penny Arcade Child’s Play charity. So if you’re not opposed to spending waaaay too much for a shiny gold DS Lite which will make you the envy of all your friends, head on over to eBay and place your bid. (current bid as of this posting is $660 so you gotta want it real bad)
Ben Heckendorn brings gladness to my heart with his clever mods and amazing home-built engineering. This latest beauty brings you the Atari, including cartridge-as-sunshade, in a portable format. Here’s the link to the engadget post, and here’s the link to Ben’s page for this project. It’s not quite nuclear fusion, but’s it’s right up there on the coolness level. While you’re there, take a look at some of the other projects. Definitely gives one some food for thought about what’s possible when you’re smart and so forth.
This is probably the coolest keyboard mod I’ve ever seen (not that I’ve seen a whole lot of em, but still). Keyboards seem to be somewhat neglected in the mod scene, but I think its mostly due to the fact that people don’t wanna mess with their main interface tool. If you get too tricky, I would imagine that the usefulness tends to go downhill fast. That being said, I’m not sure how “useful” this particular keyboard would be. There’s a video on the build page (here’s a mirror) showing the keyboard being used effectively to touch type, but I wonder how well it would work during an intense Counter Strike session. It’d sure look purty while playing some Bioshock though.
Here’s a neat write-up over at Tom’s Hardware Guide.
The guys had a chance to have a company called Protocase build a completely custom case for them. It’s an interesting story; the Tom’s Hardware guy sent his first design in, and they sent it back asking if he was sure he wanted something that bland. The Protocase designers worked with them to come up with the case pictured here. Turned out pretty cool, I guess. Protocase has some interesting designs, from rack-mount to mini-itx. Worth taking a look at if you want something REALLY special for your next rig. Considering my wife was less than pleased when I picked up my Lian Li case, I’m pretty sure a custom built case is out of the question.
