Modding Showcase

Once the show started to fill up, the crowd naturally gravitated towards the Atomic stand, which featured four top case mods. Even though the show's visitors were naturally mainly Atomic readers, we met several avid bit-tech readers. It is always a pleasure to meet readers and chat about the site. A lucky few went home with Limited Edition Orac³ posters and bit-tech USB accessory packs.



Fellow Aussie modder Luke aka DÈF¥âÑt¸.·´¯`¤ worked like a demon all day, answering questions about his purple, watercooled beast, Project HP-Resurrection II. It is impossible to convery via a photo on a webpage just how amazing this paintjob is - it's that sparkly metallic automotive paint and the closer you look, the more amazing it appears. In fact, he has tried to recreate it subsequently on several case and failed, proving just how difficult it is to achieve a quality result.



Also on display was Project Parabox by Raygen. The PSOne LCD mounted in the front drivebays caused a lot of interest. I only have one good photo of this case, courtesy of offical event photographer Kris Harrison, but I thought this second photo from his worklog was too cute not to share with you.




Of course, for many, the first public display of a near-complete Project WMD was the main attraction. The aim was to have the system fully completed and running at the show but despite a super-human effort working night & day for two months solid, Pete wasn't able to finish this mammoth project in time. Even so, he has made an enormous amount of progress and there are many details visible in these photos that did not exist when we last saw the case in Project WMD Part 1.

You can click these photos for a closer look, but the real moneyshots will be available soon once Pete finishes the case and writes up Part II of his worklog.

Once again, it isn't easy to convey the monumental detail of this project from a few snaps, not least because seeing it in the metal leaves most people speechless. The attention to detail, the craftsmanship - it's all just so WOW. One lady asked "is that a movie prop?" and that is what it looks like: like it wouldn't look out of place in a James Bond film, despite the fact that it is a top-spec gaming PC. This was actually Pete's design brief, so it's fair to say that he succeeded admirably.



The fun didn't end there, as we had the main stage all to ourselves for 45 minutes for a Modding Clinic. Pete explained various details on the construction of WMD to the attentive crowd while yours truly manned the laptop to display various close-ups on the plasma screen.

Most of the audience had already been past the Atomic stand and seen the case, and several said they had been following the worklog on the site. What caught them all completely off guard was when Pete spun the case around and opened it up, revealing the custom motherboard tray and other various innards.

The reaction was pure comedy. Firstly, there was silence as a marquee full of geeks had their jaws hit the floor. A second later, the room was filled with hushed expletives and various other approving noises, followed by everyone whipping out their digital cameras and snapping away furiously.

We fielded some excellent questions from the crowd and, after we had exceeded our allotted 45-minute timeslot by more than 10 minutes, we wrapped for lunch.