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Custom PC Mod of the Summer
Stuart Andrews takes a look at the fantastic entries in our ‘Mod of the Summer’ competition
Q: Is there any advice you'd give to people working on their own mods?
A: Just try new things. Don't worry about getting everyone's approval with a sketch of a new design, just try it. If you don't like it, undo it.
READER'S VOTES WINNER
Lockdown – Candy Cane TJ07 by Marcus Dandy
Whereas many custom systems go for macho blacks and military greens, Lockdown boasts a slick red and white colour scheme that reminds us of classic fifties muscle cars and Wurlitzer jukeboxes. Marcus got the look by spray painting the exterior and powder-coating every interior surface, but this mod's beauty is beyond skin-deep. Inside, it's an efficient piece of engineering, mixing high-end components with a whisper-quiet water-cooling system. No wonder this is the machine that most of you would like on their desk.
Q: Project Lockdown has a really distinctive look. What influenced the style?
A: The colour scheme was pretty much determined by the use of ATI GPUs. Initially we put in two Radeon HD 3870X2s, in but shortly after the build was completed we upgrade them to Radeon HD 4870X2s. We also spent some time deciding between this design and stars-and-stripes design. It was decided that the stars design was a little too ‘soft’ for the look we wanted so we chose to go with the stripes.
Q: What was the most challenging part of the build?
A: The DFI board has capacitors along the top of the board which made it impossible to fit the radiator via my normal method. It was a bit of a head scratching moment but in the end I decided to fabricate some metal brackets to hold the radiator to the roof of the TJ-07, but slightly offset to allow for clearance. It was challenging but I got there in the end. The only other real problem we had was that one of the graphics cards was non-reference so that held up the build for a while whilst we got a replacement card which was a reference design.
Q: This mod was a bit different in that you made it for someone else. How much influence does that have on the design, the system spec and the construction?
A: To be honest a lot of my customers are open to ideas with regards to the design, I was pretty much left to get on with it after confirming a colour scheme - providing I don’t go off and airbrush the case with pink flowers, I don’t think many people mind me having my own input. It makes it much easier to work this way and it’s good knowing people trust my judgement.
Q: Is it easy to stay focused and dedicated when the final PC will end up with someone else?
A: In a word, yes. Personally, I’m not a performance or hardware junkie, I simply enjoy working on the builds and seeing it complete. I’m happy with my Core 2 Quad Q6600 and GeForce 8800 GTS as it does me fine for what I need, if anything I’m more of a noise freak. I’ve got my main rig which is on pretty much 24/7 as I use it for work, but I’ve got a load of other hardware sat spare which I use to build my own mods around. I tend to build them and strip them down a week later (once I’ve got the photos) so it doesn’t really bother me when the rig moves on to someone else.
