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Hardware Hacking

Video Austin Case Modders Take Their Exotic PCs and a Giant LAN Party to SXSW (Video) 40

Posted by timothy from the loving-the-blinkenlights dept.
Video no longer available.
As a nexus of both computer programmers and other creative builder and maker types, SXSW (and Austin generally) is a great place to witness the overlap. John Zitterkopf and his pal Red, while helping to run the giant (and charitable!) LANFest at this year's event, had on hand for display a few of their own modded computer cases. John and Red are both part of Austin Modders, which helps Austinites swap tools and ideas (in-person, and via forums) for creating the kind of enclosures that computer makers simply can't — they're too time-intensive and too personalized for that. It's especially fun to see the effects that the newly widespread availability of laser cutters makes possible. (C'mon, O'Reilly, isn't it time for another Austin Maker Faire?)
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Austin Case Modders Take Their Exotic PCs and a Giant LAN Party to SXSW (Video) More

Austin Case Modders Take Their Exotic PCs and a Giant LAN Party to SXSW (Video)

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  • Austin (mini) Maker Fair 2012 (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    "(C'mon, O'Reilly, isn't it time for another Austin Maker Faire?)"

    There is, well, there's a mini one this year. http://austinmakerfaire.com/2012/

  • That keyboard (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    does not seem like a lot of fun, esp. for gaming

  • That's It? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by turkeyfish ( 950384 ) on Wednesday March 21, 2012 @10:02AM (#39427583)

    A 100 pound water cooled PC and a PC enclosed in a custom wooden box?

    Sound more of interest to PC groupies rather than any serious computer users.

    Come on. Isn't there anything interesting to show?

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • I was under the (informed) impression that case modding died years ago, once everyone and their mother got plexi windows on their prefab cases.

      People just don't care anymore. They want something that works and blends in with their home decor. The more discreet, the better. That's why I've been selling lots of very sedate-looking systems - lots of black anodized finishes and brushed aluminum "home theater style" fascia.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        I was under the (informed) impression that case modding died years ago, once everyone and their mother got plexi windows on their prefab cases.

        People just don't care anymore. They want something that works and blends in with their home decor. The more discreet, the better. That's why I've been selling lots of very sedate-looking systems - lots of black anodized finishes and brushed aluminum "home theater style" fascia.

        True. It died because of the shift to laptops, as well as people demanding more stylish lo

        • I built my last machine into luggage so I could move it around. I wanted a real (and cheap, and upgradable) video card and processor. Very easy, took an afternoon at most. A wireless keyboard, mouse and just an HDMI cable to an external monitor kept it all pretty clean.

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by Mickey21 ( 2600493 )
          Austinmodders mod a whole lot more than just computer cases. Of which a majority of the case creations started from a pile of materials, not a manufacturers case. They have modded anything from a pinball machine, to a completely wooden ipod (1st gen), to a muscle car (among other cars), to a laser/light show, to a hand radio, to the tools they use, to a 1940's tv. And just about anything in between. I see a lot of people on here with the naive thinking and hate piling on uninformed opinions about anythi
        • Why have it go with the furniture when it can be [youtube.com] the furniture [xtremesystems.org]?
      • I wouldn't say they don't care, but it's what's in style right now. Call it the Ikea effect.

        Myself, I toyed with the idea of doing a wood finish case, inlay and all a few years ago but that was before I started my family. Now I'm lucky if I get an hour a day to check E-mail and facebook, much less design and build a custom computer case. Furthermore, most people have laptops, tablets & mobile phones which they do most of their computing from. It's analogous to finding hot rod parts for a flathead ford
    • Hold on, linking this over to HardOCP so we can all get a good laugh.
  • There will be a Mini Maker Faire on May 12th: http://austinmakerfaire.com/ [austinmakerfaire.com]
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Calling LANfest a giant LAN party? Riiiiight....

    I think TG, Assembly etc must, at the very least, class as galaxy-scale events then, with Dreamhack possibly being classed as Galaxy Cluster-scale..

  • I have to say I had expected to see more case mods - but I suppose that's what the interwebs are for.
    -----
    Title: Austin Modders Take Their Exotic PCs to SXSW
    Description: Custom PCs AND a huge LAN party. W00T!

    [00:00] <TITLE>
    "Austin Modders / Take Their Radical PC Mods to SXSW" appears over a background showing a computer case and monitor while the Slashdot logo with "News for nerds. Stuff that matters." zooms out from view to the bottom right.

    [00:03] John>
    This is my custom case mod that I'd done man

  • CASE-modding (Score:3)

    by theurge14 ( 820596 ) on Wednesday March 21, 2012 @10:52AM (#39428237)

    Interesting for a little bit I suppose, but actual modding would be something more intriguing. I suppose I can put a different color Otter Box on my phone to mod it, or a nifty sticker on a Honda Civic.

  • I wasn't really keen on case mods but I liked the artwork panels you could get called C-Kin's on the relaunched Commodore Gaming PC's a few years ago (they've shut down now). You could have a nice wrap around artwork and easy enough to change the panels for new art designs.... I preferred this over the craze of "oooh.. shiny LED's are cool... lets put them on everywhere" and not realise that you end up struggling to sleep as your room is bathed in variety of colours.

  • Get a better camera guy. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Lumpy ( 12016 ) on Wednesday March 21, 2012 @11:24AM (#39428703) Homepage

    WE want to see the cases not the dweeb that made it.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      what you don't realize is the ten gallon hat on his 2 gallon head is actually housing a sun spark workstation cooled by guacamole

  • I guess "party" sounds better than "sausage fest."

  • We had a hacker, maker, creator event at SXSW this year during interactive. Better to create our own community rather than import one. It was a lot of fun!! http://sxsw.com/node/10666 [sxsw.com]

  • Why do people keep using that word? It just sounds pretentious to me. A craftsman making individual pieces of wooden furniture, fair enouggh. Someone mildly customising a computer box? You're having a laugh. It's like calling the chavs who paint a go-faster stripe and take the baffles out of the exhaust on theirr hot hatchbacks "makers" too.

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