Peace, Love & Rockets

Adam “DOHCDragon” Owen is an old hand at winning the QuakeCon mod contest, although the last two times he won (not a typo), he bested the competition in the Scratch Build category. For QuakeCon 2015, Owen decided to mix things up a bit and enter the Bethesda/id Software category, and as you can see that worked out pretty well for him. “I have made a goal every year to build a computer for QuakeCon,” Owen says. “This year being the 20th year, I wanted to do something that celebrated the event. Every year, the best description I see for QuakeCon is ‘A weekend of peace, love, and rockets.’ This case was designed to celebrate both the 20 years of QuakeCon and the 10 years that I have been attending. It is going to become my home server, and will sit on a pedestal next to my 3D printer in my man cave. It will serve as a reminder of all the good times I have had at the event, and as a symbol of what has been and what is to come.” You might remember Owen’s 3D printer—or at least its handiwork—from the 2014 QuakeCon mod contest, in which Owen stormed the field with his operational WWII Tiger tank PC. And that’s not the only connection this mod has to QuakeCons past.

In The Beginning 
Owen won the Cooler Master HAF XB that is Peace, Love & Rockets’ foundation as part of his prize package for winning the Scratch Build category of the 2013 QuakeCon case mod contest. As you can see, the left, top, and right panels each have a unique construction that represents part of the mod’s name (and, of course, the QuakeCon logo itself is proudly displayed on the front panel). The original plan also included dry ice, but Owen says he had to scrap that idea after doing a 1:1 scale mockup and test. Then he began to work on his side panel designs in SketchUp. “The only part that changed dramatically was love,” he says. “The original design didn’t look enough like a heart, so I scratched it and redesigned it. Once it was all designed in SketchUp, it pretty much came out exactly as designed. I believe the original design had room to grow, and the final work was better than I had imagined.”

Can We Build It? 
Owen removed all of the rivets from the HAF XB, then masked the outer surfaces of the case, along with select parts of the inside. He painted the case’s interior white, and then went to work on each of the outer surfaces in turn. Peace. “I cut a hole in the right side of the case and inserted a plasma shield,” says Owen. “I added a ground strap to the side of the case to prevent people from getting shocked, then I 3D-printed a holder and covers to make the shield look like the peace sign. After I got all this done, the electronics that came with the plasma driver stopped working. I was able to purchase a $20 plasma ball from Walmart and use its internal electronics to fix my plasma plate. Then I custom-built a white cover to house the new electronics and painted an orange Q on the back to go along with the theme of the case.” Love. “I replaced the top of the HAF XB with a piece of Plexiglas. I masked off the windows and painted the edges black to match the case, then cut a hole in the center of it for the 140mm fan that I use to power the heart. The gears I borrowed from the 3D artwork I used in the 3D Printed Tiger Tank from last year; I wanted to show people how complex and yet functional the 3D printer can be. Next, I engraved ‘2015’ on both sides of the heart. The top gear goes around once for every 50 times the fan spins all the way around.” Rockets. “I wanted to use something from Quake in the build, so I took the 2D rocket image from Quake and converted it into a 3D rocket. It is lit with orange and white LEDs. The entire fixture mounts to the outside of the case.”

The Finishing 
Touch Owen made the QuakeCon logo on the front panel with—you guessed it—his 3D printer. He then built a custom shroud for his video card that bears the message, “20 Years Of,” along with symbols for Peace, Love, and Rockets. In addition to the HAF XB, this mod contains an Intel Core i7-3960X, an ASUS SABERTOOTH X79 motherboard, 32GB of G.Skill DDR3-2400, an EVGA GeForce GTX 980, a Cooler Master Silent Pro Hybrid 1300W PSU, three OCZ Revo 3 240GB PCIe SSDs, a 3TB Western Digital Black hard drive, and a custom cooling loop and “miscellaneous fans.” Owen says he’s already begun work on his mod for QuakeCon 2016, but like many master craftsmen, he’s not ready to give up many details yet. He says he plans to start a work log on Modders-Inc.com, but not until “early November.” We’ll be watching, Adam!

RevoluTtion

he winner of the Case Mod category of this year’s QuakeCon mod contest was Marc “marcam923” Molella’s RevoluTtion, and it’s a long time coming, apparently. “This is a mod I have been thinking about for roughly six years,” Molella says. “I wanted to create something that showed moving components outside the computer case (such as the working gear mechanism on the right side panel and the fans visible through the front) to coincide with electronic circuitry and the transfer of information constantly moving within, but that is not visible. “Plus, I used copper that I hand-polished, which in my thought process tied in to the industrial revolution, where these metals began being used more widely, as well as machines being implements, and the computer is a machine. Instead of just naming the machine ‘Revolution,’ I added the extra T to thank Thermaltake, the creator of the Suppressor F51, and for allowing me to bring this vision to reality.” Molella says his inspiration when modding comes from many sources: “Like most other artists or creative minds, I draw inspiration from almost everything around me: the works of others, nature, and the people that daily touch my life. I use that inspiration to take one portion of that experience, and create from it a vision. Before I begin a case mod, I see the finished product in my mind, and from that point it is simple—just make that vision a reality.” Molella says he can’t even begin to estimate the number of hours he spent working on RevoluTtion, but that the work was completed over a period of roughly three months.

The Copper “I created the front panel, power supply shroud, and the Tt logo on the gear mechanism on the back side panel from copper sheet,” Molella says. “I hand-polished it to a mirror shine, cut the components to what I wanted them to be, and then treated them so they would not tarnish and would stay in this condition.”

The Paint 
“I spray-painted the case’s exterior with Firemist Orange Metallic, which is why in some of the pictures, certain portions look darker than others. It takes on different shades from different angles and has the amazing metallic effect. I really wanted to draw a contrast, which is why a case that started its life almost completely black in color, is now orange and white.”

The Details 
“I truly wanted to build a piece of art; something that would make you have to take a second and third look to notice all the detail,” says Molella. “Then, after the third look, there might be things you still wouldn’t notice, possibly unless someone pointed it out, such as the customized front door opening, revealing another custom panel inside, or the gears on the back side panel. Everything was layered. I did this because I wanted to bring back the definition of why I started modding . . . why a lot of people started modding. It’s not just about the paint job or watercooling, it’s about building something truly unique that fits your character or personality.” Molella says his initial forays into the world of modding were for more practical purposes: “I began modding cases to allow for better air flow, because I was overclocking my components but couldn’t afford high-end computer cases. Once I began doing this, I started wanting to make the case look aesthetically pleasing, as well, so it became a mesh of the two worlds, overclocking and aesthetics.” The rotating gears on the right-side panel is a custom clockwork assembly painted to match the build; Molella attached his hand-cut copper Thermaltake logo, which is mounted on a piece of acrylic to create the appearance that it’s floating. He also trimmed out the case’s interior by adjusting the size of the motherboard tray so that it stays out of sight and adding custom white acrylic pieces as needed to make the copper PSU cover and the orange coolant pop. He then sleeved all of his power cables in paracord, bent 16mm rigid tubing for his cooling loop, and custom-mixed silver Mayhems Aurora 2 coolant with orange dye to make it match his paint job. RevoluTtion is a Thermaltake Suppressor F51, an Intel Core i7-5820K mounted on a GIGABYTE X99-SOC Champion, 16GB of G.Skill Ripjaws DDR4-3000 memory, an MSI GTX 970 GAMING 4G graphics card, a Thermaltake Toughpower DPS 850W power supply, a G.Skill Phoenix III 120GB SSD, and a Western Digital Black 1TB hard drive. His cooling subsystem consists of Thermaltake 16mm PETG rigid tubing, a Thermaltake Pacific W2 CPU block, a Thermaltake Pacific PR22-D5 pump/ reservoir combo unit, a Hardware Labs Black Ice GTX 360 radiator, a Bitspower GTX 970 block, and seven Thermaltake Riing case fans.

The End 
Molella says that he brought this mod to QuakeCon, then participated in the 24-hour live modding event at the show and is still putting finishing touches on that project. All of this hasn’t stopped him from thinking ahead, though, and he says he already has ideas for his next six mods. Perhaps one of them should be called “Prolific

In Win 805 Case

Generally speaking, predictability isn’t a terribly desirable trait for a company hoping to win the favor of discriminating enthusiasts. For In Win, though, being predictable is high praise, because its cases are predictably unpredictable. Year after year, it seems like In Win introduces a handful of cases that find new and unexpected ways to impress. The 805 happens to be the latest, and, of course, it’s magnificent. If it feels like you’ve seen the 805 before, let us confirm your suspicions: This isn’t the first time In Win has used tempered glass side panels. Last year, we reviewed the Mini-ITX 901 chassis (see page 19 in the March 2014 issue) and used the midtower 904 to kick off the 2014 season of “CPU System Workshop” (see page 33 in the February 2014 issue), and since then In Win has released several other cases that make use of tempered glass. The side panels of the 805 are tempered glass, and only tempered glass. In fact, the 805 distinguishes itself from In Win’s 90X cases by adding even more tempered glass. The 805’s front panel is glass, too, save for the thin strip of brushed aluminum at the top, where you’ll find the case’s power button and I/O ports. Here, In Win presents buyers with three color choices; the strip of brushed aluminum is either gold (pictured), red, or black. The 805’s top panel is also brushed aluminum. The rest of the 805’s chassis is also aluminum, which makes the case both lightweight and sturdy. We can’t argue with the construction. For as visually arresting as the 805 is, it’s also surprisingly accommodating for builders. There are pre-cut holes for routing cables nearly everywhere you could ask for, including the upper left and right corners, on the motherboard tray. In Win also packages the 805 with five cable retention clips with adhesive backing, so you can stick them to the back of the case’s motherboard tray exactly where they’re needed. (Because the tempered glass side panels make clean cable routing critical on both sides of the motherboard tray, providing the ability for builders to create a custom cable conduit is a huge feather in the 805’s cap.) You can reorient the tool-less drive cage so that the trays run perpendicular to the bottom panel or you can remove it entirely. The latter is a viable option, since the 805 has mounts on the back of the motherboard tray for up to three 2.5-inch drives. (The drive cage itself has a fourth 2.5-inch drive mount.) The 805 is replete with other power user perks. Radiators up to 280mm are welcome inside the chassis, provided the thickness doesn’t exceed 60mm. Likewise, you can install graphics cards up to 12.6 inches long. The version of the 805 we reviewed included a Type-C USB 3.1 port, giving you access to the standard’s juicy 10Gbps data rate. An alternate version of the case swaps this port for a standard USB 3.0 port. All versions of the 805 have at least one USB 3.0 port, plus two USB 2.0 ports and headphone and mic jacks. All of this adds up to a case that will induce double takes without zeroing out your bank account. Available for a perfectly reasonable $199, the 805 is, predictably, another In Win winner.

Cooler Master Master Case 5 and Master Case Pro 5

If you build your own PCs, you have no doubt thought on at least one occasion (but probably several more than one): “This case would be great if it just had more room up top for a radiator,” or “If only I could take all of the internal drive cages out,” or “Wow, if this case had a windowed side panel, it would be perfect.” It seems like no matter how careful you are in choosing the right chassis, you always end up compromising a little. With that in mind, Cooler Master developed its new MasterCase chassis series, which currently includes the MasterCase 5 and MasterCase Pro 5. (We talked with Cooler Master’s Rajiv Kothari about the case in the July issue (page 79) and got some further insights from master modders Richard Surroz and Lee Harrington in the August issue (page 86).) Spending some time with this enclosure makes it readily apparent that experienced PC builders and modders were involved in its design. Yes, all of the standard amenities are in place, such as rubber-grommeted cable management holes, a cutout for mounting a CPU cooler, tool-less drive bays in removable cages, and so on, but that’s where most cases would call it a day. The MasterCase 5 is just getting warmed up. Cooler Master also built in a very handy vertical conduit that runs from the top of the rear of the motherboard tray to very nearly the bottom (just forward of the cable management holes) for managing cables even more neatly. This conduit makes it easy to control the sprawl of cables that run from behind the front panel, as well as others, and there are three built-in nylon and Velcro straps along the channel that keep everything where you put it. Both of the internal drive cages come out with the removal of just a few thumbscrews— this is also pretty standard these days. But if you’d rather move the two 3.5-inch drive bays in the lower cage than remove them, the MasterCase 5’s internal front rails lets you adjust their position all the way down to the shelf that separates the interior into two compartments: one for the power supply and one for the motherboard and other components. This shelf includes two more cable management openings, and on its top surface are two dedicated 2.5-inch drive mounts. If you prefer your drives out of sight, you can remove the thumbscrews that hold them in place and relocate them to the back of the motherboard tray. There’s also a single, removable 2.5/3.5-inch mount at the front end of the PSU compartment, so regardless of how you configure your MasterCase 5, you’ll have options for mounting your drive(s). The MasterCase Pro 5 takes all of the standard edition’s refinements and adds a few more through the inclusion of several additional parts. (The good news is that these accessories will be also be available soon via Cooler Master’s online store, so if you get the MasterCase 5 and then decide you’d like to upgrade, you can easily do so.) The most obvious additional parts are the windowed left-side panel and the vaulted, ventilated top panel that comes with a bracket for mounting a 240mm radiator. The MasterCase Pro 5 also includes three more 2.5/3.5-inch internal drive bays in the form of an additional cage, and more cages and 2.5-inch mounting plates are available, as well. Cooler Master didn’t neglect aesthetics when building all of this functionality into the MasterCase 5 and MasterCase Pro 5; the dark grey exterior looks great in both configurations, and the interior is fully finished, too. And both trim levels benefit from the steel handles riveted to the frame beneath their plastic cowlings; they are sturdy and make moving your system much simpler. In short, it looks as though Cooler Master—and the MasterConcept team—have thought of everything.