Mod of the Month - April 2009

Storm

by thechoozen
Worklog: Here

We last saw him in February's MotM but two months later and we couldn't help but include thechoozen's other project, Storm. Like some futuristic arctic powerplant that might be found in some frozen wasteland in the The Empire Strikes Back, Storm is one of the most original and unusual mods we've seen.

But then so was his Cosmos Dragon and like Cosmos Dragon, thechoozen has got the acrylic out again ready for some custom part fabricating including sliding doors and reservoirs. Unlike the Cosmos Dragon though, Storm is based around a plain, tall, server tower-like case which was anything but exciting to begin with. However, it didn't stay that way for long and now features an almost totally custom exterior.


The basic form took its shape quite quickly after some panel cutting. Having stuck a large amount of shaping foam to front of the case, thechoozen proceeded to mould it to shape by sanding it and then adding filler to cover the holes left behind by air bubbles. It might look messy hear but in later images after this section's first coat of paint, it's so smooth it could have come out of an injection moulding machine! The first internal piece of acrylic is fitted too which has white/red/black colour scheme.


With this slightly exposed shot, we can see the side mounted optical drives either side of the large front air intake. In the image on the right we can see just how well the sanded section has been shaped and smoothed - after its first coat of paint it looks great and now features a small air intake. There's also plenty of other goings on outside the case with several bulging panels also appearing.


thechoozen originally had the PSU mounted as shown and drilled holes in the internal centre section to improve airflow. However as we can see here, the PSU and custom reservoir get awfully close. The answer was too remount the PSU so it fits slightly outside the case. Above we can also see a custom combined HSF and waterblock. We don't think we've ever seen this arrangement before and it will be interesting to see how it performs!


Two custom reservoirs are apparently going into Storm. The first is a retangular affair with an intricate array of channels inside to aid the bleeding of air from the system. The second we've already seen fitted in the case except here with the addition of a funky acrylic section that's been lit up from below. The attention to detail is some of the best we've seen from thechoozen so Storm is definitely one to keep an eye on. Make sure to check out his videos too!

If you'd like to vote for thechoozen's Storm, please head over to our forums.