Mod of the Month - October 2007

Silent Blue Casecon

by sik19
Worklog

Scratch builds are often some of the most difficult, and yet most personal, creations in modding. Each one is an opportunity for the modder to create his or her "perfect" design - or perfect catastrophe. The process, from drawing to completion, is filled with ups and downs - sometimes parts come out perfectly, other times it's like someone upstairs is gunning for you.

It takes an experienced modder to try a scratch build, so we again introduce sik19. He's definitely no stranger to modding, as a look at some of his previous accomplishments in his worklog will tell you. However, as attractive as they are, the previous mods are exactly that - mods on cases already made. This marks his first attempt at complete fabrication, and he is going to town on it.

Everything in Silent Blue is hand-designed, right down to the support pillars (which are segmented to use mesh acrylic in them). It seems that each place you look, sik19 has added a minute detail or attractive finish. As detail piles on detail, the case is starting to come together beautifully.


Planning is one thing that sik19 has done a lot of - his log is riddled with SketchUp renderings as the design gets tweaked and modified. The case is designed out of aluminum sheeting, with blue acrylic accents added both outside and in. The cutting work alone, as illustrated by the backplate, is amazing even outside of the design features.


The completed structure is held together by aluminum support bars, which have been tinkered with themselves. Instead of straight bars, sik19 cut them and inserted blue acrylic "discs", which are held together by drilling and tapping the bars. The end result creates a sandwich effect that compliments the exterior, which is trimmed in very thin blue acrylic. These pieces of acrylic are so thin that several have had to be re-cut or glued, as not breaking them is nearly impossible during the cutting procedure.


The case is filled with little extras, including this handmade switch plate for the vandal-resistant switches. An LCD display was also added for the front (perfect for the HTPC), which shows through a small acrylic "window' that has been given a mirroring film.


Along with these extras are other thematic design elements, including labeling of some of the components inside for easy visual access. Things like the slot-loading DVD drive were given a fairly "simple" treatment, while the OCZ power supply was given more than a nameplate - the PSU was made modular, using the same microphone jacks we had mentioned in our PSU Modding guide.


As you can see, the case is coming along wonderfully. It still has a little bit to go, of course, but it's great to see metalworking of this quality. Maybe that's why it's already been sponsored by both Foxconn and OCZ!

Make sure you keep an eye out for sik19's next update in his worklog to see where he takes this next. We sure will be!

And in the meantime, if you think that Silent Blue has what it takes, make sure you vote for it as Mod of the Month!