Hard Light Productions Forums

Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Sandwich on June 23, 2004, 03:56:29 am

Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: Sandwich on June 23, 2004, 03:56:29 am: I'm not really one for case MODs, but this.... this is freaking AMAZING. :eek2: :eek: :eek2:

http://members.home.nl/gis/

(http://members.home.nl/gis/blackmesa159.jpg)
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: Gloriano on June 23, 2004, 03:58:54 am: :eek2: Pretty cool
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: Ghostavo on June 23, 2004, 04:01:02 am: WOW...

someone has toooooo much free time :eek2: :wtf:
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: WMCoolmon on June 23, 2004, 04:13:54 am: Seen it.

Looks untimely cool but I'm not planning on getting HL2 when it comes out, so, uh, it's a very fine work of art...
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: Fineus on June 23, 2004, 04:22:52 am: Agreed, you can really see effort has gone into that one - it has really captured the "aged industrial" feel of the game...

...that said, I'd like to see one done up in the style of the bad guys - the name escapes me - a large black shining monolith.

Carbon fiber would do the job ;)
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: WMCoolmon on June 23, 2004, 04:27:16 am: Hmmm? New bad guys in HL2?

I really don't know how they're going to top the original HL. I played it practically nonstop over three days...I can still remember the taste of the chicken pot pies I had for almost every other meal while playing it. It really captured the feel of being alone in a research base, or (even though I hated it) an alien planet.

Everything I've heard so far has been positive, but therein lies the problem...HL2 is so highly expected, it's going to be one of those high-priced games. So unless it turns out to be complete crap (which I doubt) it'll be sitting up on the High Shelf of Fity Dollar Games for a long time to come.
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: Fineus on June 23, 2004, 04:30:11 am: I wouldn't be so sure - I think it's being marketed at normal game prices (I say normal, I mean along the same lines as Call of Duty or any other current FPS). It certainly shouldn't go up into the price range of the Microsoft flight sims and so on.. and if it does? Well I'll probably still buy it. Having played the alpha I can echo that it'll be worth the waiting for.
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: Petrarch of the VBB on June 23, 2004, 04:52:27 am: :blah:
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: TrashMan on June 23, 2004, 05:23:28 am: Well...I've seen a 600MB E3 trailer and I can tell you this.....

AMAZING! SPECTACULER! FANTASTIC! INCREDIBLE! BRILLIANT!

Doom 3 is gonna get is ass kicked big time!
HL2 is gonna wipe the floor with it....
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: Tiara on June 23, 2004, 05:30:24 am: Seriously, that case is ugly. It's... different but still ugly. Even though I do like the buttons, I despise the fact that it looks like a rust-fest.

But that's probably the intention :p I just think it's butt ugly.
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: kasperl on June 23, 2004, 05:45:13 am: Meh, I don't like case-modding. I want my case to be silent, small, and out of the way.

This one is nice though, but I hate the stuff he did to the keyboard.
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: TopAce on June 23, 2004, 05:45:18 am: It's Gordon's machine. :)
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: Sandwich on June 23, 2004, 05:58:39 am: How about this then:

http://bit-tech.net/article/135/

(http://bit-tech.net/images/article/135/Front800wWMk.jpg)
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: Fineus on June 23, 2004, 05:59:37 am: Quote
Originally posted by kasperl
This one is nice though, but I hate the stuff he did to the keyboard.

Thats true, as a work of art (so to speak) it's very well done. But in the usability sense it's not much good at all.

Me? I've no problem with having a window and some lit fans in my case... but that's more or less where it ends. I can't say it's silent but it is more aesthetically appealing than a large biege block on the carpet.

Edit:
Sandwich, how the hell do you change any hardware in that thing? There's so many cables!
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: TopAce on June 23, 2004, 06:48:33 am: Quote
Originally posted by Sandwich
How about this then:

http://bit-tech.net/article/135/

(http://bit-tech.net/images/article/135/Front800wWMk.jpg)

Matrix-style.
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: Setekh on June 23, 2004, 06:53:28 am: I wonder if you can do something like that for a laptop... :drevil:
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: kasperl on June 23, 2004, 07:25:01 am: Doubt it, there is generally no space to play with.

You can off course simply grab a can of rust finish, cover the screen and keyboard, fill up the ports with something rubber, and let loose. I doubt it would look good though.

I might do watercooling in my next case, but if I can get silent air cooling, I'm fine with that too. Whatever is the cheapest and most reliable.
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: Fineus on June 23, 2004, 07:33:45 am: Meh... watercooling seems the only way forward. It should be compatable with any upgrades you make to anything else... and you can't get much more silent I don't think!
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: kasperl on June 23, 2004, 07:41:41 am: Dunno, you still need to cool the water.

And I'd hate to wake up and find my graph card sitting in a pool of cooling liquid. Or not find out untill I powered my machine on and saw a cloud of steam rising up out fo my case......
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: Fineus on June 23, 2004, 07:51:19 am: Thats exactly why I've not switched over to water cooling or something similar, all my life I've been taught that:

electrics + water = destroyed electronics

It's a hard feeling to shake off, and every time I moved the case or went to a LAN I'd be worried that something would get shaken out of place and pour liqued all over my computers innards.
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: TopAce on June 23, 2004, 10:00:58 am: I took my computer to some LAN parties in the past and no trouble happened to it.
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: kasperl on June 23, 2004, 10:05:28 am: Are you using watercooling?

And LAN partys might not be the only issue. Just a small tear in some tube might kill a very expensive system.
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: Grey Wolf on June 23, 2004, 10:06:39 am: Having fun with the case mod archives at various sites, Sandwich?
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: Fineus on June 23, 2004, 10:07:41 am: Thats my point - any small thing could be a real issue. It's quite a gamble with the system you've spent so much money putting together/whatever!
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: TopAce on June 23, 2004, 10:08:01 am: A reason why the cover was invented? I think so.
And to be honest, I do not put the cover on my case. :)

*takes a look into the case and realizes it is filthy.*

Speaking of small things: A mosquito or a fly flew into my cooler a few years ago.
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: kasperl on June 23, 2004, 10:08:55 am: I'm not talking about the cover, I'm talking about the tubes with liquid rupturing.
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: Grey Wolf on June 23, 2004, 10:16:56 am: Which is why, assuming you're really going for it, you buy Tygon tubing. Nice and laboratory grade. You aren't going to rupture that.

The main thing against me even thinking about water cooling is weight.
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: Fineus on June 23, 2004, 10:21:27 am: Presumably you can take the system out for transport...? Or at least drain it of water....
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: Grey Wolf on June 23, 2004, 10:27:58 am: You can drain it, but from what I understand, it's a pain. I'd rather just go for extremely high end aircooling, like the Thermalright SP-94 or something to that effect.
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: pyro-manic on June 23, 2004, 10:40:37 am: I wouldn't have thought it'd add that much weight - there's not going to be much more than a litre or two of water in there, after all. And if you can't lift an extra two kilos, then you're weak, so tough :p :D j/k You could always go for one of those Mach II thingies, if you wanted maximum cooling. Though they're probably as noisy as fans, if not more so...

Back on-topic, though - that's probably the best case mod I've ever seen! Actually original and interesting, rather than a load of leds and fluorescent tubing. Never liked case modding meself, but that is very, very good. Don't like the green/silver one though.
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: Singh on June 23, 2004, 10:42:56 am: that casing is sooooooo cool!!!
*goes off to see if he cant get one

off-topic: I just saw the HL e3 trailor (the ~600mb one).....I think i drowned in my drool. I'm going to have to save up for a new graphics card for that game. No choice about it.......
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: TopAce on June 23, 2004, 11:31:21 am: That case is really nice compared to a Quake 3 one I saw two or three years ago.
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: Knight Templar on June 23, 2004, 11:41:31 am: mmmmmmm....... rustic....
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: Tiara on June 23, 2004, 11:43:49 am: Silly question; How can you measure the temperature in your comp? :p
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: Knight Templar on June 23, 2004, 11:47:16 am: Good ol' fashioned mercury?
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: kasperl on June 23, 2004, 12:02:12 pm: Depends on your mobo.
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: Sandwich on June 23, 2004, 01:12:25 pm: Quote
Originally posted by Grey Wolf 2009
Having fun with the case mod archives at various sites, Sandwich?

Actually, not quite. ;) Just catching up on 500+ RSS feed posts from Gizmodo from the past 2-3 months.
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: 01010 on June 23, 2004, 02:36:03 pm: Quote
Originally posted by Tiara
Silly question; How can you measure the temperature in your comp? :p

Some motherboards have the temperature gauge in the BIOS, some don't have a visible one at all. Check your BIOS, I think mine is under the heading "System Overview" or something like that.
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: Setekh on June 23, 2004, 07:16:25 pm: Quote
Originally posted by Kalfireth
Thats exactly why I've not switched over to water cooling or something similar, all my life I've been taught that:

electrics + water = destroyed electronics

It's a hard feeling to shake off, and every time I moved the case or went to a LAN I'd be worried that something would get shaken out of place and pour liqued all over my computers innards.

That's my beef with watercooling too. The reason why I may end up with it in my PC is because I can't seem to find a decently quiet air cooling system... all the ones we've tried so far have been deafening. :no:
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: Grey Wolf on June 23, 2004, 07:59:36 pm: Zalman. Specifically, Zalman CNPS 7000A AlCu. Pretty powerful, and near silent. Probably'll set you back about 40 USD. http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=54&code=005
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: WMCoolmon on June 23, 2004, 10:49:36 pm: Quote
Originally posted by pyro-manic
Back on-topic, though - that's probably the best case mod I've ever seen! Actually original and interesting, rather than a load of leds and fluorescent tubing.

Indeed, it actually looks industry-grade.

Re the off-topic discussion, wasn't there some talk about coolers that did cooling through electrical cooling or somesuch? Whatever happened to them?
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: Grey Wolf on June 26, 2004, 05:34:47 pm: That'd be Peltier cooling, aka thermoelectric cooling. Runs through sending current through two dissimilar conductors. That's about the 4th level up in cooling, you'll find it on high-end water and incredibly high-end air. Problem with it is that it can push the limit of your PSU, unless it runs off of an external power supply. Most people tend to skip right past it to phase change cooling.

1. Passive Air
2. Active Air (fans)
3. Water/TEC Air
4. TEC Water
5. Phase change cooling (Prometia, Vapochill, etc.)
6. Phase change cascades (the very top of the line)
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: Grey Wolf on June 27, 2004, 08:48:43 pm: This is kind of cool, just for the amount of stuff they managed to fit into this SFF case....
(http://pcdb.overclockers.com.au/pic.php?pic=The_Snarf_7.jpg)
http://pcdb.overclockers.com.au/view.php?name=The_Snarf&page=pics
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: Liberator on June 27, 2004, 11:54:35 pm: Quote
Originally posted by kasperl
Are you using watercooling?

And LAN partys might not be the only issue. Just a small tear in some tube might kill a very expensive system.

It's called copper tubing and you affix it by soldering. Saves space and looks cool. I'll probably do something like this with my next box.
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: WMCoolmon on June 27, 2004, 11:56:50 pm: Quote
Originally posted by Grey Wolf 2009
This is kind of cool, just for the amount of stuff they managed to fit into this SFF case....
(http://pcdb.overclockers.com.au/pic.php?pic=The_Snarf_7.jpg)
http://pcdb.overclockers.com.au/view.php?name=The_Snarf&page=pics

Geez. Just another reason to regret buying a miniATX board, I guess. :p

I've actually been having some suspected cooling problems recently, too bad I don't have the cash for anything but another fan.
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: Sandwich on June 29, 2004, 05:36:46 pm: Quote
Originally posted by Setekh

That's my beef with watercooling too. The reason why I may end up with it in my PC is because I can't seem to find a decently quiet air cooling system... all the ones we've tried so far have been deafening. :no:

I just got this (http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/gigabyte_3d_cooler_pro/) in a package for my new computer... I'll tell you how it goes once I get the motherboard and HDDs. :D
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: Grey Wolf on June 29, 2004, 07:14:33 pm: If that's the part that I believe it is, I've heard decent things about it. Performance is a bit lower than the Thermalright parts though, and the Zalman will still be quieter.
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: Sandwich on June 30, 2004, 02:17:12 am: Yeah, but you can control it - dial it up to 4000 rpm for best cooling (better than Thermalright IIRC), or dial it down to 2000 rpm for extra-quiet 35db noise levels (ambient room noise hovering around 32db in one review I read).
Title: Half-Life 2 Case MOD (OMG!)
Post by: Grey Wolf on June 30, 2004, 03:47:05 pm: I can't quite remember who's ahead (the SP-94 or the Gigabyte, it was quite close), but the Zalman is quieter.