[Geek]

Any of you who know hardcore gamers know that they spend a lot of over-the-top cash on interesting, often times weird decorations for their case that involve glowing lights, glowing fans, flashing strobe lights, uv-sensitive paints, and the like. These decorations are collectively termed "case-mods," basically modifications to the ATX computer case to produce an asthetically pleasing result.

I'm moving my hardware components from my old antec/chieftec server chassis (a little too heavy and ridiculous) into this baby:
http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage....171-002-01.JPG

An acrylic case which glows blue when in the prescence of ultraviolet radiation. Weighs in at at about 15 pounds less than my current case, is smaller, and looks neater to boot. Also has 2 fan holes on the case side, allowing for fan intake next to the constantly hot graphics card.

I bought these feet to mount on the bottom of the case (they glow blue):
http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage....888-015-03.jpg

And finally I purchased five of these fans to allow for optimal cooling and glowing of the case. They emit quite a bit of UV which causes the fan itself to glow bright neon green, a nice contrast to the case, which will inadvertedly glow blue.
http://www.case-mod.com/store/produc...roducts_id=687

Total cost is about $120.00 including shipping. That's a really great bargain, considering I'm lightening up my computer's weight about 15 pounds, adding some awesome decorations, cutting down the volume of the case (a mid tower is the same width as my huge server chassis but is significantly shorter and not as long front to back). I calculate that, at the rate of one LAN party per weekend, I lift my case a total of eight times: (1) move it upstairs, (2) move it into car, (3) unload everything from car into LAN party arena, (4) move everything and set up, (5) unpack and move it upstairs, (6) move it back into the car, (7) unload it at home, (8) move downstairs and finish setup. So, every weekend I'll lift a total of 120 pounds less weight with these upgrades. That's the excuse I gave my parents when I ordered this stuff, anyways, hehe.

Post your questions and comments and I'll get back to you in a while. Enjoy the pictures everyone.

Cheers,
Geek

 

[Wodgy]

I've always been curious about the LAN party scene. What does one "do" at a LAN party? How similar is it to a frat party? How many people show up? Is there beer? Dancing? Loud music? What's the male/female ratio? Does anyone ever call the cops?

 

[Oddball]

Question: how hard is it to change the case of a PC if you're a total newbie at that sort of stuff?

 

[Geek]

A LAN party can be one of many things. LAN stands for Local Area Network, and thus any LAN party is a party centered around the principle of networked computers, almost always in one building.

A LAN party is a LAN party when a minimum of two people meet each other, say, I go to a friend's house and network my computer to his using a simple crossover cable. That's a LAN party, because we're doing something entertaining surrounding the principle of a network.

At LAN parties, the number one thing that occurs is gaming, involving network games such as Quake 2, Quake 3, Unreal 2003 or Unreal 2004, Starcraft: Brood War, Half Life: Counterstrike, or Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne. This is about 60% of the action.

LAN parties follow traditions, usually, in our area, featuring customary watching of a movie or two after everyone's totally burned out from gaming. Everyone pigs out, eating whatever the heck they'd like, and we order lots of pizza. We also get Bawls Guarana, a really fruity, smooth, soft-tasting beverage that boosts your energy without really giving you jitters, you feel relaxed and energized at the same time when its consumed. http://www.bawls.com/ for more info, that stuff is at anyone's LAN more than Mountain Dew is now.

The biggest LAN parties are ones which center around a big hotel being rented out, involving corporate sponsors providing funding for the LAN - usually companies such as Intel, AMD, Western Digital, and the like show up to promote and compete for the attention of gamers. Multiplay is the biggest event in the UK (http://www.tomshardware.com/ had a nice article about it on the frontpage). Over a THOUSAND gamers were networked in one structure! The action went on for DAYS, and people slept in TENTS outside the building. Much beer was consumed.

At my LANs, usually we all hook into a really fast switchbox which allows for near-zero lag in games. We don't drink alcohol, as that would make it impossible to win at games. Some of us stay up all night, and the action goes for 2 or even 3 days at bigger LANs. The ones I host tend to go from Friday to Saturday morning.

LANs are very intellectual, involving lots of discussion about technology when people aren't gaming, trading of information, interesting links, and so on. Software piracy is highly discouraged at LANs.

A good LAN is one where everyone leaves happy, tired as hell, and completely broke. LANs are not like a keggar or frat party in that generally noise is kept fairly low, people are never intoxicated beyond a safe level, etc. That's what goes on though. I'm LAN gaming as much as anything else, it's probably right now a greater love than high end audio for me, simply because it costs only about ten bucks for me to attend a LAN, compared with buying a new CD for fifteen to twenty, or a new component for hundreds if not thousands of dollars, and I've never went to a LAN that flat out sucked, there's always something fun and exciting to do there, and you meet new people or strengthen the friendships you have with others. Plus there's that feeling of superiority over the average masses, that "We know something nobody else knows" that your group of friends experience after successfully pulling a LAN off. Not to mention the improved coordination from gaming, mental (and sometimes physical!) exercise, and generally staying out of trouble.

Well, that's my LAN rant. Hope that explains things enough.

Cheers,
Geek

 

[Geek]

Oddball,
For an inexperienced individual, it takes about one hour and thirty minutes to two hours to properly swap components from one case to another, assuming you carefully read and follow directions, and you're in the company of a trained professional or someone who has done it before numerous times. If something goes wrong (like a card's metal tab gets bent and has to be worked with) things can take a little longer.

An expert can swap all the components from an old case to a new case in under 20 minutes if he does so carefully and safely.

When I first worked on the inside of a case, it took me a while, but being walked through by a professional helped me a lot, and being able to consult him during the process allowed me to independently build computers of my own soon after.

If you are thinking about even switching from that old crappy corporate plastic case to a nice spiffy aluminum one, grab a friend who's done that sort of stuff, and spend an afternoon working on carefully swapping out components. You'll learn something and have a much better cooled, and cooler looking system, to boot (no puns intended).

Cheers,
Geek

 

[reeseboisse]

Not bad. A while ago, when I built one of my friends' PCs, I bought one of those acrylic cases, although not one of the UV sensitive ones. Pretty cool, although it was a sonofabitch to put together, more so because I made the mistake of starting the construction before I had all the parts. Altogether, it's a pretty good looking box, if I do say so myself. Looked even better with the sound activated neon I stuck in there not long ago.

 

[Geek]

Oddball,
For an inexperienced individual, it takes about one hour and thirty minutes to two hours to properly swap components from one case to another, assuming you carefully read and follow directions, and you're in the company of a trained professional or someone who has done it before numerous times. If something goes wrong (like a card's metal tab gets bent and has to be worked with) things can take a little longer.

An expert can swap all the components from an old case to a new case in under 20 minutes if he does so carefully and safely.

When I first worked on the inside of a case, it took me a while, but being walked through by a professional helped me a lot, and being able to consult him during the process allowed me to independently build computers of my own soon after.

If you are thinking about even switching from that old crappy corporate plastic case to a nice spiffy aluminum one, grab a friend who's done that sort of stuff, and spend an afternoon working on carefully swapping out components. You'll learn something and have a much better cooled, and cooler looking system, to boot (no puns intended).

Cheers,
Geek

 

[minya]

Every time you attend a LAN party, you decrease your chance of being physically intimate with your preferred sex by six months.

Kind of like quitting smoking adds seven years to your life, but different.

- Chris

 

[Geek]

minya,

That's oh so true. I found a girlfriend though who literally contradicts the laws of physics: she actually likes the idea of me being a computer nerd, and enjoys using computers (What?). On top of that she plays the violin and is pretty good at it, and is a good student. I guess I'm lucky.

The funniest thing happened at the last LAN: one of the guys had his girlfriend and a few other girls stop by to "check out the action," and they were downright horrified when they walked into the room. They were greeted by me, a smiling, freakishly looking skinny blonde dude with a headroom T-Shirt, a headroom hat on backwards, cheap 80s sunglasses, and gigantic HD650s over my ears. My computer was glowing like a circus in full swing, lights dancing and jittering, mirroring the motion of my hands relentlessly tapping the keyboard and guiding the mouse.

After about ten minutes of just staring at me, mouths wide open, they quickly went into the other room and had a philosophical discussion with the girls' boyfriend, who was one of our top gamers. The conversation went something like this: "What I don't understand, [name removed], is why you'd like to play computer games all day instead of hang out with girls." She kind of trailed off, sighed, and he completely ignored her, instead focusing on fragging me. I then offered them a mountain dew, they obviously declined, and quickly got the hell out of there. LOL, I need to scare people more often like that!

Cheers,
Geek

 

[funnytimes]

I've been to a couple lan parties myself. Competition can get real serious, as you see the other guys right next to you. On LAN, you have completly lag free games, ridiculously fast file sharing (if you want, it's also much faster than broadband). You can show off the case mods to, um other guys, there are rarely any females involved.

At the local lan parties I've been to, we drink an occassional beer while playing, but drink alot more after we finish playing, its hard to play while even the slightest bit drunk. A fun thing to do after playing the serious games that Geek mentioned is to lesser known multiplayer games, games that do not have a community online so you cannot find anybody to play with.

All in all its a fun experience, but if your not good at the games or cannot imagine playing games for many hours, it might get boring.

 

[Edwood]

Quote:

Originally posted by funnytimes I've been to a couple lan parties myself.

Yeah, I've heard that Lan hosts some killer parties. I'll have to come by for a visit if I find myself in Big Apple.

Good to hear that you ditched that ole Antec/Cheiftec clone that everyone and their grandmother has, Geek. Make sure the wires are all nice and tidy, they'll all be showing.

I don't have any windows in my case because I've lined it with sound deadening material and acoustic foam. Not a very exciting view that would be.

-Ed

 

[Dan the audioman]

Blah!...all this case swapping this, case swapping that...

Can it be done with a lap-top?

LOL

 

[ch1nkster]

Hmm that see through case may be a bit fragile.

Anyway, case swapping = uber easy. I take apart my computer every 2 months to clean the inside of any dust I see. All you have to do is fiddle with a couple screw drivers and put your mobo in place. The rest of the stuff is super easy to do.

 

[fewtch]

Interesting... I just got done browsing Newegg's sizeable collection of cases (been thinking of upgrading mine) and couldn't find a single one that fit my specs (plain but classy looks, superb build quality for quietness, preferably no PSU, mid-tower ATX, side fan required).

I like the build quality of the Chieftecs, but god are they ugly (and they use nonstandard fan sizes, like e.g. 90mm side fans).

 

[Chinchy]

Quote:

Originally posted by Geek The biggest LAN parties are ones which center around a big hotel being rented out, involving corporate sponsors providing funding for the LAN - usually companies such as Intel, AMD, Western Digital, and the like show up to promote and compete for the attention of gamers. Multiplay is the biggest event in the UK (http://www.tomshardware.com/ had a nice article about it on the frontpage). Over a THOUSAND gamers were networked in one structure! The action went on for DAYS, and people slept in TENTS outside the building. Much beer was consumed. At my LANs, usually we all hook into a really fast switchbox which allows for near-zero lag in games. We don't drink alcohol, as that would make it impossible to win at games. Some of us stay up all night, and the action goes for 2 or even 3 days at bigger LANs. The ones I host tend to go from Friday to Saturday morning. LANs are very intellectual, involving lots of discussion about technology when people aren't gaming, trading of information, interesting links, and so on. Software piracy is highly discouraged at LANs. A good LAN is one where everyone leaves happy, tired as hell, and completely broke. LANs are not like a keggar or frat party in that generally noise is kept fairly low, people are never intoxicated beyond a safe level, etc. That's what goes on though. Cheers, Geek

Wow.. doesn't sound like any of the lan parties I've been to... Then again, most of the attendees were college age or younger, and when they weren't playing, they were drinking and/or doing "other" stuff. I think the opposite of the last sentence I quoted from you is exactly what it was... A frat party where noise was kept fairly high, people were continuously intoxicated, and the threat of police arriving to shut it down loomed overhead. Oh that and continuously losing power and having to reset the fuse box due to the massive amounts of power being drawn. But then again, they DID call it the "Drunken Tourney" so who knows.. Never been to any real professional LAN parties.... Sigh.