White Planet

[DrFrag]

Hi everyone

This is sort of Astro related, so I thought I'd post it here.

I just won first place in the Intel PC Mod Challenge at the World Cyber Games in Sydney, by building a fully contained Suitcase PC:



The screen, keyboard, headphones, etc all fit inside the case.

I named the case White Planet after the race car in the Astroboy episode of the same name. As you can see on the screen in the picture, the Windows wallpaper is a picture of The White Planet from the 1982 series.

My older computer is a full-tower case called High Spider, named after another of the race cars from the same episode. I'm thinking of naming my next computer Magic Bus, as long as it has a Serial ATA hard drive interface.

[Anapan]

Awesome!

[jeffbert]

I have heard about the serial harddrives, but know very little about them, other than that they are faster than the current parallel interface drives.

My current PC is one that I assembled from components, and other than Windows Xp not being near as trouble free as I had thought it would be, I am satisfied. Can you give the details of your pc as written on the placard?

[dennis_ian]

how much did it cost you to put up that thing dr. frag??? it looks very awesome and soooo cooolll...i dont know a thing about putting up those gadget but i assumed it worksss reaallyyy weellll... four thumbs up...( that includes my feet)

[dennis_ian]

how much did it cost you to put up that thing dr. frag??? it looks very awesome and soooo cooolll...i dont know a thing about putting up those gadget but i assumed it worksss reaallyyy weellll... four thumbs up...( that includes my feet)

[DrFrag]

I don't know what the placard says as I was unable to go to the event.

It's a Pentium 4 2.4GHz, Abit BE7-RAID motherboard (i845, onboard sound and network, IDE RAID, etc), 512MB PC2700 DDR, 128MB Geforce FX5200, 40GB HDD, 120GB removable HDD, FDD, Antec 430W PSU, Eizo 15" L367 LCD monitor, and keyboard and mouse etc. All fitting into an aluminium Pilot's Case. It took four months to build. And the power button is an ignition key.

You can read about its construction.

It cost about AUD$2600 in hardware, of which the monitor was AUD$1220 (it's exotic and high-end, but the only decent one I could find that fit the case).

The prize I won is a P4 3.2GHz computer, but I don't know much else about it as I won't get it for a few weeks. I'm so excited!

[jeffbert]

Wow! I am still using a clunky ol' 1.1 GHz, with a puny 320 MB, and a tiny 64MB Radeon 7200, but I do have cable internet, and it can download at a good 20 times faster than 56K modem. My monitor is pure pleasure: a 19 KDS LCD. I am thinking about upgrading the main board, but lack both the funds and justification for doing so.

[DrFrag]

Yeah, I still use my old P3-600 for most things, including video editing. I built the Suitcase PC mainly for portability at gaming events, and I used the cheapest and slowest Intel CPU I could find in shops. 2.4GHz! That's ridiculous, who needs that kind of speed? And now I'm getting a 3.2GHz computer. Not that I'm complaining or anything.

My monitor is pure pleasure: a 19 KDS LCD.

I hear that! A good monitor is one thing that is really worth shelling out on.

[sushihendrix]

DrFrag,

if you don't mind me asking, what are the prizes for the modding competition? i belong to an online PC community here in Manila that's looking forward to planning contests like these to promote case modding and more importantly, creativity.

i hope you don't mind me posting your accomplishment over our messageboard:
http://www.pinoypc.net/tehboard/viewthread...hp?thread=16920

i myself haven't been into modding since i use my PC mainly for work
http://www.sushihendrix.com/files/060303_M...y_OCresults.gif

[DrFrag]

There was only a prize for first place. I know officially it's a 3.2GHz Pentium 4 with an i865 motherboard. Rumour has it that it also comes with a Samsung widescreen LCD monitor and a Radeon 9800. The prize is supplied by Intel (and Samsung?) who were sponsoring the event. It was Australia-wide and held as part of the WCG finals for Australia.

It's the first comp like this that's been run here, and it was announced with pretty short notice so I think that really improved my odds of winning. It was only open to case modders using Intel processors too.

I'm working on putting it into the Overclockers Australia PC database so it will have a lot better pictures (it looks way better with the case closed).

I don't know what kind of sponsorship or funding you'd have for a case mod comp in Manila (that's in the Philippines, right?). But if you start with a local event you could have prizes like game packs or peripheral hardware. LAN events are really the best kind of place to hold these, because you get everyone together physically and there's a lot of computer extremists.

Was there a WCG finals for your country? I heard that a few Oceana countries were combined with Australia's for the finals.