Homemade computer cases & casemods

I’ve been building some custom computer cases over the last few years because I’m not overly happy with the look of the ones you can find in shops. I started simply modding existing cases (in 1992, I marbleized a mini-tower case and put a handle on it to make it, um, “portable”) and eventually starting building them from scratch.

The Factory Case

Built out of Design Preservation Models modular wall parts wrapped around a VIA EPIA5000 mini-ITX motherboard.

The oggOmatic

This little box will cache all of our music so we can play it in any room of our house without carrying around a box full of CDs. It contains an EPIA 5000, a quietquietquiet Fujitsu hard drive, Berkeley Unix, and all of our music.

The Glass PC

I built this box to use some pieces of colored glass I bought at SCRAP. I’m not exactly sure what I’ll use it for (perhaps a music server for the living room; it fits the craftsman style better than the oggOmatic), but it’s a pretty little PC that doesn’t look much like one.

The Electric Picture Frame

This case was done for me on commission, and so was the pictureframe. The electronics were ripped out of a point-of-sale terminal, and the final product runs Mastodon.

The Goldbug

A simple casemod. This is an elderly e-machines micro-ATX case that’s been modded with many coats of gold paint, acoustic matting, and a nice quiet Papst fan. It’s nicely insulated and fairly quiet, but it’s still too loud for my ears.

The glowy server case

A handmade aluminum server case with an illuminated power switch.