It's a mod, mod world.

I've decided to upgrade my PC again.

Normally I would be perfectly happy with my current system which was last upgraded in January of 2002. It has an Intel Pentium IV 1.9Ghz processor with 400MHz system bus, 1GB of 800MHz RDRAM, a 200MB 7200RPM hard drive and a 64 MB VisionTek GeForce 3 Ti video card. I know this is not cutting edge anymore but as a rule of thumb, I really don't like upgrading until technology is 2-4 times faster than what I have currently.

But a few things happened within the last few months that made me decide on upgrading sooner rather then later. First my 19" Sony CRT monitor blew out in June. As previously detailed on the Rusty Apple site, I replaced it with a HP 23" LCD. Then id Software's highly anticipated Doom 3 was released. Playable on my computer? Yes, but at the absolute lowest settings and resolution. So I figured after nearly 3 years maybe it was OK to upgrade.

So what happened to switching over to Apple?


Eating crow? There's actually a recipe for this.

Well after dropping some serious cash for the HP display in the beginning of June, Apple announced their new Cinema Displays later that month at WWDC 2004. Being an avid Mac rumor reader, I was expecting Apple to announce this but I never really considered purchasing an Apple display for my PC because the reported new aluminum designs wouldn't cosmetically match my black Antec case and I thought they would continue to use their proprietary ADC connections. I also didn't plan on purchasing a new Power Mac/Cinema Display until much later next year. What I didn't expect were two things- that Apple would announce industry standard DVI interfaces for their displays and that 3D software developer Alias would announce Maya Unlimited for the Mac. Gaming and Maya was what always made me comfortable investing and living in the Windows world.

Well at this point I made my "switching over forever" statement and tried to return or sell my HP display. After trying for half a day I found out that returning was impossible and selling meant losing hundreds of dollars in the process. Why not keep it and use it with a future Power Mac? Well I could but then I have two mismatched components again. (Apple does have features that better integrate their displays to their desktops also.) Call me vain but I just want the total package!

So this is where I started my research all over again. My first choice was obviously HP (for a matching case design) with their new xw workstations. I quickly found out they charge a huge premium for everything! CPUs, RAM, hard drives, optical drives, video cards- everything could be bought separately online for much less. So I explored other possibilities including upgrading my existing system with the parts I needed, including a better matching case. What a surprise to discover a couple of things-

1. The difficulty in finding an attractive, well designed case.
2. The growing popularity of custom case modding.

Beauty contest. From left to right-Dell Precision 670, IBM IntelliStation M Pro, Apple Power Mac G5, HP xw8200 and the 3DBOXX Workstation.

Shown above are the enclosure designs of most of the major workstation manufacturers. Obviously Apple leads the way in industrial design while the other PC manufactures either play it safe (HP, Dell) or are downright ugly (IBM, BOXX).

I actually love the company philosophy and product flexibility of Boxx. They really seem to understand the requirements and demands of 3D artists by offering great advice and a multitude of component choices including 64-bit AMD Opteron processors which most of the other manufactures don't. What I dislike though is their case designs, both inside and out. Looks like an unorganized rat's nest of cabling inside and the outside reminds me of a project coming out of a high school machine shop class. Oh well, I still have faith they can wake up and turn it around-hopefully sooner rather than later.

Running the numbers on all the workstation providers I could think of, I came to this conclusion: either purchase my dual processor dream system for thousands of dollars (might as well have bought a Mac!) or start making some compromises. This included the possibility of rebuilding my own system through Pricewatch and DealTime as well as using "boutique" vendors such as GamePC.

I won't rehash the various PC case manufacture's that Mark detailed in his last blog but rather give you my opinion of them. I think 95% of the cases out there are boring at best and hideous at worst. I believe Mark made a great choice with his Lian Li design although I'm not a huge fan of doors- my Antec has one and most of the time it's open. (I prefer direct access to my drives.) I think the Lian Li case looks great without it though-very minimal and classic.

After weeding through all the choices I had at my disposal-case designs, motherboards, CPUs, and so forth I had a change of heart about corporate PC manufacturers. I guess I was a little turned off with the lack of system integration and well made designs by custom building my own PC. See below for an exaggerated example.


The cardboard and electrical taped fan on top makes a nice touch.

So what I decided to do was both -that is to purchase the lowest priced HP workstation and replace any parts that were "inferior" with much faster and less expensive components bought online. The best of both worlds. My next update will give more details on what HP model I bought and what I plan to do with it in regards to upgrades.

While I would never want one of these displayed in my residence, I am amazed on how much time and effort people put into custom case mods. As a bonus, here are a few for your enjoyment.


Cases available for retail. The Diabolic Minotaur (L) and the Thermaltake Xaser V Damier (R).


Custom cases by basement artists. See how the one on the right was made here.