Toilet, Cyberpumpkin, and a host of creative PC mods
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ToiletPC (1 of 5)
ntWhile at CES 2011 in January, I met Dean Liou, a Senior Web Application Developer who’s also built some great PC case mods. Liou was one of three finalists in Lenovo’s MOD building contest who were at the show. His Street Fighter-themed Arcade Dock mod (shown at the end of this gallery), was a real eye-catcher.
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ntWhile talking to Liou about his entry in the Lenovo contest, we started talking about his many other case mods. And, he has graciously allow us to republish a few photos of each mod on TechRepublic.
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ntThis gallery features photos of 14 different case mods. I’m starting with one of Liou’s more interesting ones, the ToiletPC.
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nt– Bill Detwiler, TechRepublic Head Technology Editor
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ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
ToiletPC (2 of 5)
ntBuilt in Summer 2001, this machine has an ASUS CUSI-FX motherboard, 933MHz Intel PIII CPU, 256MB RAM, 45GB HDD, and PCI ATI Radeon VE graphics card. All this hardware is mounted inside a child’s training toilet.
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ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
ToiletPC (3 of 5)
ntThe Toliet PC uses a 145Watt MicroATX power supply.
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ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
ToiletPC (4 of 5)
ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
ToiletPC (5 of 5)
ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
PVC Jr. (1 of 3)
ntBuilt in the Fall of 2000, Liou’s PVC Jr. case mod was the third mod to use PVC pipes for a case.
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ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
PVC Jr. (2 of 3)
ntThe PVC Jr. PC had a Gigabyte GA-7ZM Socket A MicroATX motherboard, AMD 600MHz Duron CPU, 128GB RAM, 25GB IBM Deskstar HDD, and Elsa TNT2 Vanta graphics card.
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ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
PVC Jr. (3 of 3)
ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
InvisiblePC (1 of 5)
ntLiou used a cleverly placed mirror to make the housing of his Invisible PC appear empty.
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ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
InvisiblePC (2 of 5)
ntThe blue light adds a nice touch and enhances the box’s empty appearance.
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ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
InvisiblePC (3 of 5)
ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
InvisiblePC (4 of 5)
ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
InvisiblePC (5 of 5)
ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
MysteryBox (1 of 4)
ntLiou built the MysteryBox case mode for the Intel Developer Forum Fall 2002. It is an aluminum version of his InvisiblePC.
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ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
MysteryBox (2 of 4)
ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
MysteryBox (3 of 4)
ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
MysteryBox (4 of 4)
ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
BBQ PC (1 of 2)
ntLiou built his BBQ PC in the Winter of 2000.
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ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
BBQ PC (2 of 2)
ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
Dashboard PC (1 of 4)
ntLiou used dashbaord gauges from a Honda Civic Si to create this unique case mod. The Dashboard PC‘s gauges show RAM, CPU, and Hard Drive usage when the system is running.
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ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
Dashboard PC (2 of 4)
ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
Dashboard PC (3 of 4)
ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
Dashboard PC (4 of 4)
ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
DialupPC (1 of 4)
ntIn 2004, Liou built this DialupPC for an Intel event being held in Dallas, TX. He wanted to build a “throw-back mod with present-day functionality”. Liou describes this machine as a “Skype, MSN voice chat-ready (and now Google talk) PC with a retro twist.”
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ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
DialupPC (2 of 4)
ntWhen a Skype call, MSN voice chat, or Google talk invitation comes in, you can pickup the handset and use it as you would a normal phone.
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ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
DialupPC (3 of 4)
ntAccording to Liou, “the box used for this case is an antique box that was originally used to import grain from another country (probably Asian).”
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ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
DialupPC (4 of 4)
ntThe DialupPC had a 3.4Ghz Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition CPU, ATI Radeon 9800 graphics cards, 512MB RAM, 80GB Seagate Serial ATA HDD, and a laptop DVD drive.
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ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
PVC PC (1 of 3)
ntBuilt in 1998, this mod was Liou’s first mod–his original PVC Case. It ran on 500MHz Celeron CPU.
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ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
PVC PC (2 of 3)
ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
PVC PC (3 of 3)
ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
PVC II (1 of 5)
ntTwo years after completing his first PVC computer case, Liou built a second PVC mod–PVC II.
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ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
PVC II (2 of 5)
ntCooling for this machine is provided by a single, 18-inch fan.
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ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
PVC II (3 of 5)
ntThis machine had an Athlon classic 750 CPU, Abit KA7-100 motherboard, 128MB PC133 RAM, Hercules Prophet II GTS 32MB video card, and two 15GB ATA-100 7200RPM IBM Deskstar’s HDDs.
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ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
PVC II (4 of 5)
ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
PVC II (5 of 5)
ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
Ginger Bread PC (1 of 4)
ntLiou built this Ginger Bread PC case mod in the winter of 2002. The walls were made from hardboard, and he used white caulk for the icing.
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ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
Ginger Bread PC (2 of 4)
ntLiou mounted the machine’s HDD, DVD drive, and power supply on the underside of the platform. He used parts from a Shuttle XPC SFF Barebones Kit for the components inside the house.
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ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
Ginger Bread PC (3 of 4)
ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
Ginger Bread PC (4 of 4)
ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
Guitar PC (1 of 4)
ntLiou built this Guitar PC in 2003.
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ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
Guitar PC (2 of 4)
ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
Guitar PC (3 of 4)
ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
Guitar PC (4 of 4)
ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
LCD Touchframe (1 of 4)
ntThis LCD Touchframe display mod uses a 15-inch Samsung LCD with ELO touch overlay that was once part of an “all-in-one PC used as a bar counter bingo game”.
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ntUnlike his other mods, this unit isn’t a fully PC. It’s a secondary display for his living room computer.
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ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
LCD Touchframe (2 of 4)
ntLiou mounted the LCD in a 10-inch x 13-inch wood frame and placed it on a wooden stand.
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ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
LCD Touchframe (3 of 4)
ntAmazingly, this mod was built for under $100 (US).
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ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
LCD Touchframe (4 of 4)
ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
Cyberpumpkin (1 of 4)
ntLiou built this Cyberpumpkin case mod for Intel as a way to showcase their Pentium 4 processors at E3 2002.
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ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
Cyberpumpkin (2 of 4)
ntThe machine’s turbine contains the motherboard, CD-ROM drive, HDD, and video card.
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ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
Cyberpumpkin (3 of 4)
ntThe machine’s power supply is located in the chest.
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ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
Cyberpumpkin (4 of 4)
ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
ArcadeDock Laptop Dock (1 of 3)
ntThis ArcadeDock case mod was Liou’s entry in Lenovo’s MOD building contest. The unit is a specially modified cabinet and controller that contains a Lenovo Y560 laptop and wireless keyboard.
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ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
ArcadeDock Laptop Dock (2 of 3)
ntThe wireless keyboard is located on a tray that slides out from the front of the cabinet.
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ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
ArcadeDock Laptop Dock (3 of 3)
ntThe cabinet is covered with Street Fighter-themed graphics and has a lighted marquee emblazoned with flames and the word “lenovo”.
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ntPhoto courtesy of Dean Liou. For more information on all Liou’s amazing mods, visit his site Envador.com.
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