Technabob » plexiglas

The Desk Casemod: a Desktoptobottom Computer

Lambert Varias — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 12:58:12 +0000

While integrating a computer into a desk isn’t exactly an original idea, Will Urbina’s “The Desk” casemod is (literally) flashy and makes no effort whatsoever to hide the fact that the desk itself is the computer. It’s all Plexiglas and steel and blue LEDs.

It’s hard to believe that this is Urbina’s first casemod, and I also find it hard to believe Urbina when he says that “The Desk’s function is to just get things done”, because if I had to work using The Desk I would be extremely distracted by the lights and the innards.

Speaking of innards, The Desk gets things done with the help of the following: An Intel Q6600 G0 CPU running at 3.5 GHz, Abit IP35 Pro motherboard, four 2 GB Corsair DDR2 for a total of 8 GB, an HIS HD2900 XT 512mb video card, an SB X-Fi Elite Pro sound card, two Ultra 550w power supply units, two 500gb Western Digital hard drive in Raid 0, a 320gb Seagate PATA and a 250gb WD SATA drive.

But that’s not all: see the tower sitting on top of The Desk?

Urbina built the tower – which by the way, is called, “The Tower” – so that he can turn off his additional hard drives individually. The Tower contains 5 disks – with room for 1 more – bringing The Desk’s total capacity to 3.62 terabytes. Urbina is especially proud of The Desk not just because it’s won several awards in case mod competitions, but because it’s his everyday computer. Check out his website for more pics.

[via The Raw Feed]

Tv Armor Protects Your Flat Screen Tv From Kids, Flying Wii-Motes, and Other Ufos

Technabob — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:44:17 +0000

So you just plunked down thousands of dollars on that shiny new flat screen HDTV. But you’ve got kids, and they like to throw everything from the remote to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches around the room. Or they like to write with crayons on every surface. How ever will you protect your oversized TV man-toy from those sticky little hands? With some TV Armor, of course.

TV Armor is a simple, yet ingenious invention that keeps your LCD or Plasma TV from getting cracked, scratched, dirty or otherwise slimy by covering the screen with a thin, but durable acrylic shield. A 1/4″ thick layer of optical-grade plastic is thick enough to keep your screen from getting damaged, but won’t interfere with picture quality. Just slide the TV Armor over the top of your TV, fasten the Velcro straps, and you won’t have to worry about flying Wii-motes smashing your precious investment.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

They’re available in a variety of sizes to fit whatever screen you have, and prices range from $69 to $289 (USD), depending on screen size. You can order yours over at the TV Armor website.

Remember, your kids’ wounds will heal, plasmas and LCDs won’t.

Wall-E Windows Computer Casemod Gets Touchscreen Tummy

Technabob — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 22:40:14 +0000

After listening to his startup sound, I always figured that Wall-E ran on Mac OS. I guess I was wrong. From the looks of this casemod, the little yellow robot that could runs Windows XP.

Modder Jonathan Berg put together this Wall-E PC mod that comes complete with a 7-inch touchscreen monitor inside his belly.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Wall-E is made from custom cut Plexiglas, arms made from Logitech speakers, and webcam hidden behind his eyes. He’s even been outfitted with voice recognition software which lets his master command him by barking orders - in case his touchscreen and laser keyboard aren’t sufficient.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

At least his compactor module isn’t activated, or else that monitor would most certainly be crushed into smithereens.

Smoon Ombrella Lamp Looks Like a Flying Saucer Overhead

Technabob — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 23:14:51 +0000

This funky modern lighting fixture might be named for its umbrella-like shape, but to me it looks like some sort of alien jellyfish is about land its spacecraft in your living room.

Created by French furniture designers Beau & Bien, the Smoon Ombrella lamp gets its sculptural potato chip-like shape from custom cut Plexiglas. Towering overhead at 81″ tall, the canopy measures in a substantial 39.4″ x 59″.

The Ombrella uses modern LED lighting to cast its out-of-this-world glow. Thanks to its low power consumption, the lamp runs on a rechargeable battery pack that lets you place it anywhere in your home without wires. It’s even suitable for outdoor use. A single 10 hour charge gives you 6 days of run time before it runs out of juice.

The lamp is available in a several cool colors, including red, green, and my personal favorite, clear – which lets the surrounding colors show through.

The Smoon Ombrella lamp is available from Coliseum Shop for about $2200 USD. Now that might seem expensive to some of you, but think of it this way… you could buy 10 of these before you could get just one of those Freewheeler outdoor speakers.

Xbox Mini: a Great Unfinished Masterwork

Technabob — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 21:54:07 +0000

Some guy over on the Xbox-Scene forums started to work on what will hopefully one day be the finest Xbox casemod of all time. The Xbox Mini case that he fabricated is a thing of beauty, reducing the ugly black behemoth that was the original Xbox into a svelte little package.

Modder ghostavel used computer-aided design to put together the minimalist gloss black case. From the looks of things, he’s made good progress on getting the motherboard and power supply down to a reasonable size in order to cram them in there.

While he did manage to squeeze an 80GB hard drive in the case, I’m not seeing a DVD drive anywhere. I’m guessing that it’s strictly for homebrew and copied games.

It’s unclear if and when he’ll finish this project, but hopefully he will. If only Microsoft had designed something like this and released a low-cost Xbox Mini when the Xbox 360 came out, they might have taken some business away from the Wii.

[via digg]