TRON Light Cycle Case Mod
Modder Alias: Boddaker
Real name: Brian Carter
Age: 43
Live: Northern California
Occupation: Audio/Video Production
Years in Computers: 16 years
Length of time Modding: 6 years
Modded cases: Sideview Monitor Case, Home Sweet Home, UAL 737, Mystique2, Battlestar Galactica, Neptune’s Trident, Spider ION, Kai Lan, Monster Truck, Lenovo Sensei, TRON Lightcycle
Website: www.bods-mods.com
MI- I want to thank you for agreeing to our interview and congratulation on winning the Featured Rig of the Month here at Modders-Inc.
MI-Everyone has a story of what got them into Modding. What or whom got you into Modding?
Boddaker – I come from a hot rodding background, and was always messing with my muscle car with my buds on the weekends. When we all got into computers and gaming, it was just a matter of time before we all started hot rodding our systems. I was the first of the bunch to add a window kit and blue lights into my case. After that, I started thinking about other things I could do to make it easier to take my rig with me to the LAN, and that’s how the Side view came about.
MI-Where do you get your inspiration for your mods?
Boddaker -I get ideas and inspiration from many things. It could be a TV show, or movie, or game. Or maybe a solution to fill a need. Whatever it is that gets me going, I always try to stay consistent with the theme, and carry it throughout the system, including peripherals.
MI- What was the thoughts behind the winning mod?
Boddaker -I built the TRON Lightcycle mainly to compete in this year’s Cooler Master’s Case Mod Competition. I had wanted to do a TRON mod ever since the movie came out last year, but never got around to it. The contest was the great motivator in this case. ;-)
Boddaker – I had originally wanted to incorporate two Dyson air multiplier fans as the wheels, but after trying to work out the logistics, found that it would end up being too large and cumbersome. I had to reduce the overall size so it would fit on the desk at least. So I devised a curved radiator to make most efficient use of the available space around the wheels, and to facilitate the watercooling system.
MI- What do you think was the hardest part about the mod.
Boddaker – Fitting all the hardware into the case was a real challenge, but I’d say the plastic fairings were the most difficult because I had to make them by hand. And I ended up making them too narrow due to a measurement error on my part, so I had to figure out how to fix it as well.
MI- Did it turn out how you thought it would?
Boddaker – I think it turned out better than expected. Even after I finished it, I hadn’t realized how well it turned out until I started seeing the reactions of everyone on the forums. I had been working on it so closely, trying to get it completed before the contest deadline, that I hadn’t had a chance to take a step back and really look at it. I was amazed at all the great comments and feedback people were giving, and that made me feel a lot better about the job I did.
MI- Is there anything you might of wanted to do different
Boddaker – There were a few things I wanted to do, but couldn’t due to the time constraints. I had plans to modify the 3D monitor with TRON lighting, for example.
MI-How much time and money do you think you spent on the mod?
Boddaker -I found out about the contest in February and started right in designing something up to post in their forums, so about three months is all I had to build it. As far as money, I try not to keep track of such things, as it gets too depressing and starts becoming too much like work!
MI- Do you have another project in the shop? Or in the planning?
Boddaker – Before I heard about the contest, I was planning to build a new graphics workstation to replace my aging system at work. So I’ll be getting back on that. It will include EVGA’s SR-2 dual processor motherboard and a nice Nvidia Quaddro card to help speed up all the renders and composting I do when I’m editing TV commercials.
