MaximumPC 2007 02

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96 MAXIMUMPC FEBRUARY 2007

If you have a contender for Rig of the Month, e-mail [email protected] with high-res digital pics and a 300-word write-up.

For his winning entry, Ton Khowdee wins a $500 gift certifi cate for

Buy.com to fund his modding madness! See all the hardware deals

at http://www.buy.com, and turn to page 92 for contest rules.

ririgg of the month ADVENTURES IN PC MODIFICATION Sponsored by

TON KHOWDEE’S

Super Hornet

T

on Khowdee had specifi c

goals in mind for the Super

Hornet. It had to be small enough

for easy transport to LAN parties,

it had to be powerful, it had to

be water cooled, and it had to be

pimped out. And we’ll be damned

if that’s not what he ended up with.

Small is one thing, but a single

Monarch Hornet SFF case would

have been a bit too cramped, so

Khowdee cut another Hornet in

half, attached it to the bottom of

the fi rst, and stuffed it with much

of the PC’s hardware. That way,

his performance parts—including

two EVGA 7900 GTX cards in SLI

and an AMD FX-60 CPU (all water

cooled, natch)—are proudly dis-

played free of distracting clutter in

the rig’s upper half. Appearances

are important when the top and

sides of your case swing out 90

degrees on friction hinges!

Hand-cut hornet and hive pat-

terns adorn both sides of the

enclosure, a smoked acrylic

window on the front provides

a peek into the rig’s innards

when the lights are on, and an

embedded PSOne LCD just plain

looks cool.

ADVENTURES IN PC MODIFICATION Sponsored by

Hand-cut hornet and hive pat-Hand-cut hornet and hive pat-

terns adorn both sides of the

enclosure, a smoked acrylic enclosure, a smoked acrylic enclosure, a smoked acrylic

window on the front provides window on the front provides window on the front provides window on the front provides

a peek into the rig’s innards a peek into the rig’s innards a peek into the rig’s innards

when the lights are on, and an when the lights are on, and an

embedded PSOne LCD just plain embedded PSOne LCD just plain

Khowdee used rivets to connect the

two frames, then he fabricated a uni-

fied front panel out of aluminum and

affixed it to the case with epoxy. After

everything else was said and done,

he applied multiple coats of sparkly

Lemon Yellow Candy automotive paint.