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xxxxxxxxxxxRig of the Month
Fueled byMod. Overclock. Never Sleep!T H I S M O N T H: Karl Kaess’ The Cage
For his winning
entry Karl Kaess wins
$1,000 and a 12-pack of
BAWLS to fuel his late
nights of modding. You
can win too! See previous
page for contest details.A
s far as we know, a case
made entirely from hard-
ware cloth (similar to
chicken wire) is unprecedented,
though Karl Kaess, its creator,
sheepishly admits to having
seen Martha Stewart make a
candleholder from the same
material (“but I swear that’s
the only time I’ve ever watched
her show,” he adds). And like a
Martha Stewart project, the Cage
is meant to be duplicated.
“I designed it with other
people copying it in mind,” Kaess
says. He confidently predicts,
“It will get to the day where you
see one at every LAN party.” To
that end, the building process is
relatively simple and the mate-
rials easy to come by. The panels
of galvanized steel “cloth” are
woven together with plastic-
coated steel cord and all the
components are held securely in
place with plastic standoffs, zip
ties, and standard-issue screws.
Believe it or not, until we asked for
an open-case shot for this article,
the Cage had no door—Kaess
would have to unweave the thing
to get inside (a 45-minute pro-
cess!). That situation was promptly
remedied with a leftover piece
of hardware cloth, a pair of Wiss
snips, some hinges, and a latch.As Kaess puts it, “I can
sum up this case in four
words: cool, light, inex-
pensive, and cool.
“Cool: This rig runs
about 10° C cooler than
my old case did. That
leaves me plenty of
room for cutting my fan
speed (and noise) or
overclocking.
“Light: You think
your LanBoy is light?
Without all the compo-
nents, my case weighs
less than a pound.
“Inexpensive: It
comes to less than $30
for the whole thing.
“Cool: This case
puts those acrylic jobs
to shame. And there’s
the whole bling-bling
effect caused by the
glittery shininess of the
galvanized steel.”“It was hubris, I guess, that drove
me to put the heavy Antec power
supply up top, but I felt the case
would hold” says Kaess. And
hold it does, apparently. “I can
even carry it around by its handle,
though it probably has a safety
factor of 1,” he adds.