PyraMac Pyramid G4 Case Mod

Factomatic writes "Kent Salas has unveiled his latest creation, the Pyramac G4 pyramid, which took six months to design and build. Salas says the toughest part was figuring out how to get all of those rectangular parts to fit into a pyramid, but he finally managed to cram in the motherboard from a 466 MHz Graphite Power Mac he bought on eBay for $600, a $400 1.4 GHz overclocked G4 upgrade card, 768 MB RAM, a 100 GB hard drive, an ATI 8500 video card and a CD-RW/DVD optical drive. You may remember Salas as the creator of the BlueIce modified Power Mac G4 tower with a front-mounted 5-inch LCD screen (also here). Wired News has an article and eight images of the Pyramac mod, but Salas has included the full set of 51 images on the building page of Pyramac site. I'm sure it won't be long before pyramid PCs show up at mini-itx.com... add a Webcam to the top and John Poindexter's vision of Total Information Awareness can be a reality in your home or office!"

Mirror

[NETHED]

As the site seemed to be slow w/ just subscribers...

Mirror of the images here [cofc.edu]Not all of them are there yet, but the skeleton is there. Refresh often.

Re:Mirror

[Bartmoss]

Refresh often? You do have a lot of guts.. or trust into your server? :D

Re:Mirror

[bhtooefr]

Well, it's not HIS server, it's his schools. He actually WANTS it to go down. Did you follow the link? The title was "Slashdot my school".

Yikes

[AttillaTheNun]

Sort of like fitting a square peg in a round hole - or a triangular hole, ...er yeah.

Re:Yikes

[Alan Partridge]

I don't think it was a Yikes! that he used.

Nice

[pnix]

Interesting...

Maybe someone should mod their Mac into a 1' sphere, with covers for all the ports, so when we get tired of playing games on the mac, we can play soccer with the mac!

Re:Nice

[Pirogoeth]

And get something like this [groundspeak.com]?

Re:Nice

[generic-man]

What, like this [impress.co.jp]?

6 Months worth of work.

[Anonymous Coward]

So that I can oggle at it for 5 mins. Keep up the good work boys.

G4? Who cares.

[vasqzr]

Who's got the balls to start hacking up a G5?

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:G4? Who cares.

[confused one]

As soon as someone gives me one... I'll get started.

Re:G4? Who cares.

[Equuleus42]

I was thinking that with the cheese grater-like [slashdot.org] front and back of the G5 tower, you could put any sort of neon lighting inside and it would look pretty neat... Couple that with an oil-based fog generator, and you would see lots of beams of light coming out of the case! I'm not sure if the fog would affect the system components though.

Re:G4? Who cares.

[Alan Partridge]

Good lord that's a crap idea!

Re:G4? Who cares.

[Equuleus42]

Good lord that's a crap idea!

But hey, I got modded to 5 for it! :^) (Now watch it get modded down... Heh.)

Re:G4? Who cares.

[SoupIsGoodFood_42]

Ha, that's what I was thinking. I'm not usally a fan of windows and neon lights in the side of a case, but the insides of the G5 looks so nice, it would probably look really good, compared to your average illuminated rat's nest box.

and that's not all!

[Matey-O]

It also keeps your knives sharp, and your fruit from rotting!

(subtle reference to early 80's pyramid mysticism crap...)

Re:and that's not all!

[ch-chuck]

In this case, prevents bit rot, corrupted data and fewer reboots, as well as eliminates most email viruses and web server worms.

Re:and that's not all!

[blancolioni]

(subtle reference to early 80's pyramid mysticism crap...)

Well, it was until you explained it.

/. already

[acoustix]

After 8 posts. New record?

Re:/. already

[llamalicious]

Hmmm... probably something to do with that link right in the article about 51 images.

*roaring sound of 30,000 geeks clicking for pretty pictures simultaneously*

Not sure why I can't get to the site. /sarcasm :)

Re:/. already

[Chris_Jefferson]

Nope, with the subscription system I've seen sites go down before the story even goes on the front page :)

That'll be the last time...

[sfled]

...anyone sits on his computer.

Re:That'll be the last time...

[Zork the Almighty]

Better yet, fanatical Mac users can wear it as a hat and receive special telepathic messages from Steve Jobs...

So, what kind of hat does Zork wear?

[twitter]

Must be an asshat at the crapfest [slashdot.org], eh Zork? Is it fame bait when you address it to a single person instead of a whole group?

pyramid mac

[YomikoReadman]

Now, if he could come up with a triangular lcd, he could market this as a new form factor for the imac. That could almost make the imac cool.

Re:pyramid mac

[rrrrrick]

The Imac actually already has pyramidal geometry=== as long as you have it on your desk screen down. -RRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrr.

Heh

[Anonymous Coward]

But how am I supposed to put my coffee mug on top of it?

Re:Heh

[beckett]

use the cd drive. duh!

Question:

[Meat Blaster]

Isn't it extremely dangerous to modify the hard drive? I thought they assembled those things in special dust-free environments that would be impossible to duplicate in the average workroom (if Forensic Files is any indication, anyway.)

Re:Question:

[cadillactux]

Its is dangerous, but entirely possible. I'e modded a couple hard drives myself, putting a plexiglass cover on them. I havnt had a problem yet, but I expect is not too far in the future.

The main issue is that dust does not get between the writing pin and the platters. Most of the time, dust particles are larger than the writing pin. In that case, the push just pushes it out of the way.

But the main reason why hard drives are created in a closed "clean room" enviroment is the sheer quantity that they are made in. If you tried to mod 100,000 hard drives at home, your failure rate would be much more than 50% atleast. These companies need to maintain something around a 10% rate to not lose money (kinda like the recent fiasco of failing hard drives).

So, yep, you right, it is dangerous, which is why you void your warranty if you do so, but not impossible.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Question:

[xpulsar87x]

It is. modded hard drives don't typically last very long. I wouldn't be putting any crucial data on it..

Re:Question: A: REALLY bad idea...

[Hollinger]

Okay, If you want to store data on the drive, it's a REALLY bad idea. Incredibly bad, in fact. On current HDDs the fly height of the head is incredibly small. Check out an excellent primer on the subject from Storage Review at http://www.storagereview.com/guide2000/ref/hdd/op/ heads/opHeight.html [storagereview.com]. The graphic's at the bottom's the important bit. I work with the guys that used to design these things. Unless you have access to a clean room (and even then it's iffy) this is a Bad Idea.

Re:Question:

[hrieke]

A better question is why someone hasn't just bought a few junk drives to mod and hide the 'active' drives.

That thunderclap your heard is from the collective forhead slap "gee why-didn't-I-think-of-that".

answer

[twitter]

A better question is why someone hasn't just bought a few junk drives to mod and hide the 'active' drives.

If your modded drive does not move, what do you want to look at through the window?

I can imagine gluing a little ho scale figure to the moving drive arm. It would be very funny to see a crawling 1/80 scale Africa corpsman in there. You could tell people that he reads your data and keeps the pixi dust working. Of course, I would not put any of my priceless irreplacable works of true genious on that

Mirror

[stefanb]

http://www.floppysheep.com/www.riscx.com/pyramac/ [floppysheep.com]

It's quite scary: I could immediatly tell the minute the story went live for everyone... the download rate dropped from >50KBps to below 3...

Full Mirror!

[evilviper]

HTTP/1.1 Server Too Busy ;-)

Re:Mirror

[Patik]

I could immediatly tell the minute the story went live for everyone... the download rate dropped from >50KBps to below 3...

Maybe if you stopped incesstantly hammering the refresh button just to check download speeds we could all have a chance to view the page.

:-)

Missing something

[Stonent1]

It needs the eyeball at the top of the pyramid. :)

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Novus

[siskbc]

Novus Ordo Seclorum, mothafuckaz!

23...17! i!!uminati 0wnZ0rz youz!

Re:iSight

[Anonymous Coward]

What do you think Apple made iSight for?

Jobs quoted

[DeadBugs]

Steve Jobs was quoted as saying "This is the fastest pyramid on the planet".

Re:Jobs quoted

[smg_mrBlonde]

That ia a lie mister Bug. What he said was "this is the fastest pyramid made for home use".

Re:Jobs quoted

[twitter]

Did he also mention that data integrity was better on this pyramid than it was on the originals?

i don't know what it is....

[hatrisc]

but, mac mods are just way cooler than pc mods.

Re:i don't know what it is....

[SunPin]

Probably because PC users don't need to justify the performance of their systems by making them "look" cool. The Mac has never been the bastion of DIY and never will be. The concept of a command line on the Mac was nonexistent until OSX. I consider your post flamebait and would mod it as such if I had the points.

Re:i don't know what it is....

[rootofevil]

if you consider it flame bait, did you just get baited?

would that make the poster a master-baiter?
(given the company of slashdot, i would say the answer to this is inevitably yes)

Re:i don't know what it is....

[SunPin]

would that make the poster a master-baiter?

Maybe that should be a new mod option for the exceptional trolls and flames. The risk of getting Karma: Master-baiter would make people think twice before posting. Or just drive more people to AC.

Let's Count the PC Mods!

[TWX]

One! One PC Modification site! Ha Ha Ha! [pcmods.com]

Two! Two PC Modification Sites! Ha Ha Ha! [crazypc.com]

Three! Three PC Modification Sites! Ha Ha Ha! [thinkgeek.com]

Four! Four PC Modification Sites! Ha Ha Ha! [xoxide.com]

With apologies to Jim Henson Productions...

Re:Let's Count the PC Mods!

[Theaetetus]

Even better...
Googlefight! [googlefight.com]

Results are 334k to 105k for PC case mod over Mac case mod.

-T

It must be...

[Lispy]

the CPU. Motorolas never get as hot as an Athlon Thunderbird.

Re:i don't know what it is....

[jo42]

Mods (PC, Mac, Car) are for fag-boys.

Yuck!

[ducster]

My god that thing is Fscking ugly. and it took 6 months to build. What a total waste of effort.

Re:Yuck!

[calethix]

flamebait? That's funny because I'd say I agree. Let me elaborate so I don't get modded as flamebait as well.
-A normal Mac looks far nicer than this thing. It doesn't have any pretty lights.
-It doesn't do anything functionaly impressive (i.e. contain a hot plate to keep your coffee warm like one case mod I saw).
-It doesn't have a cool geek factor like a case that looks like a big Mech warrior.
-It looks awkward because even though the case is a pyramid, everything is still crammed into a rectangular area.

It might be cool if it was painted to actually look like one of the Pyramids. Maybe someone can enlighten me as to why this is such a cool case mod that it's worthy of posting it on slashdot.

Re:Yuck!

[CrazilySane]

I'm waiting for the day that I actually see a nice modified case on Slashdot. Ohhh, look at me, I can use a Dremel! I'm cool!

Looks Poopy To Me

[GamezCore.com]

I don't know about anyone else but it doesn't impress me in the least bit. The diamond shaped LED's on the front look terrible with the pyramid shape. Also, all it seems is that it was hard to fit the parts into a pyramid shape... so he kept increasing the size of the pyramid... hmmm, no rocket science here folks.

While it is a noble cause of BYOM (building your own Mac), I really don't think it looks that great.

Re:Looks Poopy To Me

[killmenow]

Agreed. I think it looks like shit. Why the hell put all that effort into making a mod that looks so F-ing crappy?

It's like those idiots that take really nice cars like a Mercedes or BMW and put stupid low profile tires on them with deep rims and neon and other pimp-in-training gear and make them look like total crap.

What a waste of energy.

Re:Looks Poopy To Me

[Artemis P. Fonswick]

I was thinking the same thing, actually. While I don't think it looks like crap, I was taken by how freakin huge it is. The guy obviously didn't try to "cram" anything in the case, he just built the case around the parts. He actually succeeded in getting the biggest footprint possible out of such a small assortment of parts.

So Much For That Site

[pickity]

Well that was fast. Bye bye server.....

I was planning on doing this with a PC in the near future, I wonder how closely this resembles my own design.

PS. I'm still waiting for a case shaped like a giant breast with some skin tone colored foam on the outside....

Mirror

[cultobill]

Site's down.

Get it here [nmt.edu]

Just waiting for the gate to open...

[KE1LR]

This looks like it's from "Stargate". 8-)

Re:Just waiting for the gate to open...

[deuce_WI]

I think the gate in his model pyramid is suposed to be that round spinning thing on the cpu. I wonder where it goes??? -2

Flame on....

[Picass0]

...but I'm just not crazy about it. That's my opinion.

He's inventive enough to build his own enclosure, and a unique shape. And I bet it runs cool, there's plenty of room for heat to rise away from the MB. But there's just no style. No finishing on the plexi. It could use some paint or brushed metal, or.... something. Anything. Sometimes seeing all of the guts just looks junky. This guy nailed it. [moddin.net]

Re:Flame on....

[Ilan Volow]

But there's just no style

Initially, yes. But the cursed iMummy you can buy to go with it is really slick.

Re:Flame on....

[killmenow]

I'd like to see a case mod in the shape of a sphere. Then, if you wanted to move it to a new location, you wouldn't even have to pick it up!

Re:Flame on....

[whatch durrin]

So Frozencase [frozencase.com] is dead. What a shame.

Anyone know if the guy's gonna release his plans?

Pah!

[Nighttime]

I'd be more impressed if someone managed to casemod a computer into a hypercube.

Translucent?

[wilderg]

I think the folks at Wired News need to look up the definition of translucent. Clear as glass seems transparent to me. I like the UV paint, though.

i don't know

[DrWhizBang]

this really doesn't look that great to me. not near as nice as the blue ice mod. it's got too many cables, too many different materials - it looks like he sacrificed a lot just for the shape, and then he sacrificed some more to make ti transparent.

in the end, it just looks like a pc mod gone bad, but way more expensive.

Re:i don't know

[borgboy]

Transparent titanium? WOWZERS! Next, he'll make transparent alumi...ohh, wait. That's been done.

No alibi

[JimRay]

Man, that is the ugliest case I think I've ever seen.

I have never understood the desire to have gigantic plexiglass boxes with tons of neon sitting next to my desk.

Useless design

[beaverfever]

Yet another useless case mod, and yet another design example of aesthetic taking overwhelming precedence over practicality. This guy should work for Umbra [umbra.com]. Whoopity doo.

I think the pumpkin case mod was more interesting and useful than this one.

plexiglass is overdone

[asv108]

Please Please people stop doing case mods dealing with "case windows" or Plexiglass. This mod is semi-interesting because of the shape, but overall I think a lot of people are sick of just about every case mod dealing with plexiglass and lightsticks. If this guy wanted to do something really neat with that shape, he should have made a scale model of the Luxor [dispatchmonthly.com] with the light beam coming out the top.

BTW, the only reason wired would focus on such a case mod is because it is a G4, while I like the publication, it goes a little overboard when it comes to Apple cheerleading.

Some may call this neat....

[CatPieMan]

I call this a quick way to void about a dozen warantees.

-CPM

pointless

[capsteve]

the blue ice mod was cool, pyramac is truely a waste of deskspace, material, and time. i'd like to see more mods which have a higher level of thought and execution, such as this, the cast aluminum case. [eugenesargent.com]

not to be a spoil sport, but...

[modular_forms_boy]

It takes the engineers forever to come up with a proper farraday cages to comply with FCC regs on emag emissions; yeah, these designs just throw FCC regs out the window....

I say, whats the opposite of masterpiece?

[handsolo]

This is an atrocity. Since there is an exposition on its construction, it doesn't even have what the original pyramids had, namely the "how on earth could they have built this?" mystique. All this has is the "how on earth could they have built this awful thing?" mystique.

It is so unattractive -- did you see it when the lights were on? Are neon blue lights to case mods what red lights are to prostitutes?

I pray there are security measures in this pyramid to protect it from graverobbers -- what with all t

Chocky's Children

[nounderscores]

Doesn't this remind you of the infinite energy producer/levitation device that the kid built in Chocky's Childen (or was it chocky's challenge?), a BBC series based on John Whyndham's Chocky? [somge.com]

I remember that Chocky was into pyramids too.

Re:Chocky's Children

[Large Green Mallard]

Man, I used to watch that when I was a kid.. used to spook me out a lot :)

Thanks for the flashback :)

/.'d

[Ballresin]

Way f'd up server. He is flooded, and this isn't even a really active story. Hehe. Oh well...love those little servers, don't we /.?

The problem..

[Squidgee]

Ok, so he's got a cool idea. The only problem (And it basically ruins the case, IMO) is that he had no rhyme or reason as to where he put parts. He didn't make it look symetrical, nor did he make it look nice in the layout; he just jammed shit wherever it fit into the case. Yes, it's a neat idea, but I think he needed to put more thought into where each piece went.

Or maybe not make it plexiglass. Anyways, 2.5 out of 4 stars.

Warning!!!

[mesach]

::062203 BUILDING PYRAMAC
Building page is up with a ton-o-pics, 51 exactly, you have been warned.

I'll suggest the new addition for him ::062603 THE PAIN!!!
Were being slashdotted, the Pyramac has begun to melt. WHY WERE WE NOT WARNED?!

looks like crap

[YllabianBitPipe]

First, why is it that all these case modders think a clear case that lets you see the wires and fans and garbage inside looks cool? This is the equivalent of one of those invisible human models where you can see the inner organs. NOT COOL. Ugly, and exposing things that were never designed to be looked at. Second, what is so great about sticking an existing computer in a new shape that has no redeeming qualities about it? A pyramid? Who cares? How does a pyramid make you work faster, better, etc? How

Re:looks like crap

[cenobita]

Actually, there is a site I ran across recently that does do mods similar to the things you've suggested. I've only taken a brief browse of the site so far, but there are shots of people who've used old style radios, an Atari 800, quite a few humidor mods, a biscuit tin, etc.

Check it out: mini-itx.com [mini-itx.com]

Philistines!

[HarveyBirdman]

How DARE you criticize! You- you- you LOWbrows! IT'S ART! LOVE IT! NOW! Fund it with your tax dollars! GRRRR! Hisss!

What we need . . .

[UnknowingFool]

is a nice sphere mod. That way you can get an Apple is cube, pyramid, and sphere shapes. It would be educational for the kiddies.

Re:What we need . . .

[tuffy]

is a nice sphere mod. That way you can get an Apple is cube, pyramid, and sphere shapes. It would be educational for the kiddies.

Yeah, and then you'll get sued by Electronic Arts. No thanks!

Re:What we need . . .

[UnknowingFool]

Actually, SCO has claimed all 3D polygonal shapes are derivative of System V in their latest salvo against IBM.

I'm terribly sorry, but

[pmbuko]

isn't the point of a "case mod" to make the new case look better than the original case? I wouldn't be caught dead with such a fugly tetrahedron on my desk, glowing or not!

efficiency of the pyramid shape, or lack therof.

[hndrcks]

Ok it glows blue etc., but AFAIK the pyramid shape is the absolutely worst possible shape to build a computer, if preservation of any of your desktop space is a requirement. It is the maximum desktop footprint you can create (and still not be able to stack other things on it.)Maybe he intends to place it on top of a Greek column or plant stand...

I think I might try doing a mini-itx hack on something like a Bang and Olufsen Beomaster 2400 [beocentral.com]. Now that could be cool... (and I could stack stuff on it.)

Pyramac not a pyramid

[djupedal]

He may have spent six months, but his dimensions are not correct for a true pyramid. His enclosure is too high and clearly out of proportion. He made the same basic mistake as most people when building DIY pyramids...all edges are not the same length.

Thumbs down on this one

[serutan]

I'm sorry but this mod looks like, well, a pile of components with a plastic pyramid on top of them. Maybe if he had covered the pyramid with something more interesting, like dirty laundry or a stack of Twinkies or SPAM cans...

Re:Apple's New Product.

[ducster]

This post would have been hilarious had this site not been out for, oooo 4 years? http://www.onzin.nl/fufme/index.shtml.htm

Re:Pyramids

[Cornelius Chesterfie]

Mein laben! I was expecting +5 funny and got -1 troll :/

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:DANGEROUS

[rrrrrick]

Well I was sayin, that pic on the wired site is cool- the pyramid is chillin on a bed.

Re:Already been done sorta

[Lifewolf]

Shortyly after iMac came out Intel showed off at some show some cases that were different. One was a red/brick colored pyramid shaped one. It actually was not a full pyramid as the tip was cut off and a platform to put the monitor was used instead.

Photo and article available [com.com] from CNET.

Re:It's only a matter of time before the lawsuits

[Squidgee]

Insightful?!

What the hell are you talking about? Apple won't sue people over this. How is he profiting? How is he breaching IP laws? How is he stealing function/design? He made the design.

God, the computer on a subscription is for your beloved Windows and its pallidium. It's been stated that that will never befall the Mac.