One of the great things about Computex 2023 is getting to see all of the new, fascinating, and downright weird ideas people and companies have for products, even if you'll never see one on a store shelf. That's especially true when it comes to PC case modding, which is an entire subculture of PC enthusiasm in its own right and often doesn't get much love outside the bounds of community forums and networks.
Many of the best PC case modifications or custom designs at Computex are show pieces for many of the companies showing off products like Thermaltake, ASRock, and more.
Walking around the show floor, I found five in particular that are worth showing off for their creativity and just downright cool factor. I couldn't find the names of some of them, so I'm just going with the name of the modder so you can look them up yourself.
Suchao Modding & Design
What I absolutely love about this case from Suchao Modding & Design, Thailand, isn't actually what's on the inside, though that is really well produced and gorgeous looking, but rather it's the design on the outside of the case that I absolutely love.
The artwork on the back of the case, imitating the waterloop of a custom water cooled system with an RTX 4090 Founders Edition has a certain minimalist yet colorful design that looks painted onto the world when seen from the right angle. I'm not sure how they did it, but kudos to them.
Inony PC Diary
OK, so this case was the Thermaltake PC case modding championship, and it's not hard to see why - it spins!
Where exactly the modification comes in, I can't really say, but there's a Thermaltake case in there somewhere.
How functional a case like this might actually be isn't really the point, since these case mods are much more for show than anything else, but it's definitely a showpiece that anyone would love to have as their gaming rig for sure.
Samca Studios
This one tickled my nostalgia sense since it reminded me a lot of the diaramas many of us did in school when we were young.
Again, I couldn't tell you how functional a case like this would actually be, but it's definitely a work of art, and it's no wonder that it was a runner-up in Thermaltake's PC case modding competition.
GGF
OK, this case shown off at the G.Skill booth has some nice accents on the front and side, along with the decorative edges of the tempered glass that shows off the fairly basic white interior of the case.
But what is truly delightful about this one is that behind the glass there's another panel that has an animated dancer and one of those music things that shows the beat of the music you're listening to (don't @ me about this, I don't know what it's called and I'm not looking it up).
What's incredible here though is that the dancer and the music effects create an optical illusion that makes it look like the dancer is actually inside the case, and that the white floor of the interior is actually a stage. It's an effect that has to be seen in real life to be truly appreciated.
Mark Fabrication
There was also a pair of cases at the ASRock booth that caught my eye from across the floor. Not because they were particularly flashy, but because they had an elegant simplicity that you don't see too often with custom cases.
These cases were modified Deskmeet and Deskmini chasses normally used for ASRock mini PCs, but the blue on white enamel paint on the case evoked fine pottery, and amid a sea of PC cases that aim for the most ostentatious designs possible, something like a pretty paint job on a fairly basic case is a beautiful thing to see.
