All my life I admired the Big Computers. I almost did not find the epoch of real giants (only vague memories of a children's excursion to a computer center with huge reels).

But in any decent server room, or even better, there are alluring lights in the data center. Some of them are even on an ordinary desktop, but very few ...

It is precisely the thrust to these lights, piston engines of locomotives, mysterious gears, as it seems to me, that is the basis of modding. Attempt from a dull plastic box with a Windows inside to make a little technical miracle. Show this miracle. To show it to the eye, not to the mind.
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... And precisely because, it seems to me that the fans illuminated by blue LEDs are profanity. Just like a flash drive with gears and Archimedean screws on the sides.

What should a good modding look like?


All the mysterious light bulbs, gears, squealing boxes look mysterious, not because they blink and move, but because they do CASE. Anyone who looked at the loaded rack with servers knows how this is a fascinating sight. Light bulbs show the activity of large computer spirits (demons, demons, services and services). And precisely because they are fascinating. Just like locomotive pistons - they look so interesting not because they are round pieces of iron, but because it all WORKS.

That's exactly the word "WORKS" is not enough in pop modding. Well, what will change if blinking lights on the motherboard stop blinking? NOTHING. And the fan lights? Similarly.

The profanation, theatrical crowns of gilded cardboard, the rain of silver paper and the sword of foil.

What should a real modding look like? This should be a visualization of how the computer works . These bulbs should not shine and flash by themselves, they should show what the computer is doing ...

What should a cool computer look like?

Light bulbs

• Light bulb interrupt There is an interruption - the light blinked. You can have a light bulb for each PCI-E bus. Have you started the game? At first, the disk controller's lamp blinked furiously (not at all like the controller's activity, interruptions and “busyness” are two different things), then the video card interrupts light up, then the sound card, then the network one. They closed the game - and the light bulbs slowed down, “calmed down”.
• Bulbs network activity. RX, TX. Immediately it becomes better to see what is happening on the network. Surfing the Internet does not look at all like the work of a torrent ... It is not at all the same as ACT on modern network card ...
• CPU light bulb. Goes off when the processor runs idle. - The perfect indicator of system boot. The brighter and more continuous it burns, the greater the load.

Perhaps you can come up with more things that can be brought to the front (and side) surface of the computer.

Compare such a monster, whose “soul to plow” with a dull winking fan ...

Gears

By themselves, they are only rotating pieces of metal. These gears have to do something. Probably because water cooling systems with transparent elements are so popular - it’s clear how it works. But, monotone. Well, who can delight table fan with a turning head?

To be cool - they must act like a clock. Move at different speeds, stop, turn. And all this should lead to a result; it should not be movement for the sake of movement. There must be some kind of difficultly conscious, but perceived system, complicated but rational.

What can be done in a modern computer? Well, a transparent hard drive, perhaps, yes, a CD-ROM ... What else makes sense in the computer?