PC MODDING 101
PC gaming is the trending thing right now with gamers joining in left and right. Every once in a while gamers have to get their hands dirty with upgrading their PCs. More often than not, people can't differentiate between modding and upgrading. Modding is a different matter altogether. Modders are also often known as “enthusiasts”, and there is a fine line between “gamers” and “enthusiasts”.
Modding requires you to do much more than just upgrading parts. It's not about buying the right components; it's about adding something on your own, making it a custom-build and setting it apart from the standard-builds out there. This includes paint-job, water-cooling, case-modding and some of the most intense mechanical jobs that will explode the brains of your average technician. The professional modding community, in general, is all about creativity and engineering and it does not come with a user instruction guide; every modder's build is unique. Due to the lack of good quality parts and diversity of available brands, Bangladesh is quite behind with the whole modding business but nevertheless, we Bengalis make do with the resources available to us. There are indeed a good number of people out there who do regular mods and their builds are impressive.
Abdullah Al-Munim, a 36-year-old father of two, says, “You're hooked as soon as you put together your first computer all by yourself. I did so 16 years ago and am I glad! It's like giving birth to a child and you can't stop loving your children. Yes, it sometimes comes as an obstacle in daily life when you're working and you have a family to take care of.
“To many, my current build would look complete and nice in all its glory but to me it's still a work in progress. Everyday I look at it and see one or two things here and there that I could change to improve the looks and make it stand out more but sometimes I'd cancel it in my mind as I would find something different that would make it even more appealing.”
Watercooling
This is the process of completely ridding a component from the dependence of active air coolers (mostly the thingamajigs with fans). Converting a system to liquid cooling is one of the most complicated processes one can undergo. It requires skill, patience and of course, money. The parts that are required are very expensive, with a radiator to pump the liquid and individual water blocks for the equipment. These benefits are important for overclockers who like to push their hardware way beyond their factory limitations.
Water can dissipate heat from heat-producing components which is why it's adapted vastly in the automotive industry. Radiators and fans are used in a loop to keep the heat in control. All of this comes in contact with air which makes the water come back to the engine again and this goes on. This concept has been adopted by some hardcore pc enthusiasts because computers have more than one component that can produce heat. A traditional out of the shelf computer will be cooled by air which will have big metal heatsinks on the heat-producing components such as the CPU, graphics cards and sometimes motherboard chipsets. Fans are often used to cool these components. Enthusiasts and hardcore overclockers who build PCs from scratch use high-end powerful stuff, most of which are pushed further beyond rated speeds. This obviously results in producing way more heat and to keep this excessive heat in control one can go down the route of just adding more fans.
OR
They can implement the cooling procedure that we have been seeing in the automotive industry for a century. It is not known to many but there are loads of companies out there making thousands of components. It works exactly the same way the car cooling system works; there will be a closed circuit which is mostly known as a loop which is where fluid will circulate around the system taking heat from the components to a radiator.
When asked why he chose liquid cooling, Zaer Zubab Ahmed Rakin, an A-level student who's into modding, replied, “Watercooling increases the stability and overclocking margin considerably. Since my i5 is clocked at around 4600MHz 24/7, watercooling was the way to go.”
Case Mods
You'd be surprised to know what you can do to your ordinary chassis with normal work tools and a bit of brainstorming. Case mods are done to fulfill the needs of the builder, and can include adding hard drive bays or removing them to allow proper cable allocation, adding docks for that new SSD you just bought, or simply changing the side panel to something quirky to improve the cosmetic condition of your build. These are all basic stuff, to know the full extent of what I am pointing towards, one needs to look at sponsored builds from professional modders.
Modification is usually done to make one's computer stand out from the crowd by enhancing it visually. Sometimes it adds functionality but to make it aesthetically pleasing at the cost of a bit of functionality at times, is also a necessary evil. The modification that adds functionality most of the time has to do with cutting out holes to add a bigger fan to improve airflow, or to put a radiator in a case that was not meant for water cooling in the first place.
Three very common mods that people do are: cutting the side panel out and putting a window to show the insides of their computer, put in their chosen colour of LED light-strips to light up the inside of the case, and finally, just doing custom paint jobs of their choice.
Where to find components?
I guess we have some bad news here -- Bangladeshi retailers do not import watercooling equipment. There are ways to order them through online sites though, which might prove to be a bit expensive, but for your convenience…
* www.frozencpu.com
* www.specialtech.co.uk
* www.amazon.com
* www.ebay.com
When it comes to hobbies, age is not an issue. PC modding for some is a hobby and some even take it up as their profession. One does not have to be super rich to be able to make something out of what they currently have. All it ever took is a bit of passion.
“I chose this field of work because of my deep interest in gaming and PC hardware that pushes the limits of what's possible. I consider myself lucky to be doing what I love. So, managing time isn't that difficult even on the busiest day because it's a part of what I do and who I am.” -- Shahriar Mahmood, managing director of PC World Rajshahi.
PHOTOS BY ABDULLAH AL MUNIM, Z RAHMAN MILKY & SHAHRIAR MAHMOOD
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