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Meet ZapWizard |
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AMDEdge.com Interview "Meet Josh Driggs, modern-day hot rodder." |
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| Original Link: www.AMDEdge.com | |
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By day, mild-mannered Josh Driggs works as an AMD technician. By night, the 23-year-old assumes a dominating presence as one of the worlds leading case modders. Working under the nom de guerre of ZapWizard, Driggs uses creativity, technical know-how and exceptional talents to transform, or mod, ordinary PCs into extraordinary systems. ZapWizard belongs to an avid community of case modders mostly made up of gamers and PC enthusiasts who spend their recreational time pushing the limits of PC aesthetics and performance. The more outrageous and souped-up the end product, the better. |
| All of the evenings and weekends ZapWizard has spent cutting, reconfiguring, tinkering and tweaking for his art paid off when his military-themed case mod masterpiece, dubbed the Ammo PC, was chosen by over 7,000 online voters as TechTV's Screen Savers Mod Contest winner. On Sept. 28, 2003, ZapWizard flew to San Francisco, courtesy of
TechTV, to present his Ammo PC on the air. It was a little scary at first because they put me on live national television with no prep," says ZapWizard. "But it felt great to win and to be given such an incredible opportunity to talk about my work." Not only was he able to showcase his project on national television, but he also won the highly coveted VersaLaser VL-200 laser cutter. The laser cutter's ability to cut wood, plastic and rubber, as well as etch glass, metal and stone, will take ZapWizards projects to an even higher level. |
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Baby, Yeah! Though you will not yet find "modding" in the dictionary, this international techie phenomenon of computer-alteration-cum-art-form has been brewing for more than five years. The first customized and personalized computers began popping up at LAN parties gatherings of gaming enthusiasts who network computers to engage in advanced levels of competition. It is now becoming the norm, if not the expectation, that gamers bring their most creatively modified and souped-up computers to, well, show off. But in the modding world, real respect is given to those who have truly original ideas and the technical prowess to build from scratch. ZapWizard says there are three camps of modders: those who typically don't care what their computer looks like, but push performance and speed to the extreme by operating processors or memory at speeds higher than they're designed for; the case modders who don't really care about souped-up performance, they just want their computers to look cool; and the purists, those top 10 percent of computer modifiers who seek both performance and looks by modifying everything from the casing to the electronics inside. ZapWizard belongs to the final category of modding zealots, and spends much of his free time and discretionary income on his fully customized creations. |
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Prizewinning Ammo PC Just before the Tech TV contest, the ZapWizard Ammo PC received a great deal of attention at one of the biggest LAN parties in the country, QuakeCon 2003 in Dallas. There, he earned the respect and admiration of 3,000 modders and gamers when he won the NVIDIA Best Mod contest. "There were lots of ammunition-case computers out there, but no one had taken the ammo case to the next level," says ZapWizard. "I went to great lengths to make this case look like a real military instrument not only modifying the case, but every peripheral as well." In the interest of authenticity and coolness (Its nothing if its not cool, says the Wiz), ZapWizard customized the front panel to include a clear fan with an embedded atomic logo and a harddrive view meter that displays changing harddrive activity. To increase the wow factor even more, he mounted parts in a handmade Plexiglas faceplate to create the illusion of components and ducts floating in air. ZapWizard used ultrabright LEDs to light up the keyboard and mouse, providing the devices with a radioactive red glow. Make no mistake; the resulting computer goes far beyond mere looks. The system built around an AMD Athlon XP processor 3200+ is designed for power. Referring to himself as an open-source mind, ZapWizard keeps a project log on his Web site, www.zapwizard.com, that shows his work progression from beginning to end and describes all materials used. |
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| ZapWizard Plans Next Moves Now that the next-level Ammo PC is complete and gaining its due attention, ZapWizard has time to devote to some of his other modding projects and ideas. "By far, the most ambitious modding project I've attempted is the media PC that I've been working on for over a year now," he says. The media computer pulls together every aspect of media that you could put into a house, claims Josh, including home networking, a DVD player, an FM radio, and two television tuners, giving it the added capability of a true digital video recorder. Serving as his master computer, the media PC will also be able to stream video to any other computer in the house and control all his home lighting through an integrated lighting system. Alongside the as-yet-unnamed media PC, ZapWizard is working to complete another fully modified computer, based on the AMD Athlon 64 FX processor. Count on it to win big awards at QuakeCon 2004. Adding a little yin to his masculine portfolio, ZapWizard is currently working to modify the computer he won in the NVIDIA contest for his wife in the style of Hello Kitty (a world-famous cartoon feline). "My vision for this project involves a lot of cutting, electronics work, pink paint, white lights, and of course, a whole new kitty-shaped faceplate," says ZapWizard. "Miss Kitty will look deceptively cute on the outside, but she'll have some serious growl on the inside." Stay tuned |
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