Icrontic » Hey Icrontic, help me! My case sucks! NZXT giveaway to the rescue

Hey Icrontic, help me! My case sucks! NZXT giveaway to the rescue

Brian Ambrozy July 14, 2009 3:51 AM ET in Tech

This was actually Harudath's computer. Tsk Tsk.

If you have a crappy, dusty, loud old case, an old ball mouse with fingerstains on it, and no bling to speak of, read on:

Everybody wants to bling out their computer at some point, but sometimes you get lazy, or you’re broke, or you’re just plain clueless about style and aesthetics. Icrontic and NZXT are here to help.

The good folks at NZXT have assembled an awesome prize package, and we’re gonna give it away. All you have to do is provide pictures of your current case and mouse and tell us why you need new NZXT bling. Make it funny, stylish, and unique; we’ll pick the best of the bunch and award the poor needy soul the following:

The stuff!

Contest runs until 8pm EST July 31st, and a winner will be announced August 1st, 2009 at 5pm EST. The contest is open to all residents of North America.

Again: Entrants must post a picture of their mouse and a picture of their case. We’ll choose the most pathetic and/or hilarious sob story, so make it good! Post your pictures and sob stories in the comments.

Share |

30 Comments:

DrLiam
FoxtoN

14 Jul '09, 4:14 am

If this is open to Canadians then I'd be willing to present my sad excuse for a case.
Buddy J
Dept. of Propaganda

14 Jul '09, 10:27 am

The contest is open to all North Americans.

Sorry to our friends in the rest of the world.
_k_
deep in the bush

14 Jul '09, 11:29 am

It looks like a small dirty bunny exploded in that case.
pigflipper
Shot Master

14 Jul '09, 12:47 pm

Quoting _k_

It looks like a small dirty bunny exploded in that case.

More clean than the inside of my case...
Koreish
Agent of Chaos

14 Jul '09, 1:30 pm

Who got the duct tape case? They'll win for sure.
djmeph
Newb

14 Jul '09, 3:22 pm

I definitely would love to participate in this. I am currently running a dual-xeon setup that's probably from 2002-2003ish.

It has an Intel server motherboard and an Intel rack-mounted server chassis. The problem I have with this rig is that it's terribly loud. Even though it has redundant power-supplies and an Ultra SCSI 320 backplane, it's so loud that it is almost unusable. It sounds like a 747 Jet. If you've ever worked with an Intel server chassis you will know that they have great big proprietary fans that scream bloody rape at the top of their lungs every time you turn on the computer.

This system is currently running dual Intel Xeon 2.4ghz processors. I plan to find a couple of 3ghz processors later on and overclock them to 4ghz. It only has 3gb or ram, because that's all that Windows XP can handle. It has five 15,000RPM SCSI hard drives in Raid 0. I am not much of a gamer, this computer is strictly used for music production. (Ableton and Adobe Audition 3.0)

As for the mouse:

This is the original Logitech MX Laser 1000, one of the very first laser mice ever made. It has served me well, but now the batteries are shot and I have to charge it every night or it will run out of batteries in the middle of my work day.

Clearly I could benefit from the tower case, which has the perfect amount of internal 3.5" bays for my Ultra 320 SCSI Raid 0 setup and is much, much quieter. In the meantime you would be saving me from a mouse that has been nothing but trouble for me lately. Cheers to you all for doing this!
Brian Ambrozy
The Icrontic Guy

14 Jul '09, 7:08 pm

I can't imagine using an intel server as a DAW. yowch!
djmeph
Newb

15 Jul '09, 12:02 am

I strictly bought it for the Raid 0 capabilities, but I'm having fun stretching the limits of these old Xeons in a 32-bit environment. Obviously it's no Mac Pro but it gets the job done.
Brian Ambrozy
The Icrontic Guy

15 Jul '09, 3:29 am

No, no trust me - I am fervent pc > mac as far as DAW goes, but I'm just saying for the screaming noise factor.... wowee.
homequran
Guest

15 Jul '09, 7:28 am

contest is open only for Americans. Not for rest of the world.
Brian Ambrozy
The Icrontic Guy

15 Jul '09, 2:29 pm

North America: Canada, Mexico, US.
Mr TRiot
Icrontic Posting Maniac

15 Jul '09, 4:22 pm

Here's a pic of my HP wired mouse that came with my comp...

The comp is a Compaq Persario sr2170nx. Sadly, it idles at 50c and I just cleaned it last week...

Got it 2 1/2 years ago after my video card melted and destroyed my old computer. I even have troubles turning it on...I get a blue screen error pertaining to the power source 50% of the time. It's on it's last legs...

You should hear it humm....VROOOOOM!!!!!

*needs a new case baddddd....*
Nate_LapT
DigitalHi5 Productions

15 Jul '09, 5:54 pm

only issue with the submissions above, you're all in need of a new system, this is just a case.
Brian Ambrozy
The Icrontic Guy

15 Jul '09, 6:01 pm

The in the dust - nice touch
DocFrazier
Corpsman Up!!

15 Jul '09, 6:49 pm

Isn't that the most generic, boring, looking PC case you've ever seen? I mean, I was a broke joke trying to build my rig, and the case is probably the part that took the biggest spending cutback.(lulz) anyway, so that thing came out of the back office of my buddies computer store(where he worked) cost me like, 20 dollars i think. And if i'm just browsing the IC Forums, its at a low hum, but when we start rockin some TF2, this bad boy screams like a banshee. So, HELP ME IC, I NEED A NEW CASE!

And then there is the mouse.

this little guy is a best buy special. Also like the case, bough on the poor guys budget. When my old wireless logitech started not registering my hand movements, i had enough. But since im a broke ass college student, at the time all i could muster the funds to get was this piece o' junk. Adapt and overcome is a favorite motto of mine so i make do, but doesn't stop me from drooling over something like the NZXT Avatar.
Mr TRiot
Icrontic Posting Maniac

15 Jul '09, 8:22 pm

Quoting Nate_LapT

only issue with the submissions above, you're all in need of a new system, this is just a case.

The case in the first step in building a new computer
Brian Ambrozy
The Icrontic Guy

23 Jul '09, 4:28 pm

We have (count 'em) THREE entries to this contest. As it stands, that's a pretty damned good chance of winning....
ardichoke
King Banana Spanner

23 Jul '09, 4:31 pm

I'd enter... but I just replaced my case with one I like quite a bit and I my Logitech Wireless Laser mouse. Everything is better with Lasers!
Koreish
Agent of Chaos

23 Jul '09, 4:32 pm

Winfrey's Case or the duct tape case are shoe ins. I'm telling you.
DrLiam
FoxtoN

24 Jul '09, 7:35 am

I'll be inputting my entry very soon... Camera problems. :P
x.clay
Guest

25 Jul '09, 11:47 pm

I'm trying to upgrade my wife's PC so some sweet NZXT gear would be a great help. Our old HP mini tower has served us well over the last several years but it is time for an update.

I try to keep it decently cleaned out and I replaced the rear fan to try to give it a little better cooling but I think its time to be retired and move on to bigger and better things.

And here is a picture of our mouse - cheap MS mouse.
Gnome Queen
Ms. D

26 Jul '09, 1:13 pm

I need a new case!!...oh wait...
GnomeWizardd
<3 IC

26 Jul '09, 1:16 pm

U need a new camera too Mr Triot
Winfrey
kaishakunin

27 Jul '09, 11:13 am

My case was ejected from a moving vehicle at 65mph. Surprisingly it held up fairly well, but as you can see it is pretty banged up. My mouse was in a separate part of the car so it is still fine.

Hey Icrontic, I need a new case!
_k_
deep in the bush

27 Jul '09, 11:39 am

love the DuOrb on the vid card and the stock cooler, hot.
Ohmecks
Hello

27 Jul '09, 7:14 pm

My Thermaltake Mambo VC2000's front bezel was broken upon purchase, and I could not return it since it was on clearance sale at a local computer store. So I have some electrical tape keeping the bezel attached to the rest of the case.

Cable management is also a pain since there's little space behind the motherboard tray and no holes around the motherboard for cables route through.

I also have an 80 mm fan on the side panel rated at 30 dBA, which I lower down to 1400 rpm everytime I start up my computer so that the noise is more tolerable. I also have a choice between two mice, a trackpoint pointer built into my keyboard, or a Logitech trackball, which can be seen in the above photo. I've become moderately accustomed to using the trackpoint for gaming, so it doesn't bother me much, but it'd be nice to have a decent "gaming" quality mouse.

The middle button is superglued on, so I've been stuck without a middle mouse button for a while. It's been a pain for tabbed browsing. I'm not really sure how the button broke. The middle button fell off one day, so I super-glued it back on. It came off again after a few weeks, so I tried to super glue it back on it wouldn't fit correctly due to the super glue that was still stuck on.
So I stuck it in a little bit of acetone to try to get the excess adhesive off, and the button itself started to dissolve. The little capful of acetone was turning black with the particles of mouse button, so I quickly removed it and tried to wipe off any acetone. Now that button has my fingerprint permanently imprinted on it. I still glued it back to where it once served me, but it is now too stiff and unpressable to be of any use.
drasnor
124 Golden Eye Drive

29 Jul '09, 11:47 pm

Ah, my trusty Lian Li PC-7B. Forever immortalized in my "Cooling the MSI K8T Master2-FAR" thread and the nicest case I could find at the time. That computer was great (and for $5k it had better have been; thanks again mom and dad for the awesome graduation present) but over time it's gotten long in the tooth. The rest of that computer has moved on to other things, powering my server and such but I still keep the case (mainly because it was damned expensive.)

But recently, it's been getting tired. The screws holding down the hard drive tray have been reamed and tapped twice now, the front panel connectors are fickle, and the power supply temperature-controlled fan header failed so all four of the high-flo-rate Panaflos are wired directly into the 12V for that hand-vac sound effect. I can't sleep next to it anymore so it gets turned off at night. While that's not so bad, apparently there are some other problems with it because every time I use this machine for VoIP calls on Skype I get complaints like this:

Quoting CBDroege

what the hell is that sound?
are your neighbors upstairs having a trance party again?

Hey, it sounds fine to me (if just a little bit loud.) Aside, that case doesn't come with two 80mm fans on the back; the lower one I put in myself with a 3" hole saw.
But what really threw me was this one:

Quoting primesuspect

drasnor, if that doesn't stop, I can't play anymore (Dungeons & Dragons). Seriously, I'm going to drive down there and punch you!
I'm gonna come across the Internet and punch you in the face!

What the hell do you want me to do about it? These things don't grow on trees and I'm on graduate student stipend income. I'm not terribly concerned about getting punched though because Primesuspect lives 1400 miles from me so until he figures out how to punch me through the Internet I'm safe. Primesuspect, if you do figure out how to punch me through the Internet you should patent that; you'll make a lot more money on it than on the site.

The computer inside the case is a lovely Abit NF7-S 2.0/Athlon XP Mobile box of the sort that gave enthusiasts erections not even 6 years ago. The clearance for that Thermalright SI-97 to the top of the case is about 3mm and I'll admit that I left a little bit of red bodily fluid in there when I had to put that heatsink in as there wasn't clearance to install the heatsink onto the board before sticking it into the case. I had to install the heatsink clip in reverse order (clipping the side with the screwdriver hole first and then pinching down the stiff side with my fingers) because I couldn't get the screwdriver between the PSU and the heatsink. I recently was given a better overclocker of a processor than what I've got in there but I'm not going to switch those out until it's safe to donate blood again.

The mouse I use at home is a Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer Optical. This is a pretty great mouse and I'm a bit attached to it since I bought it at the Austin Goodwill Computer Works for five bucks, took it apart and cleaned all the weird smelly bits out of it, and replaced the worn-out pads on the bottom with high-performance adhesive-backed Teflon pads. The previous owner was a hell of a powerscroller though because the scroll wheel is completely detent-less and I know for a fact this mouse doesn't come like that from the factory. Also, the most mouse plaque was found on the scroll wheel. The side buttons and right mouse button are starting to stick a bit but I figure it's probably got a couple thousands clicks left in it. With those Teflon sliders I can get that space program spin-off groove going on my NASA Kennedy Space Center mouse pad.
Aside: While NASA didn't invent Teflon and spin it off to Du Pont, they did raise it to celebrity status buy buying enormous quantities of it.

So while I don't need a new case or mouse per se, it would be nice. It would be even nicer not to have to listen to my D&D group whine about it on Skype anytime I'm playing from home.

-drasnor

P.S. Both of those floppy drives work.
Quady the Turnip
New to the neighborhood

30 Jul '09, 7:59 pm

Oooooh boy. Let's start this off with my computer case:

Lovely, ain't it? Actually, my computer is a decent-at-everything-except-gaming-which-it-sucks-at-unless-I-want-to-play-SimTower Compaq Presario v6000 laptop. So yeah. I do know for sure that I'm going to shell out for a gaming PC at some point in the next few years, and a sweet case would help.

Here's the real kicker though. My mouse. Let me introduce it to you.
Now you see it:

Now you don't:

(Sorry for the contorted fingers, that's to show that two of my fingers (TWO!) can cover it up completely).

Some of the above posts have been showing "cheap" mice. Well, that sucker right there being dwarfed by the palm of my hand was free. As in, it came free with my (decidedly cheap but decent) backpack (along with a terrible USB hub that is thoroughly dead after having floated about my backpack while biking around campus). Buttons work ok, though they're slowly requiring harder and harder presses to respond. Scroll wheel sucks balls. It requires the perfect balance of force to move at all and to not spin wildly. And the laser on the bottom is pretty terrible. It likes to jump wildly all over the place for a second every 5 minutes or so...leading to some annoying deaths in TF2 to say the least.

I suppose you get what you pay for. (It's actually been ok. I mean, it's useable, and i've gotten mostly used to it. Plus it's a step up from using the trackpad. But numerous others who have tried to use it have wondered how the hell I can survive using it :P )

In case my hands are a bad scale (Yes, i have larger hands than most. I'm 6'4'', so it comes with the territory), here's a shot of it sitting beside a can of (delicious) Vitao:

Now, as an explanation: I'm a university student, putting all of my $$$ into continuing to be a university student. Hence, no money for mice that are worth purchasing. Or computer upgrades. (I recently spent about $15 on a woot.com laptop cooling pad. That's about it for the computer budget for this quarter.)

I'm going to be totally honest for a second. I don't need that case. I DO need the mouse. Badly. I wouldn't end up using the case for at least a few years. If that affects my win or loss, so be it. But know that I'd be perfectly content to take the mouse and pass on the case if someone comes along with a shitty case but a great mouse :|
Snarkasm
The Photographer.

30 Jul '09, 8:49 pm

You have an address, Quady? PM it to me, I think I have some spares you might like.
slugbug
BigFoot

31 Jul '09, 2:25 pm

Here's my pathetic excuse for a case. It's an old E-Machines box a coworker gave me a few years ago. I think it has a dust magnet built into it because it sure needs to be cleaned a lot.

My mouse is actually a glide pad built into my ancient PC Concepts PS/2 keyboard. It's not too precise and gaming with it is pretty much impossible.

Hey Icrontic, help me! My case sucks! NZXT giveaway to the rescue

30 Comments:

New Features on Icrontic:

What is Icrontic?

Read more Icrontic Tech