Fractal Modding Competition

Conclusion

To kick off the conclusion, I want to start by saying well done to all that were a part of this competition.  The level of dedication really has shown the enthusiasm contained within the OC3D universe.  Not only from the entrants, but from the community itself. All builds were given great support throughout from both new members and old.  The links to each build are in the Introduction, if you haven’t had the opportunity to look through each of the builds I would highly recommend you do so.

One of the big things with the competition, was that the whole modding ethos is captured brilliantly within each of the builds. Modding is as much about putting your own personal touch to a project as it is about pushing what we have already seen and know. Looking through the build logs you will find just as many mistakes and issues as you will moments of greatness.  Several aspects of these builds were a “first” for the modder, however, they turned out well and will no doubt act as a guide for many more to come. Further to this, I truly hope that this will inspire many more builds to be undertaken.

It is always a risk running a competition to give away parts and hope that everyone will keep to their end of the agreement.  This has gone leaps and bounds to show not only the dedication within OC3D but also the diversity within the modding community.

I touched on this point in the introduction, the diversity and individual touches to each build shows no end to what can ultimately be achieved.  With more and more support from hardware vendors, my belief that the modding community has only just started to push what can be done.  More colour choices are surfacing across motherboards and graphics cards, many now starting to come with RGB lighting.  All this is giving a wider range of both colour choice and inspiration for future builds.

More importantly, not all custom PC’s need to made using the top tier of hardware.  This is a point I would like to raise, not every build needs to be X99 with SLI Titans.  The personality of a custom build is more about what it represents then it is ever about how powerful or how well it will bench.  Every build will have fans as well as critics.  The important part is to be seen supporting the community.  It doesn’t take much to look around and find build logs covering custom PC’s from the last few years.  In fact I know of a few PC’s that are still featured at events that by today’s standards, are actually quite weak in the performance aspect.  The reason they are still there is down to how they look and captivate the community.  I believe that this is what true enthusiasts want to see just as much as some crazy big budget build that decimate benchmarks.

I look forward to seeing what the future holds and genuinely look forward to all the new build that inevitably will be incoming this year.  I really hope that there will be a few builds from the OC3D community that will inspire others for some years to come.

You can also find the builds featured on the Fractal Design Define S Modding series website.

You can join the discussion about the Fractal Modding Competition  on the OC3D Forums.