[icruise]

I'm currently in Japan attending an advanced Japanese language school, and as a sort of final project I am going to be interviewing a lot of Japanese people who modify their Macs (particularly powerbooks) in order to see what the attraction is for them, and why this phenomenon seems to be particular common in Japan as compared to other countries. If possible, I would like to hear from those of you in America and elsewhere and see if your opinions and experiences differ significantly from the people I will be talking to. In particular I am interested in people who paint or other physically modify their computers in ways that have no impact on their performance, but anyone is welcome to share.

So I ask you, why do you modify your Macs? What was the first thing that you modified? Any interesting success or horror stories? How do your friends and family react?

If possible, try to be detailed in your answers (e.g. don't just say "because it's cool" -- tell me what is cool about it.)

And I might as well get the ball rolling...

I have mentioned it once or twice here, but my first real mod was my Sapphirebook (Pismo Powerbook). I started by making the Apple logo blue, and then it took off from there... The latest addition was building a combo drive out of a OEM PC combo drive, although I would love to get a CPU upgrade if and when they ever appear.

Anyway, as for why I did it, hey it's cool! But to get into a bit more detail, for one thing I had a Lombard before and suppose I wanted something different looking. I was sort of inspired by other mods I had seen on the net, and I also really liked the idea of creating a unique computer that no one else in the world had. I guess that it the main thing -- a means of expressing myself and making the powerbook really "mine".

Anyone else care to contribute?

[vmarks]

My first good modification was making a circuit card that allows me to power an iMac using an ATX PC Power supply- I can put the iMac in any case, including an LC II.

I have done case modifications on a lombard powerbook, using vinyl sheets, and I put an iBook keyboard in the lombard, instead of the bronze keyboard.

Why? For looks, and individuality on the powerbook. For the iMac, it was about taking dead iMacs and making them useful again. I ended up giving away a couple that I fixed up so people could use them.

Why? For the learning achieved in the hack. To make something that could help others keep their computer working instead of being made to pay a high repair bill or buy a new machine. To possibly help others.

[x user]

I did the Overclock on my iBook, because I can't afford to buy a new computer every 6 months, and since it is now overclocked, it is relitivly worthless resale value wise. So I can't sell it, so I can't buy a new one. I changed the LED in the sleep light because the white one made me sick... Serious.

And I put the colored paper Apple there, because I was bored. I might take the case parts off and paint them... That'd be for looks.

Simply because it's cheap and it makes it feel like a new computer.

[sine -''-..-]

i dont really feel a peice of hardware is actually "mine" untill i do somthing to it. every machine that comes out of the factory is pretty much identical... i like to add somthing unique, somthing organic, somthing no other machine has. so i do stuff like change leds, draw on, paint, watever. u all prolly know my ibook... tho the pics arent up, well i removed all the shielding, replaced the normal sleep led with a white one that sits under the apple on the screen, so it glows a bright gleaming white when it sleeps. anyhow, yea i modify pretty much everything i use, even if its just drawing on it with marker.

[icruise]

First of all, thanks for all of the replies so far guys.

sine -''-..-

I think that is pretty close to how I feel now, but I wasn't always that way. I don't think it ever occurs to most people that they even can modify something. I never fails to amaze me how many people don't even remove the little promotional stickers that they put on windows laptops and consumer electronics. A lot of people just don't seem to care.

Do you guys think that there is more of this going on in the Mac world or in the Windows world? While there is definitely more overclocking and building from scratch etc in the Windows world, I get the impression that there might be more purely esthetic mods done on macs (particularly if you are talking about portables and not desktops). I have seen literally hundreds of painted and otherwise modified powerbooks, but I can't remember seeing even one modified vaio, for example. This may be particularly true in Japan, but I think it holds true in the US as well.

Any ideas why that might be (assuming you agree with the idea)?

[Mac Zealot]

Aha! Sapphire powerbook! I think that's the coolest laptop I ever seen, didn't know you posted here

That's still kickass,

[Captain Obvious]

Originally posted by Icruise:
<STRONG>
Do you guys think that there is more of this going on in the Mac world or in the Windows world? While there is definitely more overclocking and building from scratch etc in the Windows world, I get the impression that there might be more purely esthetic mods done on macs (particularly if you are talking about portables and not desktops). I have seen literally hundreds of painted and otherwise modified powerbooks, but I can't remember seeing even one modified vaio, for example. This may be particularly true in Japan, but I think it holds true in the US as well.

Any ideas why that might be (assuming you agree with the idea)?</STRONG>

My GUESS... PC mods are about 10-12% of total units.
Macs i think are down lower: about 3-5% of all Macs out there. Reason being that there ARE fewer custom builds and Macs just look better to start with.

[icruise]

Originally posted by Captain Obvious:
<STRONG>

My GUESS... PC mods are about 10-12% of total units.
Macs i think are down lower: about 3-5% of all Macs out there. Reason being that there ARE fewer custom builds and Macs just look better to start with.</STRONG>

You think so? I'm wondering, though if maybe comparing the two phenomena is not appropriate. It seems that most of the people who do mods in the PC world are people who build their own machines from scratch -- they tend not to take ready-made products and alter them in the way that we might. With the Mac, you are taking a product that already exists in complete form and changing it somehow to make it your own.

This is just my own impression, though -- if you know of some good links detailing PC mods of the kind I was describing (particularly modifications of notebooks), I would be interested.

[rhansen_x]

The sapphire book looks incredible. I used to race RC cars years ago and happen to have a log of Pactra paints in the basement. Hmmmm.... two WallStreets and some paint....... could be a fun experiment.

[x user]

I was gonna build my own mac for awhile. I had all the parts too. A duo 2300c logicboard and dock main board, powersupply, floppy, cd, e-net card, VGA card. Just didn't have time. I even had the wood for that case .