Coolest PC mod and build 2015

Chasing the dragon

MSI's corporate logo is a dragon. What better way to show that off than to have a custom-modded PC created in that shape? It's a Haswell-E-based rig with a pair of MSI GeForce GTX 980 cards. The dragons are plexiglass, with a rod holding them in place.

XoticPC Elysium

On the other hand, there's a good chance you'll actually be able to buy this PC. XoticPC's Elysium may look like a modded PC, but it's far more attainable—XoticPC has even hinted it may try to sell it.

And yes, because it's all about the specs, this is a Haswell-E machine with a pair of GeForce GTX 970 cards in SLI.

Off-road computing

This modded PC, built by ACE_Finland to celebrate the 500 millionth Asus motherboard sold, is a meaty little system. Inside is a Sabertooth Z97 Mark S, an Asus Strix GeForce GTX 980, and 32GB of Kingston HyperX Fury ram. What's really clever is the use of the Cooler Master V850 liquid cooler, which looks like it actually belongs on top of the Humvee. 

The chassis for the mod is a fairly large RC car. There's apparently still enough room in the car for it to function as an RC Humvee. You'll just have to make sure you disconnect it from your monitor and keyboard unless you want them dragged along behind.

Project Snowblind

Called Project Snowblind, this modded PC by DarthBeavis and Primochill was also built to celebrate Asus' 500-million-motherboards mark. The case is a laser- and plasma-cut Praxis chassis with an Asus Sabertooth Z97 Mark S inside. There's also an Intel Core i7-4790K chip and a pair of Asus GeForce GTX 980 powering Project Snowblind.

CyberPower Fang Trinity

CyberPower's Fang Trinity is a radical-looking system with not so-radical parts inside. But that's actually a good thing! The Fang Trinity uses a liquid-cooled Intel Devil's Canyon CPU and a GeForce GTX 980, and it packs no fewer than four SSDs. In other words, the Fang Trinity might look insane, but it's stuffed full of off-the-shelf parts that you can replace yourself (rather than weird proprietary components). A crazy-looking chassis that's also convenient? Now that's cool. 

Rest in peace

For those who work in and around the component industry, this modded PC, commissioned by Gigabyte to honor Elaine Su, is certainly special. Elaine worked for Enermax and tragically passed away last year at a young age. The case itself is a custom-painted Fulmo GT and obviously built on an X99 motherboard. It also features closed-loop liquid cooling.