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RPS@PAX 2022: The evolution of PC hardware moddingWe chat with panel moderator Isaïe “Trouffman” Simonnet about the past, present and future of the hardware modding community
We chat with panel moderator Isaïe “Trouffman” Simonnet about the past, present and future of the hardware modding community
As some of you may remember, the first major innovation in PC modding was the use of colour, with hardware manufacturers such as DFI blazing a trial with bright green and yellow motherboards and I/O ports to try and bring some flare to the back of our sealed PC cases back then. Naturally, when any shade of colour is involved in PC hardware building, you naturally want to see it and show it off. Thus, the birth of the side panel, which all three panelists said they tried their hand at manually (and even made careers out of it) before it became commonplace in the wider industry.
As components grew more powerful, water cooling and all-in-one coolers were the next big step in the hardware modding community, with all manner of pipes, heatsinks and liquid coolants up for grabs to try and make PCs look (and run) as cool as possible - another thing that manufacturers such as EK and Corsair have since made pretty commonplace in today’s hardware market. Then came the great RGB divide, and at one point the panelists even took a poll in the room to see who was for and who was against those dreaded rainbows. Perhaps surprisingly, the vote was split roughly down the middle, and Simmonet himself said he’s recently become a convert to RGBs thanks to the increased use of single-colour customisation options.
It’s hard to condense an hour’s worth of hardware chat into seven minutes, but hopefully our interview above gives you a small flavour of the things they talked about. Simonnet has run similar panels at PAX West in the past as well, so if you want to find out more, then make sure to put it on your con checklist the next time you attend PAX.
For more of our PAX coverage, be sure to check out ourRPS@PAXtag, as well as ourdaily round-up videosfor all the latest news and impressions from the showfloor.
