It may take a village to raise a child, but it only takes three people to build one of the coolest custom computers we've seen in a long time. DS Fanboy reader (and prizewinner!) Jason Barnes, who posts as Ganthor, wrote in with this story, and we just had to share. Seems his friend Emily picked up a Mini-ITX motherboard and wanted a custom case for it, but didn't want to build it herself. Luckily, Jason did, and he recruited another friend, Jason Letterman, to help him get the project underway.

Once he had permission to build the case, Jason was free to pursue a dream: building a computer in a lunch box. Of course, just any lunch box wouldn't do; it had to be something special that suited Emily's tastes (which are clearly excellent). After taking some measurements and checking out the various Nintendo lunch boxes, he ordered the one shown above.

But that was the easy part!



Here's what Jason had to say about the actual case-building:

"We knew placing the board inside the case was going to be a close fit--and it was! After toiling a couple nights a week, when there was extra time to work on it together, it was completed. We ended up making some customizations to account for the unique problems this case posed, including a hand-cut I/O plate made from some very old copper gutter flashing. As you can see, we also decided to add an LED fan to spice things up a bit, leaving the other side of the lunch box's graphics intact, aside from 4 rivets."

Interested in the machine's specs? Here you go, per Jason:

• Motherboard: An old school board, the VIA EPIA-800.
• Case: A Nintendo DS Super Princess Peach lunch box (of which alternate versions are available).
• HDD: IBM Travelstar 2.5", 40GB, 4200rpm (stripped from a friend's dead laptop).
• Power Supply: PicoPSU-120 12V DC-DC ATX PSU with a 12V AC 110w adapter.
• Misc: a power switch, an old motherboard tray, a 2.5" to 3.5" IDE adapter, an 80mm red led case fan, a fan grill, some spare metals and other materials.

The result is simply awesome, and not just because it features one of our favorite characters! Whom does Jason credit with helping to inspire him to such great heights? You. To be more specific, those of you who sally forth and create new and interesting things out of their fanboy love. Keep sending in those projects, folks! You could be inspiring the next great mod. And if you have any questions for Jason and Jason (that must be tough) about this custom case, you can contact them at jnjmods [at] gmail [dot] com.