Rainer Wingender has lost count of the computers he has "modded". "The Beast, Blue Laser Boy, Max Depth," he begins, trying to remember all their names. Wingender is one of a growing number of so-called case modders - people who radically change the look, both inside and outside, of the box-like cases that house computer drives.
The 43-year-old with his own IT services company began by souping up computers, he told Reuters after breaking off from a demonstration on how to strip a computer down to its essentials at the IFA consumer electronics trade fair in Berlin on Friday.
As his computers got faster because of his modifications they became too hot, and then too ugly with all the extra ventilators he had to install, Wingender says, explaining why he began to disguise them. "At some point, the design became the most important thing."
Examples on display at IFA come in all shapes and sizes, from a rocket to a pot plant to a car tyre with a neon blue disk drive nestling inside. Their creators range in age from 14 to 44.
The functionalist "0-euro Computer" was built in just eight hours from an old election campaign signboard and a piece of waste pipe, but the most extravagant models cost up to 4,000 euros ($5,100) excluding hardware and 1,000 hours of labour to build.
No one knows exactly how many modders there are or when the phenomenon first began, but modders at the show estimate it started some time in the 1990s. "I sometimes meet other modders, for example at competitions, but it's not a community that has a centre," Wingender says. It's largely a man's - or boy's - world, although Wingender's daughter Sarah, a 22-year-old apprentice mechanic, is following in her father's footsteps.
"I don't really know why I do it - it's fun," she says, chiselling at a green foam globe she plans to cover in coloured glass - her third creation to date. "Anyway, who wants a grey box sitting in their living room?"
Her father says it's impossible to estimate how much time he spends on his hobby. Apart from the time he spends actually building his creations, he says it is always on his mind.
"When I go shopping to IKEA, for example, I see a component for my next creation where other people just see a nice bathroom," Wingender says. "I've even taken a piece home from a boatwreck in the Czech Republic." But he tries to keep computer modding from becoming an obsession. "I also have a job and a family."
Wingender has so far kept most of his modded computers and given the rest away to members of his family. He says he would sell his creations if he could, but not just to anyone. "To give away a computer is like giving away a child - you have to consider whether the buyer is really worthy," he says.
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