Skip to main content
PC Gamer PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
flag of UK
UK
flag of US
US
flag of Canada
Canada
flag of Australia
Australia
  • Games
  • Hardware
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Guides
  • Video
  • Forum
  • More
    • PC Gaming Show
    • Software
    • Movies & TV
    • Coupons
    • Magazine
    • Newsletter
    • Community guidelines
    • Affiliate links
    • Meet the team
    • About PC Gamer
PC Gamer Magazine Subscription
PC Gamer Magazine Subscription
Why subscribe?
  • Subscribe to the world's #1 PC gaming mag
  • Try a single issue or save on a subscription
  • Issues delivered straight to your door or device
From$32.49
View
Popular
  • Amazon Prime Day Deals
  • Essential Hardware
  • Microsoft
  • AI
  • PC Gaming Show
Recommended reading
A samurai archer draws his bow on horseback, trees visible in the background.
RPG This massive mod for Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord not only converts it to Sengoku-era Japan, it adds fully simulated naval battles months ahead of the base game
The Executor in Elden Ring: Nightreign stands poised with his blade at the ready.
RPG Modders put the Executor into Elden Ring because if FromSoftware won't give us Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice 2, we'll do it ourselves
Optimus Prime character skin in Elden Ring Nightreign.
RPG Elden Ring Nightreign modders are already going ham with custom skins, including Optimus Prime, Stellar Blade's Eve, and my #1 most-wanted outfit from Dark Souls
The Executor in Elden Ring: Nightreign stands poised with his blade at the ready.
RPG I tried the 'oops, all status effects' Executor loadout in Elden Ring Nightreign that turns his starting katana into a god-killing uber-sword—shockingly, it's pretty good
The two ninja protagonists of Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound.
Action The new side-scroller from the developer of Blasphemous isn't as brutal as you might expect—but it is a seriously satisfying slice of retro ninja action
Lady with spear strikes a pose.
Strategy Age of Mythology: Retold's Japanese mythology-focused expansion just announced it's hitting this fall
onimusha: way of the sword
Action Onimusha: Way of the Sword was the best thing I saw at Summer Game Fest
  1. Hardware
  2. Build a PC

Rig of the Month: Shinai

Features
By Paul Lilly ( Maximum PC ) published 22 January 2016

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Building with bamboo

Bamboo has a variety of uses. It's the main food of the giant panda and has also been known to nourish lemurs and mountain gorillas; bamboo is an ingredient of traditional Chinese medicine; and its strength allows it to be used in various forms of construction, to name just a few of its applications around the world.

For modder Dave Cathey (otherwise known as InsolentGnome around the web), bamboo represented the missing piece in giving his case mod that special something to sets it apart from the rest.

He started with an Inferno Red Antec P380 case, a chassis he was drawn to by its outer panels.

"I wasn't 100 percent positive what I was going to do with it. I did some tests of grinding patterns in aluminum and then painting it with candy paint, which was cool, but it didn't really suit me. Then I remembered I had a sheet of bamboo veneer that I had been hanging on to, and I decided to try it," Dave told Maximum PC.

Try it he did, and what he ended up with was a mod he calls Shinai, named after a bamboo weapon that's used in martial arts, commonly to practice Japanese sword fighting.

It almost wasn't to be. Dave originally had the intention of making an "awesome scratch built wood case" some four or five years ago, but never got the gumption. He had been hanging onto the bamboo ever since and at one point it nearly became a bathroom countertop. But it wasn't until he conceived Shinai that he finally put it to use. We're glad he did!

Flip through the gallery to see more of his sweet looking mod, check out his build log, and sound off in the comments section!.

____________________________________________

Have a case mod of your own that you would like to submit to our monthly feature? Make sure to read the rules/tips here and email us at mpcrigofthemonth@gmail.com with your submissions.

Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Page 1 of 7
Page 1 of 7

Once Dave figured out he could get the bamboo to stick to aluminum (he used a heat-activated adhesive made for veneers), "it was off to the races," he says. You can see how nice the front and top panels turned out in the picture above.

Page 2 of 7
Page 2 of 7

The first thing Dave did was gut the inside of the Antec P380 to fit a pair of 360mm Hardware Labs liquid-cooling radiators. He also fashioned a new motherboard panel, one that he made out of acrylic and covered in bamboo veneer to the hold the pattern.

Page 3 of 7
Page 3 of 7

If you look close, you can see the pass-throughs made of aluminum tubes. Dave used a bar brazed in the middle to lengthen them to fit the cables. As for the power supply visible in the lower-left corner, its cover is aluminum and veneer with a perforated aluminum side to match the exterior details of the case.

Page 4 of 7
Page 4 of 7

There's no window on the right side of Antec's P380, so Dave cut out one of his own and used it to show off three OCZ Vector 180 SSDs. They're mounted to an aluminum bar that's raised off the tray by some standoffs, giving them the effect of floating in air.

Page 5 of 7
Page 5 of 7

Here's another look at the right side, this time with the side panel removed. You can also see here the clean motherboard cutout and careful attention paid to cable management, even on a part of the case that will spend most of its time hidden from spying eyes.

Page 6 of 7
Page 6 of 7

The finished mod is a sight to behold. It's also a rather capable PC consisting of an Intel Core i7-4790K processor (Devil's Canyon), Asus Maximus VII Hero motherboard, 16GB of GeIL RAM, Gigabyte G1 Gaming GeForce GTX 980 Ti graphics card, and Cooler Master V1200 power supply. Water cooling is a mix of EK blocks, pump, fans, Primochill reservoir and tubing, and Monsoon fittings.

Page 7 of 7
Page 7 of 7
Paul Lilly
Paul Lilly
Social Links Navigation

Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).

Read more
A samurai archer draws his bow on horseback, trees visible in the background.
This massive mod for Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord not only converts it to Sengoku-era Japan, it adds fully simulated naval battles months ahead of the base game
The Executor in Elden Ring: Nightreign stands poised with his blade at the ready.
Modders put the Executor into Elden Ring because if FromSoftware won't give us Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice 2, we'll do it ourselves
Optimus Prime character skin in Elden Ring Nightreign.
Elden Ring Nightreign modders are already going ham with custom skins, including Optimus Prime, Stellar Blade's Eve, and my #1 most-wanted outfit from Dark Souls
The Executor in Elden Ring: Nightreign stands poised with his blade at the ready.
I tried the 'oops, all status effects' Executor loadout in Elden Ring Nightreign that turns his starting katana into a god-killing uber-sword—shockingly, it's pretty good
The two ninja protagonists of Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound.
The new side-scroller from the developer of Blasphemous isn't as brutal as you might expect—but it is a seriously satisfying slice of retro ninja action
Lady with spear strikes a pose.
Age of Mythology: Retold's Japanese mythology-focused expansion just announced it's hitting this fall
Latest in Hardware
Three gaming laptops, a gaming chair, and a gaming PC, artfully arranged on a pink deals background
These five deals have done nothing but drop in price over the Prime Day sales—and they're all still live
Thermaltake Tower 300 PC case
Stop what you're doing right now and look at this bubblegum pink PC case that's at its lowest ever price in the Amazon Prime Day sale at only $140
A collage of different DDR5-RAM kits against a multi-colored pink background, with a white border and a PC Gamer Recommended logo.
MS Flight Sim 24 is the canary in the coal mine for RAM requirements, so I'm eyeballing these Prime Day deals on 64 GB kits for my next upgrade
MSI Thin RTX 4060 laptop on a pink background with PC Gamer Recommended label on top
If you're on a tight budget here's an RTX 4060 Prime Day gaming laptop on sale for just $649, but I have to admit there is a catch
An Asus TUF Gaming A16 gaming laptop on a pink deals background
My bank account isn't exactly overflowing at the moment, so here's the gaming laptop I'd buy with my own money this Prime Day
Razer Naga V2 HyperSpeed Wireless
For $60 this Prime Day, you can pick up this wireless Razer MMO mouse with a whopping 19 programmable buttons
Latest in Features
A screenshot from Everdeep Aurora showing the cat protagonist in the chambers of a regal rabbit
Five new Steam games you probably missed (July 14, 2025)
Fallen London
I've swapped modern live service games for a browser game that's been running since 2009
Four people in armour stand atop a desert landscape. The far left one faces away from camera in black armour, a barbarian with their face covered by a mask stands next to them. A female with medium-length brown hair and white shimmering armour duel wields guns, one held up and one pointing out to her right. Below her outstretched gun an archer crouches, their face obscured by an elaborate headdress.
These 15 PC games died for our sins—can you even remember their names?
Player doing a kickflip in the waterpark map in Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 + 4
I would've loved Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4 a lot more if it hadn't made the mistake of rolling out time limits for every level
Lea, from Lies of P: Overture, clutches a locket to her chest and tries to maintain her composure.
Lies of P isn't my favourite soulslike, but Overture is one of the best DLCs in the whole genre
Marvel Rivals Season 3 customisation issues: An upper-body shot of Phoenix with her arms out to the side.
If Marvel Rivals doesn't want to reward me with fancy skins for my hard work, then I hope it'll at least give me some of Season 3's new customisation features
  1. Nvidia RTX 5090 and XFX RX 9070 graphics cards
    1
    Best graphics cards in 2025: I've tested pretty much every AMD and Nvidia GPU of the past 20 years and these are today's top cards
  2. 2
    Best gaming laptop in 2025: I've put the best of this new generation head-to-head and we have a winner
  3. 3
    Best gaming chair in 2025: I've tested a ton of gaming chairs and these are the seats I'd suggest for any PC gamer
  4. 4
    Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads
  5. 5
    Best graphics card for laptops in 2025: the mobile GPUs I'd want in my next gaming laptop
  1. A Mecha Break pilot in a white and pink suit standing before the head of her mech of the same color
    1
    Mecha Break review
  2. 2
    Mycopunk review
  3. 3
    Persona 5: The Phantom X review
  4. 4
    NZXT N7 Z890 review
  5. 5
    NZXT N9 X870E review

PC Gamer is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...