To tell you the truth, I wouldn't really care about a prize too much, just going up against other modders & winning would be enough for me, but maybe we could have a few donations for the contest, I would donate something, MK offered to be a judge, I would also offer being a judge, Maybe we could ask CD if he would also like to judge, I'm sure we would have to ask TPU if we could do this,, but if we all get together on this,, I think it would be an awesome contest. I'm game if anyone else is.
I have been bugging CPU mag for quite a while now to spread prizes around (they offer $1500 and a cover shot to the winner but nothing to 2nd, 3rd and so on)
There is no way $1500 would even come close begin to cover the costs of a top mod.
My thought is to encourage "NEW" ideas (not so much who can stuff $20K of hardware into a case) So spreading the prizes around to encourage new ideas would be most beneficial.
It would be nice to see "Useful" mod classes as well,
Least fans (passive)
Coolest running air cooled
Coolest looking H20 setup
Best use of lighting
Smallest/biggest Mod
Nicest Paintjob
remember the contest should be designed to include/encourage as many as possible (more the merrier) and judged by experts in many fields that are not shills for the industry.
(I understand the need for the industry to make money but so far they have hurt themselves by failing to see the big picture, ideas/improvements to case design can only help us all (not just their bottom line) not to mention increase the amount of modders)
There is always gonna be someone thats not happy when there is a contest, the best way is to make them as simple as possible.