Frankly speaking, I have a weakness for custom PC case mods, especially those that have a Victorian era vibe. The use of brass and copper has a majestic telling, which, for whatever reason, has an aesthetic that no one can overlook. I don’t think many understand this as well as the Billet Labs, a YouTube channel known for its custom, steampunk-inspired PC mods that are water-cooled. And what’s used for the cooling: custom plumbing that makes extensive use of brass and copper.
We have previously seen a handcrafted copper water-cooled gaming PC mod, thoughtfully imagined and successfully designed, in a form factor that we loved for more reasons than just its Steampunkish appearance. Now, while that was a desktop model, this time Billet Lab has gone a little further to impress the sci-fi fans with a wall-mounted build, which as the modder Felix Ure says, and it appears, is the most ambitious build ever attempted by him.
Designer: Billet Labs
The explanatory build video starts with the modder displaying obscure plumbing components made of brass and copper, which, with custom plumbing, form an integral part of the water-cooled PC at the end of the modification. The PC is assembled from scratch to be a high-end workstation powered by a Ryzen 9 processor and an Nvidia GeForce 3090Ti GPU to go with it.
The interesting part to some can be the artful assembly of all the independently ordered components from power supply to RAM, and four industrial fans to the motherboard, and everything in between. The artistic bit, for me, however, is the way the entire plumbing overlay has been assembled and put in order. The smooth flow of the water in the cooling loops is where all the magic lies, and I am sure you will love (not taking anything away from how painstakingly everything else is done).
While the PC starts out pretty normal in the beginning, it’s the plumbing fixture that gives the case mod the Steampunk vibe that we’d come here for to see in this detailed video above. Another integral and interesting part of the Victorian appearance is the analog temperature and pressure gauge. While the temperature gauge stuck to the GPU measures the external temperature of the graphics unit, it does a good job in the aesthetic category, as the water-cooling mechanism manages the heat perfectly. And the pressure gauge ensures the cooling system does its job by keeping a constant vigil on the pressure and temperature of the water in the coolant loop.
What really propels the system into a new dimension, and also a major reason I like it more than many other Steampunk builds, is that this DIY PC (on completion) can be mounted on the wall, where it looks less like a PC and more like a work of art. It’s only the power and the dangling I/O cables that give up the guise. What do you think about it?
The post This water-cooled PC case uses brass and copper plumbing for its Steampunkish vibe first appeared on Yanko Design.