Skip to main content
PC Gamer PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES
UK EditionUK US EditionUS CA EditionCanada AU EditionAustralia
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Games
  • Hardware
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Guides
  • Video
  • Forum
  • More
    • PC Gaming Show
    • Software
    • Movies & TV
    • Codes
    • Coupons
    • Magazine
    • Newsletter
    • Affiliate links
    • Meet the team
    • Community guidelines
    • 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
Subscribe now
Don't miss these
Cultic key art of man getting out of car with axe ominously positioned in foreground
FPS 2025 was so stacked with great games I missed the free, ass-kicking Christmas update to its best singleplayer shooter
Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary The Master Chief Collection
FPS The best FPS games on PC
Man stepping out of classic car with barbed wire wall visible in background
FPS Cultic review: One of 2025's best singleplayer shooters
Soldiers march around a stark, industrial sci-fi building. A propaganda poster reads, "ORDER."
FPS Quake modders banded together to release the third Brutalist Map Jam, with two campaigns' worth of FPS goodness in 'a megalithic community project more than a year in the making'
An image showing two retail packaging boxes for AMD Ryzen processors against a green gradient background and a PC Gamer Recommended logo in the corner.
Processors Best CPU for gaming in 2025: These are the chips I recommend for gaming, productivity, and peace of mind
The Velocity Micro Raptor ES40 and HP Omen 35L gaming PCs on a blue background with the PC Gamer recommended badge in the top right corner
Gaming PCs Best gaming PCs in 2025: these are the rigs and brands I recommend today
Delita in Final Fantasy Tactics: Ivalice Chronicles remake as he rides a chocobo in the opening movie.
Games The best laptop games
Battlefield 6: A Recon crouched aiming a sniper, with two decoy dummy next to them in dirt ditches.
FPS Battlefield 6 review: A confident FPS that lets you find your own fun
Three gaming PC cases underneath badges showing the Editor's Pick, Best Value, and Ridiculous Power categories
Gaming PCs Best gaming PC builds: budget, mid-range and high-end recommendations
Acer Predator Orion 3000 gaming PC
Gaming PCs Acer Predator Orion 3000 gaming PC review
Acer Predator Orion 7000 gaming PC
Gaming PCs Acer Predator Orion 7000 gaming PC review
NZXT Player Three Prime
Gaming PCs NZXT Player Three Prime gaming PC review
The cover of the video game Doom
FPS I'm never getting any work done ever again, thanks to this website that lets me play thousands of user-made Doom levels in my browser
Battlefield 6 beta queues, errors, issues: Soldiers running away from a collapsing building.
Hardware Three shining examples of brilliant PC game development in 2025
An MSI GeForce RTX 5090 32G Lightning Z graphics card on display at CES 2026
Graphics Cards MSI's monstrous 1000 W watercooled RTX 5090 has been designed to 'completely ignore the concepts of balance in favour of extremes', apparently
Popular
  • CES 2026
  • GOTY Awards
  • Best PC gear
  • Arc Raiders
  • PC Gamer Quizzes!
  1. Games
  2. FPS
  3. Doom

Build of the week: the BFG

Features
By Ian Birnbaum published 22 August 2016

It's probably not a good idea to overclock this one.

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

Page 1 of 15
Page 1 of 15

Page 2 of 15
Page 2 of 15

Page 3 of 15
Page 3 of 15

Page 4 of 15
Page 4 of 15

Page 5 of 15
Page 5 of 15

Page 6 of 15
Page 6 of 15

Page 7 of 15
Page 7 of 15

Page 8 of 15
Page 8 of 15

Page 9 of 15
Page 9 of 15

Page 10 of 15
Page 10 of 15

Page 11 of 15
Page 11 of 15

Page 12 of 15
Page 12 of 15

Page 13 of 15
Page 13 of 15

Page 14 of 15
Page 14 of 15

Page 15 of 15
Page 15 of 15
Ian Birnbaum
Share by:
  • Facebook
  • X
  • Whatsapp
  • Reddit
  • Pinterest
  • Flipboard
Share this article
Join the conversation
Follow us
Add us as a preferred source on Google

Every Monday, Build of the week highlights a unique rig from the web's most dedicated PC building communities. 

There were a lot of Doom-themed PCs at Quakecon this year, but none were more impressive than this portable BFG made by case builder David Cotten. 

“I played the new Doom, and I’ve always wanted to build a BFG,” Cotten told PC Gamer. “But before the newest Doom came out, there was not an accurate 3D model because they were all sprites.”

Related articles
  • A terrible gaming PC built into a plastic jug This €130 gaming PC in a plastic jug churns out a whole 15 fps in Fortnite and might be the best/worst DIY build I've ever seen
  •  Quake's third Brutalist Jam now has a whopping 75 maps, and its organiser is working on a hub to stitch them all together: 'this is going to be an insane challenge'
  • The cover of the video game Doom I'm never getting any work done ever again, thanks to this website that lets me play thousands of user-made Doom levels in my browser

The result is almost two inches shorter than full-scale because Cotten feared it would be too large to physically carry. Though the model looks 3D printed close-up, it’s actually layers and layers of cardboard. Cotten cut the BFG model into 161 slices in a 3D modeling program, then laser cut 161 pieces of cardboard to fit each slice. The slices took a month to glue together.

Cotten was a finalist in the case modding competition, where the BFG won second place.

My favorite touch: the PSU is in the BFG gun handle, and the computer’s power switch is activated by the trigger. Cotten had to cut, splice, and extend every wire to reach from the handle across to the body of the PC.

When he’s carrying it around, green LEDs run off of a wearable battery back. All told, the BFG weighs about twenty pounds. It’s a big fucking PC.

BFG PC components: 

  • CPU: Intel Core i5-6500
  • Mobo: Mini ATX
  • RAM: 16GB Kingston HyperX Fury
  • GPU: GeForce GTX 1060
  • PSU: 450W
Read more
A terrible gaming PC built into a plastic jug
This €130 gaming PC in a plastic jug churns out a whole 15 fps in Fortnite and might be the best/worst DIY build I've ever seen
 
 
Quake's third Brutalist Jam now has a whopping 75 maps, and its organiser is working on a hub to stitch them all together: 'this is going to be an insane challenge'
 
 
The cover of the video game Doom
I'm never getting any work done ever again, thanks to this website that lets me play thousands of user-made Doom levels in my browser
 
 
A screenshot of a port of the original Doom, running on ESA's OPS-SAT satellite in 2024
The 25th anniversary of the ISS operationally in orbit reminded me the ESA once challenged an Assassin's Creed and Far Cry dev to get DOOM running on a satellite
 
 
Soldiers march around a stark, industrial sci-fi building. A propaganda poster reads, "ORDER."
Quake modders banded together to release the third Brutalist Map Jam, with two campaigns' worth of FPS goodness in 'a megalithic community project more than a year in the making'
 
 
Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary The Master Chief Collection
The best FPS games on PC
 
 
Latest in FPS
Soldiers march around a stark, industrial sci-fi building. A propaganda poster reads, "ORDER."
Quake modders banded together to release the third Brutalist Map Jam, with two campaigns' worth of FPS goodness in 'a megalithic community project more than a year in the making'
 
 
Cultic key art of man getting out of car with axe ominously positioned in foreground
2025 was so stacked with great games I missed the free, ass-kicking Christmas update to its best singleplayer shooter
 
 
A pig-faced constable stands menacingly with a taser baton in hand.
'Happy Gloom Year!': The new Gloomwood update is out, and it includes the game's 'largest, most vertical open area' yet
 
 
Fallen Aces goon getting held up making surprised face
Fallen Aces's second episode won't be out this year, but it will feature a first-person car chase with a tommy gun in both hands and a foot-operated steering wheel
 
 
Rainbow Six Siege year 9 season 2 key art - two Rainbow Six Siege operators facing each other
Rainbow Six Siege servers are back after hackers randomly doled out bans, unbans, rare skins and 'billions' in in-game currency
 
 
Battlefield Redsec
Welcome to the FPS vibe shift
 
 
Latest in Features
Ball x Pit: Key art for the game showing a knight jumping and shooting a fire ball towards a skeleton on the right side.
I don't care that there are no big new games in January because all I need now is Ball x Pit, the most underrated roguelike pinball game that I could spend all 744 hours of the month playing
 
 
Code Vein 2 - an anime character fires a charged up shot out of a giant rifle
Playing Code Vein 2 made me wonder why more soulslikes don't have guns, even if I could do with a bit less anime melodrama
 
 
Code Vein 2
The PC game releases we're most excited about in January
 
 
PC Gamer magazine Fallout 4 Anniversary Special
PC Gamer magazine's new issue is on sale now: Fallout Special
 
 
Great God Grove art of a character smiling while holding another smaller character in their fist
30 hidden gems from 2025 to grab before the Steam Winter Sale ends
 
 
Path of Exile 2
Path of Exile 2's new druid class is the most fun you can have being a bear in a videogame right now
 
 
  1. MSI and Asus gaming monitors on a green background with the PC Gamer recommended logo in the top right
    1
    Best gaming monitors in 2025: the pixel-perfect panels I'd buy myself
  2. 2
    The best fish tank PC case in 2025: I've tested heaps of stylish chassis but only a few have earned my recommendation
  3. 3
    Best gaming laptop 2025: I've tested the best laptops for gaming of this generation and here are the ones I recommend
  4. 4
    Best Hall effect keyboards in 2025: the fastest, most customizable keyboards for competitive gaming
  5. 5
    Best PCIe 5.0 SSD for gaming in 2025: the only Gen 5 drives I will allow in my PC
  1. MSI MPG 341CQR QD-OLED X36 on a desktop with an Editor's Pick badge
    1
    MSI MPG 341CQR QD-OLED X36 gaming monitor review
  2. 2
    Acer Predator Orion 3000 gaming PC review
  3. 3
    Acer Predator Orion 7000 gaming PC review
  4. 4
    Dangbei DBOX02 Pro projector review
  5. 5
    Death Howl review: A brilliantly abrasive hybrid of deckbuilder and soulslike

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

Add as a preferred source on Google
  • 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...