Build of the week: a whole new world (of retrofuturistic warfare)

Image 1 of 12

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

This week’s custom PC build comes by way of Wired, and hoo boy, it’s wild. Japanese designer Hiroto Ikeuchi didn’t just slap a super hero logo on a PC and call it good, he made an entire pocket dimension on the damn thing.

His PC is equipped with a toy tank for a mouse, mobile artillery USB drives, a mishmash of repurposed tech and toys to imitate futuristic architecture, and dozens of minifigures scattered about, all at work with some secret purpose. It defies the standard for most case mods, which typically prioritize creating simpler, recognizable concepts without sacrificing ease of use, but Ikeuchi’s secret base looks like a damn pain to use, placing aesthetic at the vanguard.

There aren’t any specs listed for Ikeuchi’s secret base, though they really don’t matter. It’s art first, a diorama where the computer is home to an intricate world. As much as we like to inspect hardware, Ikeuchi’s given us some fiction to decode instead.

For more photos and a look at Ikeuchi’s other work, check out his Tumblr.

James is stuck in an endless loop, playing the Dark Souls games on repeat until Elden Ring and Silksong set him free. He's a truffle pig for indie horror and weird FPS games too, seeking out games that actively hurt to play. Otherwise he's wandering Austin, identifying mushrooms and doodling grackles.