Every now and then I consider picking up a new handsy hobby. But I have a friend who tried to get into carpentry and after witnessing the struggle I don't think I have the patience. But then I spot something like this custom wooden ITX PC case and I start to reconsider—you know what, maybe, just maybe.
Then I watch the full video and what goes into it and my brief glimmers of hope are dashed once again. Give me a screwdriver and a GPU and I'll get it seated and settled right half of the time, but you should probably keep me away from spinny sanders, delicate wood files, and certainly giant CNC machines.
The creator, MXC Builds, says they'll make the 3D digital files available for (paid) download soon, though it will surely be a niche market ready to take on such an intricate project even with the CAD files and the YouTube video to guide them.
The finished product is a dinky walnut chassis that houses an Asus ProArt RTX 5080, the latter being the inspiration for this DIY chassis. But the actual build process seems far from easy.
It involves an inordinate amount of precise measuring, sawing, laser cutting, flat planing, wooden groove-cutting with a CNC machine, metal cutting with a CNC machine, screwing, masking, gluing, waxing, and tons more I don't have the right respective verbs for.
And probably the scariest part: even this veritable artisan crafter makes some mistakes that require correction. There are little issues to iron out such as bowed wood requiring a clamp while gluing, but most shockingly, partway through, one of the machines breaks and smashes up the wood. The solution? To size up and slot another piece of wood into the chipped portion and somehow, by some carpentry sorcery, make it look pretty seamless.
There are tons of other impressive little touches to the build, such as little holes drilled into the frame to put tiny magnets in. These are then aligned with magnets on a custom cover plate that hides the 240 mm AIO water cooler. The edges are all chamfered, and even the motherboard cooling shrouds are given a little love in the form of spray paint to keep things nice and muted.
The end result is a gorgeous dark walnut sandwich-style build, ie, a build where the CPU and PSU and so on are on one side, and the vertically mounted GPU is placed behind them, on the other side of the dividing plate. This allows for a rather dinky and clean ITX build, especially with the wooden covers hiding the cables and cooling.
Once the case is built, the actual tech has to be crammed in there. This is all put together on the dividing plate which then slides down into the chassis. Cables are then plugged in and the vertical GPU is fixed with a custom two-piece bracket locking mechanism.
The Asus ProArt RTX 5080 is the centrepiece—at least, on the one side of the case—but in addition, this build features an Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF with eight P-Cores, 64 GB of DDR5 RAM, a 1 TB Crucial T500 SSD, and a Be Quiet! Silent Loop 3 240 mm AIO cooler.
I'd have liked to see 2 TB of storage in there, but that's me being incredibly picky. And MXC Builds notes that they don't think a 240 mm cooler can properly cool the Core Ultra 7 265KF when at full load. But thermals and volume seem okay at "gaming" load, with the CPU hitting 80 °C .
Hopefully MXC Builds has the files up for download soon—if not, their Stealth Wood build is somewhat similar. It'll only be for those happy to get to some intricate woodworking, though. Myself, I'll probably have to stick to something more mildly wooden like the Fractal Design Terra.
1. Best overall: Havn HS 420
2. Best budget: Phanteks G400A
3. Best midrange: Hyte Y40
4. Best budget compact: Thermaltake S100 TG Snow Edition
5. Best high-end: NZXT H9 Flow RGB+
6. Best Mini-ITX: Fractal Design Terra
7. Best Micro-ATX: NZXT H3 Flow
8. Best full-tower: NZXT H7 Flow
9. Best pink: Hyte Y70
10. Best fish tank: Lian Li O11 Vision Compact
11. Best looking: Phanteks Evolv X2
12. Best for beginners: Be Quiet! Shadow Base 800 FX
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