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My hardware happy place is cool people making cool things. A case in point would be this custom build that leverages an already very nice touchscreen PC into a Taipei night market diorama scene.
The headline act is the light-up, 3D printed recreation of the Taipei 101 building, complete with an itty bitty Alex Honnold clinging to its side (the American rock climber free soloed the 1,667-foot skyscraper back in January—Netflix has an entire butt-clenching special on it). Exhibited at Hyte's Computex booth, it's the creation of hardware creator Zoë Baye.
You may remember that Baye and her husband, Brandon Ayala, are the brains behind custom PC business Zombie Tech Gaming (or should I say 'braiiins'?). I chatted to the wife-and-husband duo about their incredible cathedral case mods back in March.
Like many of the Zombie Tech Gaming builds I pined over back then, this Computex PC is based on the Hyte Y70 Touch PC case. An animated graphic on the touch screen even creates the illusion of elevators going up and down the miniature Taipei 101.
Teeny tiny, 3D printed signage attached to the case shouts out the wife-and-husband business. Hyte itself, and sister brand iBuyPower, also get a lit-up look-in. Around the base of the case are shrunk-down shop fronts shaded by 3D-printed and hand-painted Hokkien-style roofs. AC units and light box-style street signs dot the walls.
There's a true dollhouse miniaturist flourish to the whole thing. I'm especially keen on the food stand selling Taiwanese sausage with sticky rice, as well as the little wisps of foliage poking through the street's concrete.
If I were made of money, I would have already commissioned the talented hardware duo at Zombie Tech Gaming to craft a case creation to grace PC Gamer towers. Unfortunately, if I were left in charge of managing such a project, you know it would come out looking less like a tasteful recreation of our UK base of operations in Bath, and more like a shrine to Miku Hatsune. It's just as well they don't leave such things up to me…
1. Best overall: Havn HS 420
2. Best budget: Phanteks G400A
3. Best midrange: Lian Li O11 Vision Compact
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 looking: Phanteks Evolv X2
11. Best for beginners: Be Quiet! Shadow Base 800 FX
