Have you ever seen a water-cooled copper gaming PC before? If not, you’re in for a treat as an absolute beauty named the boiler has just been showcased by builder and retailer Billet Labs, and it’s for a noble cause as its auction proceeds will go to charity once sold.
In a TikTok video showing off the PC, the machine had not been activated yet, as the team still had to fill it with water. The presenter claims it looks like a steam engine, and that description truly fits, unless it was strapped to a steampunk cosplayer at Comic-Con.
Days later, Billet Labs posted a follow-up on Instagram announcing that the PC turned on without issues, stating that it works really well. A full build video will be going live on the Billet Labs YouTube channel this Wednesday.
This copper PC is equipped with an RTX 4090 Founders Edition graphics card and an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, both of which are top choices for gamers. It also boasts 64 GB of RAM, 12 TB of SSD storage, and a Noctua fan on top that has been stripped and polished. All the copper piping in the build is hand-soldered to a water pump to maintain cool temperatures.
Copper is known for its attractive appearance and excellent thermal conductivity. Although the PC may seem difficult to upgrade due to its design, it provides performance advantages.
Billet Labs has a sold-out MonoBlock that is compatible with 3090 Ti FEs and 4090 FEs, cooling both the CPU and GPU. The company gained attention from a controversy involving tech YouTuber Linus Tech Tips in 2023. They also offer pipes, pump tops, and fittings to help individuals build their own water-cooled copper rigs.
If participating in the auction isn’t appealing, Billet Labs also takes commissions for PCs. Last year, they unveiled a Toaster PC, which required £5k / $6.2k in parts and over 150 hours of labor to complete.
Both the steam machine and toaster builds are compact, a trait that seems to benefit from copper’s superior cooling abilities. Having closely positioned components can make cooling less effective, but copper excels in this regard. While details on an RTX 5090 build or compatibility for upgrades remain unknown, the curiosity for how the copper will oxidize and evolve remains high. It’s akin to a mini PC that just continues to impress.
I certainly don’t need one, but I definitely want one.
