Instead of spending hundreds of euros on a new computer, a father has given an old PC a new lease of life… in his own way. With a little paint and a lot of imagination, he created a cartoon-looking machine for his children.
A case given a Japanese anime makeover
On Reddit, a user by the name of SuccessfulHost6375 has shared a solution to a budget constraint that is as creative as it is surprising. “I couldn’t afford to buy a PC, so I drew one,” he wrote, revealing a photo of a computer transformed by hand in a graphic style inspired by Japanese anime. This PC isn’t just a montage: it’s a real machine, rebuilt from salvaged components and metamorphosed with acrylic paint.
Gone was the old black plastic Antec case, which he considered “too boring”. Instead, he chose to hand-paint each panel using cel-shading, a visual style reminiscent of the black outlines and solid colours typical of anime. The trompe-l’œil effect gives the impression that the PC has jumped straight out of a manga or video game like Borderlands. It’s a style rarely seen in the modding world, but one that gives the object a unique personality. The result, designed with children in mind, is a radical departure from the standard design of desktop PCs. And above all, it hits the bull’s eye!
A modest core, but more than enough
Behind this cartoonish appearance lies a fully functional PC, assembled using salvaged components. The processor is an Intel Core i5-10400, backed up by 16GB of Corsair DDR4 memory and a Gigabyte motherboard. For graphics, he has temporarily installed a GeForce GTX 1070, powerful enough to run Minecraft without any problems, even with shaders. A Radeon card may soon take its place, he adds, without saying more.
The project was motivated above all by the desire to give his children a machine to play with, while avoiding electronic waste. “It’s better than turning them into rubbish”, he says in his message. A remark that sums up the spirit of the project: make do with what you have, while taking care of the appearance, and give a new use to otherwise obsolete equipment.
