This Pac-Man arcade PC construct is button-mashingly good, with a brightly coloured water-cooled gaming PC housed within the backside half of the cupboard. Utilizing some custom-made acrylic panels and bins, Karl Patterson reworked this Pac-Man arcade cupboard right into a high-end gaming PC, which comprises two water-cooling loops.
Due to our quickly rising PC constructing Fb web page, we’ve seen many {custom} gaming PCs, from mods based mostly on current case designs to scratch PC builds. You possibly can even submit yours for consideration proper right here. Right here we discuss to Karl about how he made this arcade cupboard gaming PC.
: So how did this challenge begin? What impressed you to construct this Pac-Man cupboard PC?
Karl: It began when Intel UK requested me to provide you with a retro-themed gaming PC, and I got here up with the concept of a Pac-Man theme.
The place did you get the cupboard from, and the way did you go about modifying it to fit your necessities?
It’s based mostly on the cupboard from a brand new 1Up machine, and I needed to mod it with a purpose to construct my totally water-cooled PC within the backside. To start with, I had so as to add a again and high panel inside the cupboard – the again panel housed my motherboard, and I used the highest panel to run all my water-cooling pipes. I added a mirror-finish acrylic panel to the highest, and a black gloss acrylic panel to the again, to present it a clear look
It appears like there are two techniques in there at first look.
Yeah, this was my plan – to make it look there have been two techniques inside the cupboard, in order that’s why I went with mirrored acrylic for the highest panel.
Did you make the Pac-Man cutout and pellets on the backside of the cupboard?
Sure, I made them with my CNC machine – I already had the yellow acrylic at hand, and I assumed they’d be a pleasant contact on the backside of the arcade cupboard. This bit was an afterthought actually – I’d initially deliberate to only use black acrylic right here, however I’m glad I went with the Pac-Man brand – it turned out very well and offers it a greater all-round look.
Can you continue to use these controls to play Pac-Man on the cupboard?
Sure, you possibly can play Pac-Man on this arcade – I needed to depart the arcade as commonplace – the PC is separate from this bit. The joystick and the controls all work as they need to. My authentic plan was to take away the display screen and exchange it with a monitor for the PC, however once I purchased the cupboard and set all of it up, I made a decision to depart all of it arrange as a normal, totally useful Pac-Man machine.
So you possibly can’t play any of the most recent PC video games on the display screen with the cupboard controls?
That is the query I get requested essentially the most about this mod. Yeah, the underside half of the cupboard is a totally useful gaming PC, on which you’ll be able to play any PC sport – I’ve it set as much as output to a different monitor. The highest half is for taking part in Pac-Man, so in the event you needed, you might have somebody enjoying a PC sport on the monitor, whereas one other particular person might play Pac-Man on the arcade controls on the identical time.
Take us by the method of planning the water-cooling loops. Why did you go for a dual-loop method and the place are the radiators?
Once I got here up with the design for the water-cooling loops, I knew immediately that I needed a dual-loop setup within the system. I needed one yellow loop and one blue loop, to match the Pac-Man colour theme completely.
The exhausting half was becoming all of it within the cupboard. I needed to relocate the radiators to the again of the cupboard, after which run all of the pipes vertically, as I needed the inside to look clear. I used exhausting tubing within the areas you possibly can see on the entrance, however then used tender tubing on the again the place it was out of sight – the latter selection made it simpler for me to attach the tubing to the radiators, as there’s little or no room to work within the again of the cupboard.
What coolant did you utilize in every loop?
For the yellow coolant, I used Thermaltake’s yellow C100 – it was the one yellow coolant I might discover that was vibrant sufficient to match the yellow on the cupboard. For the blue, I used EK coolant, which additionally matched completely with the colours within the cupboard, as I needed the colours of the loops to tie in with
the cupboard’s theme.
The lighting within the backside chamber is obvious and vibrant, highlighting the gear inside, however you possibly can’t see particular person LED strips wherever – how did you do that?
Yeah, that is all due to a {custom} gentle field that I made – I used mirror-effect acrylic for the underside, and opal acrylic for the highest, then lower strips of black acrylic which might be only a bit larger than the LED strips I used to be utilizing.
I glued the black acrylic strips across the edges of the mirror-effect acrylic panel, caught all of the LEDs to those black strips contained in the field, then added the opal acrylic to the highest of it. When it’s all lit up it appears like one huge gentle field – it makes use of RGB LEDs, so I might make the lighting any colour I preferred, however I left it on white, because it totally lights up the cupboard.
All of it appears superb from the entrance, however how does it take a look at the again, and the place does air get out and in?
On the again, the place the radiators are positioned, I added vents within the sides of the cupboard, so that you get loads of air flow. I’m working a pair of 240mm radiators within the again – one for every loop – with the facility provide sitting between them. I want to have used 360mm radiators as an alternative, however I didn’t have room for them at the back of the cupboard.
That’s an immaculate cable-tidying job – the place are all of the cables hidden?
I made a field that I fitted below the motherboard, so I might run all my cables by to the again of the cupboard. As with the black acrylic strips I used to cover the LEDs, the concept was to cover all of the cables as a lot as attainable, as I needed to create a clear look.
How lengthy did it take you to finish this construct, from begin to end?
I feel the entire construct took me round 4 months to finish, however I did have some points getting maintain of among the components for the construct in that point.
Are you utterly proud of the tip outcome, or do you would like you’d finished a few of it in a different way on reflection?
Sure, I’m very proud of the way it turned out – the tip outcome appears even higher than I anticipated from my authentic concepts.
Pac-Man arcade PC specs
- CPU: Intel Core i7-8086K
- Graphics card: Asus GeForce RTX 2080
- Storage: 500GB Seagate FireCuda 510 M.2 NVMe SSD, 2 x 500GB Seagate BarraCuda 120 SATA SSDs
- Reminiscence: 32GB G.Ability Trident Z Neo 3200MHz
- Motherboard: Asus ROG Maximus X Hero
- PSU: 850W Thermaltake
- Cooling: Customized water-cooling system that includes Bitspower elements and Thermaltake yellow C100 coolant, EK blue coolant
We’re loving your work right here Karl – that water-cooling system is divine, and the lighting is good, plus you possibly can nonetheless play arcade Pac-Man if you wish to.
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