My first custom build since 15 years. I was eager to try out building with more modern hardware and get components that were actually designed to look good as well as provide good performance. The goal for the system was to play games, do some digital content editing, programming and occasional CAD. I was also curious about crypto and blockchain, and I thought I might do some mining with this machine as well.

The original non-watercooled build started out as a lonely AMD Vega card. I managed to get one of those for the original MSRP, and at the time, I was very lucky to get a graphics card at all. As I put the rest of the system together and started mining between gaming sessions, I realized that I either had to invest in quality hearing protection, or do something about the devastating cooling solution. That's how the idea of doing copper plumbing emerged.

I had no real intention of making the machine look true to the theme of steampunk with loads of gears, clockwork and victorian lace. Instead, I'm going for a more functional industrial look with a lot of matte black, loads of copper and some blue accents where it may seem fitting. Frankly, I envision a modern take on the Steam machine, in the way Valve is doing it. So.. Less 'punk' and more Steam.