Move over Pip-Boy! Fallout fan turns a plastic mini-nuke into a tiny gaming PC

One of the most impressive budget PC builds we’ve seen

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OneFalloutfan, well known for his collection of merchandise from the franchise, has created atruly unique PCfrom an already unique piece of memorabilia.

The Fallout Collectortransformed a ‘mini-nuke’ model – which came with theFalloutAnthology limited edition back in 2015 – into a functional PC, but unlike the heavily modified build fromLinus Tech Tipsthis build instead is based onbudget PCdesigns.

AsPC Gamerexplains, The Fallout Collector used aNUC, a small form factor PC byIntel, as the base and outfitted it with a compact motherboard. The bottom of the mini-nuke was used to house the power supply, with holes made in the sides for I/O ports.

There’s also a fan in the nose of the mini-nuke, with additional holes drilled into the top to allow for sufficient airflow and the sound effect button has been repurposed as the power button .

While the Fallout Collector is having issues running Fallout 3, both Fallout: New Vegas and Skyrim run at a stable 30 FPS, and the original 2D entries in the franchise have no problems at all. Considering that the PC is running on a sixth-gen i3 system, this is definitely one of thecoolest PC buildswe’ve seen to date.

Analysis: ok, so maybe budget PC gaming isn’t dead?

Unfortunately, thebest budget gaming PCyou can get nowadays is pretty much limited to what you can buy prebuilt, since so many of the essential components for a really good gaming PC build are hard to find ormore expensive than they’ve been in the past.

That’s one of the things we love most about this Fallout mini-nuke build. It doesn’t go all in on high-end components that no one can really buy, and possibly the hardest thing about recreating this kind of build is finding a discontinued sixth-gen chip.

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And while we can’t see a graphics card being added to the mix on this build, Intel NUCs are starting to incorporate low-rise graphics cards in them, so they could serve as a good base for budget gaming rigs in the future.

Named by the CTA as a CES 2023 Media Trailblazer, Allisa is a Computing Staff Writer who covers breaking news and rumors in the computing industry, as well as reviews, hands-on previews, featured articles, and the latest deals and trends. In her spare time you can find her chatting it up on her two podcasts, Megaten Marathon and Combo Chain, as well as playing any JRPGs she can get her hands on.

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