If you can’t buy the exact PC hardware you want, then why not build a custom rig that’s as close to it as possible? That was the approach of PC modder Jesse Mills when it came to building this laser-cut wooden gaming PC filled with Noctua cooling gear. The stain on the wood matches really well with the standard Noctua color scheme.
Custom PC has been celebrating the best PC builds since 2003, and our Facebook group has over 390,000 members. We’ve seen many custom gaming PCs, from case mods to scratch builds. Here we chat to Jesse about how he made this Noctua-themed wood PC build.
‘The build was inspired by Noctua’s recent foray into the GPU market with its RTX 30/40-series partner board products,’ Jesse tells us, referring to the collaboration between Asus and Noctua to make really cool and quiet graphics cards using Noctua fans.
‘Unable to get my hands on one,’ he says, ‘I wanted to get as close as possible with my own modded design.’ The result is this PC in a wooden Cyberwood PC case, which is made from basswood plywood.
Jesse laments the fact that he wasn’t able to make the wooden chassis himself. ‘I wish I had a bigger workshop,’ he tells us, ‘but precision stuff outside the realm of electronics is a little beyond what I can do with my own equipment right now.’
However, we think there’s no shame in using an off-the-shelf PC case, especially when you plan to put your own design stamp on it. This case also looks great, with precision cutouts for the front panel connectors and buttons, as well as hexagonal vents – it all slots together like a jigsaw.
Where Jesse introduced his own design elements was when it came to making the wooden panels look the part, and the components for that matter. ‘The case was stained and sanded,’ says Jesse, ‘and most of the components were wrapped and painted to match the Noctua colors.’
The latter wasn’t easy, though. ‘The motherboard paint job was probably the hardest’ part of the build process, says Jesse. ‘Trying to incorporate both the beige and brown colors onto the same piece was tricky, but I think the result was worth it. Most of the time when I paint mobos, I use just one color and tape off the rest of the board.’
How do you paint components in this way – is it just a case of masking it all up? ‘I was able to take off some of the heatsinks,’ Jesse tells us, ‘but for the rest I used plastic and a whole lot of masking tape. Another trick I use is to screw everything into cardboard boxes so that I can hold it, and get paint into every nook and cranny – this also helps everything to dry without getting any debris on it.
There are some other neat touches as well. ‘Some LED strips were soldered onto leads and hooked up to a Molex cable to illuminate everything from the inside,’ says Jesse, ‘and a Carbon CableMod kit finished off the build.’
The end result looks fantastic, and it perfectly suits the colors of the Noctua cooling gear inside, which includes four Noctua NF-A12x25 fans – one of our favorite fan models. The brown backplate and PSU cover also work really well with the build.
If you’re interested wrapping and painting your components, make sure you check out our full guides on how to vinyl-wrap a graphics card, and how to spray paint an AIO liquid cooler, as well as our big guide on how to paint your PC case.
Noctua wood PC specs
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
- Motherboard: Asus TUF Gaming B550M-Plus WiFi II
- Memory: 32GB Silicon Power Turbnine Gaming 3200MHz
- Graphics card: Gigabyte Aorus GeForce RTX 3060 Ti
- Storage: 512GB Transcend TS512GMTE220S SSD
- PSU: 550W Corsair RM550
- PSU cables: CableMod C-Series Carbon Pro ModMesh
- Cooling: 4 x Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM 120mm fans, 1 x Noctua NF-F12 PWM 120mm fan, Noctua NH-L9a CPU cooler
This is brilliant work by Jesse. The standard Noctua color scheme can be a bit divisive (Grandma’s tights, anyone?), but Jesse has perfectly matched it with his laser-cut wooden case – the result looks great.
What do you think of this Noctua-themed wooden PC? Join the conversation to discuss this PC build with our 390,000+ strong member Custom PC Facebook group, where you can also submit your own PC build or gaming setup for consideration. If you want to see more outstanding custom PCs and gaming setups, check out our massive guide to the best PC builds.
