A custom version of the roughly 12 cm cube Kubb Fanless mini PC has been built with a chassis made from solid 24-karat gold rather than gold plating. The standard model weighs about 2.1 kg, while the gold version reaches about 13 kg and costs roughly $1.7 million.
Because the fanless PC uses its chassis as a heatsink, gold's high thermal conductivity does provide a cooling benefit. GIGAZINE notes, however, that copper and silver conduct heat even better, so gold is not the optimal material if cooling alone is the goal.
Instead of merely making a mini PC look gold, the entire case is 13 kilograms of solid gold. It even helps cooling a little, while the much cheaper and better-conducting copper continues to exist.
A seemingly ordinary mouse has been turned into a complete computer by fitting the electronics from a Samsung Galaxy S21 inside its shell. Connect it to a display and Samsung DeX provides a desktop capable of running apps and games such as Minecraft, while the same enclosure still works as the mouse for clicking and moving the pointer.
YouTube creator Gadget Industry stripped the phone down to the needed boards and added a handmade brass heat spreader to manage temperature. The peripheral normally used to control a computer now contains the computer it is controlling.
The mouse is supposed to control the PC, but the mouse is also the PC. The peripheral has quietly promoted itself to the entire machine.
Instead of merely making a mini PC look gold, the entire case is 13 kilograms of solid gold. It even helps cooling a little, while the much cheaper and better-conducting copper continues to exist.