The Star Trek Shuttle PC is a fan-made masterpiece that you must see to believe
Star Trek Shuttle
If there’s one thing that always showcases the creativity of the PC gaming world it’s, well, cases. DIY builds are where passionate gamers make sure the hearts they wear on their sleeves are also prominently visible on their desks. Thanks to these creative individuals, we get to see cool case builds ranging from this beautiful glass zen garden PC(opens in new tab), to this rusty chainsaw nightmare(opens in new tab) (opens in new tab). Today, we’re looking at a PC build that plans to shuttle us away to the final frontier.
Tom’s Hardware spotted this engaging build by James, better known as the TimeTravellingTech on YouTube(opens in new tab) (opens in new tab). He explains during the video that the idea came about when first hearing about small Shuttle-branded PCs. Being the Star Trek nerd many of us can relate to, he envisioned a small computer shaped like the type-6 shuttlecraft(opens in new tab) showed off most prominently during episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Since this was Picard’s era of Trek, the construction of this model was timed with the premiere of the third season of Star Trek: Picard. Named after either the Curie shuttle assigned to the USS Enterprise (1701) or the Federation shuttlecraft that carried a young Kathryn Janeway from Earth to Mars, this craft is known as the Shuttlecraft Curie. Both of which were no doubt named in homage of famed physicist and chemist, Marie Curie.
James used AutoDesk to draught the case’s blueprints, and then he had the components 3D printed. You can get a good look at the process in the video, which includes a few cute jokes and a montage. It’s worth noting the materials James uses aren’t for the faint of heart, and you’d need a very good 3D printer to work with them. He even uses the video to issue a cautionary note about the 3D printing process, demonstrating numerous unsuccessful attempts.
For the time being, the attractiveness of this structure is mainly superficial. For now, it is being tested with lower-spec parts, but the plan is to upgrade them later. The guts of this shuttle are an Nvidia GT650 graphics processing unit, Intel Core i5 4460 processor, 16GB of DDR3 RAM, and a 512GB solid state drive. All the same, it’s great to see USB ports concealed within the turbines of the warp drives, buttons concealed within the panels, and vents in the windows cooled by the equally lovely and reliable Noctua fans in the same neutral beige. USB ports are discretely placed on the sides.
James dresses up his set with a custom keyboard, mouse mat, and everything else. If you haven’t seen the video yet, you should do so to see all of the easter eggs he’s incorporated into this awesome creation. James’s Twitter feed also has some fantastic pictures (opens in new tab).
Try these wooden Corsair panels for a more manageable DIY project (opens in new tab). It will be difficult to top this build, but I eagerly anticipate James’s next masterpiece.
