Looking for some buildspiration? You're very welcome.
For those of us down under, PAX Aus is one of the biggest conventions we tend to have to grace our land girt by sea. The show floor is filled with exhibitions from all walks of gaming life from table top, right through the consoles, and all the way to PC gaming. If you want to see some of the coolest the games world has to offer, the PAX show floor never disappoints.
Where I didn’t expect PAX Aus 2022 to go so hard was on the PC builds. Everywhere I looked there was another wild case, or some fluro cooling, crystal encrusted fans, and sometimes a concoction of all of the above. Booths all over the floor were showing off their wild creations, so here’s some of the best looking PC builds I saw at Pax Aus this weekend.
Life is a beautiful array of colour and life presented in a never ending spectrum before us. So with that in mind, I wanted to start with some of the rainbow builds. These are the PCs on the show floor that couldn’t commit to one colour so they chose them all.
There’s a few pastels in the bunch, which tend to give this lovely ethereal clean look, as well as vibrant AF rainbow lights. Regardless, if you were looking to make a spectrum of a statement, you might get some sweet inspiration from these custom builds.
Not only is it crammed full of rainbow, but the crystals on the fans add extra bling. (Image credit: Future)
Rainbow PCs at Pax Aus 2022
The icy blue liquid helps tie this pastel rainbow together. (Image credit: Future)
This retro cutie has the sweetest nostalgia filled rainbow cables. (Image credit: Future)
Did somebody say they wanted more rainbows? (Image credit: Future)
This white pastel build looks so clean I want to eat fairy floss off it. (Image credit: Future)
Another toned down white theme with the rainbow highlights. (Image credit: Future)
When we said rainbow, we forgot to mentioned ADDED DISCO BALL. (Image credit: Future)
This disco build also featured a really cool vertical RGB lit front. (Image credit: Future)
If you’re after a bit more of a tied together look for your build, it’s fairly easy to achieve this by restricting your colours. Wild as a concept, I know, but breaking down your palette to just a few colours instead of all of them can create a really succinct look. This way you can choose just a few colours you really vibe with, or that might match the rest of your set up or personality better.
While rainbow builds were by far more common at Pax Aus this year, I still saw a good amount of beautiful looking PCs with restricted colour palettes. In many cases, they were more eye-catching on the floor than the rainbows, acting more as solid beacons drawing my admiration. Have a look at the gallery below to see some of these harmonious builds in action.
A fresh icy blue look to start your colour themed perusal. (Image credit: Future)
Colour themed builds
A striking hot toned monster of a case filled with lava lighting. (Image credit: Future)
This beautiful blue build even came with a matching resin inlayed table top. (Image credit: Future)
The cooling fluid in this case looked delicious and dangerous. (Image credit: Future)
A simple classy black and white build. (Image credit: Future)
Bisexual lighting in a box. (Image credit: Future)
And another nice vertical front lined case to really show off the RGB lights. (Image credit: Future)
But for some people uniting a build with colour just isn’t enough. For those going even harder than unifying your gear with a colour palette, maybe you’re rocking a theme. Themed builds can and will vary dramatically. I’ve seen some amazing ones over the years, like this Chainsaw Build, or the very dramatic Aorus build currently in the works.
Themed builds were among the least common I saw while roaming the PAX Aus floor, but they never failed to draw a crowd. Whether you’re into bubble tea, anime, or The Boys, there’s always someone ready to make a sick looking PC to match your aesthetic dreams.
It looks like Homelander might have gotten to this one before I managed a pic. (Image credit: Future)
Themed Builds
It’s cooled with compound V. (Image credit: Future)
It’s not often we get to see so much detail on a case. (Image credit: Future)
The front is especially nice on this build. (Image credit: Future)
Another one , though this time more toned down for the Evangelion fans (Image credit: Future)
The front view of the Unit 1 build. (Image credit: Future)
Of course there’s even more of these. (Image credit: Future)
Unit 1 is just a rainbow mum on the inside. (Image credit: Future)
A build you can go beyond with. (Image credit: Future)
Sometimes a nice simple clean decal is really the way to go. (Image credit: Future)
Easily the best themed case I found all weekend. Love Chad. (Image credit: Future)
Of course boba in the coolant is actually the best idea ever. (Image credit: Future)
The final category of builds I saw cropping up all over the place were open case style PCs. They would often have some transparent covering, but it’s hard to tell if that was just to stop sticky fingers on the show floor. Regardless, every time I saw one of these open builds I stopped to have a look. They just beg for your attention.
Part of this is because they’re open, and it’s not common to see but it also helps in other ways. Often these are a bit more spread out, with RGB even more on display than usual. I saw a lot of cool cases in my journey around the convention, but there’s something that feels next gen futuristic about these almost flat lay designs.
Close up of a clear case flat build. (Image credit: Future)
Open builds
When you stretch your PC out it can game better. (Image credit: Future)
Blinded by the RGB light shine from the open builds. (Image credit: Future)
Just lay it all out for the coolest looks. (Image credit: Future)
Why not just see everything. (Image credit: Future)
Of course, most of the PCs shown off here are fairly top of the line builds, with looks to match. Of course, you don’t have to have a fully specced out beast of a PC to have it chase a nice aesthetic, but it sure doesn’t hurt. With new hardware releasing or just around the corner, it’s never a bad time to think about how you want that hot new build to look. The beautiful PCs on display at PAX Aus 2022 have certainly given me some ideas for the future, and plenty of PC envy to deal with in the meantime.
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