Build of the week: SkyVue

James is stuck in an endless loop, playing the Dark Souls games on repeat until Elden Ring and Silksong set him free. He's a truffle pig for indie horror and weird FPS games too, seeking out games that actively hurt to play. Otherwise he's wandering Austin, identifying mushrooms and doodling grackles.

Every Monday, Build of the week highlights a unique rig from the web's most dedicated PC building communities.

An elegant wooden PC that wouldn’t look out of place in a city skyline, the SkyVue comes from US-based case modder Jeffrey Stephenson. It’s a watercooled mini-ITX PC hiding some solid, but not outright beastly, components. The enclosure is tiny and compact. And it’s not made of just any wood. That there’s some African Sapele, which I didn’t know anything about until I Googled it. If someone knows the name of the wood they used, it’s safe to assume they are wood experts.

African Sapele has been used in case mods for hundreds of years, but is better known for its use in musical instruments. It’s regularly used to make guitar bodies, ukulele necks, and so on. I imagine it gives the fans a nice acoustic hum.

Stephenson built SkyVue in approximately 240 hours over an eight week period, using hand tools, a Dremel rotary tool, a cordless drill, and plenty of elbow grease. It’s one of the more finely crafted scratch mods I’ve seen in a while, and a nice reminder that not every case mod is an ode to the intellectual property of the month.

For more pictures and information on SkyVue, check out Stephenson’s official build log.

SkyVue components:

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-Z170N-WIFI Mini-ITX
GPU: Gigabyte 4GB GTX 960
CPU cooler: Corsair H5 SF Low-Profile Liquid Cooler
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4
SSD: Kingston HyperX Predator 240GB M.2
SSD: Corsair Neutron XT 2.5" 480GB
PSU: Silverstone SFX ST30SF 300W