This ridiculous shoe PC went from a 10-week mod project to a $6,000 custom Cooler Master gaming PC you can actually buy

Winners of the CoolerMaster case mod world series 2020
(Image credit: CoolerMaster)

A couple of years back I had the pleasure of being part of the judging panel for Cooler Master's Case Mod World Series (CMWS), a PC building contest that, frankly, blew my humble PC building sensibilities out of the water. Since then, the company has been working on bringing a couple of gaming PC designs to market based on design entries from the contest.

The results are the Cooling X and Sneaker X systems, both of which really seem to capture the wild and wonderful essence of the CMWS.

Both coming in as compact designs, the Sneaker X is a literal shoe design with high-end components packed into a Mini-ITX case that's just 650 x 306 x 651mm / 25.6 x 12.0 x 25.6 inches in size. 

The Cooling X is a little larger at 266 x 149.4 x 371.6 mm / 10.5 x 5.9 x 14.6 inches, and features a liquid-cooled RTX 4080 and AMD Ryzen 9 7950X with the side panels also doubling as liquid-cooling chambers.

If that's not a smart use of space, I don't know what is.

Our Tyler W put the name of the Sneaker X into perspective for me, "Like a Sneaker but more Xtreme (because it's not a sneaker, it's a computer)." It has similar vibes to NZXT & RTFKT's RTX 3080-powered sneaker PC, though it's got space for a chonky RTX 4080 inside that Mini-ITX case. It also comes with Cooler Master's Flux 360 Special Edition radiator, though there's only space for a single 2.5-inch SSD drive bay.

I had the pleasure of speaking to JDMF, makers of the original design for the Sneaker X that won the contest. They said the build took around 10 weeks from design through to completion, and that they would have liked to have included more patterning and nicer colours. For the standard version it looks like Cooler Master has stayed pretty true to the original design. 

There is talk of special edition colourways in the press release, though, so it will be interesting to see if we get some versions with funky patterning. 

Your next upgrade

(Image credit: Future)

Best CPU for gaming: The top chips from Intel and AMD
Best gaming motherboard: The right boards
Best graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits
Best SSD for gaming: Get into the game ahead of the rest

My main concern in the Sneaker X coming to market is cooling. With JDMF having run into so much trouble bending the water tubes around inside such a small case originally, we'll have to see how it fairs on the cooling side of things.

Here's the original JDMF sneaker PC worklog, for the full story.

Cooler Master is calling the Sneaker X "a fusion of luxury and performance." So if plonking a giant shoe on your desktop says luxury to you, then this ridiculous $5,999 gaming PC may be the system for you, coming early July. Otherwise, in late June the slightly more subtle Cooling X will be in stores. That might be more up your street, though it does come in at a slightly more expensive $6,999. 

That's about a $3,000 dollar premium on what we'd expect to pay for a system of this spec, so maybe weigh up the options on our cheap gaming PC deals page before you dive in. I might just print a sneaker sticker and pop it on the side of one of the ones on that list instead, because my wallet is hurting just thinking about a $7,000 gaming PC. 

Katie Wickens
Hardware Writer

Screw sports, Katie would rather watch Intel, AMD and Nvidia go at it. Having been obsessed with computers and graphics for three long decades, she took Game Art and Design up to Masters level at uni, and has been rambling about games, tech and science—rather sarcastically—for four years since. She can be found admiring technological advancements, scrambling for scintillating Raspberry Pi projects, preaching cybersecurity awareness, sighing over semiconductors, and gawping at the latest GPU upgrades. Right now she's waiting patiently for her chance to upload her consciousness into the cloud.

Read more
Skytech Chronos gaming PC on a blue background
Got the Nvidia 50-series and AMD X3D stock-out blues? Skip the waiting lists with this surprisingly well-priced RTX 5080 and Ryzen 7 9800X3D gaming PC
A gaming PC with RGB lighting enabled on a desk.
This gaming PC build smashes together the very latest components but if I did it again, I'd do it differently
An incredible case mod for the Cooler Master CMWS.
I'm dumbfounded at the ridiculous designs at the Case Mod World Series this year
The Asrock Deskmini X600 open
ASRock DeskMini X600 review
A gaming PC build using the Be Quiet Shadow Base 800 FX chassis, an Intel Core Ultra CPU and an RX 7900 XT GPU.
This no-vidia gaming PC is a great example of how small design decisions can make it feel like you're building a PC on easy-mode
Skytech Eclipse Lite gaming PC on a blue background
This RTX 5080 gaming PC is $100 cheaper than last week's best RTX 5080 rig, and it's probably also the best way to get your hands on a high-end GPU right now
Latest in Gaming PCs
A gaming PC with RGB lighting enabled on a desk.
This gaming PC build smashes together the very latest components but if I did it again, I'd do it differently
Skytech Shadow gaming PC on a blue background
Screw waiting for GPU restocks, with an AMD RX 9070 gaming PC going for as cheap as this I'd hop on the pre-built bandwagon
Cobratype RTX 5070 Ti gaming PC on a blue background
This RTX 5070 Ti gaming PC is about as cheap as we've seen so far, and it's got me all nostalgic for PC prices long past
Framework Desktop with AMD Strix Halo mainboard
iFixit has pulled apart Framework's mini PC and it looks to be the AMD Strix Halo-powered desktop device I've been wanting for at least a week and more
Framework Desktop with AMD Strix Halo mainboard
Framework's first desktop PC is giving us the AMD Strix Halo machine we've been craving, and the opportunity to build our own
Yeyian Tanto gaming PC on a blue background
The RTX 50-series might make 'high-end pricing' seem like an understatement but at least there are still reasonably priced entry-level builds out there like this one
Latest in News
Key art of the videogame Lunacid, showing a pale, long haired knight in purple armor contemplating a purple, flaming sword surrounded by the different phases of the moon.
One of my favorite indie RPGs is getting a follow-up made with FromSoftware's 25-year-old Super Mario Maker for first person dungeon crawlers
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 image - Henry riding a pink and blue striped horse while holding a fish
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 now has Steam Workshop support, and of course one of the first mods lets you adjust the 'jiggle physics'
Still image of Bastion holding a bird, taken from Microsoft's Copilot for Gaming reveal trailer
Microsoft unveils Copilot for Gaming, an AI-powered 'ultimate gaming sidekick' that will let you talk to your console so you don't have to talk to your friends
Erenshor - A player and two simulated MMO party members stand on a plateau in front of a yellow landscape
This RuneScape-looking 'simulated MMORPG' has all the nostalgia without the drama because all the other 'players' are NPCs
Pirate Bay co-founder Carl Lundstrom
Pirate Bay co-founder and far-right politician found dead after plane crash
Sunset in the desert in Hello Sunshine
Hello Sunshine is a desert survival sandbox where you live in the literal shadow of the colossus