YouTube makers at Nerdforge have crafted a fully functional PC that houses a coffee grinder and roaster inside its chassis. For the discerning power user who needs freshly ground brew right at their desk, this hugely custom job enters to help the caffeination battle.
The PC comes as the result of many hours of labor from Nerdforge’s Martina and Hansi, Norwegian makers known for their penchant for difficult and aesthetically pleasing crafts and projects. The coffee-grinding PC was described as a major project taking up the majority of the month of April. The difficulty in building the PC came due to several considerations, including the custom coffee grinding and roasting system and the fully wood trim added to the interior and exterior of the chassis.
Starting with a monstrous Corsair 1000D as the base, the computer was designed around the coffee system first and foremost, with computer components and visual splendor left to the back half of the project. To avoid all-in-one coffee solutions involving pods that were seen as lacking in quality by the builders, off-the-shelf appliances including a coffee grinder and coffee maker were stripped to their bare essentials and connected to an Arduino to control and synchronize the timings of the units. The Arduino is also connected to sensors that ensure a coffee cup is loaded under the coffee machine before allowing any liquid to be dispensed.
The computer is not lacking aesthetically, either, with the coffee-making components housed within bespoke laser-cut housings and the chassis itself treated inside and out with stained wood that evokes coffeehouse cozy vibes. The PC is powered by an Intel i7-14700K and an Nvidia RTX 4070 Ti, so the machine will certainly crush a video editing and gaming workload.
Internet commenters have locked onto a few potential failings of the build, mostly involving the unholy marriage of foodstuffs and computer components. The logistics of having a boiling hot coffee machine in the front of a case seems it would introduce undue humidity and heat to the case, a problem remedied by the airflow of the computer running into the rear fans and out the front, keeping hot coffee air away from the components of the build.
Another potential fear is of the accumulation of dust inside the PC; dust bunnies living in a PC is one thing, but dust bunnies swimming in your coffee is another entirely. But Martina of Nerdforge has seemingly committed to running the coffee PC as her daily driver for the foreseeable future, promising a follow-up on their Instagram account in some months on how daily use of the computer and its coffee-making powers turns out and any revisions that need to be made along the way. If you’re looking to emulate the wood-covered look of the build yourself, we recommend springing for the Fractal Design North, Tom’s Hardware’s pick for the best looking PC case.