A virtual PC in a builder
Here's the virtual BOREALIS - it looks good, apart from the weirdly taut AiO tubes.

I'm a big fan of games like PC Building Simulator, which task you with designing and assembling PCs for clients on a budget from a range of real-world components. The 3D Builder over at BuildCores scratches precisely the same itch, while being a free web app that's much more accessible. The site is similar to tools like PCPartPicker, but the visual element adds a huge amount - and there's even the newfound ability to visualise your computer's airflow.

You can see the results of my labour above - a fairly accurate simulation of BOREALIS, the PC that I play most of my games on. Not every PC component in the universe is modelled in 3D for this site, but thankfully my particular choices and 3000 other components are fully represented - from the (oft-repaired) RTX 4090 FE and MSI Carbon WiFi X870E motherboard to the Havn HS 420 VGPU case and Arctic cooling fans that make up my PC. As well as offering links to buy the components from local retailers, there's a handy readout of likely benchmark results, power usage and game frame-rates.

When building the virtual PC, it is possible to flip components and reverse fans to get them to resemble reality, but I couldn't manage to flip the tubes to the top of the AiO block as I have it in real life to ensure there's enough of a gap to the graphics card below. I also don't think there's a way to get the white side panels from the Havn case to show up - nor could I place a magnetic sardine on them, which is a key design element from the real deal.

A real PC in real life - but the same
Here's what the real PC looks like. The virtual version is a pretty decent facsimile!

Still, minor visual bugs aside, this is a fun little PC building tool, and I may well return to it the next time I'm planning out a new PC to prove out the build concept.

It'll be interesting to see if the team behind it continues to develop the 3D portion of the site too. One obvious example would be to offer a more robust fluid simulation for the fans - it would be fun to have a vague idea of how air could move through the case depending on your fan placement and direction. You could even try to approximate the amount of noise that would be produced given your components.

For now though, there's already plenty here to have fun with. If you're also in need of a Friday distraction, why not recreate your PC at home and share it in the comments? There's a share link button on the BuildCores site just below the build cost and wattage metrics.

[source reddit.com, via pcgamer.com]