Forget RGB, OLED screens, figurines, and dioramas. We've never seen anything like the Cherry Bloom PC from Aftershock PC in Australia, though. This liquid-cooled, high-end gaming PC includes a Cherry Blossom tree, featuring 70 handcrafted, heat-reactive titanium-alloy cherry blossoms that unfurl when the machine heats up.

What makes this even more remarkable is that the PC — heat-reactive blossoms included — is actually commercially available, and isn't a one-off custom mod. You can buy one from Aftershock PC right now. There are no motors to break; the blooming blossoms are completely 'powered' by the heat generated from the high-end components in the PC, too. Those components include an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor, 64GB of fast DDR5 memory, a 1300-watt modular power supply, and most notably, a GeForce RTX 5080 graphics card.

The presence of an RTX 5080 might be surprising considering the price we mentioned in the headline; yes, this PC costs approximately $14,150 USD ($20,000 AUD, or around £10,650 GBP). But if you've got the cash to spare and are eyeing the PC up, just note that the eye-watering price doesn't include shipping. At that price, it's fair to expect truly top-end components, like a Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition and a GeForce RTX 5090 (as found in the very best PCs for gaming), but honestly, this machine is as much a work of art as a functional PC. You're not merely paying for the components; you're paying for the brilliant display inside.

The chassis used for the Cherry Bloom is the "V2" by Taiwan's Advanced Performance Nexus, better known as APNX. The case has what APNX calls "one of the largest viewing area in its class," with wrap-around glass on three sides to allow you to admire the gorgeous sculpture in your case. Along with the previously mentioned components, you also get a 2TB Lexar NQ790 PCIe 4.0 SSD, a custom open-loop liquid cooling setup, eight Aftershock Chrome RGB fans, and Windows 11 Professional, naturally.

Obviously, the Cherry Bloom PC isn't something that many people are going to buy. Much like the KFC console before it, it's a curious piece of marketing from Zotac Gaming, which designed the PC, according to the product listing. Nevertheless, the mechanism is indeed mind-bending enough. You can check out Aftershock's website and click through the slideshow to view videos showcasing the petals of the 'tree' unfurling; if nothing else, it's impressive to see the mechanism working in motion.

In one of the most unique DIY projects, Reddit user PickentCode has created what can be described as a completely off-the-grid "heat engine computing device." Instead of relying on solar panels or a battery pack, the creator went in a completely different direction, building a custom steampunk-inspired microcomputer which features a miniature Stirling engine to power the hand-crafted wooden console.

Originally patented in 1816 by the Scottish minister and inventor Robert Stirling, a Stirling engine converts heat directly into mechanical energy. By applying a flame to one end of a sealed cylinder, the temperature difference forces the air inside to expand and contract. This cycle pushes a piston that spins the flywheel, which can be used to power a simple generator that converts the mechanical rotation into usable electricity.

"The entire project took about a month to design, build, and program," PickentCode told Tom's Hardware. They first conceptualized a 3D layout using Blender before constructing the physical case out of wood. They even went ahead and utilized a DIY laser engraver to etch a portrait of Robert Stirling and his original 1816 engine patent sketch directly onto the wooden side panels. For the smaller structural elements, the electronic housings and the keycaps were custom 3D printed, while the decorative pipes winding across the frame were made from old shower tubing and some gold paint.

The brains of the system are an ESP32 C3 microcontroller paired with a 2.42-inch monochrome OLED display with a 128x64 resolution, alongside a 16-key keypad. The electrical output of the generator is stabilized using small capacitors wired into the circuit. One can also actively monitor the voltage output using the analog voltmeter, which is wired in parallel, and the two toggle switches mounted on the front panel can be used to turn on the main circuit and the voltmeter.

Running an electronic device, in this case a microcomputer, purely on fire comes with obvious energy limitations. The model Stirling engine can produce only 150 milliwatts of power, and to stay within this tiny power budget, the creator implemented certain hardware and software optimizations. For instance, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth were completely disabled, and the screen brightness was kept low to conserve every milliwatt. PickentCode also tuned the ESP32's CPU frequency, reducing it down to just 80 MHz when updating the screen or interpreting opcodes, going all the way down to just 10 MHz while sitting idle in the main loop.

Despite the limitations, the computer is fully functional. It runs a custom CHIP-8 virtual machine preloaded with classic gaming ROMs like Tetris, Snake, and Pong. Impressively, it also features a built-in code editor, allowing users to type in CHIP-8 opcodes directly to write and execute their own custom programs on the fly.

Stirling engines are not exactly new to the world of computing. Earlier this year, we covered a project by Windows development guru Dave Plummer who showcased a cooling solution that used a small Stirling engine to convert waste heat from an AMD Threadripper system into mechanical energy, which was used to spin the engine's flywheel. While it isn’t an actual solution to an overheating chipset, it is claimed that the flywheel can spin up to about 200 RPM in a 20C/68F environment.