Someone spent 45 hours building an RTX 3070 gaming PC in Minecraft

Henceforth to be known as a master Minecraft builder, Reddit user AlanGeisse has been using their skills to recreate their very own fantasy PC builds in-game. In the first installation, as exhibited in this hilariously epic flythrough video, it's even possible to swim through the PCs water cooling system—which is pretty amazing. 

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Unfortunately, their initial post on r/Minecraft didn't gain much traction. But, after spending 45 hours on an even more accurate, higher spec design, complete with an elusive Nvidia RTX 3070, Alan's finally getting the recognition they deserve.

Speaking with us, Alan explains that, due to unavoidable height limitations associated with building in Minecraft, the scale of this second design ended up at around 2mm per block. And, although there were some inevitable scaling issues due to these restrictions, it still looks pretty darn accurate to us. 

Alan graciously divulged how they managed to achieve such an intricate level of accuracy:

"I worked with images of the components in Inkscape to be able to take measurements more easily," Alan tells us. "I used images of the front of the motherboard, ATX schematics to quickly locate screws, and generic ATX AM4 motherboard electronics schematics to measure socket and chipset position."

Alan had actually planned to supe up the design with higher-end PC components like the RTX 3080, or RTX 3090; perhaps even an AMD RX 6800, or RX 6800 XT. However, their choice of hardware was somewhat stunted by the decision to work within the confines of the Thermaltake V200 TG case. They explained that, since they already had the case in their possession, "it was easier to measure the details." Makes sense: work with what you have. Unfortunately, that also meant larger GPU's like the beastly RTX 3090 simply wouldn't fit—bummer. 

Though that is also a cautionary tale for the rest of us. When those cards come into stock again, measure your cases, people.

Specs

Case: Thermaltake V200 TG Edition
CPU: Ryzen 5 5600X
Motherboard: ASUS ROG Strix B550-A Gaming
RAM: GSkill TridentZ NEO 3600MHz 32GB
VGA: Asus Dual RTX 3070
Storage: SSD Gammix S11 Pro, HDD WD Blue 2TB
PSU: Asus ROG Strix 850 White

Still, this second build is even more impressive than the first, and is certainly deserving of all those upvotes. Not to mention, this looks like the only way any of us will be able to get our hands on a 30-Series card, right now, considering the stock shortages.

Sorrow aside, this kind of engineering feat really warms our hearts here at PC Gamer. In fact, the genuine advice Alan extends to potential copy-cats almost brought a tear to my eye.

"What counts is to persevere to the end," says Alan, "a job done in half is worth nothing, a job well done can serve a lot."

This is really good advice in a lot of situations, honestly, not just Minecraft building. And, although Alan humbly admits they are hesitant about doing another build, there is still hope…

"I had not planned to do any other mega-construction in the short term, but I'm thinking about it." 

I for one hope people like this keep doing what they do, so here's to hoping they decide to make more of these veritable masterpieces, for us to marvel at—as we try in vain to secure a 30-series GPU. Maybe another full water-cooled loop around an RTX 3090? I'd wanna swim around inside that.

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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 demystifying tech and science—rather sarcastically—for three years since. She can be found admiring AI advancements, scrambling for scintillating Raspberry Pi projects, preaching cybersecurity awareness, sighing over semiconductors, and gawping at the latest GPU upgrades. She's been heading the PCG Steam Deck content hike, while waiting patiently for her chance to upload her consciousness into the cloud.