You may remember I previously covered the same YouTuber, @PhasedTech, who turned an Xbox One S into an RTX 3050 gaming PC capable of running PC games. It was a seriously impressive build, especially considering it had a fully working disc drive.
Now the creator is back, this time taking on the Xbox Series X. Once again, the disc drive works, and the whole project is giving me strong Project Helix vibes, Xbox’s next-generation console that will support PC games.
Inside the Xbox Series X turned gaming PC
It is not something you expect to see. The Xbox Series X already packs a lot into a compact chassis, so finding room for full PC hardware is a serious challenge.
PhasedTech started with a second-hand unit, stripping out the internals. From there, he used a Dremel to cut back the internal plastic, creating just enough space to begin fitting in new components.
Instead of a traditional motherboard, he opted for Intel’s NUC Extreme Compute Element. It is essentially a full PC squished onto a card, complete with CPU, RAM, and NVME storage, which makes it ideal for tight builds like this.
For graphics, it uses a low-profile RTX 5060 paired with a 600W Power Supply. Everything is packed in quite tightly, but it does just about fit inside the Series X casing, with just enough room for an optical drive, which is fully functional here.
To hold everything in place, PhasedTech designed and printed a series of custom brackets. They also created a custom back panel to house USB ports, display output, power input, and WiFi antennas.
It even keeps the original power button and front panel working, giving it sleeper PC build vibes.
Performance metrics are also provided. In Arc Raiders at 1080p using medium to high settings, it can push anywhere between 100 and 140 FPS depending on what is happening in-game.
In Counter-Strike 2, it averages around 250 FPS on high settings, which is seriously impressive given the console's footprint.
Temperatures also remain under control, with both the CPU and GPU staying below 75°C during testing. That is impressive given how compact the system is.
🎮 Would you want a sleeper PC build inside of a Series X?
Xbox’s Project Helix, its next-generation console, is an ambitious idea that aims to bridge console and PC gaming. But in some ways, PhasedTech has already beaten it to the punch, at least when it comes to playing PC games inside an Xbox-style shell.
Builds like this could become even more interesting if Original Xbox and Xbox 360 titles make their way to PC.
With that said, what are your thoughts? Would you want a Series X-style sleeper PC build, or is this more of a novelty?
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