A beige box on its side, complete with a massive matching monitor, CD-ROM, and floppy disk drive—this tiny, off-white, boxy PC looks exactly like the first hand-me-down computer my dad set up for me in the early ’90s. There’s just one twist: this nostalgic machine stands only six inches tall.
YouTuber Salim Benbouziyane, as highlighted by PCGamer and Yanko Design, recreated this marvel from scratch, using a 3D printer to craft a case for a Raspberry Pi 4. He even added an LCD screen to the monitor and a custom breakout board that positions the power button and MicroSD card slot at the front.
The MicroSD card, which serves as the operating system and storage, cleverly slots into the mini CD-ROM drive—a genius touch that spares you the hassle of disassembling the case to load new software.
The attention to detail is astounding. The screen is integrated into the case, but the custom bezel trims the LCD to achieve that nostalgic, square CRT monitor look. With a resolution of 720×720, the screen is far sharper than anything from back in the day, and it even tilts on its axis with a satisfying plastic-on-plastic feel.
While the side-mounted speakers might not be as authentic as the glow-pipe LEDs, they certainly beat the old external speakers or headphones that PCs of that era required. And, honestly, avoiding those tangled, fragile speaker wires is a win.
The molded Dell logo and the monitor adjustment dials are sending me on a trip down memory lane. Benbouziyane even went the extra mile by adding accurate processor and OS decals that match the Raspberry Pi’s internals. And yes, it features a dedicated volume wheel on the CD-ROM drive!
Despite being the size of an Altoids tin, the Raspberry Pi 4 inside outperforms any ’90s PC, even with the architectural differences between x86 and Arm. Though it’s skinned to resemble Windows XP (complete with Winamp and the classic Pipes screensaver), the mini PC runs Twister OS, a PiOS fork with an XFCE desktop environment.
Of course, it can handle Doom, but playing Space Cadet 3D Pinball on this rig really captures that “twenty minutes left in class, and I’ve finished my book report” feeling. Benbouziyane controls everything via Bluetooth, though you can easily remote in if you want to turn this tiny gem into a more practical network-based tool.
