Photo credit: maniek-86
In a world where sleek laptops and towering gaming rigs dominate, one Reddit user, maniek-86, decided to defy convention. Rather than let an old matrix typewriter gather dust or end up in a scrap heap, he transformed it into a fully functional computer.
Starting with a broken typewriter, useless for its original job, maniek-86 saw a diamond in the rough. “I realized the chassis could fit a micro-ATX motherboard,” he posted on Reddit, kicking off a plan to transform the typewriter’s shell into a sleek PC case.
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Maniek-86’s typewriter PC, built around an MSI H110M PRO-D motherboard with an LGA 1151 socket and Intel Core i5 6600 Skylake chip, uses 4GB DDR4 RAM and a 240GB SATA SSD for browsing, work, or light gaming, all powered by a 200W SFX power supply. “The combined power consumption isn’t likely to exceed 150W,” he noted, ensuring the compact PSU could handle the load without breaking a sweat.
Graphics posed a unique challenge. The motherboard lacked a PCI-E x16 slot, the standard for modern GPUs. Undeterred, maniek-86 got creative. He used a riser cable, likely connected to a PCI-E x1 slot with an adapter, to integrate an NVIDIA GT 635 GPU. “It’s not ideal, and it bottlenecks the GPU’s performance,” he admitted, but it gets the job done for basic visuals.
Maniek-86 transformed a typewriter’s keyboard into a functional USB keyboard using an Arduino Leonardo microcontroller, noting, “Managing everything in a small space requires careful planning,” to fit components with Tetris-like precision. Every cable, screw, and component had to be precisely placed to avoid overheating or clutter. This creation isn’t a powerhouse by modern standards. It won’t run the latest AAA games at 4K, but that’s not the point. As maniek-86 demonstrated in photos and a video shared on Reddit, it handles tasks like internet browsing, document editing, and basic applications with ease.
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