SignalRGB just proved that a real microwave can be transformed into a Battlefield 6 gaming beast capable of running at 120 frames per second – but only if you open the door of your white countertop microwave and discover a 16-inch monitor gazing back at you, framed by the original glass window. Close it up, hit the “Start” button, and watch as the turntable spins the entire motherboard around like a lazy Susan for silicon – you can transform a $40 thrift store microwave into a $2,000 gaming system with a single move.
Intel’s Core Ultra 5 225 sits in the center of an MSI Z890I Edge Ti board about the size of a dinner plate, paired with 48 gigabytes of Patriot Viper DDR5-6000 that line up either side of the socket, looking like a row of neat little violet, teal, and crimson lights because Signal RGB’s free software cycles all the lights in the box at once. A 2TB Patriot NVMe drive is hidden beneath the tray, and I’m sure it’s just waiting to load up Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 before the popcorn finishes popping.
- System: AMD Ryzen 5 5500 3.6GHz 6 Cores | AMD B550 Chipset | 16GB DDR4 | 500GB PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD | Windows 11 Home 64-bit
- Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 6400 4GB Graphics | 1x HDMI | 1x DisplayPort
- Connectivity: 5 x USB 3.1 | 4 x USB 2.0 | 1 x LAN 1G | WiFi 5 | Bluetooth 4.2 | 7.1 Channel Audio | Keyboard and Mouse
NVIDIA’s RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB hangs on the wall to the left of everything else, its fans muttering quietly against the metal chamber that once bounced microwaves around. Down at the back, a 1100 watt SFX Platinum power supply sits neatly, its cables braided and ready to survive a cross-country move.
On the right, a 240mm AIO cooler is silently working to keep the CPU below 72°C, while the room smells faintly of solder or burnt burritos – depending on your perspective. The old keypad is still there, but instead of numbers, it now activates macros on an Elgato Stream Deck: tap “9” and the RGB lights turn neon and Valorant-y; tap “0” and the door monitor switches to Discord. There’s also a little LCD in the top corner that displays all of the CPU clocks and GPU utilization information, as well as a miniature animated pizza that spins around whenever the turntable motor turns on.
Even though the magnetron is gone, power still runs through the old cord, and that special backplate does its job by routing DisplayPort and USB-C to the back; plug in a mouse, keyboard, and headphones, and you’re ready to go. Crysis 3 Remastered runs in 1440p extreme and 98 frames per second, with ray tracing and DLSS balanced to boot. And the glass never fogs up, thanks to SignalRGB’s smart cooling mods. The GPU gets its air via intake holes drilled beneath the turntable, and the exhaust just rises through the roof vents that used to let all the steam out. Under full load, it reaches a comfortable 48°C, and it’s so quiet that you’re more likely to hear the smooth whirr of the platter spinning around – just to show off the board like a piece of jewelry.
SignalRGB worked for three weeks to complete the project, gutting the entire thing, epoxy-coating all of the sharp edges, and sleeving every cable to ensure nothing snags when you open the door. The turntable motor survived intact; currently it serves as the world’s slowest RGB showcase. Want to open the door in the middle of a match? That’s fine; the monitor pauses the game automatically, owing to a small microswitch attached to the latch.
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