An Entire Computer Inside One Thicc Mouse

We cover lots of cyberdeck builds here at Hackster, so we’re no strangers to unusual computer form factors. But there are always new ways to innovate for those with a little imagination. Five years ago, Electo used his substantial imagination to cram an entire computer into a mouse. But in his own words, it sucked. With half a decade of additional learning and skill building under his belt, Electo decided to approach the idea from a new angle to devise the ultimate gaming PC in a mouse form factor.

Electo tried building this mouse PC in three different ways in order to get the best gaming performance. The first was probably the most obvious idea: he made the mouse bigger. Electo’s original mouse PC was chonky by anyone’s standards, but this new version is just comical. Its 3D-printed enclosure is roughly the size of two text books stacked on top of each other. That gave Electo plenty of room to fit entire mini PC inside, along with mouse hardware, a 5” LCD screen, and a projected laser keyboard.

Unfortunately, that was both difficult to move around and impossible to type with. So Electo tried another idea and started with the keyboard. He took a small portable keyboard and added a mini projector, mouse hardware, and an even more compact mini PC. That worked, but it required a surface for the projector, had poor performance, and got really hot.

Electo’s final idea ended up being the closest to his original build from five years ago. It is approximately the same size — thicc but not ridiculous — and includes a small LCD and just the keyboard keys gamers actually need: W, A, S, D and space.

But while that form factor was definitely more desirable, the unnamed single-board computer Electo chose to put inside simply lacked the horsepower necessary to play games. It couldn’t even run Minecraft at more than a single frame per second. So Electo took advantage of the obvious workaround: cloud gaming. All the actual processing of the game happens on a server somewhere, and the mouse only needs to send commands and receive a video stream.

While it still experiences overheating, this improved computer-in-a-mouse provides literal minutes of near-satisfactory game play.