This Tiny Dell Is a Nostalgic Masterpiece
To honor the legacy of ugly '90s beige box PCs, Salim Benbouziyane crafted this tiny Dell computer that actually functions.
The “beige box” PCs of the ‘90s may catch flak for their generic styling, but they represented a huge leap forward when it came to standardization. Instead of every computer being a proprietary design with proprietary components, we saw a migration towards standardized parts. The result was boring styling, but with lower costs and much better repairability. And now enough time has passed that those designs have transitioned from ugly to nostalgic in our collective consciousness. To honor that legacy, Salim Benbouziyane crafted this tiny Dell PC that actually functions.
Though this miniature computer has a prominent “DELL” logo on the front, it isn’t actually an exact replica of any specific model (Dell or otherwise). Instead, it is a sort of amalgamation of every beige PC released in the ‘90s. It has a Dell logo on the front because, presumably, Benbouziyane felt that Dell was the most generic of the ‘90s brands. We would have chosen Gateway or Hewlett-Packard, but we can’t argue with Benbouziyane’s decision.
Because this isn’t an exact replica, Benbouziyane had some freedom when designing the enclosure in Autodesk Fusion 360. He knew that it would need to contain a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B single-board computer, which gave him a rough idea of the required size. With that in mind, he modeled a horizontal PC case with a monitor on top. Benbouziyane did a great job, because it somehow looks like every single computer released in the mid-‘90s.
After modeling, Benbouziyane printed the enclosure parts on a HeyGears UltraCraft Reflex resin 3D printer. Those then got a nice coat of paint with an airbrush.
Inside that custom enclosure is the Raspberry Pi and a 4” LCD touchscreen from Waveshare. That’s square with a resolution of 720×720, so it is visually similar to the 4:3 aspect ratio we would expect of a CRT monitor. Benbouziyane also wanted the front panel to be mostly functional, so he designed a custom PCB to host the status LEDs, power button, and even a remote SD card slot. Finally, some printed Windows and Intel decals completed the look.
The finished device looks just about perfect, as it successfully channels the entire vibe of PCs from the era. Benbouziyane can use it to run home automation stuff in the background, or connect a controller to do some emulated gaming. Of course, it can also just sit there looking awesome.