You have read about a 24-karat gold Nintendo Wii, a gold-plated Leica M10-P, and even a solid gold and diamond Huawei Mate 40 RS. Now meet a mini PC in real gold. Folks, meet the “full gold, 24 Karat KUBB” from PC brand KUBB by French hardware manufacturer Bleu Jour.
There have been reports about this striking mini PC based on the KUBB Fanless mini PC, with some speculated details like the weight and possible price, and even the specs. Officially, though, neither KUBB nor Bleu Jour has offered up any details. The only information KUBB shared was that it’s “24 karat gold.” That’s that.
It didn’t mention if this gilded cube was a custom order by an opulent customer or a one-off in-house vanity project. That said, there’s no mention of whether the “24 Karat” gold is plated or solid. I am inclined to think it is the former.
24K means it is 99.9% real gold, which, if it is solid gold, means it has virtually no alloyed metals involved. This means it is notoriously soft and malleable (we are talking about a Mohs hardness of about 2.5), not to mention heavy. A heavy 24K gold case would easily bend, deform, or sag under the weight of whatever heavy components (such as the PSU) are attached to the case.
And then there’s the weight issue. Gold weighs a hefty 19.3 g/cm³, which is nearly seven times that of aluminum, and depending on the thickness, it would mean this thing could weigh over 10 kilograms. On the flip side, it would enjoy excellent thermal dissipation because pure gold has a thermal conductivity of around 317 W/(m·K) versus a standard aluminum case’s ~200–237 W/(m·K).
As I have said, pure gold would be too soft to be a proper case, so I am guessing it is gold-plated, and if so, the question remains: how thick is the plating? The thickness also affects the cost and eventually the price, if this is on someone’s invoice.
As for the specs, there are no details either, because KUBB is basically configurable when purchasing. In any case, KUBB never said. In its first post, in which it showed off this opulent PC, it asked, “What configuration would you put in it?”
Judging from the hollow ports, I am going to say it was still just a case back in 2023 when it flaunted the images on Instagram. And yes, it was three-year-old news that has recently been picked up again by FanlessTech. I mean, fans of KUBB would have noticed because that chassis with the arrow-pattern grille is an old design. The new one has slotted openings across the entire top.
I spent too long a time getting to the bottom of this. I hope you guys appreciate the effort, and if you do, do consider signing up for our newsletter.
Images: Instagram (@kubb_pc).
Story via tom’s Hardware.