An old Optima SP 26 electric typewriter has found a new purpose in life. Although the typewriter was unrepairable and lacked several internal parts, an inventive Redditor, maniek-86, transformed it into a fully operational gaming typewriter.
Space is a luxury in these projects, as one repurposes old devices into functioning personal computers. According to the Redditor, the Optima SP 26 had minimal room available.
All components are closely packed within the typewriter, and sometimes some hot glue was necessary to keep everything in place. The creator does not appear to be a committed expert in converting vintage devices into sleeper PCs. Instead of utilizing cutting-edge hardware, the Redditor adapted the Optima SP 26 using spare components that were previously unused.
The MSI H110M Pro-D serves as the core of the gaming typewriter. It's an LGA1151 motherboard equipped with the H110 chipset, restricting the processor choices to older Skylake and Kaby Lake chips. The Redditor equipped the motherboard with an Intel Core i5-6600 processor, 4GB of DDR4 RAM, and a 240GB SATA SSD. There's even a discrete graphics card inside.
The 12-year-old GeForce GT 635 from the Kepler era powers the gaming typewriter. The Reddit user noted that the MSI H110M Pro-D has a "missing PCIe x16 slot," which is peculiar given that the motherboard does include a PCIe 3.0 x16 expansion slot.
It's unclear whether the expansion slot is damaged or the reasoning behind the "missing" comment. Despite this, maniek-86 utilized a PCIe riser to connect the graphics card to the motherboard, likely through one of the two PCIe 2.0 x1 expansion slots.
A modest 200W power supply powers all the components within the gaming typewriter. Additionally, maniek-86 included a small Wi-Fi card for wireless connectivity. Some components are glued together with hot glue to facilitate future upgrades. However, fitting a modern graphics card into the gaming typewriter may prove difficult with a 200W power supply. Furthermore, the bandwidth limitations of a PCIe 2.0 x1 expansion slot could bottleneck the graphics card's performance.
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The keyboard of the Optima SP 26 features a standard matrix design, allowing maniek-86 to connect the interface with an Arduino Leonardo microcontroller board. Although the keyboard is arranged in the Polish layout, the creator has remapped it to a standard U.S. layout.
Due to the limitations of the GeForce GT 635, the gaming typewriter will struggle to run AAA titles. However, it should be capable of running less resource-intensive games, such as Minecraft, Fortnite, Dota 2, or Counter-Strike 2. You may even get away with some modern titles if you keep the resolution and image fidelity under expectations.
Redditor maniek-86 posted a photo showing the gaming typewriter running Minecraft, but the frame rates achieved are unclear. Beyond gaming, the typewriter could function adequately as a standard PC for sending emails, browsing the Internet or social media, or performing everyday tasks such as creating documents in Microsoft Word or managing spreadsheets in Microsoft Excel. It's not a bad way to recycle an electronic device that could have otherwise just ended up in the dump.
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Zhiye Liu is a news editor, memory reviewer, and SSD tester at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.