What do you do with a broken games console that’s nearly 18 years old? If you’re a YouTuber, you turn it into a powerful mini gaming PC with more power than a Steam Deck. This custom built Nintendo Wii mini gaming PC uses the shell from the old console, replacing the Wii’s outdated components with a pre-built mini PC.
Thanks to its small size, the Wii is the perfect candidate to repurpose as a tiny PC. It’s also being powered by the internal components from a Minisforum UM773 Lite, which is still the best mini gaming PC you can buy right now. It’s safe to say, however, that this AMD powered gaming rig wasn’t the easiest build to put together, as YouTuber Tech By Matt explains.
In his video, Tech By Matt demonstrates the whole build process, from start to finish. His build repurposes the original power button, uses a custom backplate to fit the Wii’s existing chassis, and has custom GameCube controller ports that replaces the original Wii’s controller ports to work with the Minisforum PC.
First, let’s look at the Minisforum’s specs itself. This mini gaming PC is an all AMD affair, thanks to an 8-core Ryzen 7 7735HS APU with integrated Radeon 680M graphics. There’s 16GB of DDR5 RAM, along with a 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD that Tech By Matt used to replace the Minisforum’s default 512GB model.
The AMD Radeon 680M isn’t top of its class, but it’s certainly powerful enough for a build like this. The RDNA 2-based integrated GPU has 12 compute units, which definitely puts it ahead of something like the Steam Deck, which has a custom APU that also has integrated AMD RDNA 2-based GPU, but with only 8 compute units.
The size of the Minisforum UM773 Lite is a big factor for the success of this build, with the internals fitting on a small motherboard that takes up only (what appears to be) two-thirds of the Wii’s shell casing. The casing required some modification, cutting out sections to make space for the Minisforum’s I/O, adding fan grills and the third-party GameCube ports, and using custom 3D printed sections to help mount the motherboard to the existing plastic.
Tech By Matt’s build video shows off the performance of the custom Wii PC using emulated consoles including, ironically, the Wii and GameCube, as well as the Nintendo Switch. He also shows off the PC’s performance in PC games like Valorant. At 1080p on low, the custom Wii PC was able to play Valorant with a stable 221fps, with 1% lows of 134fps. In Rainbow Six Siege, using the built-in benchmarking tool at 1080p on medium settings, the Wii PC showed off a 121fps with 1% lows of 93fps.
Other games, like Fortnite, showed slightly worse performance. At 1080p, using pro settings with performance mode enabled, the Wii PC showed an average of 98fps, but 1% lows of just 16fps. Ultimately, this is about right for the machine itself – it’s more than capable of playing most modern games at 1080p, but don’t expect to use ultra-high settings.
Tech By Matt is honest about the successes and challenges of this build, but in my opinion, it’s a total success. His efforts are sympathetic to the original Wii while giving it a new lease of life. Best of all, his video is detailed enough that, should you want to have a crack at building your own custom Nintendo Wii gaming PC, you’ve got a blueprint to follow.
Don’t fancy having a go yourself? You can pick up a Minisforum UM773 Lite, sans the Wii case, from Amazon for just $399 using this link here. If that doesn’t appeal, you can always check out our best handheld gaming PC guide to look for a more modern and portable gaming rig for your favorite games.