Custom Star Trek PC on eBay for $8,000

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Design, PC / Laptop

The rare HP TouchPad Go tablet has come and gone on eBay, but fresh on this week's list of geek-themed eBay offerings comes a one-of-a-kind desktop computer designed by esteemed Star Trek graphic designer Michael Okuda – the same guy who designed a number of the control panels for the very computers featured in some of the earlier Star Trek movies and television shows.

As it turns out, the system–up for $8,000 on eBay as a "buy it now" auction–gets even geekier than that. Two were created as part of a giveaway by Maximum PC magazine: One went to a sweepstakes winner at this year's San Diego Comic-Con; and the other was built specifically for (and to the specifications of) former Star Trek writer David Gerrold. Yes, that's the same Gerrold who conjured up the concept of the mighty "tribble" in the 1967 episode he co-wrote with Gene Roddenberry, "The Trouble with Tribbles."

The Star Trek PC's high price tag comes more as a result of its design than its loadout. System modding shop MNPCTech performed all the custom modifications to an original LanCool PC-K58 case to give it a more Star Trek look and feel, which included designing and fabricating a total of 25 unique parts to slap onto the system itself. By itself, the Star Trek PC weighs a total of 70 pounds: Boldly going beyond the weight of your average desktop and Star Trek Tricorder (which serves as the inspiration for the system's design). It's also a trait that will surely add a bit to the final shipping fees for the computer's eBay auction (currently and strangely listed as free).

As for the Star Trek PC's actual load-out, the system is based on a 3.4-GHz Intel Sandy Bridge processor, the unlocked Intel Core i7-2600K. Eight gigabytes of Corsair Dominator DDR3-1600 RAM serve as the system's brains; a combined SSD/hard drive setup of a 120-gigabyte OCZ Vertex 3 SSD (in Intel's SRT SSD-caching mode) and a two-terabyte Hitachi hard drive combine to form its storage brawn. On the multimedia side, the Star Trek PC throws a Blu-ray burner into the mix for all your HD movie needs, and an Evga GeForce GTX 580 delivers the oomph on the gaming side of the spectrum.

There's no word as to why the anonymous eBay seller–with zero other auctions to his or her name–decided to put the system up for grabs. Perhaps it attracted too many small, furry friends?

This article, written by David Murphy, originally appeared on PCMag.com and is republished on Gear Live with the permission of Ziff Davis, Inc.