This $14,200 RTX 5080 gaming PC has 70 metal cherry blossoms that open when it gets hot

It's part gaming PC, part very expensive kinetic sculpture

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WTF?! The consumer PC industry is in a crisis, with some component prices more than double or even triple what they were before AI came along. So, why should you spend around $14,200 on a prebuilt machine with an RTX 5080 in it? You shouldn't, but if for some reason you do, you'll have some very pretty metal flowers inside the case to look at, and they open when it gets hot.

Created by Aftershock in partnership with Zotac, the Cherry Bloom PC is described as a world-first. It comes with some impressive specs: an RTX 5080, AMD Ryzen 9800X3D, and 64GB of DDR5-6000 RAM. It also has a 2TB PCIe Gen4 SSD, a 1300W Platinum power supply, and a custom open-loop liquid cooling system with what appears to be a miniature display.

That's some expensive hardware, especially these days – the RAM kit alone is listed for $1,200 on Newegg. But it certainly doesn't warrant the AU$19,995 (around $14,200) price tag on this PC.

It seems that Aftershock is justifying that amount by what's inside the case: 70 handcrafted cherry blossoms made from a special heat-reactive titanium alloy.

The gimmick is that these fake flowers open, or bloom, when the PC heats up. Once it cools down, the cherry blossoms close again.

This all takes place inside an APNX V2 White case that offers a 270-degree view of the inside. Given the price, you'll probably want to put this on your desk where it's visible instead of under it.

You're probably wondering who would ever pay this much for a PC when they could save several thousand dollars and get one with more powerful hardware. None of the 21 reviewers appear to have bought this particular model, sensibly opting instead for the PCs without blooming metal flowers that will be cool to watch two or three times before buyer's remorse sets in.

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It does seem strange that a product like this has arrived at a time when a standard RTX 5090, for example, costs more than $5090, and gaming laptop prices are approaching those of second-hand cars. Maybe there are some, presumably very rich, people who will buy this, or maybe it's just a publicity stunt.

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