The Curious Case of the Coffeematic PC Reveals a Coffee Maker That Computes

Photo credit: Doug MacDowell
Doug MacDowell’s Coffeematic PC is a beautiful mess of nonsense and creativity, a machine that’s as much a coffee maker as it is a computer, and every bit as crazy as it sounds. Built from a 1980s GE drip coffee maker and an old AMD Athlon II X4 640 CPU, it brews coffee, runs software and uses the hot brew to “cool” the processor.

Imagine a retro beige GE Coffeematic, the kind you’d find in a thrift store, now with computer guts—ASUS M2NPV-VM motherboard, 1GB DDR2 RAM, 240GB SSD—slapped on with a stainless steel plate and waterproof sealant. No case, just exposed wires, so one wrong pour and it’s game over.

The real magic is the cooling system. Why? The coffee maker brews 194°F coffee, pumped through tubing to the CPU, cooled slightly by two radiators to a lukewarm slush. After 75 minutes it’s keeping the processor at 91°F according to MacDowell’s data logging script. The coffee? Undrinkable, tainted by non-food grade tubing and doomed to mold, but who cares? This thing is a conversation piece, not a barista.

Does it work? Yeah, it brews coffee like it’s 1985 and boots the computer, though the 15 year old tech won’t win any speed awards. A pump dispenses coffee for the brave—MacDowell has tried it, health risks and all—but daily use isn’t the goal. It’s a love letter to tinkering, built from thrift store finds, a Dremel, drill, 3D printer and laser cut parts, with sealant to prevent leaks.

MacDowell joins the ranks of the coffee maker PCs, from Nick Pelis’s 2002 Caffeine Machine to Nerdforge’s 2024 build. His is the fifth, proof that the hacking spirit is alive and well.
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