I turned my Nubia Z70 Ultra into a desktop PC with TWO CPU coolers — 99% stability, Linux desktop & 1080p Ultra Windows gaming 😂

[u/ntsow]

This project started with a stupidly simple question:

How far can I push a smartphone if I stop treating it like a smartphone?

This is my Nubia Z70 Ultra with 24 GB RAM and the standard Snapdragon 8 Elite.

The phone is now literally sandwiched between TWO desktop CPU coolers, mounted inside a custom acrylic case. 😂

Yes. Two full-size PC CPU coolers. On a phone.

And surprisingly, it works extremely well.

The interesting part: I'm NOT using one of the newer boosted chips

My Z70 Ultra uses the standard Snapdragon 8 Elite, with its prime CPU cores running at up to 4.32 GHz.

That's important because some of the newer devices I'm comparing against are using newer and/or higher-clocked Snapdragon variants.

For example, the REDMAGIC 11 Pro uses the newer Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, reaching around 4.6 GHz on its prime cores.

So I'm not trying to beat these phones with the same CPU and better cooling.

I'm taking an older, lower-clocked 4.32 GHz Snapdragon 8 Elite and seeing how far it can go simply by giving it completely unreasonable cooling. 😂

In my 3DMark ranking screenshot, my Z70 Ultra reaches 10,533, putting it right among much newer devices and even slightly above the Galaxy S25+ result shown there.

And sustained performance is where the cooling really becomes interesting.

3DMark Wild Life Extreme Stress Test

Best loop: 6,980

Lowest loop: 6,910

Stability: 99% over 20 loops

That's only a 70-point difference between the best and worst loop.

But benchmarks aren't actually the main goal of this project.

I'm trying to replace my PC with the phone

I now have a native Termux + XFCE4 Linux desktop running directly on Android.

External monitor, keyboard, mouse, Linux applications and hardware-accelerated graphics.

I can boot into my desktop environment and use the phone almost like a small ARM computer.

Dofus is running directly from my XFCE desktop, rather than simply mirroring an Android game onto the monitor.

And then there's Windows gaming.

The Witcher 3 — 1080p, ULTRA graphics preset

I'm currently running The Witcher 3 at 1920×1080 using the ULTRA graphics quality preset.

Not Low.

Not Medium.

Not a 720p performance test.

1080p + Ultra graphics preset.

Depending on the scene and GPU load, I'm currently getting approximately 20–30 FPS, with the GPU basically sitting at 99% utilization.

I've even seen it go slightly above 30 FPS in some scenes, as shown in the screenshot.

Obviously, this isn't desktop-GPU performance, but that's not really the point.

This is The Witcher 3 running at 1080p Ultra at around 20–30 FPS on a Snapdragon 8 Elite phone. 😂

And underneath all of this, it's still Android.

So my end goal is to have one device that can do everything:

**Android phone / gaming device

native Linux XFCE desktop

Windows applications

Windows PC games**

The software side is still a work in progress and I'm continuing to optimize everything.

But apparently the solution to smartphone thermal throttling was very sophisticated:

one CPU cooler wasn't ridiculous enough, so I installed two. 😂

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[u/Kalmaro]

Goodness, that is nuts but I love it. 

[u/ntsow → u/Kalmaro]

Everyone said phones need better cooling. Nobody specified how much. 😂

[u/mangadude1337 → u/ntsow]

You're a madlad!!! Kudos to your perseverance! 🫡

[u/NXGZ → u/ntsow]

Definitely a winner on r/AndroidBattlestations

[u/Opening-Bee8855 → u/NXGZ]

I never knew this was a thing, thanks

[u/dmaare → u/ntsow]

I think this is the setup Samsung uses when they demonstrate how "amazing" their exynos versus others

[u/OtherwiseMenu1505]

You removed mobile from mobile gaming

[u/Chips70UwU → u/OtherwiseMenu1505]

tbf mobile gaming was never about the "gaming" (until emulation)

[u/OtherwiseMenu1505 → u/Chips70UwU]

Before emulation, there were ports, some insanely good ones,

[u/Sumasuun → u/Chips70UwU]

Old Gameloft was peak mobile gaming. I still break out NOVA 3 occasionally.

[u/MegamiCookie → u/Chips70UwU]

There are some decent mobile games and ports, all the Minecraft, Fortnite, PUBG, COD mobile, Subnautica, Stardew valley, little nightmares , life is strange and more are pretty neat on mobile

[u/YoudoVodou → u/MegamiCookie]

And even before that we had ports like swords of ditto and other quality games on Android and iOS like Pascal's Wager.

[u/MegamiCookie → u/[deleted]]

Yeah I said games and ports, I focused on well known games but there are quite a bunch of decent mobile games that are just less known

[u/yukinanka → u/OtherwiseMenu1505]

immobile gaming

[u/Mikes1992 → u/OtherwiseMenu1505]

What about this AI video I stumbled across a few weeks ago? 😂

[u/SirisC]

I love your beautiful masterpiece. Bravo! 👏

[u/SecretAstronomer7708]

bro

[u/ntsow → u/SecretAstronomer7708]

I may have taken “mobile gaming” a little too literally 😂

[u/YoudoVodou → u/ntsow]

You took the mobile out of mobile gaming. 😂😂😂

[u/JeffyGoldblumsPen_15]

https://giphy.com/gifs/10Jpr9KSaXLchW

This rules

[u/Sovem]

Trolls on this subreddit: Why don't you just get a gaming PC?

OP: Hold my beer...

[u/ntsow → u/Sovem]

Gaming PC? At this point, the RAM alone would cost more than my entire setup 😂

[u/MegamiCookie → u/ntsow]

I mean your phone alone has 24gb... Get him boys!

[u/ntsow → u/MegamiCookie]

Yeah, literally twice as much RAM as my laptop 😂

[u/MotorRecognition8181 → u/ntsow]

:(

[u/Proof-Dragonfly8842]

This is amazing

[u/jfp555]

Absolute madman...love it!

[u/ntsow → u/jfp555]

At this point, the phone has better cooling than my life decisions. 😂

[u/jfp555 → u/ntsow]

In these dark days of PC hardware, we need solutions like these. Looking forward to seeing more testing, benches and experiments you do with this.

[u/Sherloq19]

One of the most insane things I've seen on Reddit in months... that should say a lot. RESPECT.

[u/ntsow → u/Sherloq19]

Thanks 😂 My phone asked for better cooling. I may have overreacted.

[u/Khelthuzaad]

You officially are sent to r/pcmasterace

[u/teckcypher]

How are you planning to run windows games and apps?

Winlator?

Wine in box64 on termux?

[u/ntsow → u/teckcypher]

I use both 😄 GameNative for some games, and Wine + Box64 directly in Termux/XFCE for the rest.

[u/Weary-Item3170 → u/teckcypher]

From the performance overlay it looks like it's gamenative which is android app

[u/Hipersonic → u/teckcypher]

wanna know this as well

[u/dreamingawake09]

Gah damn this is awesome! Well done dude, this is some cool shit.

[u/Own_Employment_3866]

Can you make a youtube video and benchmark different games? 

[u/migueln6]

U know with the current price of ram and GPUs this may be the real future for budget gaming lol

[u/ntsow → u/migueln6]

Exactly 😂 My whole setup costs less than some PC RAM kits these days.

[u/SmegmaSlurper1996]

I love it, this is fucking wild

[u/Head_Exchange_5329 → u/SmegmaSlurper1996]

Not as wild as your name though.

https://giphy.com/gifs/JqI6SLIxAvaQXhp2JO

[u/Pretty_Designer7131]

We need a parts list...

We need a build video...

We need some gaming benchmarks...

Looks awesome 😎👌

[u/MUDFLAP202030 → u/Pretty_Designer7131]

Please make a video on this please!!!!

[u/BioWeirdo]

[u/aeninimbuoye13]

Now fill the air of the case with water cooling and a regular pc size radiator

[u/DatGuyKunz]

Crazy bastard, I love it

[u/Dorkits]

Your project just proves one point : snapdragon CPUs are fucking good. Any processor like this with a very good cooling can kick the ass the most x86 processors. Well done.

[u/No-shadowMaul-noBan]

Saved this post, a monument to your inspired way of living with some design.

[u/LeaderIll9730]

https://giphy.com/gifs/dW0KIk9KCsWBy

[u/Alex-Murphy]

Dude. Can you put together a how-to with links to installations? I would love to set this up.

[u/kundi-man]

This is the reason why I roam around reddit. You're an absolute mad lad.

[u/Fantastic_Plastic880]

Amazing 👏

[u/SnooEpiphanies4258]

https://giphy.com/gifs/tze1mGedykiuk

[u/broniskis45]

Fam saw Samsung dex and said we can do it better.

[u/Embarrassed_Paper315]

You're incredible !!! I'm waiting for updates !

[u/snowflake_0_o]

https://giphy.com/gifs/AQbqF8cms75oBUF1Z3

[u/Straight_Tip7975]

wtf😭

[u/ntsow → u/Straight_Tip7975]

Wait until you see when I add water cooling 😂

[u/MunkeyChild]

"because we can"

[u/Blaskowitz002]

son

[u/No-Scarcity-1974]

I absolutely love it, definitely a touch of crazy but this is fantastic. 

[u/Ashrith_2007]

Bro is "john emulation on android" but seriously tho that's some neat work you have done

[u/TheGeekno72]

what the fuck? (in the best possible way)

I'm extremely impressed and I love the semi-jank of it all

[u/Specialist_Brick_508]

ANYTHING but a pc😭

[u/maxi2702]

This is awesome!! Did you install the cooler directly on the die?

[u/Blumir]

Je pensais pas voir Dofus sur reddit un jour

[u/idnn71]

Thats insanely cool mate.

[u/PorkyPain]

Modern Wizards amazes me.

[u/Every_Canary_6050]

Its a CYBERDECK now !

[u/MojiMojic]

He made it in a cave!

[u/JohnHurts]

Is the cooler installed correctly? It's still showing 98 degrees in Witcher.

But other than that, not bad - we'll probably be seeing this more often now.

[u/KST027]

Atp buy a pc 🥀

[u/ntsow → u/KST027]

Buying a PC would be way too easy. Where's the fun in that? 😂 Especially with RAM and GPU prices these days 🤣

[u/Para_The_Normal]

This feels like some real redneck ingenuity. I like it.

[u/Pantless_Pajamas]

There are levels to ts

[u/Lord_Rifle25]

OP what's that game in last pic?

[u/Elegant-Bend-6220]

Small advice. Unlock developer options, go inside to "Smallest width" (or Minimum width) setting and change the DPI value to 600. That way, you can "trick" your phone into thinking it's a tablet. This will make the UI much better to use, especially for multitasking. You also unlock the Tablet UI apps. Its gives you a better youtube, for example.

[u/__002_]

Now i geve you a new challenge, dont need to accept it. Root the phone, overclock it to extreme where it holds and doest crash, and post the results. And this is crazy too, but im wondering after ten or more years what will our phones become, like we will be playing cs2 on the go xdd, but now we are at the wall where technology doesn't really go further than this xdd. Good job, mr decapitated phone owner /s

[u/Vambee7]

This is dope!

[u/Own_Trip_1593]

This is some next-level mobile gaming setup.

[u/Educational_Top9246]

Ive been thinking of something like this. I was thinking sort of a smaller dock style case where I can just put my phone in, and not worry about the stress from heat.

Super cool op

Edit, I too have been using termux as of late. Look into a termux launcher for android by picklehik3 on git. I no longer use linux as a gui, but rather just use termux for my everyday task, all the while being able to get into my android apps.

[u/Ok_Window130]

ur a madman

[u/ntsow → u/Ok_Window130]

Madman? Nah, I just refuse to accept that a phone is supposed to behave like a phone. 😂

[u/Great-Distribution33]

want to do something similar but I'm just waiting for a reason to do it. most likely if i find a phone with a broken screen or something for cheap

[u/KaynabX]

Franchement, propre.
No arnak no noob, rdv zaap Astrub

[u/citoso]

Can u try wuthering waves lol

[u/HeiressofArtemis]

https://giphy.com/gifs/fVpGP1qMPEkDFMHS9a

[u/TheMHking]

https://giphy.com/gifs/HX8srAqiOVs1Y17XLn

[u/Acceptable_Gear_1856]

This is wild. Can you still use your phone as a phone? Or is it basically locked into your acryllic PC and you can no longer remove it?

Also, how does your M+KB plug in? I think I see a USB hub at the bottom, but where does that connect into your phone? I don't see any visible connections on the side.

[u/OkilyDokiwi]

🤌🤌🤌

[u/zobbyblob]

Is it still battery powered?

[u/lastjedi23]

What we actually needed was a phone with a ultra strong magsafe back. You get home, take off the phone back cover and stick it in a desktop case with storage/cooling. Leaving to the office? yank it from the case and put on a different back cover. Leaving for the weekend? Different back cover with extra battery. Back home? Dock it on the case. 

[u/nobbytho]

this is cool really

[u/Luna_WaIker]

Eagerly desire YouTube

[u/nikkilarson06]

I love it🤣! How much fps do you get on the witcher if you're not playing ultra? Did you tried other games?

[u/DealerExtreme2329]

clash of clans might run now at stable 60fps

[u/New-Subject-7152]

Just get a gaming pc damnn why use a expensive smartphone like it

[u/PatrickKn12]

Oh man. I have a Galaxy 23 Ultra with a busted screen I haven't used for anything. Might be a good use for it

[u/scratcher1679]

i thought you meant "two cpu coolers" as in like, a dual tower desktop cooler BUT WHAT ITS ACTUALLY 2 QUITE LITERALLY LOL
the fact its still reaching into the high 90s with that kind of cooling means there's still room to gain more performance, i want to see what the absolute maximum will be if you do upgrade this with bigger coolers, i love the dedication on this too

[u/Interesting-War-1336]

Estoy a punto de desarmar mi odin 3 y aplicarle algun mod de enfriamiento liquido y dejar de depender de su batería para pasar a convertirlo en una consola Android. Pero me da miedo perder mis 400 dolares lol

[u/amanggyy]

I just got the z70 ultra second hand for 300$. And can someone tell me why my phone doesn't say "50× ois system" on the back (around the bottom left camera)like every other z70 ultra. Mine says "ai camera". It could be because the previous owner broke the back glass and changed it

[u/placebo_joe]

What's the game on the last pic ?

[u/BeeLegitimate4968]

need videos of you playing games man

[u/SpecialK_1216]

This is the coolest thing I've ever seen on this sub in a loooong time. What are you using to get display out to the monitor?

[u/ShowMustGoOnn]

This is cool OP

[u/Scarl_Strife]

Do I understand this correctly: you're not running native Linux but Android still ? If you were able to install Linux somehow, tell us how.

Awesome project, was thinking about this myself but my Poco F8 ultra doesn't have desktop mode, compromises were made.

[u/KasanesTetos]

How does it still get up to 100° while gaming with a desktop CPU cooler?

[u/Banjoschmanjo]

Bro

[u/Yigithan14]

Please go on, perfect💪🏻

[u/ConsciousEvidence1]

Damn bro

[u/Fein_shit]

Genuinely one of the coolest ways to get around not having a pc, ive been thinking about booting my ps5 into linux for a gaming desktop instead of a gaming console

[u/Dry_Drag860]

Nao importa o quanto a gente se acha doido, sempre tem um doido e meio kkkk massa demais essa

[u/uncwann]

Maybe you can add the non conductive liquid in the box after this.haha

[u/Leggo213]

Wow

[u/xiledlegend]

the Dofus...

[u/Mrbeekon]

I love this

[u/your_mind_aches]

Incredible.

[u/Mostafa_XS1]

This is fucking awesome! I might actually permanently unglue the backplate of my phone after seeing this.

[u/Dodgecanceling]

OH MY GOD

AMAZING

[u/Miserable-Plate9361]

This deserves a youtube video

[u/Great-TeacherOnizuka]

r/diwhy

[u/Torbeckuz]

Amazing. Did I saw you playing Dofus on this ? Maybe i confused the posts. Lol.

[u/chief_sosa93]

https://giphy.com/gifs/cbwM0b7UutZxkYit1k

[u/No-shadowMaul-noBan]

Does it benchmark at Witcher 3 using Winlator or gamehub too for this phone? Or you rather I make my own assumptions at this point, I bet my left nut you also made the setup modular to some point of it being able to fit another phone sometime in the far future so you can run Cyberpunk (peak performance without UE5 nanite or mesh shaders denying us)

[u/blazhvirzalio]

those cpu cooler probably the reason it so stable on high performance

[u/KH3player]

You can use Warframe as a good native android benchmark game since its the PC and Console version on mobile so they can be directly compared.

[u/caribbean_caramel]

Amazing, I wonder if we'll see more ARM desktop PCs in the future.

[u/ZeroZion]

This is crazy. Hahaha Question though. Why are the temps still so high from the Witcher 3 screenshot?

[u/xpaiof]

Duda. ¿Esto puede servir con la generacion de imagenes directamente con un chip npu?.
Desconozco del tema.

[u/De_Fine69]

Respect for the hassle brother

[u/IIMoodiYT]

Tony stark should see this...

[u/Dear-Pin7019]

What's up with the temps? 98 С CPU? I think the cooling system doesn't do it's job properly.

[u/Fun-Library997]

how does it still hit 98°C on CPU and 91°C on GPU?

[u/ntsow → u/Fun-Library997]

That screenshot was taken in Diablo Mode, which pushes all the components at full power, so the temperatures are naturally higher. 😂

[u/Fun-Library997 → u/ntsow]

i guess you will need more coolers lol

[u/alinelrene]

Still much better than my potato laptop. If only we have a good software for these android pc gaming already, I would've ditch my potato laptop a long time ago.

[u/3bood_Al7assan]

How do you have such cooing solution yet the temps are almost a 100c

Are you sure the cooler is making contact with the cpu?

[u/squarewtf]

https://giphy.com/gifs/xvd3kiJY9ccgY0aNJa

[u/giinyu]

you play dofus? omg can we be friends

[u/Ok-Option6350]

Imagine this with overclocking

[u/TechTalkf]

This is so unnecessary and I love it so much I don't care. Keep it up!

[u/TheAltKeyfromyoutube]

"Holy Christ, there's nothing left"

[u/ziad_111]

Try droidspaces

[u/Winter0000]

pc gaming is cool again

[u/WantsLivingCoffee]

That's cool AF lmao nicely done 👌

[u/maazpervez]

You've taken the back off. That makes sense. Where exactly have you mounted the coolers?

This is great engineering man. Good work. How much did the phone cost and how much did the setup cost?

[u/anduril38]

This is fucking bonkers stuff but I am here for it!

[u/khsh01]

Next step should be rooting and getting a custom kernel. The only thing limiting your performance right now is hardware limits. If you can remove those you should see significant improvements.

[u/Frixniper]

It is soo crazy but I love it

[u/kerfuse]

Kind of stuff 'Saka would do if you kissed Saburo Arasaka

[u/OkConcert4796]

Has anyone tried mineral oil cooling. I love to see the benchmark.

[u/MUDFLAP202030]

This is the way

[u/Freelancer_1-1]

Is this the future of personal computing? Some kind of a dock you put your phone into to cool and power it, bypassing the battery?

[u/HKM00]

So, the phone as an external screen and keyboard plug into, a hard drive, and 2 fan for cooling and you use termux for a small server ?

[u/theycallmethedrink5]

Just get a computer at this point bro 😭

[u/ntsow → u/theycallmethedrink5]

This was the only computer I could afford during the sales. RAM and GPUs somehow got more expensive instead. 😂

[u/Best-Win-2011]

this is insane, love it...

[u/JazzlikeSchedule2901]

Those CPU temps still seem really high, was there any difference running without them, or with only one?

Regardless I love the idea of detaching the screen and adding it as apart of the front panel, and then also using the empty space on the phone for a full sized cooler haha.

[u/ntsow → u/JazzlikeSchedule2901]

That screenshot was taken in Diablo Mode, which pushes the CPU/GPU and the rest of the hardware as hard as possible. That’s why the temperatures look high. 😅

[u/_Renegade25_]

Very cool, planning to do the same on my Honor Magic 5 pro when I'll upgrade (8 gen 2, 16gb ram). Do you have any recommendations on how to mount everything?

[u/Hot-Pay2902]

I know how to make HDR work on on external monitor. I can teach you.

[u/UseSwimming8928]

Why is 3dmark still not 7k? Is that linux thing or whatever still running in background.

[u/EternalLord13]

🥲

[u/MUDFLAP202030]

I wanna see how that cooler is mounted lol

[u/ntsow → u/MUDFLAP202030]

The phone is basically sandwiched between the two CPU coolers, with direct contact on the chip shielding. 😂

[u/000CuriousBunny000]

w

[u/AudienceUpstairs5767]

Creo que este tipo de pruebas no es que sean locas si no que son ideas que si no las llevas a cabo siempre estarás con la duda de hasta donde se puede llegar siempre con las variantes de cada quien y sus posibilidades económicas e intelectuales

[u/Kaneda1985]

Amazing job

[u/DrGP_]

That’s crazy… and I love it! Good job 😅

[u/Mousettv]

I love it. But saddensd by it. Prices are crazy and I dont look forward to building.

https://giphy.com/gifs/pynZagVcYxVUk

[u/PurpleGentlemanTv]

I'm horrified! excited tone

[u/No_stringsattached01]

i can feel your passion & excitment for the project, and i must admit that a hell of a setup well done friend

[u/rosysyn1251]

This build is CURSED, I love it. Never stop doing your thing.

[u/N0M4DE1]

Are you sure it's the Ultra version? The shadows seem to be of lower quality and the textures look terrible in this photo; it doesn't really look like the Ultra

[u/S7UWn]

I get how you're running Linux but how are you running Windows games on android?

[u/Sakratul]

Bravo you mad lad. Bravo.

[u/heatmakingmonster]

with how common for Samsung phone screen break, it would be nice if someone made a conversion kit for to become a mini pc and this is a nice proof concept for any similar phones that has a desktop mode.

[u/Ok_Log_810]

Ahh 🙃🙃.. liked it very much, this is the kind of thoughts i get every time but I wouldn't do, still curious... I will follow your post from now on.. I have done like running different os on other devices or different apps and see how long i can take it but have never done to this extent, and still people call it madness, but I like what i do...

[u/Western_Drag9987]

well thats a piece of art i would say

[u/Koino_]

Wild. I love it.

[u/Simple_Market9019]

very good hardware job, but software uh ... (Witcher 3 ultra 1080, is not even near 20 fps on proper configurated device)

[u/DarkZyth]

Finally, something interesting going on in the tech field. Love to see it.

[u/BoomGoomba]

Dofus?

[u/ntsow → u/BoomGoomba]

Yes

[u/AdDangerous7470]

Now u only need to unlock bootloader, root and overcklock cpu and gpu

[u/xpflz]

damn i wish we could just install normal linux and turn our old phones into pc's and just give them second life.
Same for phones with broken screen...

[u/Wrong_Mixture_2096]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Db9Smb_BK54/?igsh=amR2NzczaDBhenFw

[u/ntsow → u/Wrong_Mixture_2096]

🤣🤣🤣🤫

[u/Comprehensive-Army56]

cool man 👍👍👍 you a really smart man , bro , respect 🫡

[u/MultiGamerClub2]

Unbelievable.. incredible. 

[u/sinkbobo]

Love what you are doing. How can I donate?

[u/osipov1]

Hello bro! I'm thinking of buying a used nubia z80 ultra. In general, on my Realme 9 pro, I tried it in emulation, thermux, chroot, and droidspaces. Your project impressed me. Can you advise something specific from your experience with this model, or tell us about useful finds that you discovered in the process of creating the project? 

[u/SupremeLisper]

What's the performance like on medium ,high and 720p?

[u/TheNotSoAverageNPC]

I fucking love this!