If you're one of the black magic enthusiasts who would do anything to impress their friends during a LAN party, here's the right tool for the job: a box-like PC that runs with no hardware. However, you should rest at ease, because it's not a technology miracle, but rather an optical illusion that's worth the invested money.

The "Hell's Illusion PC" is a fully-functional desktop model encased in a glass box. Users can see through the box - more to the point, through all the hardware components inside. At the first look, you can't tell whether it's an empty fish tank or a fully-fledged desktop PC.

In fact, the glass box looks like anything but a computer. It is small, with a fully customizable case and, most of all, it's empty. Inside the case, there is an optical illusion that appears to be a 3-D object hanging in the air, but instead, it serves in hiding the computer's entire hardware (mini-ITX motherboard, video adapter and a slot loading DVD writer, among other things).

The system has been built during the NextGen PC design competition; more than that, it is fully functional and ready for mass-availability, although it needs some visual tweaks before it lands on the shelves.

"My design submission aims to enhance the personalization aspect of the personal computer by allowing the user to easily theme their PC to fit their individual likes or interests and thereby make each computer more closely match its owner", writes the submitter. "The design also aims to make the computer look less like a computer, to the point that when it's turned off you wouldn't even think it was a computer at all", he continued.

The cube-shaped computer features a built-in 6 inch TFT LCD monitor, a Matrix Orbital MX222 2x16 character VFD display, as well as a TV tuner card. It is remotely controlled via a wireless desktop set (keyboard and mouse) to sharpen the illusion.

There is no word on pricing and availability at the moment, but the tiny boxed desktop PCs could be tomorrow's next digital trend.