I designed my perfect gaming PC, then threw it away

[LapsedMemory]

17 minutes ago, nhand42 said:

No I get the concept. I'm saying I don't get the point. It would be like having an Audi R8 V10 and thinking "I really don't like how loud this V10 engine is" so you attach a box trailer to your car, relocate the V10 to the back of the box trailer, then run electric cords to an EV swap engine in the Audi. "Hey this is really quiet now" but I don't see the point of doing all that for a compromised half-assed car with poor handling.

 

You could just get a car with a smaller engine.

 

Someone who buys an audi R8 V10 wants to hear the engine while they drive.  No one wants to listen to their PC cooling system while they're trying to game.  

[ToboRobot]

55 minutes ago, nhand42 said:

No I get the concept. I'm saying I don't get the point. It would be like having an Audi R8 V10 and thinking "I really don't like how loud this V10 engine is" so you attach a box trailer to your car, relocate the V10 to the back of the box trailer, then run electric cords to an EV swap engine in the Audi. "Hey this is really quiet now" but I don't see the point of doing all that for a compromised half-assed car with poor handling.

 

You could just get a car with a smaller engine.

 

Coil whine and fan noise are not part of the enjoyable experience of using a computer (to play games). 

Notice how racing sim players don't get bugs shot at their face when driving open top cars for an authentic bug in your mouth experience. 

Luxury cars like Rolls Royce are known for their silence inside.  Silence is nice.  Ambient fan noise and coil whine doesn't make fragging more fun.

 

[nhand42]

10 minutes ago, ToboRobot said:

Coil whine and fan noise are not part of the enjoyable experience of using a computer (to play games).

I feel like y'all are missing that a *compromised* gaming system is even worse than a little coil whine and fan noise. Playing a game over a fibre extender is an instant downgrade. The LTT video mentions only a few of the funnier issues like remote power. In reality it's a niche solution because it makes the experience worse and very few people care that much about noise they're willing to take the downgrade.

 

And let's be real I've *never* heard coil whine or fan noise from my PC.  I've got a Fractal Torrent case less than three feet from my head and I can't hear it all. I feel bad for all the gamers out there living in misery and unable to enjoy their gaming! Maybe invest in some ear plugs? Or get a PC which doesn't spit fire and brimstone, hardly any games need that kind of power anyway.

 

Anyway I hear all your points. If you're living in a hotbox with no windows or aircon and coil whine that's making you deaf and fans that roar like an Audi R8 and you can afford to spend $5000 on fibre extenders and a basement and rackmount cases, it's your money. I don't see the point. I'd rather buy a better PC.

 

It's still a funny video.

 

[Ultraforce]

4 hours ago, nhand42 said:

I feel like y'all are missing that a *compromised* gaming system is even worse than a little coil whine and fan noise. Playing a game over a fibre extender is an instant downgrade. The LTT video mentions only a few of the funnier issues like remote power. In reality it's a niche solution because it makes the experience worse and very few people care that much about noise they're willing to take the downgrade.

 

And let's be real I've *never* heard coil whine or fan noise from my PC.  I've got a Fractal Torrent case less than three feet from my head and I can't hear it all. I feel bad for all the gamers out there living in misery and unable to enjoy their gaming! Maybe invest in some ear plugs? Or get a PC which doesn't spit fire and brimstone, hardly any games need that kind of power anyway.

 

Anyway I hear all your points. If you're living in a hotbox with no windows or aircon and coil whine that's making you deaf and fans that roar like an Audi R8 and you can afford to spend $5000 on fibre extenders and a basement and rackmount cases, it's your money. I don't see the point. I'd rather buy a better PC.

 

It's still a funny video.

 

To be fair some of the issues revolve around various choices that make the experience worse.

I will say as someone who has a Fractal Torrent and specifically uses a thunderbolt dock for most things, normally when I have my Fractal Torrent up on the desk instead due to needing to get stuff changed with the dock It's audible even if it's not the most annoying.

It could be different when you are going beyond using a Thunderbolt 4 connection to connect your dock and PC, but at least for my situation I really don't see an improvement in experience from when stuff was going through the dock to when things were connected directly. Though I am also only using a 2m thunderbolt cable and just turn on my computer directly. If I was to pretend it was in a different room I feel that setting up some sort of PiKVM set up and a smart home script would be the right option.

But given what Linus wants that's not how things are going to be even though it would allow for Yvonne to not worry about stuff nearly as much if there was just a button to press that would communicate to the PiKVM to turn on her computer.

[Required]

Sadly the Icron stuff is sssoooo expencive (and works good...). Are there some "Asian" Equivalents?

I use both an Icron USB via Glasfiber also an Chinese one who work both equaly good.

[XNOR]

In this week's episode, Adam looks thoughtful in the background. They also build a computer or something.

 

On 8/8/2023 at 3:42 AM, nhand42 said:

I don't see the point in these "racked" gaming PCs. Not yet anyway. Maybe when streaming over the network gets good (it's not good yet). Until then you can get a SFF PC with discrete GPU or even a mini-PC with an APU and it'll play games just fine. You can get a Ryzen 9 7940HS mini PC and it's the same size as a cheese sandwich.

 

I get that it's entertainment in the same vein as the over-the-top cooling rigs or that industrial fan you had last week. But this one has me scratching my head. Why?

I'm probably telling you something you already know, but Linus' setup isn't streaming over the network. It's effectively directly attached, just over fiber optic cables and longer than usual distances. There shouldn't be any difference from sitting next to the box. Also note that the computers they're using are fairly powerful, and will kick out of a lot of heat. That can suck when it's a single PC in a room, but when it's five of them combined with heat producing and oxygen sucking humans, it can genuinely become a problem within the hour. It wouldn't be too hard to vent 3 kilowatt or more into a room that way.

 

Although streaming over the network already is surprisingly good. I've been experimenting with Steam Link. Streaming even over a competent wireless connection didn't work great, but once everything was attached with a wired connection, it was pretty seamless. I haven't tried the most demanding and time sensitive twitch shooters as the setup on the receiving end isn't great for that, but anything else seems to work fine. I forgot I was playing over a network within minutes and was simply playing the games, which is a great sign. I'm sure there is a distinct delay or additional ping, but it's at a point where playing on a television instead of a monitor might make a bigger difference than the remote link itself.

[XNOR]

15 hours ago, nhand42 said:

I feel like y'all are missing that a *compromised* gaming system is even worse than a little coil whine and fan noise. Playing a game over a fibre extender is an instant downgrade. The LTT video mentions only a few of the funnier issues like remote power. In reality it's a niche solution because it makes the experience worse and very few people care that much about noise they're willing to take the downgrade.

 

And let's be real I've *never* heard coil whine or fan noise from my PC.  I've got a Fractal Torrent case less than three feet from my head and I can't hear it all. I feel bad for all the gamers out there living in misery and unable to enjoy their gaming! Maybe invest in some ear plugs? Or get a PC which doesn't spit fire and brimstone, hardly any games need that kind of power anyway.

 

Anyway I hear all your points. If you're living in a hotbox with no windows or aircon and coil whine that's making you deaf and fans that roar like an Audi R8 and you can afford to spend $5000 on fibre extenders and a basement and rackmount cases, it's your money. I don't see the point. I'd rather buy a better PC.

 

It's still a funny video.

 

What exactly is compromised about it? The gaming experience itself sure isn't, if the setup works correctly. The management surrounding it may or may not be more finicky.

 

Also, if you never hear your PC at three feet you either do not have high end components, or may have hearing issues. I never hear my HTPC either, but I sure do hear my gaming PC, even though the former only has a tiny aluminum heat sink and the latter has hundreds of dollars worth of cooling solutions in it, and a massive cumulative cooling area. I do know which one is a better gaming experience, though.

 

And sure, more experimental setups like these, with their boons and drawbacks included, are the privilege of having disposable income. The general public will tend to prefer practical commodity options, but the better stuff in this world tends to be tailor made to suit the owner's tastes and needs.

[Required]

I am curiose if Linus is that rich to pay for all the Electric Power Bill.

[Alvin853]

14 hours ago, Ultraforce said:

To be fair some of the issues revolve around various choices that make the experience worse.

I will say as someone who has a Fractal Torrent and specifically uses a thunderbolt dock for most things, normally when I have my Fractal Torrent up on the desk instead due to needing to get stuff changed with the dock It's audible even if it's not the most annoying.

It could be different when you are going beyond using a Thunderbolt 4 connection to connect your dock and PC, but at least for my situation I really don't see an improvement in experience from when stuff was going through the dock to when things were connected directly. Though I am also only using a 2m thunderbolt cable and just turn on my computer directly. If I was to pretend it was in a different room I feel that setting up some sort of PiKVM set up and a smart home script would be the right option.

But given what Linus wants that's not how things are going to be even though it would allow for Yvonne to not worry about stuff nearly as much if there was just a button to press that would communicate to the PiKVM to turn on her computer.

IIRC Linus had a thunderbolt setup in the past, but he kept having issues with devices disconnecting, not properly waking up from sleep, not being able to use the full refresh rate on the monitor, and other weird quirks. So for the new setup he's using separate USB and display connections. I'm not too familiar with TB4 and how resilient it is for a setup like this, and I don't think he requires thunderbolt for anything, so better to try the simple stuff first

[Ultraforce]

8 hours ago, Alvin853 said:

IIRC Linus had a thunderbolt setup in the past, but he kept having issues with devices disconnecting, not properly waking up from sleep, not being able to use the full refresh rate on the monitor, and other weird quirks. So for the new setup he's using separate USB and display connections. I'm not too familiar with TB4 and how resilient it is for a setup like this, and I don't think he requires thunderbolt for anything, so better to try the simple stuff first

I do wonder if the fact he was using Thunderbolt 2 was a contributor. I do know I've been lucky since there are very few AMD thunderbolt 4 motherboards and officially Caldigit doesn't even bother with Linux. Though yeah I do imagine that fiber optics are theoretically better but also the Thunderbolt solution is under $500 USD vs the over $1000 for the Icron docks.

[red.avtovo]

I'm slightly ashamed, that Linus used the card with such a short range.

I got inspired by that solution. Googled a bit slightly better one, found nothing and eventually in 2 days prepared my (slightly wanky) solution, that covers every single use case that I can imagine (except of the total blackout)

 

That's how I see my switch in Home Assistant.

 

Nicely embedded in the case. As the source of power, I used a USB header to USB adapter

 

I attached together my ESP D1 Mini and 5V Relay to power up the PC and a set of diode and resistor to see the power status