Rack-mounted Windows system with physical device connection

[jordan_wills]

Budget (including currency): Any £ - long-term planning as I imagine it'll be an expensive project

Country: UK

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Web dev, software dev, Docker, Unity, Games, stuff like that, most at the same time 

 

TLDR, I work from home as a QA lead and software developer and I'm a game enthusiast, meaning I have a good PC (12600kf, 3060ti, etc.) but I struggle with the noise and heat that my PC generates, it causes constant migraines, makes me feel nauseous, puts me off working and gaming constantly. Ideally, I want to move my PC into a small server rack and put it in a garage where it's nice and chilly, and importantly: far away from me

 

This leaves a problem though: How can I reliably connect to it with as little latency as possible? I would prefer it to be a physical connection of any kind, and I'd appreciate any suggestions/solutions Bare in mind, I have a keyboard, mouse, USB headset, a standalone mic, speakers (3.5mm jack), and 2 monitors (3440x1440 165hz, 1920x1080 60hz)... so interfacing/bandwidth may become a bottleneck of its own

Thank you for any help!

Jordan

[jaslion]

Just long cables.

 

No joke an optical displayport cable and then a long range usb link. Potentially over ethernet if its more than 20m.

 

Add cables as needed. Like a cheap optical hdmi for the second screen.

 

For speakers some decent copper wire can carry audio a LOOOOOOOOOOONG way. Or just toslink convertor box -> toslink fiber -> convertor box back to 3.5

 

 

[manikyath]

you live in the UK.. there is no universe in which that climate plus "just one PC" nets a room so hot it actually makes you ill.

 

as for the noise.. either you have a condition, or you need to stop using blowiematrons for cooling.

 

i have a 5800x and GTX970 in my desktop, and right next to that is an epyc 7313P with 3 GPU's. if i keep the window and door to my room both closed temps do get a bit on the high side, but nothing ridiculous.

 

putting your computer in the garage is a very costly endavour, depending on your preferences even more costly than installing aircon.. when this problem really just sounds like you need to hydrate more, and maybe get a better CPU cooler to reduce noise.

also - depending on your monitor setup you might actually overlook a pretty major source of heat.. if you have a double or triple monitor setup you could be pretty close to 100 watts just from those.

[jordan_wills]

15 hours ago, jaslion said:

Just long cables.

 

No joke an optical displayport cable and then a long range usb link. Potentially over ethernet if its more than 20m.

 

Add cables as needed. Like a cheap optical hdmi for the second screen.

 

For speakers some decent copper wire can carry audio a LOOOOOOOOOOONG way. Or just toslink convertor box -> toslink fiber -> convertor box back to 3.5

 

 

Do you think it would be practical to use something like Thunderbolt instead? I.e. Thunderbolt to a breakout box which can handle audio, video, peripherals, etc.

[jordan_wills]

14 hours ago, manikyath said:

you live in the UK.. there is no universe in which that climate plus "just one PC" nets a room so hot it actually makes you ill.

 

as for the noise.. either you have a condition, or you need to stop using blowiematrons for cooling.

 

i have a 5800x and GTX970 in my desktop, and right next to that is an epyc 7313P with 3 GPU's. if i keep the window and door to my room both closed temps do get a bit on the high side, but nothing ridiculous.

 

putting your computer in the garage is a very costly endavour, depending on your preferences even more costly than installing aircon.. when this problem really just sounds like you need to hydrate more, and maybe get a better CPU cooler to reduce noise.

also - depending on your monitor setup you might actually overlook a pretty major source of heat.. if you have a double or triple monitor setup you could be pretty close to 100 watts just from those.

I appreciate the reply, but between thick insulation and no air conditioning, it makes it very easy to heat a room, cooling it down can be tough though - especially with increasingly hot summers

 

I currently have a Kraken AIO, which is great! And an NZXT H5 Flow with a bunch of fans, but all of the exhausted heat winds up recirculating, and if I want it to be consistently cooler by running the fans higher, the noise gets pretty unruly

 

I'm very much looking for a long-term solution, so I think the garage is the only worthwhile bet - the UK doesn't really do aircon, so purchasing and maintaining would be expensive - but I do think you've raised a great point, the monitors definitely could be kicking out a lot of ambient heat!

[BentleyOwen123]

14 minutes ago, jordan_wills said:

Do you think it would be practical to use something like Thunderbolt instead? I.e. Thunderbolt to a breakout box which can handle audio, video, peripherals, etc.

yea, thunderbolt has VERY LOW latency, if you could run a thunderbolt hub to your desktop, and plug in through there, it would be great, btw linus has done this in his own home, might be worth a watch, optical for display, and thunderbolt for everything else and you should be good

[BentleyOwen123]

8 minutes ago, jordan_wills said:

I appreciate the reply, but between thick insulation and no air conditioning, it makes it very easy to heat a room, cooling it down can be tough though - especially with increasingly hot summers

 

I currently have a Kraken AIO, which is great! And an NZXT H5 Flow with a bunch of fans, but all of the exhausted heat winds up recirculating, and if I want it to be consistently cooler by running the fans higher, the noise gets pretty unruly

 

I'm very much looking for a long-term solution, so I think the garage is the only worthwhile bet - the UK doesn't really do aircon, so purchasing and maintaining would be expensive - but I do think you've raised a great point, the monitors definitely could be kicking out a lot of ambient heat!

thats possible, but your monitors arent going to heat up your room very much, exhaust fans pulling hot air of 90c parts and blowing it at you will haha

[BentleyOwen123]

Just now, BentleyOwen123 said:

thats possible, but your monitors arent going to heat up your room very much, exhaust fans pulling hot air of 90c parts and blowing it at you will haha

a small portable ac unit wouldn't be a bad bet, some units go in windows and pull hot air out and push cold air in

[manikyath]

23 minutes ago, jordan_wills said:

I'm very much looking for a long-term solution, so I think the garage is the only worthwhile bet - the UK doesn't really do aircon, so purchasing and maintaining would be expensive

the long term solution *is* aircon, and i fail to believe the UK's aircon market is any worse than belgium's.

[Brian McKee]

15 hours ago, manikyath said:

you live in the UK.. there is no universe in which that climate plus "just one PC" nets a room so hot it actually makes you ill.

Some people are more sensitive than others. Depending on the rig and the size of the room it can make a huge difference in room feel. Computers at the end of the day are just space heaters that are capable of doing work.

[manikyath]

2 minutes ago, Brian McKee said:

Some people are more sensitive than others. Depending on the rig and the size of the room it can make a huge difference in room feel.

yes.. you can heat a room with a pc to the point of a snowflake being uncomfortable.. but no, it makes no sense to invest the 4-digit pricetag of moving the computer to the garage when that's not even half of the heat in the room.. and one could just open the window or door to immediately resolve the problem.

 

and if you have a need to go below outside temperature, we're back to those 4 digits making A LOT more sense in an aircon.

[Brian McKee]

1 minute ago, manikyath said:

yes.. you can heat a room with a pc to the point of a snowflake being uncomfortable.. but no, it makes no sense to invest the 4-digit pricetag of moving the computer to the garage when that's not even half of the heat in the room.. and one could just open the window or door to immediately resolve the problem.

 

and if you have a need to go below outside temperature, we're back to those 4 digits making A LOT more sense in an aircon.

I've had central air my whole life and I've had room/computer configs that have made me uncomfortable. If the guy wants the computer out of the room more power to him. Personally I'd try to switch to a much lower power computer.

[jaslion]

5 hours ago, jordan_wills said:

Do you think it would be practical to use something like Thunderbolt instead? I.e. Thunderbolt to a breakout box which can handle audio, video, peripherals, etc.

Desktop and laptop thunderbolt act VERY different.

 

Desktop thunderbolt needs a display in this also means it only carries ONE display signal max.

 

Also doinf this over any larger distance than 2m goes into 4 digit price immediatly.

 

Its extremely expensive and also not 100% reliable all the time since its desktop add in thunderbolt.

 

The cheapest and most reliable solution is just running cables.

 

You can also display port mst if your screens support it and only have 1 usb, 1 dp port cable and 1 audio cable if even needed run

 

 

 

[Blue4130]

20 hours ago, Brian McKee said:

I've had central air my whole life and I've had room/computer configs that have made me uncomfortable. If the guy wants the computer out of the room more power to him. Personally I'd try to switch to a much lower power computer.

A 12600 and a 3060 ti isn't exactly that high of a power consuming system...

[Brian McKee]

53 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

A 12600 and a 3060 ti isn't exactly that high of a power consuming system...

In a small room without AC and an inefficient PS it sure can be lol. I had lower power equipment and it became unbearable.