Wirelessly powered hardware components?

[SpartanAmy107]

Like we have wireless chargers for phones right now, is it conceivable that in 10 or so eyars time we'll do away with all the wires inside our PC cases and the PSU will transfer the electricity around the case and each component will just take from that what it needs, you wont be struggling for connector adapters every again...

 

Obviously, they'd have to have overcome the flaws they have with the technology now, like range, position angles and power capacity.

 

Just thought I'd share the thoughts I had today with you all.

[Droidbot]

3 minutes ago, SpartanAmy107 said:

Like we have wireless chargers for phones right now, is it conceivable that in 10 or so eyars time we'll do away with all the wires inside our PC cases and the PSU will transfer the electricity around the case and each component will just take from that what it needs, you wont be struggling for connector adapters every again...

 

Obviously, they'd have to have overcome the flaws they have with the technology now, like range, position angles and power capacity.

 

Just thought I'd share the thoughts I had today with you all.

PCI-W

 

PCI-E power. Just you plug one cable into the motherboard and bam, powered all by the extra wireless connection on the card. 

[Froody129]

6 minutes ago, Droidbot said:

PCI-W

 

PCI-E power. Just you plug one cable into the motherboard and bam, powered all by the extra wireless connection on the card. 

How do you make sure the power does into the component, and not some pesky human in the way

[Droidbot]

Just now, Froody129 said:

How do you make sure the power does into the component, and not some pesky human in the way

Same way Qi charging works. Look it up

[tom_w141]

22 minutes ago, SpartanAmy107 said:

Like we have wireless chargers for phones right now, is it conceivable that in 10 or so eyars time we'll do away with all the wires inside our PC cases and the PSU will transfer the electricity around the case and each component will just take from that what it needs, you wont be struggling for connector adapters every again...

 

Obviously, they'd have to have overcome the flaws they have with the technology now, like range, position angles and power capacity.

 

Just thought I'd share the thoughts I had today with you all.

 

Based on the current way we "wirelessly" charge devices - no. We charge via induction and if you have ever owned a wireless charger you have probably stopped using it because you'll have noticed its 2-3x longer to charge than a wire.

 

Also if you have ever owned a wireless device e.g. a phone then you'll know there is a sweet spot on the charging pad and being a few cm off will result in none or intermittent power delivery.

Now imagine all your higher wattage PC components needing constant uninterrupted power. They would need to be very close to the coil of the psu (thats how induction works) meaning that your components would all be right next to each other and adjacent to the psu (like it would have to be case central?) then goodbye thermals and component performance will vary wildly by case design.

 

Wireless is not necessarily better or the future. Yes its convenient in some applications like Wi-Fi on mobile phone but just like in the case of internet the wired connection will always be champ.

Tldr: No absolutely not unless we find a better way to delivery power wirelessly than induction (unlikely)

Source:  Am electrical/electronic engineer

[LogicalDrm]

So far I've only heard something like that in sci-fi. Chixin Liu's Dark Forest to be exact. We are about 150 years and one alien invasion threat away from no batteries era.

[MrDynamicMan]

Not to mention: its much simpler just to wire everything up: given that the case will be opened very rarely anyway.

[Coldfuson]

1 hour ago, MrDynamicMan said:

Not to mention: its much simpler just to wire everything up: given that the case will be opened very rarely anyway.

but... but... but... tempered glass!

[corrado33]

5 hours ago, SpartanAmy107 said:

Like we have wireless chargers for phones right now, is it conceivable that in 10 or so eyars time we'll do away with all the wires inside our PC cases and the PSU will transfer the electricity around the case and each component will just take from that what it needs, you wont be struggling for connector adapters every again...

 

Obviously, they'd have to have overcome the flaws they have with the technology now, like range, position angles and power capacity.

 

Just thought I'd share the thoughts I had today with you all.

No.

 

We've been trying to get wireless power for many many years now. Something even Tesla messed with. It takes too many Volts to transfer electricity through the air safely. Induction chargers are nothing more than transformers with two separable coils. 

[MrDynamicMan]

3 hours ago, Coldfuson said:

but... but... but... tempered glass!

Even then, your not constantly going to be picking up and putting back doen your CPU, its really unlikely that the motherboard will have to be hermedically (sp?) sealed, or that the parts that need hotswapping will have to not physically touch the rest of the system, or even a data connector like a usbc port.

[tlink]

no, probably never. transmitting it wireless requires you to transfer it trough air. i can imagine a solution with high powered lasers and photoelectric generators but that would also be REALLY inefficient and create more problems than it solved, and it would require line of sight and calibration etc. you might as well create a robotic arm that automatically installs everything for you because that will probably be cheaper, more energy efficient and less resource intensive. i mean its already pretty easy and cheap to build a robot to do something like that. wireless power transmission will never out compete something like that.

on a side note though is that if we eventually move to photon based processors instead of electron based processors than the laser idea would become somewhat feasible but at that point you probably don't need any additional connectors, everything will probably receive a photon stream (aka: light) trough the motherboard anyways. this ofcourse all is incredibly speculative to the point that i would call it an educated sci-fi. 

[Simon771]

I don't think that will ever happen.

Maybe we will see motherboard that will be able to power 200W on GPU via PCI-E.

 

It could be done for fans ... they require very little power. But it would increase cost way too much.

 

It seems pointless to me, to have anything like that. With good case you can make such a nice cable managment.

Without cables it would look kinda naked