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Ask Slashdot: Making a 'Wife Friendly' Gaming PC?
shadeshope writes Having just gotten married, I find that for some inexplicable reason my wife doesn't like my huge, noisy, 'ugly' gaming PC being in the living room. I have tried hiding it in a TV cabinet: still too noisy. I have placed it in another room and run HDMI and USB cables, but the propagation delay caused horrible tearing and lag when playing games. Have any other slashdotters encountered this problem? I don't want to buy a console (Steam sales let me game so cheaply), or mess with water cooling. Ideally I would just hide it in the attic, is there some wireless technology that would be fast enough for gaming use? I have become quite attached to 'behemoth.' I have been upgrading him for years and he is the centre of my digital life. I run plex home theatre, media centre, steam, iTunes and air server. Will I have to do my gaming in the spare room? Once I have sorted this small problem going to try and make a case for the efficacy of a projector to replace the television..... it takes up less space, motorized screen could be hidden when not in use, etc.
Your wife just wants to make the house more kiddie friendly. Get a laptop.
Why UNIX?
Get a less noisy system. How hard is that to figure out?
Get a case that has one or two 120mm or larger fans for airflow. They generate much MUCH less noise than 80mm fans and still push enough air to keep the thing chilled.
Switch CPU/GPU fans to ones that only turn on when needed, and are off while the system is at a cool idle temp.
Switch your HDD out for an SSD, and use network storage for your bulk storage. Gigabit Ethernet is ~100MB/sec and so is a rotational disk, so you're not gonna see much different in performance here (assuming your network doesn't suck)
you have a good prenup
Alternatively, marry someone who respects your hobbies.
What are you doing "gaming" in the living room? Dude, you are now MARRIED. Turn the spare bedroom into your "man cave". The living room is your wife's domain.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
I have placed it in another room and run HDMI and USB cables, but the propagation delay caused horrible tearing and lag when playing games
Eh? This sounds more like crappy cables, than anything else. Propagation delay on an extra 10-feet of cables is hardly measurable much less noticeable.
Find another wife.
Along the same lines, does anybody have a good recommendation for a living room projector?
It would need to be 1080p (minimum!) and quiet but otherwise anything considered.
wot no sig
You have a wife learn to read the signals its not the noisy machine but the fact your spending too much time gaming. Or like a former friend of mine you will have the best gaming machine but No wife or kids and quite likely no real friends
Your'e all thinking it, I just said it for you
Once I have sorted this small problem going to try and make a case for the efficacy of a projector to replace the television..... it takes up less space, motorized screen could be hidden when not in use, etc.
Just buy a flat-screen already. The picture is better than you'll get with a projector, you won't have to worry about people walking in front of it and casting a shadow on the screen, and really, a flatscreen by itself looks so much better than a projector and motorized screen hanging from the ceiling - and can be moved a lot easier when re-arranging the room. Projectors are so '90s.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Just do your gaming in the spare room. Put a small quiet/silent PC in the living room for media centre stuff if you cannot live without a living room PC.
Also, I'd have to advise against replacing the TV with a projector. They're hellishly expensive if you get one with decent resolution, require a pitch black room to look any good, effectively prevent rearranging the living room, etc.
Isn't this supposed to be what steam big picture is for. Playing games on your television in another room from you computer?
If the literature is correct, that would just make this ask slashdot just another slashavedisment .
/* TODO: Spawn child process, interest child in technology, have child write a new sig */
Have you tried putting her in a cabinet?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Yes, make his wife wear headphones around the house whenever the PC is running. Brilliant idea.
I build home systems sometimes for clients, and the Wife Factor is frequently the most critical aspect. This has been true since I started in 1985, but is more true now as computers have become essential to so many households.
In my experience, the Fractal Design cases (e.g, the Define R4) have two wife-pleasing qualities:
(1) They are simple, elegant, unadorned museum quality sculpture-like mini-monoliths; and
(2) They are literally almost completely silent. I don't mean merely quiet, I mean you cannot tell whether the system is on or off. This is with fans, not water cooling.
Understand that this may not solve your real problem, which may be the mere presence of the machine in the living room. What it will do is force an honest exposure of the real issue, and besides that you'll still have a great case you can migrate components into and out of for years and years. Also it means you don't need a new rig, just new clothes for for the rig you already have.
Note that I do not have any relationship with that company aside from buying their cases for some system builds where they fit best. I will say that they are superbly designed inside, and the designers obviously build systems themselves. You'll know what I mean if you get one.
Twice as crazy as I would be if I was half as crazy as I am.
I have placed it in another room and run HDMI and USB cables, but the propagation delay caused horrible tearing and lag when playing games
The signals travel at the speed of light. How far away is your room?
soylentnews.org
... not the PC itself, but the fact that you still seem to want to live the same life as a married man that you lived as a single man. You said your vows, now show that they mean something. Spend time with your wife. Talk with her about the new lives you are starting together.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
If you assume someone who wears a kilt (or other masculine skirted garment) hasn't grown a pair, perhaps you need to grow a pair.
What are you doing "gaming" in the living room? Dude, you are now MARRIED.
So plug in two USB gamepads and play video games that you both enjoy.
I just measured (it's on an UPS): It's using a little over 400W at top effect (Valley benchmark). It peaks at only 55 degrees water temperature.
An alternative solution is of course steam stream. I'm surprised noone mentioned this. Then a NUC or so in the livingroom would be enough.
Corsair, Fractal, Nanoxia, and a few others make cases designed to be as quiet as possible. I've got a Fractal, and even with an i7 and a GTX770, I can barely hear it. Two 140mm fans up front, a 140mm on the ventral side, a 140mm exhaust fan, and a 120mm fan on the CPU cooler. The ventral fan doesn't even kick on unless things get REALLY warm (like 2 hours of Prime95 thrashing all the cores), and with nothing else on, I can still barely hear the system. Oh yeah, and as for looks, it's about as plain and understated as I could find. No window, no flashy lights or any other garbage (I left the power LED disconnected as it is rather bright), and the 5.25" bays are hidden behind a door lined with even more acoustic material.
So find a case designed for silence from a manufacturer you trust, and put the system in there along with some larger, quieter fans. Do this and you've solved both the loud and the ugly.
"So after all this, you make my case for me. To end this stalemate, you must die..."
I don't like noisy PCs either and there a couple of solutions:
a) Use a low-RPM, huge, CPU fan like Zalman along with a fanless power supply and video card. There should be very little noise from such a PC.
b) Go all the way and buy a water-cooled PC. No fans, no noise.
c) Buy an Apple laptop/desktop. These are noiseless except under heavy load.
propagation delay? Really? What country is that other room where you moved the PC to? Or perhaps you had some other problem that you don't really understand and just decided to call it propagation delay.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Noisy PC, erm yeah right. This is all about "pay more attention to me, Me, ME" and that gaming computer is just the first target.
So with the claim of a noisy computer the response is either get the significant other gaming or you just might have made a huge mistake. A quieter computer is bound to turn into an ugly computer that doesn't match the other furnishings or the screen is to bright and distracts from viewing the idiot box or you are a child for playing computer games and should just grow up or, well, you get the idea.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
If you expect a marriage to be 50/50, you'll probably be disappointed. Because the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, two people who are equally giving will probably feel that they're doing 80%. I do a lot for my wife, and she does for me. Mostly, we do for us. We want time together, so we make time for that, etc.
They don't have to be headphones. Hearing protection devices can be obtained that look like headphones but contain nothing electronic. They will very nicely deaden the sound and his wife will eventually get used to wearing them.
Get a less noisy system. How hard is that to figure out?
Married 15 years. After I had spent the money on quieter fans, it turned out she just didn't like the look of the computer in the living room, with its wires and peripherals and stuff.
Go the man cave route with an extra room (or even a closet). You get to spend the money on bigger speakers instead of quieter fans. She gets to decorate the living room to her liking, and you get major points for being so accommodating. It will come in handy later when you have kids, so you can lock out all your little ones from the Dangerous Stuff, and it's even more handy later when you can let your bigger kids play in them while you and the Mrs. enjoy some sanity time in the nice living room.
The moral of the story is: don't be poor.
Source: Divorced due to Eve-online.
To be fair that's not 'gaming' eve is essentially a second career but without any of the real life rewards for your efforts.
she will indeed sleep in a separate bed
Yes, In a separate bed. In a separate house. With a new boyfriend.
I had similar problem. ;-)
I am pretty sure you are going to find this post at the end of the thread after slogging through all those helpful posts suggesting that you show your wife who is the boss
I had similar problems (with computer, not with my fantastic wife!) some time ago and I have solved them by cutting several large holes in the side of the case, installing large fans (12 volt versions, I ran them at slightly lower voltage) and installing a cardboard ducts that directed the airflow directly to the graphics card and to the processor cooler. Take care to provide also air outlets to keep up with large fans blowing in. The best way to let the majority of the air out is through the power source.
I was also able to run those [multiple] large fans off 7V that I got by connecting them between 12V and 5V lead on a power source. Be careful, "your mileage might vary" and your power source might not like being used this way. This was suggested to me by a computer technician that works for the same company I do.
It also helps processor has heat-pipe cooler. Heat-pipe is a copper pipe filled with a liquid and sealed tight, with no external means to circulate liquid. They are used extensively in notebooks and luxury coolers. It works because liquid has better heat conducting properties than copper. Pay attention to the orientation of the cooler suggested by manufacturers - some of them are said to work only in horizontal / vertical position and not upside-down.
Consider getting an SSD. Much quieter than a HDD and you might get computer that feels actually faster even if you under-clock your processor.
Consider replacing small cooler with fan on a chipset [if you have one] with a much larger [passive] heat dissipating cooler. Combine with a large 12V fan fed by 7V or PWM power source blowing on it through cardboard air duct.
Consider building / buying a small PWM power source with variable output that is powered by 12V from PC. I believe those are available commercially for modders, complete with thermal sensors, but building one (without thermal regulation) can be a fun little Sunday project. The PWM source then powers your fans, so they spin fast enough to cool your PC and slow enough not to make much noise. You turn it all the way up before serious gaming session.
Consider under-clocking your processor AND graphics cards when you do not play on your PC.
I have recently purchased a notebook as a replacement of my big rig that had many of the above mentioned enhancements. I bought a notebook, because I was visiting USA and I wanted to buy a better computer there during Black Friday and I strongly disliked the idea of packing a regular desktop PC inside a big checked-in suitcase. So I had to purchase something that I could take with me alongside a company-issued notebook. I had a *strong* case of buyers remorse. Now I can't improve my computer anymore. No installing extra stuff, getting a second disk (large SSD) was complicated and I had to give up [internal] DVD drive. On the other hand, notebook *is* much quieter, especially with an SSD. ;-).
So, if you like to tinker with your big rig, like I did, do not make the same mistake. - Unless you are filthy rich and can afford an alienware or similar notebook
Would Parallels running on the newest 4k iMac be powerful enough for your games? [evil grin ;-)]