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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.
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
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 */
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.
... 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.
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.
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.