Re: Product idea

On 2/12/2025 11:00 PM, bitrex wrote:

Desktop computers that put out significant heat have gone the way of the dodo for most people under the age of 40 probably, those who aren't PC gamers, anyway.

That's likely because desktop computers have gone away -- except in
corporate settings.
And, those that remain have turned into display servers (we're at the
cusp of swinging back from centralized to distributed computing -- though
they now call it "edge" computing because they have to invent a new
name for these things lest Manglement realize it's "same ol', same ol'".

I have a couple pieces of "big iron" that's partly because I'm just old-fashioned; I have some gear connected to the little cube PC in the lab and I like doing backups to my own home server as well as the cloud.

*This* machine (an i5 AiO), the router, modem and print server combine
to use about 45 watts (at least that's what the UPS tells me; I can
drag out a Watts Up and check...).
OTOH, like MOST modern desktops, it doesn't *do* much, has a single spindle,
NO add-in cards, etc.  If you look under the hood, it's a laptop in a
different form factor.

My laptop at idle doesn't heat a thing and at full tilt puts out enough to warm up one finger, maybe.

Laptops tend to be bad examples as they will throttle themselves to keep
the CPU from melting.  Desktops can rely on larger fans to spin up to
move more heat.
My workstations have 1100W power supplies -- 4 spindles, two optical,
two GPUs, two (physical) CPUs, SAS HBA and 10Gbe add-in cards, etc.
(they don't DRAW that much power but were designed for that possibility).
Most of the other machines in the office are in the 500W+ capacity
(two *newer* CPUs, 8 spindles, two optical, etc.)
You don't realize how much heat most kit throws off until you site it
in a poorly ventilated area and note the temperature differential,
over time.