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Let's see your PC's

torga

Autocross Champion
Location
Seattle
Car(s)
'11 GTI
Playing Witcher 3, AKA Space Heater Simulator for my cat.

MVIMG_20200210_231200-01-01.jpeg
 

smanierre

Autocross Champion
Location
CT
Car(s)
2011 GTI

torga

Autocross Champion
Location
Seattle
Car(s)
'11 GTI
On the rare occasions I use my computer for gaming and I open the door to leave the room, I realize how much heat it puts out.
My fans must be excellent because my CPU never breaks 65C under heavy load (30-35C when browsing webs) and my GPU hovers between 70-75C. All that warmth goes straight to my cat's chilly bones.

Noctua case fans and Cryorig coolers....
Slogan: They're good for cats!™
 

smanierre

Autocross Champion
Location
CT
Car(s)
2011 GTI
I don't have any temp monitoring on my desktop (oops) but I do on my laptop. Highest i've seen it go was ~60C, but then the fan starts sounding like a plane ready for take-off. Usually i'm at 35-40C when just browsing or coding.
 

torga

Autocross Champion
Location
Seattle
Car(s)
'11 GTI
Wow, ~60C on a laptop is pretty chilly. Nice.
 

Chad13762

Go Kart Champion
Location
Henderson NV
So - my wife wants a desktop PC for her home office. This will be a simple mITX build, probably a Ryzen 5 3600 using a GTX750 card that's currently sitting in a drawer. Plenty of horsepower for Excel, Word and Google Docs.

After looking at cases, everything starts to look the same. There's a few really cool boutique mITX cases that are nice, but not $300-$500 nice.

So, after some head scratching and a couple beers - a case-moded "something" was the only viable solution. I thought about trying to fit a system in an old IBM Selectric, but that would be tough. Then, wandering around the kitchen, it clicked. I could build a PC in a toaster - a vintage Toastmaster 4-slice toaster! Here's what I just bought off of eBay. It's got a few decades of cool patina.



It'll be a slow-burn build - who's interested in more?
 

torga

Autocross Champion
Location
Seattle
Car(s)
'11 GTI
Haha! Ridiculous! I definitely wanna see this thing finished.
 

dosjockey

Go Kart Champion
Location
South
So - my wife wants a desktop PC for her home office. This will be a simple mITX build, probably a Ryzen 5 3600 using a GTX750 card that's currently sitting in a drawer. Plenty of horsepower for Excel, Word and Google Docs.

After looking at cases, everything starts to look the same. There's a few really cool boutique mITX cases that are nice, but not $300-$500 nice.

So, after some head scratching and a couple beers - a case-moded "something" was the only viable solution. I thought about trying to fit a system in an old IBM Selectric, but that would be tough. Then, wandering around the kitchen, it clicked. I could build a PC in a toaster - a vintage Toastmaster 4-slice toaster! Here's what I just bought off of eBay. It's got a few decades of cool patina.



It'll be a slow-burn build - who's interested in more?

Oh, my god...

"Slow burn" toaster build... I'm now missing more brain cells. ?

I expect you to fit an LCD in the side and play Doom on that. ;)
 

Chad13762

Go Kart Champion
Location
Henderson NV
I honestly wish optical drives were still an essential component. Having the drive tray eject up through one of the bread openings would be epic. It would be a lot of work for a feature that would rarely be used though. Not sure if I'd have room for it anyway....

I want to see to what extent I can use the existing knobs though. Maybe one for a power switch, another for volume. It'll definitely have orange LED lighting that glows through the openings. Not sure if I can re-purpose the bread levers for something, or if they'll just be decoration. I'll need to get everything in front of me to see what I can do with it.
 

dosjockey

Go Kart Champion
Location
South
I honestly wish optical drives were still an essential component. Having the drive tray eject up through one of the bread openings would be epic. It would be a lot of work for a feature that would rarely be used though. Not sure if I'd have room for it anyway....

I want to see to what extent I can use the existing knobs though. Maybe one for a power switch, another for volume. It'll definitely have orange LED lighting that glows through the openings. Not sure if I can re-purpose the bread levers for something, or if they'll just be decoration. I'll need to get everything in front of me to see what I can do with it.

Just use a slot-loading drive from a shelf model or laptop. They'll be able to handle it. A drive out of a failed Xbox One may work, as well. I've got some caddy CD ROM drives that would work, but obviously they'll only handle CDs... Might be a DVD in the collection somewhere, but I'll have to check through hundreds of the things. ?

If you want the... "Push down lever things" to work as power or reset switches, just sticking a momentary switch at the bottom of their travel would work. I haven't used a toaster in a while, but I think there's some extra travel before they lock. The knob for volume can be scavenged from any old computer speaker and just swapped on the pot for one of the toaster knobs.

One of the levers could be used to hit a relocated momentary button for the slot-loading drive.
 

Chad13762

Go Kart Champion
Location
Henderson NV
You have me thinking...
A thin USB drive - like this "might" work. I'll need to get the toaster in-hand and measure the slots. I don't want to cut any sheet metal, except at the back, to make it work though.

https://www.amazon.com/Blu-Ray-Exte...9Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=
A goal, if I have the room, is to use a standard ATX power supply. Between that, and a video card, there might not be room left for much else. I like the momentary switch idea for the big levers. Supporting the sliders could be a challenge, since a toaster has some large mechanical levers inside. I'd need to create something compact.

I might be able to gut and re-purpose a USB volume control for one of the knobs - to control O/S volume. I hate having any analog audio stuff in a PC, though, since it's an electrically noisy environment.

https://www.amazon.com/DROK-Lossles...e+control&qid=1582310411&s=electronics&sr=1-3
 

dosjockey

Go Kart Champion
Location
South
You have me thinking...
A thin USB drive - like this "might" work. I'll need to get the toaster in-hand and measure the slots. I don't want to cut any sheet metal, except at the back, to make it work though.

https://www.amazon.com/Blu-Ray-Exte...9Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=
A goal, if I have the room, is to use a standard ATX power supply. Between that, and a video card, there might not be room left for much else. I like the momentary switch idea for the big levers. Supporting the sliders could be a challenge, since a toaster has some large mechanical levers inside. I'd need to create something compact.

I might be able to gut and re-purpose a USB volume control for one of the knobs - to control O/S volume. I hate having any analog audio stuff in a PC, though, since it's an electrically noisy environment.

https://www.amazon.com/DROK-Lossles...e+control&qid=1582310411&s=electronics&sr=1-3

Indeed, such a drive may work quite well. I'd suggest considering the Lenovo products as well, as they've got the old Thinkpad designs and can be found on Ebay.

There are compact video cards that would do pretty well, actually; and you've got a very good venting solution; straight out the top through one of the slots. A solid, ducted 120mm solution could handle the overall cooling; but a blower fan reference card can also be ducted easily; and with a PCIE extension, you can have it wherever you like.

Audio solutions can survive just fine in a PC, if they're built properly. I'm remastering a film with this card right now; plugged into studio monitors. It'll blow the doors off many external DACs:


EMfthlPWkAYKn7B.jpg


PSU fitment is always going to be rough in small form factors, but there are some solid options. I generally stick with Seasonic on the whole, as they're the best in the business, and their Focus SFX line will give you solid performance in a smaller form factor.
 

torga

Autocross Champion
Location
Seattle
Car(s)
'11 GTI
I've been dragging my feet so long on buying a 2070 Super (and I won't be able to buy one for at least a few more months), that I may now have to wait until Nvidia's 3000 series gets released to compare. My 1060 has been a champ lately, with minimal frame drops. But that'll be a different story once Cyberpunk 2077 comes out.
 

dosjockey

Go Kart Champion
Location
South
I've been dragging my feet so long on buying a 2070 Super (and I won't be able to buy one for at least a few more months), that I may now have to wait until Nvidia's 3000 series gets released to compare. My 1060 has been a champ lately, with minimal frame drops. But that'll be a different story once Cyberpunk 2077 comes out.

I'd love to have RTX for Doom Eternal when it's released next month, but that ain't gonna happen. The 1080 will have to do, as I just built a whole new rig. I'm not dropping another grand or so in it.
 
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