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.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.
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?
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.
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
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.