Not quite there yet … from left on surface, 5G internet, WireGuard router, pihole on a Zero W and 4x4 N95 HTPC, plus 1080p projector. When a computer that size (actually smaller, since I don’t need a SATA bay) can outperform my tower, though …
This photo of Meteor Lake shows 16GB of LPDDR5X on the package. AMD’s looking to kill the low-midrange GPU in the next couple of generations of APUs, with Intel attempting to reach parity. And all of this in a fraction of the power envelope of a midrange gaming rig.
Maybe it’s next-quarter-itis dominating the tech press, but these developments feel like they deserve a bit more attention given that all signs point to gaming 4x4 PCs with a wall wart in the next two years. This actually makes Intel’s exit from the NUC space somewhat surprising, but they’ve been shedding products pretty consistently and this may just be a part of that.
I’m in the situation of having a 5-year-old gaming rig that’s still going strong (caveat: I’m a factory/city-builder gamer so an RX 6600 works fine for me at 4K60), and moving into a stepvan in the next couple of weeks and therefore suddenly very aware of power draw, so all of this may be more exciting to me than the average bear, as I could see finally upgrading on account of a dead component in the next couple of years.
Yet there’s still that part of me from college that wants to keep abreast of the latest developments, and as I’ve watched now six desktop Intel generations hit benchmarks since I was the lucky winner of an 8086K, there’s been nothing that really draws a line in the sand and says “this will be the clear new minimum target.”
Intel starting over at 1st gen for Meteor Lake shows they see this finally changing. It honestly could have happened anywhere from introduction of E-cores to the seeming destination of Rentable Units, which have finally popped up outside of MLID. I’ve seen nothing about what AMD’s disaggregated endpoint looks like, even though I’m definitely looking to Strix Halo as where I may be able to ditch the ITX sandwich tower completely. Couple this with swapping out my TV for a native 1080p mini projector (a “maybe” suggestion that turned into having to try one at $40, and wow!), and I could be gaming in a van in fucking style with essentially zero dedicated hardware space in just a couple years!
Anyway, in situations like this, I’ve found that I may have inadequate sources, so I thought I’d see if anyone had suggestions.
Putting it in a bigger box with more cooling capacity will always make a much faster computer, so that’s not going away anytime soon and someone will always find a way to use 20% more power than is available every time a faster computer is made. A lot of things just come down to how well you can cool something, engines, brakes, lights, computers, batteries… how hard do you want to go and how long do you want to do it often determines the form of things.
My computer fits on my desk as it is so making it smaller gains me nothing and just makes it less useful.
Maybe tower PCs will become slightly more niche again in the future, but they’ll always be around for enthusiasts like me.
Just like I’ll never have something smaller than a full tower. With just cheap air cooling I can get stable 68c with heavy overclocking
Unless you have bleeding edge hardware yes, the highest end stuff usually requires that you dissipate 600+w of heat continuously at full tilt. I’m fine with running the hardware just below it’s stock throttling limits (which are well below safety cutoffs) which these days is in the 90s. It’s just kind of the reality of it if you don’t want to experience what it’s like to game on the deck of an aircraft carrier or go through the trouble of water-cooling everything.
FWIW I’ve put a lot of cards through this kind of “abuse” and then handed them down, they all worked for many years after.
My GPU is even hotrodded with the fans and shrouds removed and two side panel fans close to it, and the gaps sealed with gaffers tape to improve static pressure. Works really well but still, it’s a lot of heat to move out of a relatively small device.