For the heat and electricity, it’s stunning how much compute I get from my somewhat modern gear vs. my 40U rack of 10-years ago.
My server only draws like 300watts max, not a very good heater
I love my gaming PC and 3d printer in the winter. Keeps my room toasty without me needing to run the heat much at all.
I hate those same things in the summer when I gotta have fans or AC just so I don’t melt lol
I turn off Folding@Home in the summer. Otherwise it’s on 24x7.
I have thought of this exact thing and thought I was the only one.
Here me out: a global computing cooperative –
Collectively owned servers and gaming PCs are run at max power wherever it’s winter at the time, streaming the data to where it is needed.There, you’re out.
That’s a lot of bandwidth, but it sounds like a good idea.
I mean data center excess heat is already used for district heating and that’s a shared resource. Not free or communal computing resource though.
Electricity generated heat from your servers is incredibly inefficient compared to a heat pump.
Conversely it’s exactly as efficient as a resistive heater, which lots of people still use.
Interesting thought experiment - is a pc exactly as efficient as a resistive space heater? In a pc some tiny amount of electricity is converted to light and sound and kinetic energy instead of heat. But then again, doesn’t those other forms of energy just eventually just turn back into heat again? Hmmm…
Yes, but im already using the computer for other things and it would be more inefficient to double up on heating sources. I can confirm from personal expirence a PC in a small room can sufficently act as climate control.
No one is comparing efficiency of a PC as a heating device to a Heat Pump.
So I’m not sure why you felt the need to post this.
Gaming PCs are about to top out at 1500W, which is a very solid space heater. Honestly, it complements a heat pump just fine. If you can set up a fan pushing air out of your gaming den and/or home server room you’re at least starting to justify your stupidly wasteful setup.
I have to be honest, all the PC master race bros are deep into the awkward monkey puppet meme hoping all the AI haters don’t realize they’re using hardware that can easily run very competent genAI at competitive speeds to play CounterStrike. If you want to make and post that one you have my blessing.
Do you expect me to teabag you in 1080p at 120 Hz like some medieval peasant? My nutsack textures require at least 4K at 240 Hz or else you can’t make out the individual hairs as they brush your nose.
my gaming PC literally is a primary heat source in my cold office.
My homelab is in the same space as my furnace so the ambient heat in that space is preheating my ducts. In the summer when the AC runs the cold air leaking into the space helps cool my homelab. In my garage office my desktop with 9 spinning drives and 3070 really keeps the space comfortable.
I got a laptop for work, using it at home and I want to use my computer because if I just use my laptop its cold. When my pc runs the rooms is nice and toasty.
Electric heaters literally cost 25 bucks
Just like me playing City Skylines 2 on a cold morning
