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[HolyBaikal]

I was thinking of how a lot of the consoles I have, I would like to keep them nice. And maybe it would make them last longer and be healthier if there were some kind of box I could put them in that was made to keep them cooler, and had like fans in them. And some kind of filters to keep dust out.

Kind of like how some computer cases are.

Kind of like one of those tubs people put things in. I use clear plastic tubs to keep my collectibles and things like that in. I have some expensive things like Tales and Pokemon collectibles. And also I have rare games like Magical Chase and Trip World, and Keio Flying Squadron, and things like that. To keep them in very safe condition I use things like clear plastic tubs, bubble wrap, and zip bags. I could put them in a safe, but that would be expensive and I haven't bought something like that yet.

But I'd like to be able to do something like that for my consoles. But I can't just use one of the tubs that I buy, because that would mean there's less air flow and would be bad for it.

But I wonder if there's something I could buy for this? I would think I'm not the only person who thought about this. And someone else who thought of this probably made it.

Or has nobody else made something like this before, and I'd need to engineer it myself? It sounds fun but maybe hard to do if I had to make it myself! I'd need to find something like a tub that was sturdy enough that I could modify it to put things like fans in it. If it was sturdy plastic, I guess I could put some holes to put fans and filters in it.

Or it's possible that the covering for the top of the tub would be the only place I would need to cut a hole, or even replace entirely with something made of fans. But I'd have to find something that fits.

Does anyone else know about anything like this? Or have any ideas? I would love some help.

 

[SegaShack]

The thing your consoles need most is ventilation. To keep them cool just give them breathing room. A box is the opposite of what you need.

 

[The Abominable Snowman]

Why would you need to? The engineers behind the consoles have designed the console to cool efficiently within the thermal output of the consoles internals. Are you overclocking the consoles?

Just keep it away from carpet, and maybe clean the dust every year or so

 

[Fisty]

I put all my consoles in the walk-in humidor on the east side of my third floor. Can be quite a walk from the game room in the basement so I decided to go all digital. Cheaper than putting in an elevator I guess.

 

[velociraptor]

I was thinking of how a lot of the consoles I have, I would like to keep them nice. And maybe it would make them last longer and be healthier if there were some kind of box I could put them in that was made to keep them cooler, and had like fans in them. And some kind of filters to keep dust out.

Kind of like how some computer cases are.

Kind of like one of those tubs people put things in. I use clear plastic tubs to keep my collectibles and things like that in. I have some expensive things like Tales and Pokemon collectibles. And also I have rare games like Magical Chase and Trip World, and Keio Flying Squadron, and things like that. To keep them in very safe condition I use things like clear plastic tubs, bubble wrap, and zip bags. I could put them in a safe, but that would be expensive and I haven't bought something like that yet.

But I'd like to be able to do something like that for my consoles. But I can't just use one of the tubs that I buy, because that would mean there's less air flow and would be bad for it.

But I wonder if there's something I could buy for this? I would think I'm not the only person who thought about this. And someone else who thought of this probably made it.

Or has nobody else made something like this before, and I'd need to engineer it myself? It sounds fun but maybe hard to do if I had to make it myself! I'd need to find something like a tub that was sturdy enough that I could modify it to put things like fans in it. If it was sturdy plastic, I guess I could put some holes to put fans and filters in it.

Or it's possible that the covering for the top of the tub would be the only place I would need to cut a hole, or even replace entirely with something made of fans. But I'd have to find something that fits.

Does anyone else know about anything like this? Or have any ideas? I would love some help.

Consoles already have this magical 'ice box' you speak of.

The only thing you need to ensure it remains well ventilated and free of dust/debris.

 

[Rich!]

A wine cooler, maybe?

 

[HolyBaikal]

The thing your consoles need most is ventilation. To keep them cool just give them breathing room. A box is the opposite of what you need.

But... what if the box has fast and big fans right at the top of it? Wouldn't that make it even cooler?

I'm pretty sure you can make boxes or kinda closed environments that are cool. Isn't that how refrigerators and freezers are? Of course, they have lots of water in them, which would be unsafe for electronics.

But... I would think you'd be able to make a box for things like consoles that would make them cooler.

 

[Abounder]

Kickstart your prototype, or try laptop peripherals

 

[Cuphead]

.

 

[Zeyphersan]

One of my friends and I were going to engineer a computer case back in high school that also doubled as a refrigerator, perfect for cooling and LAN parties!

 

[Fisty]

Kickstart your prototype, or try laptop peripherals

Or he could just lower the heat generated. Maybe try SSD? I would imagine removing any mechanical/moving parts would lower the heat load substantially

 

[Fbh]

The thing your consoles need most is ventilation.

THIS.



From my experience most other stuff is useless. Also, a well ventialted console should be built to work fine under normal temperatures.

When I first got my Slim Ps3 I was worried because it got rather hot, specially if you touched the lower part of the console after running for a few hours.

But I've allways had it in a good ventilated area and I cover up my consoles when I'm not using it to keep dust away (my house is like a dust magnet). It has been almost 5 years since I got it an it has never given me any issues

 

[Iorv3th]

But... what if the box has fast and big fans right at the top of it? Wouldn't that make it even cooler?

I'm pretty sure you can make boxes or kinda closed environments that are cool. Isn't that how refrigerators and freezers are? Of course, they have lots of water in them, which would be unsafe for electronics.

But... I would think you'd be able to make a box for things like consoles that would make them cooler.

Refrigerators do not have hot air pumped into them constantly though. With a console you would be insulating the hot air and not allowing it to escape.

Just put an extra fan on the console or something. Or do something clever with venting to run from your A/C directly near your consoles..

 

[Atruvius]

Try submerging your console in mineral oil.

 

[pompidu]

Get one of those laptop cooling pads and put your console on it. Wont block any ventilation and will keep it cooler.

 

[chaosblade]

Kickstart your prototype, or try laptop peripherals

My brother used a USB-powered laptop cooling pad with his 360. That is probably the best bet for the OP, just leave the consoles horizontally on top of one.

 

[Squalor]

You should just play video games in a sterilized, air-locked, temperature-controled room.

 

[Astro Racer]

I made all my consoles run a little cooler with one secret weapon.... a £2 Roasting Rack.

Just being slightly lifted off a surface can help keep temps down.

 

[Scotch]

When the warm air from your room is cooled inside the box, it can hold less moisture and you start to get condensation. The last thing you want near your electronics is moisture.

 

[Fisty]

I made all my consoles run a little cooler with one secret weapon.... a £2 Roasting Rack.

Just being slightly lifted off a surface can help keep temps down.

Lmao brilliant. Simple yet effective

 

[ClearData]

Question OP. Why not buy a cooling pad that is used for laptops and orient your console horizontally over one? It has fans built in that should help keep thermal heat down.

 

[OraleeWey]

I made all my consoles run a little cooler with one secret weapon.... a £2 Roasting Rack.

Just being slightly lifted off a surface can help keep temps down.

I use something very similar to this for all my consoles.

 

[Dr. Black Jack]

I lucked out with my living room setup...my TV stand is partially over an AC vent, so the air around my setup is always at a constant/cool temp with plenty of breathing room.

 

[SerTapTap]

You could probably rig a couple of 200mm fans with some sort of covers on 'em to blow across the vents (work with the exhaust of the console) but I doubt that'd do all that much--MC cases work because of heatsinks and fans pushing cool air directly over hot components. You're not going to get the same effect blowing air on a mostly closed case.

USB laptop cooling fan seems like a reasonable compromise though. Shouldn't be very loud/dangerous/expensive.

 

[Oberon]

Sometimes when my phone is overheating (around 41°C) I simply put it in the freezer for some seconds. It isn't hot anymore and it's still works. Have never tried it with a console though.

 

[pixlexic]

you would getting too much condensation and end up frying your consoles anyway.

 

[Squalor]

Sometimes when my phone is overheating (around 41°C) I simply put it in the freezer for some seconds. It isn't hot anymore and it's still works. Have never tried it with a console though.

What the hell are you doing on your phone (and what kind of phone are you using) for it to overheat often enough for you to need a plan?

 

[Herr K]

A wine cooler.

 

[javadoze]

Why do I have the feeling someone is going to post an infomercial-like clip of putting a console in an icebox?

 

[Stumpokapow]

it seems to me that in the case of consoles, the energy cost of running a refrigeration unit, even assuming it worked (and there'd be many challenges, including humidity/condensation), would exceed the "savings" in increased MTBF for the hardware.

 

[deranged_666]

I don't know who makes them, or how expensive they are (probably very), but in a lot of stage setups for live sound applications that I've seen, there are these cabinets that look a lot like a wooden china cabinet that are temperature/humidity controlled. Usually a huge rack of power amps, crossovers, and other gear are stored in them, and mounted via rack space. When the thermometer reaches a certain temp, the box is internally cooled without leaving any humidity or water vapor inside. Don't know how they work, but it keeps the power amps operating at safe temperatures even when being pushed hard for hours and hours, without exposing them to water vapor.

 

[FUNKNOWN iXi]

I have this ice box, but it's where my heart used to be.

 

[perorist]

I made all my consoles run a little cooler with one secret weapon.... a £2 Roasting Rack.

Just being slightly lifted off a surface can help keep temps down.

I more or less do the same thing but with 2 unopened packs of index cards about an inch thick.

 

[MasterOfPuppets]

.

 

[bebop242]

I made all my consoles run a little cooler with one secret weapon.... a £2 Roasting Rack.

Just being slightly lifted off a surface can help keep temps down.

Shit I need to do this. I just use 4 erasers (1 in each corner) to prop my systems up.

Spoiler

my ps4 is super stable

 

[Rentahamster]

A wine cooler, maybe?

More like a subwoofer.

 

[HolyBaikal]

Are you overclocking the consoles?

No... I don't think that would help. Some games on some of my consoles do lag a little bit. Tales of the Abyss on the PlayStation 2 has some framerate stuff. And there are a few games for the PlayStation 3 that could have better framerates.

But I get the feeling that overclocking wouldn't help anything.

I actually haven't overclocked anything before. There are times that I wanted to try it, since computer enthusiasts all seem to overclock their thing. And I've always wanted to things like 4K resolution, or triple or six screens, or oversampling, or things like that. I also feel like it would help with emulation since I use PCSX2 and Dolphin a lot.

But I haven't gotten around to it and it scares me. Like, I'm afraid of messing something up with the voltage and things not being stable, and things like that. And the air coolers for doing something like that and getting safe temperatures seem really heavy and dangerous. And water cooling sounds really scary, too. I would have to spend a lot of time learning how to do this, and I haven't done that yet.

I've also heard that there's no such thing as a safe overclock. And any overclock you do will cause more damage to your CPU, or GPU or stuff. And that's kind of the opposite I want to do. I'd like to do more, but I can always buy better chips and other computer stuff in the future. I kind of want to preserve all of the things that I have.

I'm really into taking care of the things I have and myself.

And I heard that there's no safe overclock. And that using CPUs raises temperatures and hurts them. Even if they're not overclocked. There's no perfect cooler, well almost. But I'm sure there's something that would take care of my consoles better than the stock cooler that they come with.

 

[EmptySpace]

can you remove the power supply on the ps4 and put it outside the unit? that might help a little, no?

 

[Tempy]

Time to add some rubber feet?

 

[HolyBaikal]

Actually, now that someone has mentioned overclocking. I have considered trying to learn how to modify consoles and things. I'm scared of overclocking anything. But I've seen people do some really neat things with consoles. I've learned how to build a computer, so I'm sure I can learn to do more things.

It would be kind of neat if it were easy enough to take my PlayStation 3 hardware out of the case and put it in a computer case. I like the white PlayStation 3, but there are lots of pretty computer cases that I like just as much. And there are custom computer cases that I've seen that I really love. Like I saw a computer case one time that was white and pastel pink, and had gems all over it, including the GPU. I want to find that computer case again so I can make something like it.

If I could do that, that might be just as good or better than putting it in a box. It would also make me less scared of getting inside of it and making upgrades like an SSD. And if a part was broken, and I had to replace it. It would be a lot easier to fix and replace if it started being more like a desktop PC and I started seeing it kind of that way.

So I can replace the hard drive with an SSD? That sounds fun. And it shouldn't be a problem for the power supply, since SSDs take less power than HDDs. I think I remember hearing about that before, but I guess I put off doing it for so long that I kind of forgot about it. I guess I was always kind of scared of committing to do it.

Could I also put my PS3 stuff in a desktop case easy enough? Or is the motherboard much different than a regular desktop, and I'd have trouble screwing it into a desktop case?

If I could take out the motherboard and plug everything in desktop case, that sounds neat. I'd love to do that. I could get one with better cooling. And put a better fan and heatsink on stuff. And get a case with amazing anti-dust stuff and better fans.

I might have to get a new Blu-Ray player since the one in the PlayStation 3 case might be stuck in there and not really meant for putting in a desktop. But it would be worth it. Can you plug different Blu-Ray players into the PlayStation 3 motherboard?

And maybe I could upgrade the power supply? That would be neat, too.

 

[t_wilson01]

Why would you need to? The engineers behind the consoles have designed the console to cool efficiently within the thermal output of the consoles internals. Are you overclocking the consoles?

Just keep it away from carpet, and maybe clean the dust every year or so

I guess you've never heard of the RROD or YLOD. Consoles are designed (for better or worse) to run at a certain temp, so unless you set it in a place below the freezing point, the best solution is to speed up the internal fan. Replacing the thermal paste is also a good idea.

http://youtu.be/o3mEFUxhDSQ

 

[chaosblade]

Actually, now that someone has mentioned overclocking. I have considered trying to learn how to modify consoles and things. I'm scared of overclocking anything. But I've seen people do some really neat things with consoles. I've learned how to build a computer, so I'm sure I can learn to do more things.

It would be kind of neat if it were easy enough to take my PlayStation 3 hardware out of the case and put it in a computer case. I like the white PlayStation 3, but there are lots of pretty computer cases that I like just as much. And there are custom computer cases that I've seen that I really love. Like I saw a computer case one time that was white and pastel pink, and had gems all over it, including the GPU. I want to find that computer case again so I can make something like it.

If I could do that, that might be just as good or better than putting it in a box. It would also make me less scared of getting inside of it and making upgrades like an SSD. And if a part was broken, and I had to replace it. It would be a lot easier to fix and replace if it started being more like a desktop PC and I started seeing it kind of that way.

So I can replace the hard drive with an SSD? That sounds fun. And it shouldn't be a problem for the power supply, since SSDs take less power than HDDs. I think I remember hearing about that before, but I guess I put off doing it for so long that I kind of forgot about it. I guess I was always kind of scared of committing to do it.

Could I also put my PS3 stuff in a desktop case easy enough? Or is the motherboard much different than a regular desktop, and I'd have trouble screwing it into a desktop case?

If I could take out the motherboard and plug everything in desktop case, that sounds neat. I'd love to do that. I could get one with better cooling. And put a better fan and heatsink on stuff. And get a case with amazing anti-dust stuff and better fans.

I might have to get a new Blu-Ray player since the one in the PlayStation 3 case might be stuck in there and not really meant for putting in a desktop. But it would be worth it. Can you plug different Blu-Ray players into the PlayStation 3 motherboard?

And maybe I could upgrade the power supply? That would be neat, too.

Most of this technically doable but a lot more challenging than you probably think it is. PC cases and parts are designed for each other and intended to be modular, console components are not. (HDD/SSD are exceptions, those are designed to be removed/added in a PS3)

Upgrading the PSU would not be possible. Overclocking might be with homebrew, I'm not sure.

 

[Fisty]

Im now convinced this is the thread born from a sentient collection of gaf jokes. OP are you a bot?

 

[Saganator]

I've always wanted to try putting a PC inside a wine cooler.

 

[HolyBaikal]

Did I accidentally write ice box in my original post? That was silly. I didn't mean to say that.

I was actually thinking of something more like a plastic tub with big fans at the top instead of a normal top.

 

[Persona7]

Baking rack is the best idea combined with blowing the dust out every few months.

 

[jono51]

Dream big, OP. Phase-change cooling for each console, and consolidate them all into one large custom case on wheels.

 

[Kieli]

Is... Is it even possible to overclock a console? 0.o

 

[GAMEPROFF]

Is... Is it even possible to overclock a console? 0.o

Kinda surprised about this, too.

 

[tim_pkmn89]

Is... Is it even possible to overclock a console? 0.o

Yes actually

Here's some Sega Genesis overclocking comparisons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF7Vw0m_GnM