The Dell Community has contributed: 9375 ideas | promoted 641901 times | 71539 comments

How IdeaStorm Works:

Post Promote Discuss See
Accessories (Keyboards, etc.) Comments | Accessories (Keyboards, etc.) Ideas
210

Put the computer in a different room from the monitor/keyboard.

210 points posted to Accessories (Keyboards, etc.) by jmxz 04/25/07

If there are any cables that'll carry video across a house (and no doubt there are - cable TV is a proof by existence) I'd rather just ran that cable from the garage where I'd have an (ideally rack mountable) computer & dsl modem, etc.

It'd be even better if it didn't need a cable - I'm not sure if any of the powerline networking solutions would do it - the HomePlug alliance has decent industry support (Intel, LG, GE, Linksys, Sharp, etc) - and HomePlug AV talks about sending video through powerlines. http://www.homeplug.org/home< advantages would be:
* I stop caring how loud the fans & disk drives & graphics card are.
* I stop caring how the machine heats up the room.
* I don't need massive power strips for all the plugs.
* I get the space back in this room.

Note that this is different from a thin client - because thin clients are subject to the poor video performance of whatever card they put in the thin client. I still want the massive loud video card - just move it to the garage and stream the video to the monitor on my desk.

benjesuit
04/25/07		 It would be something if there was a high bandwidth wireless protocol to transmit the video out signal from the video card to the monitor. Something short range enough so as to minimize interference. Keyboard and mouse, even a gamepad, could be bluetooth. But I'm not certain how far away you want the box. Perhaps a closet in the room might do. Ventilation might be an issue if you have carpeting and no gap at the bottom of the door. Then there's the issue of not having an electrical outlet in the closet. So I guess the garage or basement is the best bet.

Or at the end of it all, a laptop. They are outselling boxes these days. And they're quieter than a desktop. Mostly.
jmxz
04/25/07		 Agreed - a laptop it is for now - but desktops can still do some things laptops can't (high end graphics cards; terabytes of data).
Any idea what bandwidth is needed? HomePlugAV seems to be talking about 100Mbit/second.
rockettech
04/25/07		 There are a couple technologies you can look into, depending on your focus. Remote Desktop is great- I have Servers and workstations out in the garage where noise and heat aren't really an issue, and work on them via remote desktop. I access the machines from my laptop in any room. Another one would be Media Extender- I have a box in the garage running media center, and I use an xBox 360 as an extender in the living room, which gives me Tivo-functionality and access to pics and music, and more. A third technology would be KVM over IP. Or make a quieter box. Or louder speakers :)
j.bandringa
08/01/07		 I like the idea. But I might start missing the dvd-player.
Please log in to post a comment
recently promoted by: