ROSS RANTS: VR FOLLOW-UP

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Here's another originally unplanned video to accompany the original unplanned video! This is a followup video to the last Ross Rants episode, since I felt like there was enough commentary from people to warrant it, plus I had some new information to add. There's nothing crucial in here if you didn't have any trouble following the last one, btu that wasn't the case for everyone. I originally planned for this one to take much less time, but all the minor diagram editing really ended up ballooning the time. In any event, it's done, so here it is.

 

Right now my plan is to have at least one more Game Dungeon this month before moving into the Deus Ex series, however, I can't promise any dates at this point. While rendering parts of this video, my computer completely froze up. I'm fairly sure it was due to the CPU overheating. Despite having a custom cooler and what I thought was decent case airflow, it's apparently still not enough to tame it. I'm currently running my system with the case off and a fan blowing on it. In light of this, it's just a reminder to me how technical setbacks can crop up, however I'll try to have more videos out as soon as I can. In any event, I don't have future plans to cover any more VR, I feel like I nailed it down between this and the last one.

 

COMMENTS

Pretty cool, glad to hear the DK2 is as much better as folks say.

One other question in regards to the motion tracking, though. What are your thoughts on the Virtuix Omni running platform thing they have?

I haven't heard much about it other than that it exists, but do you think that it's a viable solution to motion controlling without running into a wall?

My main concern, as with VR itself, is with compatibility. However, I have heard some good things, and it looks promising.

I just have to wonder if I'm a big enough of a dork to have one of these things sitting in my apartment.

Best PC case - no case. Take off the left cover plate, Ross.

Pretty cool, glad to hear the DK2 is as much better as folks say.

One other question in regards to the motion tracking, though. What are your thoughts on the Virtuix Omni running platform thing they have?

I haven't heard much about it other than that it exists, but do you think that it's a viable solution to motion controlling without running into a wall?

My main concern, as with VR itself, is with compatibility. However, I have heard some good things, and it looks promising.

I just have to wonder if I'm a big enough of a dork to have one of these things sitting in my apartment.

I would kill to be able to just walk for hours in large game worlds that I enjoyed. I think the Omni has a lot of potential, but it's also highly unlikely to receive mainstream support unless they specifically add it for a few titles. They need to come up with a motion-sickness free solution, which ironically, might coincide with what I was doing with VorpX.

Please spend my donations towards summer air conditioning.

Ross, are you also looking for game reviews for VorpX, maybe stuff you don't have? Grand Theft Auto V is a bronze rating at the very best, "garbage" at the worst. I was playing the game with a PS4 controller, and there were already a lot of issues. For one, you still have to put the settings WAY down to get a good framerate. For another thing, they fucked up the movement. I think the idea is you look where you want to go, and them move the walk (left) stick? But it wasn't working properly.

 

3rd nail in the coffin: their idea of immersion is to just put a random gun model on the screen when you have one out. It feels like a light gun game. The cursor does not seem to match up with the screen at all. Also, the model is a pistol no matter what gun you have out.

 

FINAL NAIL: you cannot punch people, or drive ANYTHING. The car disappears, and the person disappears. Frankly, I don't know if this can even be considered BRONZE.

 

My specs are the new NVIDIA GeForce 1080 (8 gigs of VRAM), with 16 gigs of "normal" RAM to go with it. The game just doesn't like me.

 

However, i'm rocking the HTC Vive. And I can tell you something, the Vive is unlike anything else I've ever tried. I've used the Oculus DK1 (The first one you were sent), and Vive blows it away completely. Only tried it when it's a VR-made game though. To be fair I've only played that one not-originally-VR game, so I dunno how the Vive works with others. Anyone want to give me suggestions? I'll link my steam library at the bottom.

 

http://imgur.com/a/z3HmU

If you have at least a semi-decent case, taking the cover plate off will WORSEN the cooling. Usually the idea behind air cooling is to create low pressure inside the case using (at least) one fan blowing out, and then strategically place holes on the case so that they create inbound air streams that will cool heat-generating parts.

 

At least in the case of my... er, case, the MB temperature goes UP considerably when I take the plate off. YMMV though.

Actually you want at least two fans operating in a push-pull config, adjusted so the case is operating at a slight positive pressure.

 

You want the inside of the case to be higher pressure than ambient air, as that 1) keeps dust from getting in via vents and cracks and such (any actual fanned intake should have a filter mesh), and 2) allows you to specify a specific intake point in order to insure circulation. You want a push-pull setup so you can control both the total volume of airflow, and how it circulates through the case.

 

You don't want just a single fan, as this puts you in a bad position. If the single fan is an intake, you get positive pressure, but poor airflow that can raise temps instead of lowering them. If the single fan is an exhaust, you get negative pressure resulting in more dust, and again, uncontrolled circulation that can reduce or even eliminate the fan's effectiveness at cooling.

 

Say the one fan is mounted as an exhaust on the back plate, and there happens to be a vent on the top, and on the front panel. If the the vent on the top allows more air in than the fan can move out, then you're just sucking air though the top rear corner of the case without it going anywhere else.

 

Some OEM computers may come with only one fan installed. This is not as it should be: it's an example of the manufacturer cutting corners because they know most buyers probably won't be savvy enough to know better. If your case has only one fan mounted, installing a second one will take you much further than taking the panel off will.

 

Leaving the panel off is rubbish unless you're doing something like pointing a box fan at the open side, and even with a box fan it'd be less efficient that a proper two-fan system. With the case open, none of the fans can direct circulation, so you're reducing cooling efficiency to basically the level of ambien room convection. The entire point of closed-case, fan-based circulation is to increase the airflow past/around the components above that of the surrounding room air, turning the case into a convective heat exchanger.

Leaving the panel off is rubbish

Leaving the panel off makes CPU temp 70 ℃ instead of 80℃. And I do have decent Thermaltake case with both in and out fans and with top and front sides made out of wire mesh.

Do not underestimate convective force when there is temperature difference of 50℃.

Subs up!

Leaving the panel off is rubbish

Leaving the panel off makes CPU temp 70 ℃ instead of 80℃. And I do have decent Thermaltake case with both in and out fans and with top and front sides made out of wire mesh.

Do not underestimate convective force when there is temperature difference of 50℃.

 

I'm not calling you a liar about the temp difference you're experiencing. What I'm saying is that if you're getting better temps with the panel off at all, that's a big neon sign that something is wrong inside the case. It's like saying you keep your fridge door open because you've found it keeps food colder that way. It can be true, but it wouldn't mean you've made your fridge work even better: it'd mean you've found out your fridge is broken.

 

A closed, fanned case is supposed to be a wind-chill tunnel fed by the room air. No matter how nice your room air is, the case should always be even better, because it works entirely by locally optimizing that very same air.

 

If static room air is cooling better, that means something is borked in your fan setup or airflow path, causing your case to be an insulating box instead of a wind tunnel. Either the fans are on the wrong vents, or there's something inside the case obstructing/redirecting the flow of air, or the fans don't have enough CFM.

 

Air cooling is one area of PC building where it's still not enough to just buy the "best" parts and Lego them together. You have to actively design the air path for your setup's internal geometry. You can buy a 1000 dollar case with all the bells and whistles, and still FUBAR the cooling by putting the fans in the wrong places, or by allowing stuff to obstruct or divert the air path inside. It's much simpler than is sounds, but that doesn't factor if one doesn't know it's to be done at all.

 

If you post pics of your PC, I can help you figure out what's wrong.

If you post pics of your PC, I can help you figure out what's wrong.

Do so in the computer hardware subforum though, not here.

 

Also, I 100% agree with you that there's something seriously wrong if taking the side panel off reduces the temps. (also, unless you're overclocking, you shouldn't be getting desktop CPU temps above 65c, so you might consider getting some new thermal paste on it)

I have an FX-8320 with a hyper 212 EVO, Cooler master thermal paste and 3 fans. One fan in the front of the case, another attached to the cooler itself and the last one at the back. I've made it so both the front fan and the fan attached the cooler function as intake while the back acts as exhaust. Theoretically this should create this long chain of cool air being pulled from the front and out the back. My CPU is currently running at 35 degrees Celsius. I Also clean my case once every two weeks.

 

Thought this might help Ross since our setups are pretty similar except he has an FX-8350 as opposed to an FX-8320.

7 times in 10 sudden desktop intability is the power supply going. 300w draw on a corsair 800w supply? Doesn't matter. 7 times in ten.

For those curious:

 

-It's hot in my apartment (you can see me sweating in the video). For some reason it tends to be even hotter here than it is outside. It's about the mid 80s right now. I don't have air conditioning, most windows aren't even set up for units in Poland.

-Having the side of my case off makes a difference since I have fan blowing at me / the computer also, it's more surface area, not just still air.

-I have four hard drives in the case plus a non modular power supply. While I try to keep the wiring neat, it means perfect airflow isn't possible, plus some of the intake is heated from the drives regardless.

-This likely isn't the power supply, since my videocard has almost double the power draw of my CPU and it never crashed during a game. The render was hitting the CPU on all cores and it took a few hours for it to happen, plus I wasn't happy with the temperatures of it.

-A fan donated an i5-2500k to me actually. I've been meaning to "sidegrade" to that anyway, though it's a massive undertaking for me to do a Windows reinstall since I have to install and configure so many programs. I seriously have a checklist of about 200 items. Once I get to that though, that has a lower thermal profile than the 8350 anyway.

For those curious:

 

-It's hot in my apartment (you can see me sweating in the video). For some reason it tends to be even hotter here than it is outside. It's about the mid 80s right now. I don't have air conditioning, most windows aren't even set up for units in Poland.

 

 

I can't even imagine....

 

I don't do well in hot weather. I found something, however, that has been a godsend/lifesaver to me. This sucker. The hose transports the heat from my room outside and blows cold air back in. Works great since my windows slide sideways instead of going up and down. I couldn't live without that thing.

Subs up!

 

I don't think anybody says this enough Daniel, but your efforts and contribution to Ross's channel are nothing short of heroic. By the (somewhat imaginary) power invested in me, I therefore name this day "danielsangeo" day! :3

Leaving the panel off is rubbish

Leaving the panel off makes CPU temp 70 ℃ instead of 80℃. And I do have decent Thermaltake case with both in and out fans and with top and front sides made out of wire mesh.

Do not underestimate convective force when there is temperature difference of 50℃.

If you have 70-80 degrees CPU temperature, I think you should be more worried about certain other things rather than the panel...

Subs up!

 

I don't think anybody says this enough Daniel, but your efforts and contribution to Ross's channel are nothing short of heroic. By the (somewhat imaginary) power invested in me, I therefore name this day "danielsangeo" day! :3

 

For those curious:

 

-It's hot in my apartment (you can see me sweating in the video). For some reason it tends to be even hotter here than it is outside. It's about the mid 80s right now. I don't have air conditioning, most windows aren't even set up for units in Poland.

If I hadn't seen it for myself over the past couple days, I would be amazed... You definitely need to look into something though, as 80+ is very hard on modern consumer PC hardware.

 

--A fan donated an i5-2500k to me actually. I've been meaning to "sidegrade" to that anyway, though it's a massive undertaking for me to do a Windows reinstall since I have to install and configure so many programs. I seriously have a checklist of about 200 items. Once I get to that though, that has a lower thermal profile than the 8350 anyway.

The 2500k also has a higher thermal limit before you start getting errors/artifacts/crashes.(despite being 'rated' lower in the specs)