A Hot Mess in the Living Room
Like most millennial gamers, I started my gaming career in a basement on an old console that was hooked up to an old CRT TV using the old yellow, white, and red OOTB connectors. While most gamers have moved beyond the basement couch (it was a basketball bean bag chair for me) to an advanced gaming desk setup I still prefer kick back on my couch with a controller. The issue with gaming PC’s (and modern consols for that matter) is they can be unsightly with the torrent of cables coming out the back and unique form factor with RGB. My solution to this was to place my mess into a trendy chest and hope for the best. I figured the mesh walls on the chest would allow heat to disapate but hadn’t thought about the PC’s need for cool air on the intake side. With that in mind I shimmied the chest to the garage for some Dremel surgery.
My rectangles came out even more perfect than the initial circle for cable management I cut after assembling the chest with only minimal smoke filling the garage and moderate hammering to fit the fans into place. Now was time to put my Walmart Boho Chic Entertainment Center™️ to the test.
I awkwardly shimmied the chest back into the living room and giddily plugged in my creation to have my ears greeted with what sounded like a turboprop plane starting up (for reference), followed by the smell of burnt partial board. Now the turbine engine startup noise was pretty great but probably not the best when trying to watch a movie with the family; I’d have to find a way only to turn it on when the PC was on. On the other hand, the smell was going to need immediate attention as I had already dumped a can of Pledge into the chest, and this was too big of a job for Febreeze.
If dryer sheets can make a two week old gym outfit fresh again, I figured it’d be perfect for getting the smoke smell out of “wood,” and I was right! Using my Easy Access Dyer Sheet Hangers™️ I turned the chest into an oversized air freshener. Due to the heat generated by the PC, the fresh smell of lilacs was amplified and projected through the entire living room, kitchen, and entryway.
Now all that was left was to limit the runtime of the fans to only turn on if the PC was on and in use. For this, I turn to my trusty Home Assistant setup for assistance in part 2.
