A player shows off his beautified case and hopes for recognition for his great idea. But his post backfires. Because many warn against his idea and do not find it funny at all.
A user proudly displays his computer: He not only managed to hide the stupid cables, but also to fill all the empty spaces in his PC. In his picture on reddit, you can see that the user has filled about half of the case with blossoms in a Sakura style.
However, the community’s reaction to the player’s brilliant idea is very subdued.
Fire hazard and dust from decoration in the computer?
What is the criticism? As enthusiastic as the player is about his idea, he is equally surprised by the reaction from other players. They can specifically think of two things they criticize about the idea:
- On the one hand, some players warn of a potential fire hazard that could arise from the computer. The blossoms would insulate heat inside the computer.
- On the other hand, other users point out that these blossoms will attract dust. And that will lead to further problems.
In a case where a gaming PC caught fire, one of the causes was likely melted plastic dripping onto the power supply. In the case with the sea of blossoms in the PC, some also fear that the blossoms could get too hot. One player therefore speculates:
[The blossoms are a] super dust attractor, which can then attract static electricity that could theoretically destroy the hardware through a discharge or, in the worst case, catch fire, resulting in damage to the hardware.
What was the reaction? The player did not let the criticism slide and tested the temperatures of his system in another thread on reddit. The result: Generally, the temperatures remain between 33 and 40 degrees according to measurements.
Many components have fuses built in to protect against problems
Fuses in the gaming PC: In general, it is quite unlikely that a computer can catch fire on its own. Because all components have built-in protective mechanisms that aim to prevent major issues. In the event of a sudden power surge or spike, your power supply should prevent worse. Therefore, always ensure that your power supply is equipped with three important fuses:
- Short circuit protection (SCP): Should prevent the power supply or other components from being damaged in the event of a short circuit.
- Overload protection (OPP): If the power supply is heavily loaded, it should cause the power supply to shut down. And precisely that was likely missing in the case where the PC caught fire.
- Over/Under current protection (U/OCP): This should protect the power supply and components from a too-strong voltage drop or rise.
What about figures and decoration in the PC? Many gamers and also experts advise against putting additional material in the gaming PC. This especially includes plastic items that can get warm and then possibly melt. For example, colleagues from proxymitejapon.com state that temperatures of around 30 degrees are not a problem for figures and similar items. However, already at temperatures of over 40 degrees in the case, there is a risk that figures could become soft. If you do not have good ventilation in your system, you should definitely refrain from placing figures or other items in your gaming PC.
How high is the fire hazard? Defective components or a faulty power supply can lead to a fire if the fuses are no longer functioning. For example, power cables for Nvidia’s RTX 4090 repeatedly melt and some see a potential fire hazard here.
Many users hope now that Nvidia will return to normal PCIe power cables with its next generation of graphics cards (RTX 5000) and abolish the 12VHPWR connector again, which causes so many problems and risks.
Other people destroy their graphics card themselves because they are not careful and leave their computer completely alone: A player’s AMD graphics card dies because he left his gaming PC completely alone for 30 minutes
