A YouTuber wanted to test how well a refrigerator can cool hardware. To do this, he modified the refrigerator. But it was hard work and he also faced many difficulties.
Here’s the thing: How well can a refrigerator actually cool a gaming PC? This is a question a YouTuber must have asked himself. Because the YouTuber “Basically Homeless” (about 1.3 million subscribers) did exactly that and transformed a refrigerator into a gaming PC with a GeForce RTX 3090.
Of course, not everything went smoothly, and “Basically Homeless” had to solve several problems on his way to his gaming PC. Other YouTubers prefer to buy ready-made gaming PCs, but they also have a lot of stress with them.
Humidity in the refrigerator is the biggest challenge
That was his first attempt: For an initial test, he used cheaper hardware (Ryzen 3 3200G and GTX 1650) and started a test parking the hardware in the refrigerator. However, that didn’t work because there were several problems that the YouTuber had to solve.
What is the problem? The biggest challenge for the YouTuber is the humidity. Because when the temperatures in the refrigerator reach the dew point, condensate forms inside the refrigerator. And humidity is definitely not a good thing for hardware.
In addition, the relative humidity in the refrigerator must not be too high, so that the water inside the device does not start to thaw.
How did he solve the problem? For this reason, he calculated how high the humidity can be at most, so that the dew point is not reached. However, this created a new problem. Because the dryness and cold create a natural static chamber, which is also a problem for computer components.
Anyone who has ever assembled a PC knows that he should discharge himself before assembly. He solved this problem by spraying the interior with anti-static liquid. This liquid costs $700, almost as much as a graphics card.
You can watch the entire refrigerator action in the official YouTube video. Here, the YouTuber shows how he transformed the refrigerator into a gaming PC with an RTX 3090.
The refrigerator significantly lowers the temperatures in the gaming PC
During the first final test, water still seeped into the system, but the YouTuber was able to save his hardware and fix the error. In the following test, everything worked as planned.
In the refrigerator, the temperatures in Apex Legends at 4K are about 30 degrees lower than in an air-cooled case. The graphics card is on average at 30 degrees under load, and the drinks in the refrigerator remain in a drinkable state.
Nevertheless, you should not try this at home, because in the video, you can see that the YouTuber had to apply some tricks to make the refrigerator into a gaming PC. This includes draining the humidity or needing to connect a device for humidity control. In the worst case, you could seriously damage hardware – at a time when you would have to pay thousands of euros for hardware.
How much did the YouTuber invest? Overall, the gaming PC in the refrigerator cost him $10,000. However, there are also streamers who invest much more money in their setups. For example, a streamer from Faze Clan played on a gaming setup for $30,000:
Streamer shows gaming setup for $30,000 – Here’s what you get for so much money
