This DIY 'Breathing' RTX 3080 Gaming PC Needs No Fans

A YouTuber known for wacky DIY creations has built a unique fanless PC, which he calls the world's first "breathing" computer, a report by TechRadar explains.

YouTuber DIY Perks set out to build a powerful gaming rig without the noisy cooling fans that typically accompany high-end gaming PCs and consoles — base PS4 owners, for example, will be more than familiar with their console going into jet engine mode when running newer games.

For his project, DIY Perks used one of the best graphics cards and best gaming CPUs available, the RTX 3080 and AMD Ryzen 9 5950X.

In order to cool the demanding gaming hardware without fans, DIY Perks turned to biomimicry — essentially, he built a "breathing" PC.

To make his PC "breathe", DIY Perks built a modern, homemade bellows system using reinforced acrylic panels and magnets that get the panels to silently glide back and forth.

The fanless system pulls in cooler air, via vents and a water loop, while simultaneously pushing out the heat produced by the components.

A ginormous, breathing gaming PC

Though DIY Perks does concede that the end result is "ginormous," he does say that the transparent glass used in the bellows system does make it feel like it's taking up less space.

Impressively, DIY Perks recorded the temperature of his RTX 3080 and AMD Ryzen 9 5950X while using the system at 140 and 14 degrees Fahrenheit (60 and 62 degrees Celsius). The famously power-intensive CPU and GPU can both run safely within the 140-158 degrees Fahrenheit (60-70 C) temperature range.

However, as DIY Perks doesn't use any benchmarking software in the video, it's hard to know how well the system would fare when playing a GPU intensive game with ray tracing on, such as Cyberpunk 2077 or Red Dead Redemption 2.

As DIY Perks points out, the computer is a first prototype and he will continue to improve it in order to make it run more quietly and more efficiently, and he'll post videos of his progress.

It's incredible to see someone design a build that may well inspire next-gen cooling systems as part of a partially crowd-funded YouTube video series. Be sure to check out the video below.