Meta Quest 2: Drill holes for better ventilation?
The Quest 2 VR headset can sometimes get very warm. Does it make sense to drill holes in the Quest 2 for better ventilation?
This intriguing idea from Reddit user Apeci is causing head-scratching in the Quest subreddit this week. The VR enthusiast proudly presented pictures of his cooling solution, which he calls "OcuFlow 3000" - and was widely met with incomprehension.
The picture shows a Quest 2 with almost two dozen small drill holes on the front and two larger openings on the top of the front cover.
An engineer explains why he thinks this "modification" is not very effective. Dust could get into the device through the additional openings, which would be detrimental to cooling in the long run. Furthermore, the holes could impair Meta's intended air circulation inside the device, which would again be a disadvantage.
"Maybe it works. Maybe it doesn’t," the engineer says. "I have seen dumber shit on the internet."
PC VR streaming tests the limits of cooling performance
Meta Quest 2 should never overheat so much in "normal" use that it becomes uncomfortable to wear or brings the system to its knees.
Meta is quite conservative when it comes to clocking the chip, as Oculus engineering chief John Carmack himself pointed out. The CPU runs at half load to avoid overheating. Even after the small GPU boost that the Quest 2 recently received, the cooling performance of the device has not changed.
Apeci was inspired to drill holes because he uses the Meta Quest 2 for "high resolution PCVR." This secondary use scenario might stress the chip in a different way than native VR use. In PC VR streaming, the chip does not calculate the graphics itself and is mainly busy decoding video signals.
Other Reddit users also report that Meta Quest 2 can overheat under intense PC VR use and high room temperature extremes.
A Quest like Swiss cheese: Not an isolated case
Apeci is satisfied with OcuFlow 3000 and calls the cooling effect "dramatic".
"Normally after 30min of Alyx the headset would be very warm to the touch. Now running a solid 120fps on ultras with 10ms decode latency the exhaust is barely warm," the Reddit user writes. He doesn't care about the possible dust because he cleans the headset himself.
The warranty has expired anyway, so he wants to continue "hacking" the device. The Quest 2 is also less important since Apeci's main device is now a Meta Quest Pro, whose cooling solution is far better.
By the way, Apeci is not the only one who has drilled holes into his Meta Quest 2 for cooling purposes. Another user reported in the Quest subreddit and showed pictures of his "OcuFlow 1500". According to his own statements, this "hacker" also achieved good results with his modification. The entire upper and front side now feel cool, and significantly more hot air escapes at the front, they say.
We hear speculation in the subreddit that this could be the beginning of a new trend. Let's hope not. Half-Life: Alyx and other PC VR games can be enjoyed quite thoroughly and with excellent picture quality, even in the original condition of the Quest 2.
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