Every computer is just space heater with side effect of computations.

The same way every diesel engine is just oil stove with side effect of rotary motion. If the engine was in the back of the car you could totally put a pot on it and braise something.

My gaming laptop is surely 90% noise and heat (so heat?), but my m1 macbook… is less heat.. but still heat? From reading this thread everything will become heat, which sorta confuses me, but yeh i guess bitluni was nit talking about efficiency but more thermodynamically?!

A diesel engine is a very inefficient stove though, as only half (more or less, depending on the exact engine) of the energy is converted to heat, the leftover being mechanical energy.

Modern yes. But olden times atmospheric diesels without turbo were really efficient space heaters.

Good ol' days.

The Volkswagen 1.6D is probably the most reliable engine ever made. Only two failure modes - overheat or shitty fuel for the span of decades to break the fuel pump.