Planning Wall Mount Case with Outside Radiator need advise

Hi all,

My good friend Bloody_Pete on here says this would be the best place to ask about this. . .

I'm revamping my PC in the upcoming months and I'm playing with the idea of mounting the PC in a space next to my cupboard as I have a air vent that leads outside my house inside it, running a duct from the PC directly outside.

The space next the cupboard would be an ideal PC location as it is a unused space, above the monitors, only problem is the air duct would have to run horizontally. Have a look at the pictures it makes more sense. I was thinking having x2 120mm "Air penetrators" placed at the bottom of the case and another few in the duct line could work?






This brings me to the next idea, to have a radiator mounted outside my house with the hoses running through the air vent.

Now, I know this will come with many headaches, such like coolant freezing, bugs in the fans making it tamper proof and so on. . . however here are some pictures and spec of the proposed system along with some snaps of where it would go.

Pump: Aqua computer Aquastream ultra (powerful enough to push liquid round this loop?)
Radiator: Phobya Extreme 1080 with x9 Phobya Nano-G 12 Silent Waterproof 1500rpm fans





Any questions or suggestions you may have, I would be very appreciative of your input.

 

WOW. I have no idea but I give you rep for the idea.

 

I considered doing something like this a few years back, but being lazy, never did anything about it. Some thoughts:
if you used fans, the easiest option, how do you stop stuff coming in through them? Lots of mesh, which would limit air flow?
water cooling is good, but more complicated. The coolant would freeze in the winter, so maybe 2 radiators in parallel, one inside, one outside and switch between them according to the season? And you'd need a pretty powerful pump, which would probably be noisier.

 

Two things immediately spring to mind...

First, I doubt those fan's are really waterproof... ok a quick check and not only are they waterproof they even run under water... cool! But I don't believe the rest of their specs (except for RPM) for a second 25dBa for 63.44CFM??? GT's are 26/58 respectively. I also don't believe their rating for static pressure, just look at the huge gap between the blades and the cowling... most companies fudge their specs though, not just phobia; and it's one of my pet hates...

Secondly; surely it would be easier in the long run to use the vent as an air intake rather than a pipe duct - stick a 150/172/200/whatever-fits fan in there and duct the cold air to the radiator/radiator-fans which are housed internally that way you only have one fan/filter to worry about. And that way you don't need to worry about your loop freezing when your computers off in winter...

 

Thanks for the replies. . .

Yer, I wouldn't believe they are "waterproof" myself, I was going to make a housing for the rad outside. Covering the rad from rain and with some cadging to protect from human and animal intrusion.

Whats peoples thoughts on putting antifreeze in the coolant?

 

antifreeze would work fine. although it lowers the effectiveness of your coolant slightly, if it were cold enough outside it would more then negate the difference.

outside cooling has been done before. it works. my concerns with it are:

1. in the winter, my 2 PCs are more than enough to heat the computer room. if i was dumping all that heat outside the house i would have to run the heater more often...raising my heating costs.

2. in the summer the temperature outside often exceeds the temp inside, which means the computer would actually run hotter with an outside rad than if the radiator were mounted inside like a standard setup.

these two problems lead to the optimal design: a variable system. an inside loop for the winter and a system that draws air from inside the room but exhausts outside to help keep the room cooler in the summer.

 

I see your point with the winter heating with the PC's however I actually have a lizard in my room and his 40 centigrade tank along with the network stuff in the other cupboard (firewall and switches etc) keep my room so hot it was part of the decision to have the rad outside as its a nice temp in here till some gaming is happening and then it starts to get very stuffy indeed. Also noticed your from Washington. . . dont you guys get much colder winters than us?

Luckily the outside walkway where the rad will be placed gets zero sunlight and being fairly compact creates a wind tunnel.

The fact anti-freeze will work is very pleasing to hear!

 

Have you looked into a passive radiator solution like Alphacool Cape Cora rads?

No sunlight, natural airflow... no fans or enclosure needed... just enough of them to dissapate your thermal load.

 

Condensation...

 

Unless its bringing in near zero temp water and its real hot in here I don't think it will be a problem. . . the proof will be in the pudding though I suppose

 

When it freezes during the winter it'll be sub zero I bet. And it's plenty warm and moist enough from all your farts!

 

Hmm.. Not necessarily... Dew point is some what higher than that. Sometimes depending on humidity it can be double figure degrees. We work with heat pumps that can reverse-cycle and cool as well as heat. The dew-point and condensation-effect are big concerns unless specific measures are taken to counter this, and I'm only talking about figures approaching 12 to 15 degrees...

Harnessing outside air seems very good, but it will come with issues. I think I prefer the idea of bringing that cooler air in to the cooling apparatus rather than mounting it outside.

 

Having everything inside would of course be easier, but if I drew the air in that means it would exhaust into my room, negating the point of it in the first place.

Mmm condensation could be annoying, I'm asking this guy if he has had issues with it . . .

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=194025

NEVER! My farts come out cold yer!

 

in "outside" radiator setup You better run industrial AC fan - it could be really waterproof and very powerful since noise is not a big problem outside. condensation is could be a problem but insulation of incoming tubing should solve the problem. pump - better run circulation pump - it costs just as laing pumps and very reliable

 

...and all the tubing inside the case, and any exposed metal on waterblocks, and just to be safe you should probably insulate the whole of the waterblocks, and around the CPU/GPU sockets, though I don't think you'll be going cold enough to warrant insulating to the rear of the cores. This...

Seriously, the "warm" air coming off the radiators will only be a few degrees warmer than the ambient temperature outside, if you went with my suggestion (only using it as it's the one that's in my head, and I can flip it around and make it do summersaults...) it's likely that in winter you'll actually have to choke the cold air vent fan back to avoid condensation, and freezing your lizards (and yourself).

Of course, this is all dependant on where you live... If you had an A/C in your house it's probably somewhat warmer than where I am

 

Mmmmm thinking today a lot about it. . . playing with the idea of having an enclosed section of the cupboard to pump air into from outside onto some rad's and also locate the pump and stuff. Then have the pipes exit the side of the left cupboard into the space for the PC. Thus fixing the condensation problem, and the ball ache of mounting a rad etc outside

 

external mounting of radiator allows You to run high-speed (and loud) fans.
and what is Your goal? maximum OC? silence? temps?

 

in my experience fan speed doesnt have much of an effect over a certain point. i assume because radiator manufacturers design their rads specifically for lower speed so quiet fans can be used.

if you could obtain a radiator with very densely packed fins it would require high speed (high pressure) fans and would probably give a noticeable improvement in cooling power. but seeing how his radiator will be feeding from cool outside air i dont think dense radiators and/or high speed fans will really be necessary to get very good performance.

 

Back in the olden days before pre-mixed coolants, we all used anti-freeze as a standard additive to prevent corrosion and algae growth. That will do the job nicely for your purposes. Purple Ice Or Zerex Racing are recommended.

Condensation can become an issue when cold coolant enters a warm room. you may have to explore thermostat valves and all that jazz.

 

Fixing the condensation is easy. You have a pretty bit area to work with, so pick up a cooler big enough to house everything. Mount it on the wall so the lid opens like a refrigerator door. Cut a hole in the back to run your lines outside, then seal the hold with expanding foam. Cut a hold on the new "bottom" to run your video, network, usb cables out, then seal that hole with a bit of silicone, not much, just enough to plug the hole. Then throw a couple descant bags in the cooler and close the door. This would do, and it already has a hole for the cables!

http://www.igloocoolers.com/Coolers_3/All-Coolers/70-Quart-MaxCold