Apologies if this is in the wrong section, and again if this has been mentioned before, but i have been thinking of ways to get better cooling into a case. Over the years people have gone from heatsinks and fans to watercooling / phase change and even LN2 to cool their systems, but these have all been methods of cooling the components in the system, not the actual system itself (other than extra fans or higher airflow) Has anyone ever tried cooling the air going into a case? If the ambient temp of the case is lower, i am figuring the coolers with have less work to do (i think back to an example of the person who put his case outside the house on a snowy winters day to see how much cooler it ran, and it worked quite well in fact) I was thinking on the lines of a radiator filled with a fluid, cooler than the ambient temp, that is then blown over by a fan. Similar principal to a cars air con, giving a lower temp inside the case and maybe even drier air. Yes, no, good idea, bad idea, outrageously daft idea, wont work because of x, y or z. interested in peoples thoughts and opinions please (especially people who work with air con and therefore know the pros and cons of the technology)
piotres made a sort of fridge with a single stage cpu cooler underneath it - i think there is a thread on benchtec somewhere about it. the single stage head came up through the fridge and the mobo and everything went inside the fridge.
i have had a similar thought, look for diy air conditioning. its a length of water cooled copper pipe wrapped around a fan, seems to work well. however i am searching ebay for an air cooler, that uses water/ice to drop the temp of the air. then position it next to, or into the case.
I think I remember reading that if you use below ambient cooling you can cause condensation on your components, which is bad.
You actually have to have quite a drop in temps before condensation will build up. A few degrees won't matter. I used to work in a univercity and the computer rooms in summer were a good 15 degrees cooler than out side temps just to stop them crashing all the time. If you had a constant air flow going across all the components everything would be just fine
Perhaps this is true I didn't look into it too much. Although in the case of your university I would consider the rooms temperature ambient not what was outside as its the internal air with which you were cooling the computers. Edit: now that i think about it. I think it was more to do with using water cooler than ambient in a loop not air which cause condensation so everything i said can be disregarded
Condensation happens when you get a delta lower than ambient temps, at about 13 - 15 degrees lower than ambient, but its been a long time since I have been interested in low temp\sub zero cooling.
Condensation is depended on the delta between the high temperature and the cold temperature, and the humidity of the air. Cold air has a lower maximum humidity than hot air, this is actually the reason that we get fog, hot air that has high humidity gets cooled down, and therefor cannot carry as much water, so the water leaves the air and becomes fog. so, if you only recyle the cold air within the box, you can go as low as your cooling equipment allows. If the humidity of the air you supply is higher than the maximum humidity of the cooled air can carry, you will get problems with condensation and fog. I have a plan to aircondition my rack that is installed in my basement, and use the heat from it to heat my living room etc... It is cold in Norway during winter...
Cheers guys, it would appear this isnt as stupid as maybe i first thought Basically what i was thinking was a chilled radiator in the front of the case (fan driven) that has a cool fluid (or gas) flowing through it As the air is drawn over the rad it will chill the outside air and therefore drop the delta temp of the case. From what i have read above i think my biggest fear is going to be condensation (probably forming around the radiator itself) As said, the link that CrapBag gave is bascially a guy who put his PC in a fridge, which is not where i want to go really lol. I am not looking to cool the PC to mega low or sub zero temps, just ease the cooling of the system components (motherboard) as well as help the heatsinks. Another thought would be to double stack a watercooling rad so the air being passed through is at a constant cooler temp to being the loop down further, but that i can see creating lots of condensation.
Dependant on what you are looking for in regards air conditioning. You can pick up units that would cool the entire room rather than specific areflow into the case itself. Simply as you can't get pre built systems small enough. I know this as I am an Air conditioning engineer. I looked at the fridge idea. Previously and it seemed promising. Pre cooling air that is drawn into the system could work. Its just the DIY and money. Also a true refrigerant cooled system would be very noisy.
Have to agree. Am HVAC designer, myself. Theoretically, it would be nice, but actually designing, and building a decent system would be a nightmare. Everything would have to be customised, and consequently expensive. At least, if trying to reduce temps, a bit, in summer, get a small, room air conditioner, and create a nicer environment, as well. You can get a basic one, around £200, although it may be worth paying a bit more, for something quieter. It's not going to drop case temps by a huge amount (5 to 7 deg C, perhaps), but may be worthwhile. for the money, plus a cooler room.
dropping room temps is great for the system not so much for the user. The amount of complaints from customers because of drafts and chills... I am going to have a play with Sketchup when I get home. I had an idea. One of those small units you can bf the buy from B&Q stripped down to bare bones and fitting the components into a desk. Using the airflow from the unit pushed up through the desk/vented allowing direct cooling of all computer components built into the desk. This would incur costs to buy the unit, build the desk and etc and void warranty on the unit. In theory is an ok idea in practice not worth it.
You certainly need to be sensible about where you place an a/c unit so it's not an uncomfortable draught. Can I stress one warning. NEVER put a cooling rad in, or even near, the air intake to a case. Condensation will occur, on the fins of the radiator, in humid conditions, which the airflow can carry over, and SPRAY water all over your components!!
