Alternative Cooling Method

[Berzer]

i'm fairly new to all of the new cooling ideas, like water cooling. Seeing as how the water coolers run with a radiator, couldn't you modify an air conditioner to flow into your computer? I have a window unit that runs directly next to my computer and i started thinking, couldnt i just build something that runs cool air into my case from the window unit. Or does it need to go directly onto the Cpu and video cards to make the cooling effective. can anyone think of a negative reason not to do this?

 

[pdyckman@comcas]

I have thought of the A/C idea too. As long as you can get the cool air into the case, it should work.

 

[Phil Harris]

Pointing the output from an A/C unit into the computer will work to reduce the ambient temperature inside the case, and as such will make everything run colder.
A word of caution regarding condensation is necessary however. If the components are hot, and they meet very cold air then condensation will form. This condensation will cause water droplets to appear on your motherboard and anything that gets warm.
There are two solutions to this. The first is to insulate the vulnerable parts with special waterproof coatings, this is messy and needs a lot of care with it's application. The second way is to not try to reduce the temperature so much as to allow condensation to form.
The amount you can get away with depends on a lot of factors, especially how much moisture is in the air. If you live where there is high humidity, you might only be able to reduce temps by a few degrees, in a drier climate, up to about 10c could be possible.
One way to test this is to fill a glass with water at around 60c and place it in the path of the cold air, this will illustrate the risk for your particular environment.

 

[Berzer]

thanks for the helpful information. that's a really good cautionary idea. i never thought about the condensation possiblility. i guess with such a large source of cold air it would almost over power the system. i live in the south and our humidity is always high so i know i would have condensation issues. probably not a good idea.

 

[PBNinja101]

phase changing cooling FTW!

Expensive, but u can get ur CPU to run at negative temps


Simon

 

[SNGX1275]

You won't get condensation blowing cold air on warm components, just pure physics/chemistry there. Another thing is window AC units run warm air over cold coils then blow the air out, so inherently the humidity going into the AC is greater than going out.

I would only expect condensation if you take a cold PC and remove it from the AC vent, allowing warmer, humid air to be sucked in and blown against the components. Because in that instance you have cold components doing the same thing the cold coils do in an AC unit.

If you stick a 60C water glass in the path of cold AC as said above, absolutely nothing will happen except your 60C water glass will get colder. What will get condensation is if you take a colder glass of water, and set it in a 75F room with some humidity. For condensation to happen the temperature of the object that has condensation form has to be at or below the Dew Point. You don't get this from taking a hot object to cool environment.