Summer-season cooling for your PC - What do you do?

[Aquinus]

When the summer season comes around it can get not just really hot outside, but really humid. The former is bad for our PCs and the latter is an annoyance to us as human beings as the dew point gets oppressively high. I'm curious (and I'm sure this depends on where you live,) but how AC capacity do you dedicate to the room that has your computer(s) in it? How does it do? Is it enough? Is it too much? Lets start a discussion about keeping your computer chilly when it's hot outside.

I was going to have more options in the poll but the stupid UI submitted automagically and I can't edit the poll nor can I delete threads that I make...

I personally have a small office so a 5000 BTU window unit does fine. Summer doesn't last too long here here either but it can get really hot when it does.

 

[MT Alex]

I don't use any AC in the room my computer is in. In fact, it actually runs cooler in the summer since it is in the same room as my wood stove.

 

[sneekypeet]

With the amount of hardware I have in a 10X12' office, plus two bodies, 5K was just not enough. This year I stepped up to a 10K BTU AC, and it makes all the difference in the world!

 

[Aquinus]

I don't use any AC in the room my computer is in. In fact, it actually runs cooler in the summer since it is in the same room as my wood stove.

Do you open a window and open the flue and you get a draft or something? My house isn't setup in a way that allows air to move around easily either unless there is a breeze outside. For example, it's going to be 85-90*F (29-32*C) here today with only a slight breeze. As the week goes on it's supposed to get more humid. Last week my office was over 100*F (~38*C) last week and while my computer could handle it, I could not so I put the AC in.

With the amount of hardware I have in a 10X12' office, plus two bodies, 5K was just not enough. This year I stepped up to a 10K BTU AC, and it makes all the difference in the world!

That's about the size of my office, except just one person is usually in it. It's also not on a corner of the house and only has one window so its exposure to the outside is minimal. I think I'll be able to get away with 5k. I did just buy a 7k one for the other room. If it's overkill for the bedroom, I might swap them around, but so far the 5k is doing great.

I should also note this is the first full summer I'll have been in my new place of residence, so I don't have any comparison except where I lived before which in generally sucked (except for the cost of rent, but you get what you pay for).

 

[davcc22]

nothing till it hits 40 than i take my rig inside (I'm in a caravan out the back of the house my music was too loud) but my rig was built to handle the heat it was built in Australia after all i might go full custom loop though just cos i need more cooling so i can overclock higher oh well

 

[Toothless]

I just max my fans and call it good.

 

[sneekypeet]

That's about the size of my office, except just one person is usually in it. It's also not on a corner of the house and only has one window so its exposure to the outside is minimal. I think I'll be able to get away with 5k. I did just buy a 7k one for the other room. If it's overkill for the bedroom, I might swap them around, but so far the 5k is doing great. I should also note this is the first full summer I'll have been in my new place of residence, so I don't have any comparison except where I lived before which in generally sucked (except for the cost of rent, but you get what you pay for).

That should be fine with limited heat sources, but more important is insulation and not being on the south side of the house, both of which screw me. Being in a rental, all rooms are on the south side, and the tree that used to cover us got cut down. I went 10K to be certain I wouldn't be steaming even with the AC on like I was with the 5K last year.

 

[BarbaricSoul]

My house has central air, but I've found since I started folding also that a fan in the doorway pulling air into my office (spare bedroom) makes a very nice difference (from 76'f to 71-72'f ambient).

 

[Shambles1980]

generally dont have AC here. so we just suffer when the temps get in to the 30c range. i suffer once its in the 20c range lol "i hate heat"
cooling the pc isnt that much work. but that only serves to make me hotter so im usually miserable.

best place to be in the heat is in the car at least that has ac lol.

 

[BarbaricSoul]

best place to be in the heat is in the car at least that has ac lol.

I have gone for drives just to get in some AC before.

 

[Ralfies]

The AC in my apartment sucks, so I beat the heat by lowering my cpu OC and locking frame rates to 45FPS. Still heats up my apartment pretty quick when gaming though, so I keep a spray bottle handy to spray myself in the face every five or so minutes.

 

[Disparia]

25,000 BTU. Cools most of the house, yes, but it's in the same room as the computers so it counts

 

[erocker]

I have an 8,000 BTU window unit that I retrofitted with R12. It cools a 24x12 room with a vaulted ceiling (2 ceiling fans) no problem. Before I retrofitted it, it would struggle.

 

[cadaveca]

I have no AC, and crappy air quality. I lower clocks, and remove parts. This year, I'm trying to run all my stuff OC'ed, and am pulling GPUs to combat heat build-up.

Temps have increased, but I tend to run conservative OCs so that this issue... well, isn't an issue. It's just my multi-monitor gaming habit that poses any problems.

 

[Aquinus]

That should be fine with limited heat sources, but more important is insulation and not being on the south side of the house, both of which screw me. Being in a rental, all rooms are on the south side, and the tree that used to cover us got cut down. I went 10K to be certain I wouldn't be steaming even with the AC on like I was with the 5K last year.

My office does face south, really south by south west, but as I said before there is only a... *grabs measuring tape* 11 1/2 ft x 8ft area that is exposed to the outside, the blinds are always closed and the window has a reflective UV coating on them. They're those nice double-pane windows that you can unlock and fold in to clean both sides of them too. They're really nice, but it's only one wall that's exposed to the outside. I lied, I got a 8k BTU AC that will be going in the bedroom (corner of the house, 2nd floor, exterior faces south and east on each side respectively so a bigger unit seemed to make sense for that room.

I used to live in a brick apartment and this little unit couldn't cool the bedroom with my PC in it, not because the AC was weak, but because the brick would absorb the heat of the course of the day and turn the apartment into an oven.

 

[Norton]

Strong intake fans on my cases and they are setup to pull the cool air coming from the central AC vent. The closest one is around 5' away from the vent

 

[Aquinus]

Strong intake fans on my cases and they are setup to pull the cool air coming from the central AC vent. The closest one is around 5' away from the vent

That's another good thing to think about. I need to consider replacing a number of fans on my Antec 1200, the stock ones are starting to fail, I've already replaced two of them but if any more go I might consider just getting some decent ones all around and completely redoing the wiring in my chassis as well.

 

[GreiverBlade]

you should add a 0 BTU to the poll xD no AC for me, and as i live in mountain even if the summer weather can be quite hot (at last for me above 28° is hot) i rarely get above 25° in the room where my PC's are

 

[Aquinus]

you should add a 0 BTU to the poll xD no AC for me, and as i live in mountain even if the summer weather can be quite hot (at last for me above 28° is hot) i rarely get above 25° in the room where my PC's are

The thread posted before I was ready and now the forum doesn't let me edit it... I was going to have several more options. I figured a lot of people wouldn't need AC, or would have central air, or might rather suffer and save the money. I'll take the discussion though. That's what counts.

 

[bubbleawsome]

I have the central air in my house cooling the room my PC is in. I have about 350w of hardware running near 24/7 in an 80f room and they stay below 80c most of the time.

 

[Nordic]

I just have a 20 in box fan pulling air out the window from an open window across basically a studio apartment. It gets hot still but there is good airflow. That is with 5 crunching\folding pc's too.

 

[erocker]

you should add a 0 BTU to the poll xD no AC for me, and as i live in mountain even if the summer weather can be quite hot (at last for me above 28° is hot) i rarely get above 25° in the room where my PC's are

But I don't get it?! You're closer to the SUN!

 

[Aquinus]

I just have a 20 in box fan pulling air out the window from an open window across basically a studio apartment. It gets hot still but there is good airflow. That is with 5 crunching\folding pc's too.

That is what I was doing in my office until I put the AC in. The bad part about circulating air with the outside is that you're pulling in pollen and depending on where you live, air pollution. I have an an air cleaner in my office that helps circulate the AC'ed air as well.

 

[Nordic]

That is what I was doing in my office until I put the AC in. The bad part about circulating air with the outside is that you're pulling in pollen and depending on where you live, air pollution. I have an an air cleaner in my office that helps circulate the AC'ed air as well.

It does get really dusty. I live in a semi rural area with lots of farming, and on top of that there is a soil erosion problem where the winds take the soil and just blow it west. It gets into everything in august.

Most of my crunchers are without a case and they don't seem to acquire dust. The one in a case has filters which I need to clean bi-weekly or more depending on the month. I onced removed the filters and the case got really bad in a week.

 

[natr0n]

I don't do anything really. The House has central A/C.

I never use side panels anymore, so I always have a lot of airflow.

In summer maybe temps go up 2-5 degrees.

I have to dust out case every 1-2 months though.