Dealing with high end PC's heat during summer

[OrbitzXT]

This topic is more about cooling me than my PC. I personally hate being warm. It was 65F outside today and because of my PC, amplifier and TVs it was 85F in my room. It's a normal sized room...about 14' x 10', only one window so air flow is not that great. Are there any tips for dealing with heat that could make my room cooler? My CPU idle at about 50C and is about 60C under load, that's with a zalman cooler on it too. The amplifier for my speakers gets pretty warm too.

I was getting some desperate ideas and actually wondering if it's feasible to leave the tower outside the room and run long cables into my room, so the heat is in the living room or something. USB extenders are expensive so I'd have to keep the distance under 16 or so feet right? The other cables like HDMI-DVI shouldn't be too hard to get a hold of. Has anyone else ever gone to such lengths to combat the heat?

I was also wondering how effective water cooling might be to deal with room temperatures. The CPU is 60C, and my 2 GTX 285's hit about 90C while under full load. If these parts were water cooled, that's less heat they're putting out into the room.

Edit: Does water cooling even make the room cooler? Or is it still the same amount of heat just put out faster?

 

[MRCL]

Water cooling doesn't magically transform your room into Minnesota.

What you can do to shift exhaust heat from your PC outside is connecting a hose from your exhaust fan out the window or out the room or something.

What I do to keep me cool: Old PSU + several spare 120 and 180mm fans positioned around me.

 

[stevednmc]

if you do move it outta the room, make sure you get one long hdmi cable instaed of lengthening it with connectors. Hdmi degrades quickly the more junctions there are.
Where is the pc in relation to your window in the room?

 

[entropy13]

It's almost 2pm. I'm currently sitting next to a couple of windows. Not that it helps since the wind blowing into the room is warm. I'm perspiring right now. Temps outside are 32C, or converted, 89.6F. CPU currently idling at 46C. All fans are at 100%. GTX 570 currently idling at 53-60C with fan ranging from 42-56%. It gets to around 83C at load (reaches 85% fan). I'm not really annoyed with the noise coming from all those fans as there's one big fan behind me whose noise drowns their noise. That big fan is the only source of relatively cooler air in the room.

CPU quickly reaches 65C in the first 5 seconds of Intel Burn Test. Motherboard quickly reaches 68C at that same time. Remember, all fans are already at 100% (4 case fans, CPU fan) with the exception of the fan on the GPU.

tl;dr: that's not what I would call "hot."

EDIT: To put more perspective, the temperature outside you mention (65F - 18.33C) is colder than the temperature we set in our air-conditioner (71.6F-22C). If I want to have "outside temperatures" of that level in summer over here, I have to go to a city which is more than 1,500 meters above sea level.

 

[OrbitzXT]

What you can do to shift exhaust heat from your PC outside is connecting a hose from your exhaust fan out the window or out the room or something.

That sounds practical, but what's the best way to go about doing that? How does the hose attach to the back of the PC? Does the hose have to be a specific width to be most effective? At what point does the run become too long and maybe have an effect on the ability to displace the heat? Would I need just 1 hose or 2? (One for CPU area and another for the 2 GPUs below)

 

[OrbitzXT]

tl;dr: that's not what I would call "hot."

My concern is that it's a mere 65F outside and its 85F in my room. When summer actually starts and it's 90F outside, my room is going to be hell. I have air conditioning which I'll likely have on on those 90+ days, but I still want to deal with this heat problem as I shouldn't need to keep the AC on once it hits 70 outside.

Also to the question about my PC's location relative to the window, it's about 10-12 feet away from the window. I could shift furniture and my desk around to get it closer if need be...but I don't get much of a breeze in here anyway due to the lack of cross ventilation.

 

[MRCL]

That sounds practical, but what's the best way to go about doing that? How does the hose attach to the back of the PC? Does the hose have to be a specific width to be most effective? At what point does the run become too long and maybe have an effect on the ability to displace the heat? Would I need just 1 hose or 2? (One for CPU area and another for the 2 GPUs below)

Thats up to your ghetto modding mind, but the diameter of the hose should be greater or equal of that of your fan. So 120mm fan = 120mm hose. Attatch it with cable binders, or those things you use to secure your washed clothes on the thing you put your washed clothes on to let them dry. eh my vocabulary seems to be limited atm.

The shorter the better tho, otherwise mod some more fans in the hose, like in a tunnel lol.

Or just deal with the heat

PS: A simple household fan pointing to your opened PC helps, too. It fucks up the airflow but its a constant supply of relatively cool air.

 

[entropy13]

My concern is that it's a mere 65F outside and its 85F in my room. When summer actually starts and it's 90F outside, my room is going to be hell. I have air conditioning which I'll likely have on on those 90+ days, but I still want to deal with this heat problem as I shouldn't need to keep the AC on once it hits 70 outside.

Also to the question about my PC's location relative to the window, it's about 10-12 feet away from the window. I could shift furniture and my desk around to get it closer if need be...but I don't get much of a breeze in here anyway due to the lack of cross ventilation.

WTF you turn your air-conditioner when it reaches 90F outside? It's already 90F outside over here and we don't turn the air-conditioner. Save a bit more money and buy some electric fans. That's the only quick and easy way you can alleviate the "heat" in your room a bit. Just like in my case, that big fan behind me is the ONLY source of relatively cooler air as the wind blowing into the room from the windows are warm too.

I thought you should have gotten the hint already, but perhaps that was not that obvious yet. Just get an electric fan or two.

 

[stevednmc]

I would say mov the furniture closer to the window, put a box fan facing in reverse out the window, open a window in anothe part of the house if possible, epecially if its on a perpindicular wall, that will help with crossflow. Also see about installing a ceiling fan at some point to help with cooling youself, cheaper and quieter than a bunch of other fans.

 

[streetfighter 2]

We're Americans entropy13, we have an extra layer of insulating fat; we're also northerners so we've seen our fair share of snow. Hot is anything greater than 80F.

Getting air flow through a poorly designed house is an art. My old apartment was pretty awful and most of the rooms only had one window. It took some experimenting but I discovered that opening the front door, opening all interior doors and only opening the windows in the rear of the house allowed for a very nice draft. Unfortunately leaving the front door wide open in the middle of Philadelphia is not advisable . . .

If you're eager to save money use ice-packs. Similarly you can make yourself a ghetto AC with some copper tube, a fan and ice water. If it's dry you can use an evaporative cooler.

 

[de.das.dude]

what you can do is go water cooling and have the radiators outside the window. or even in the pool if you want LOL. that way it will all be cool.

 

[ZenZimZaliben]

Treat your room exactly like you would your computer. Think of your room as the inside of the case.

What I did was purchased 2 fans. 1 large floor fan that pivots, and a large fan on a stand 3-4 foot stand.

Put the floor fan underneath the AC vent and have it point up at 45 degrees towards the ceiling and aim at the ceiling fan if you have one, if not aim it at your pc area to get the cold air off the floor and circulating. place the tall fan fully extended by the door way so it is pulling hotter air out of the room and pushing it into the hallway.

This works well for me. I live in arizona and my office is on the second floor.

 

[erixx]

wow! is the only thing I can think off.

build a cooler computer....

 

[claylomax]

I'm not gonna help you because you use Fahrenheit

 

[tuyen]

This topic is more about cooling me than my PC. I personally hate being warm. It was 65F outside today and because of my PC, amplifier and TVs it was 85F in my room.

I know exactly how you feel. I'm exactly the same when it comes to heat. I hate it, and if I could live in a winter-like climate 365 days a year, I would gladly do it.

I was getting some desperate ideas and actually wondering if it's feasible to leave the tower outside the room and run long cables into my room, so the heat is in the living room or something. USB extenders are expensive so I'd have to keep the distance under 16 or so feet right? The other cables like HDMI-DVI shouldn't be too hard to get a hold of. Has anyone else ever gone to such lengths to combat the heat?

This would only save you a couple of degrees, at most. The only way that moving your computer into a different room would be effective is if that other room was completely air-tight. Otherwise, the heat being generated in the new room would simply transfer over to the colder rooms of the house, and after a couple of hours, the temperature would stabilize. You basically gain nothing by doing that.

I was also wondering how effective water cooling might be to deal with room temperatures. The CPU is 60C, and my 2 GTX 285's hit about 90C while under full load. If these parts were water cooled, that's less heat they're putting out into the room.

It would have absolutely zero effect on your room temperature. It's a matter of simple physics and thermodynamics. Heat is being generated by your CPU. That's the key word - generated. So what you're doing by cooling (either by air or water or liquid nitrogen) is simply TRANSFERRING the heat away from the CPU to keep it cool. The heat simply moves from the CPU into your case, and from your case, it moves into your room.

The only way to solve your heating problem is to do what I do -- run your air conditioner as soon as you become uncomfortable from the heat. Or, if you want to save on electricity costs, buy a portable air conditioner for your room, and then you don't need to cool the rest of your house until it gets really hot in the summer.

 

[erixx]

Many of us have air-co with a per room remote control (it's the most common anyway, your system I have only seen it in office buildings: one temperature setting for all people inside: sucks!), no point of cooling the whole house, lol

Your remarks about heat transfer are absolutely right!

OP: if you have a window close, a solution could be the huge flexible exhaust tube from your case thru the window and outside. Case must be modded to be only 1 exhaust opening and fixing that tube on it.

 

[trickson]

This topic is more about cooling me than my PC. I personally hate being warm. It was 65F outside today and because of my PC, amplifier and TVs it was 85F in my room. It's a normal sized room...about 14' x 10', only one window so air flow is not that great. Are there any tips for dealing with heat that could make my room cooler? My CPU idle at about 50C and is about 60C under load, that's with a zalman cooler on it too. The amplifier for my speakers gets pretty warm too.

I was getting some desperate ideas and actually wondering if it's feasible to leave the tower outside the room and run long cables into my room, so the heat is in the living room or something. USB extenders are expensive so I'd have to keep the distance under 16 or so feet right? The other cables like HDMI-DVI shouldn't be too hard to get a hold of. Has anyone else ever gone to such lengths to combat the heat?

I was also wondering how effective water cooling might be to deal with room temperatures. The CPU is 60C, and my 2 GTX 285's hit about 90C while under full load. If these parts were water cooled, that's less heat they're putting out into the room.

Edit: Does water cooling even make the room cooler? Or is it still the same amount of heat just put out faster?

Water cooling will cool you hardware off better but you are still going to be putting heat into the room regardless , Best thing for cooling off a room is air conditioning that or open a window and have a fan blowing out the window .

 

[Easo]

Take it out of the case aka barebone.

 

[Fourstaff]

Thought about reducing the heat generated? As in underclocking processor and stuff like that. Or its just not practical?

 

[Bo$$]

Thought about reducing the heat generated? As in underclocking processor and stuff like that. Or its just not practical?

thats what im doing now!

 

[OrbitzXT]

We're Americans entropy13, we have an extra layer of insulating fat; we're also northerners so we've seen our fair share of snow. Hot is anything greater than 80F.

This man definitely understands my needs.

 

[PaulieG]

Take it out of the case aka barebone.

Yup. Tech station FTW. Cooling and easy access. My rigs are all open bench except for the kids rig, for obvious reasons.

 

[erixx]

Time to tell the wife "I NEED an Antec Spider case"

 

[SaiZo]

I bough a cooling fan i can have on the floor. But this sounds more than my system, so instead i decided - i'll create a draft between working room and the balcony (computer/studio is on the 2:nd floor of the house).

 

[entropy13]

Even though we reach the same "hot temps" there's one major difference between there and here: humidity. Earlier today was the hottest afternoon of the year for us. To put it in perspective, my CPU's temps at idle were your (OrbitzXT's) temps at load. My GPU's fan reaches 62% fan even though there's hardly any GPU usage.