derek_jones_36

Now I'm not sure if anyone has contemplated this but here in Canada we get some pretty frigid Autumn's sometimes, especially into October and I had a wacky idea to cool my case by funneling the cold air in from my living room window into the side of my case. I have a single 120mm TT Smartfan hooked up there and the window is pretty close to My Rig. My plan is to use a hose that matches the diameter of the 120mm opening in the side window of My Lian Lia case to suck in colder air from outside and pipe it into the interior of the case. I plan on using a filter so I don't get the interior dirty or bring in bugs or any other items.

.....Thoughts...???

Jones

WereBo

Hmmmmmm... In theory, it seems an excellent idea

The only possible problems that spring to mind, is sealing the air-tube to the glass, to stop any warm room air from leaking out - Silicon-seal should do that OK, but getting it to look neat and tidy will take most of the work.

derek_jones_36

Yeah good point..the only thing I have to figure out if what type of material to use for the tubing. I need something very flexible but something that I can mold. I think I have an idea. What about these below.....hmmmmm

Jones

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catal...oducts_id=1941

derek_jones_36

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catal...oducts_id=2903

Phædrus2401

I would be concerned about outside humidity getting into your computer, condensing, and causing a short. Dew and such.

derek_jones_36

Yeah I had thought about that...what about a filter?

Jones

Phædrus2401

I don't know if standard filters screen humidity or not, you can get ones that are water proof, but I don't know about water vapor. And being up there in the Great White North, the vapor might actually freeze out. Don't want hoarfrost in the computer, nope.

derek_jones_36

I do really like the idea but I might be getting ahead of myself.....However I have been really getting into the idea of just flooding my case with air cooling...I have a grand total of 14 fans if you include the psu fan, cpu fan and an assortment of other fans. I had played with the idea of including this unti in my case which is great because it allows for multiple placement scenarios which is ideal. I also like this other unit for additional cooling my memory on top of the heat pipes. Check it out.

Jones


http://www.performance-pcs.com/catal...ducts_id=26200

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catal...oducts_id=1503

grimx133

I'd worry about condensation as well. Looked around a bit and saw some talk about it, but nothing definitive. Sounds like something I'd try on one of my spare machines first though, wouldn't feel as bad about it if it didn't work properly. You'll be getting some real cool air soon, I had ice on the back window of the car on Saturday morning.

WereBo

The colder air gets, the less water-vapour it holds (hence frost - the water-vapour freezes out of the air), so cold air coming in shouldn't contain much condensation. As the air gets warmer, inside the PC, it will absorb more water-vapour, rather than drop it out as condensation.

The only time you might get condensation in the PC is if it gets colder than the ambient temperature when it's powered down. Either some means of disconnecting the pipe from the PC, or a sliding shutter arrangement should prevent that.

greenbrucelee

you would have to make afilter anyway because if I was doing this I would be concerned about foreign objects getting into the case. Plus with the filter you would have to regularly clean it.

I have an antec 1200 with 3 120mm fans at the front, they all have filters infront of them to try and stop dust getting in. You can buy them so maybe getting one of these filters would help you.

WereBo

They'd definitely be handy to stop any bugs, dust or small children being sucked into the PC.

derek_jones_36

Well thanks for all the great feedback. This is definitely something I am going to have to research some more before putting it into place. I may have to look into some innovative ideas. My Wife likes to have the apartment pretty cold in the winter anyway so I might be able to include some sort of suction system to pull in the air from just beyond the window so I'm not getting frigid air but only wind.

Jones

pat mcgroin

Only gave a little thought but if you could find a way to include a dessicant bag in the inlet of the same type used to keep things dry while shipping.
It would need to be changed regularly and you may need a good supply or a way to dry it.
Im not sure if cat litter (contained) could work or not.

derek_jones_36

Well if I can't get the cold air from inside then maybe I can include some internal fans in strategic placement throughout the case. This unit below will allow me to place an internal fan pretty much anywhere I want almost. I also thought of using some zip ties to place a fan at the top of my case just behind the optical drive infront of My memory. I was hoping that perhaps the included fan would blow nicely across my cpu heatsink and out the top rear of the case towards the exhaust fan. It would basically attach to the 5.25' internal bay area. I have seen brackets that you can use to modify the internal area of a case to make this possible but for the time being the unit below from www.performance-pcs.com seems to be a very good unit which will hold two 140mm fans I think it is.

Jones


http://www.performance-pcs.com/catal...ducts_id=26200

Korr

It's moisture from the inside of your house you should be worried about, not moisture from outside. If warm moist air comes in contact with a really cold surface, the moisture will condense into water. Just like how a cold mug of beer on a hot day.

Right now, the air temp in my house is 66 F. Far from being warm. And I’ve got a mountain dew that can’t possibly be any colder that your computer will get when you start pumping in Canadian winter air. Even now, the glass has some ‘sweat’ forming around the outside. I don’t think it’ll take much of a temperature difference to cause condensation.

I do have an idea though. Have you considered submerging the computer in mineral oil? I saw someone on the internet a while back cooling a machine with dried ice… or was it liquid nitrogen? Anyway, to keep frost from building up on the motherboard they submerged it in mineral oil. Maybe you could use copper pipes as heat pipes to transfer the heat outside.

derek_jones_36

I have to admit that dipping my precious rig into some mineral oil certainly has me wondering what that might accomplish and it certainly might make me think twice about this method but I haven't really initiated anything just yet. right now I have a nice little fan from the livingroom window that has a sleeve attached to it and I have piped it right down to the front of my system and on a cold day outside I can get temps on my cpu with coretemp at about 25 for both cores as well as a motherboard temp at 20 which is fantastic not to mention the gpu temp at 30 for my HD 4850 but it has gone down as low as 27 before. It really seems to be the best option plus I have the fan far enough from the case so that it's not frosting up at night because it's mixed with the room air.

Jones

Tyree

Very fine screening would keep foreign objects out but, as mentioned above, bringing colder air to warmer air creates condensation. The inside of your PC would be like a rain forest.
14 fans? That thing must keep the neighbors awake!

derek_jones_36

I believe that if I have a tube of some sort attached to the fan coming from the window and if it sits far enough away from the front of my case then it's basically just blowing in cold air like from an A/C unit. I don't believe that it will lead to any condensation if it's far enough away from my rig. Basically it won't mess up the interior of my system if it's the same as ambient air.

Jones