good thing about PCs in the winter

minmaster

Platinum Member
Oct 22, 2006
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is that they double as a space heater.

77 degrees nice and toasty in my room with no heaters after a gaming session.

of course it's hell during the summer.
 

Tsavo

Platinum Member
Sep 29, 2009
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What size room are you in that a PC makes a difference?

Or, should I ask, how many thousands of watts does your CPU use?
 

minmaster

Platinum Member
Oct 22, 2006
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it's a small room. cpu is q6600 but i think most of the heat is from the video card (8800GT).
 

Tsavo

Platinum Member
Sep 29, 2009
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This guy I knew came home one day to find his PC set up in a closet.

A very small closet.

I never undestood how he accepted that...his wife was fat, ugly, lazy and a bad cook.
 

zerocool84

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
36,041
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My computer makes a noticeable difference as well. My Antec 900 has a ton of airflow.
 

minmaster

Platinum Member
Oct 22, 2006
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oh mine has terrible air flow. just one frontal fan and cpu fan that's it. i think it makes it hotter.

during the summer it gets to 90 degrees though. :(
 

NoSoup4You

Golden Member
Feb 12, 2007
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It's probably the power supply, my old Antec NeoPower 480 used to dump an unbearable amount of heat into the room. No joke, it had at least a 10 degree impact on the room temp. When I changed it out for my current Enermax 600W, all of that disappeared. There's no noticeable impact anymore (I'm sure it's a couple of degrees, but not immediately noticeable) in room temp between the pc room and any other room.

I ended up giving that Antec NeoPower to my nephew, his old psu was a no-name $10 350W model. The 350W did not heat up the room but sure enough, as soon as I installed the Antec it became unbearable again. I eventually swapped it back out for the generic 350W unit just to give the kid a break.

So check your psu, see if it's dumping a ton of heat out the back. Mine sure was, but my Enermax always blows semi-lukewarm air instead of the Antec's skin melting, scorching hot air.
 

minmaster

Platinum Member
Oct 22, 2006
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maybe there should be a summer PSU and a winter PSU.

it could also be because some PSUs have bunch of thick long cables that are taking up a lot of space inside the case restricting air flow.
 

NoSoup4You

Golden Member
Feb 12, 2007
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Or just bad design. The Antec NeoPower I had is modular and therefore you only use the cables you need, the others don't have to be installed. Further, just turning the thing on was all it took to get the heat pumping, although gaming sessions did create more heat it was still warm with it the pc simply idling.

I like that idea of summer and winter psu's though!
 

pontifex

Lifer
Dec 5, 2000
43,806
46
91
hehe, yeah. i have an antec 900 also and my room can get quite hot even without a gaming session.
 

HamburgerBoy

Lifer
Apr 12, 2004
27,112
318
126
Mine is actually a little annoying. I have my computer on the desk two feet away from my face, such that the CPU fan blows hot air into my right eye all day long. If the office wasn't too warm ten out of twelve months of the year I'd put the case sidings back on, but alas...

EDIT: Oh yeah, and I have a 19" CRT, as do three other computers in the room. Now those are room-heaters.
 
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Mike Gayner

Diamond Member
Jan 5, 2007
6,175
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At the moment I have two high end PCs, 4 monitors (including a Dell 27", VERY hot) and a Xbox 360. The Xbox contributes by far the most heat, but my room is like a sauna. Did I mention it's the middle of summer and I don't have AC?
 

Imp

Lifer
Feb 8, 2000
18,829
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My old one use to. For some reason the PSU would always feel warm when plugged in, even if the system was off for days. New one is 82+ efficiency, and is cold. Otherwise, I use some pretty cool parts. Now the monitor and Hifi receiver, those are a different story.
 

NoSoup4You

Golden Member
Feb 12, 2007
1,253
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Huh, yeah mine is the old model and yep, the power supply (X360) is very warm at all times, even if the console hasn't been turned on for days. As a result I tend to leave it unplugged (I don't play 360 all that often) by default.

I have the older "Zephyr" model.
 

nitromullet

Diamond Member
Jan 7, 2004
9,031
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Yeah, mine definitely heats up the room. A few hours of gaming, and my office is a solid 10F warmer. It's not just the PC either, my LCD radiates heat as well.
 

coloumb

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,096
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81
yup - I don't notice how comfy it is in the computer room until I walk through the rest of the house - holy crow.... even though it's ~68 degrees in the house - I feel like I'm freezing my ass off.

However - during the Summer not so good - the computer room is ~10-15 deg hotter due to computer/afternoon sun shining on that side of the house. I really should invest in central air the next time I can afford it. :)
 

misle

Diamond Member
Nov 30, 2000
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is that they double as a space heater.

77 degrees nice and toasty in my room with no heaters after a gaming session.

of course it's hell during the summer.

I have to opposite problem. I just built a new system and the case has 3x120mm fans and a 140mm fan, plus the power supply fan. There's a cool breeze across my legs all the time. Gets annoying, but I think I'll like it in the summer.
 

JoshGuru7

Golden Member
Aug 18, 2001
1,020
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I had to buy an air conditioner due to the heat my electronics put out. The primary offenders:
i7 920/GTX 295/Corsair HX1000 (HAF 932 case)
Playstation 3/HD Cable Box
30" Dell LCD Monitor/40" LCD HDTV
Space Heater pretending to be a Vaio Laptop

The bright side is that I haven't turned the heat on in my office yet this winter.
 

KaOTiK

Lifer
Feb 5, 2001
10,877
8
81
My office is always warm due to my workstation, laptop, and server running, along with the monitors.

During I had to buy a AC unit for the window cause I didn't want to keep lowering the AC for the entire house due to a single room lol.

Sadly winter and usually only part of it is the only time I can get away without the AC running in here down in FL.

It is nice though since I spend most the time in the office so I don't bother heating the house at all and the office room is always comfy warm :D
 

minmaster

Platinum Member
Oct 22, 2006
2,041
3
71
has anybody thought of attaching an exhaust tube to the PSU and CPU vents and redirecting the heat out the window? could it help with the heat during the summer? it could be something worth trying if your PC is close to the window.