St. Paul -4 degrees-should I use intake from outside?

[GizmoDuck]

I have all the stuff ready to run an intake from outside, but i'm a little nervous about condensation. Any thought or ideas welcome.

 

[HardWarrior]

Originally posted by: GizmoDuck
I have all the stuff ready to run an intake from outside, but i'm a little nervous about condensation. Any thought or ideas welcome.

You're right to be worried, depending on ambient humidity in your computer room, you could have a snowball-encased CPU very quickly.

 

[GizmoDuck]

So would it work if I had somekind of inline dehumidifier?

 

[HardWarrior]

Originally posted by: GizmoDuck
So would it work if I had somekind of inline dehumidifier?

I don't THINK so, unless you could find a way to dehumidify the air in your computer room, or hermetically seal your case. At minus 4 the intake air coming in would be fairly dry. But that would change pretty quick if the outside air temp started to rise towards freezing. Either way, unless you took some pretty severe precautions, TEC-level stuff, you'd probably end up with some freezing.

 

[Cheetah8799]

I hope you realize it has been snowing hard for two days straight (I live in St. Paul also). Your intake will probably suck some of that into your PC. Not to mention the humidity that HardWarrior is talking about.

Maybe if you have some filters on your intake it will help, but not in a big snow storm. It's supposed to snow on Thursday I think. It'll probably clog your intake on the outside as well.

 

[KillaKilla]

I've been thinking about this (chicago was just at -2* farenheit). Then I realized that I couldn't seal off my case enough to avoid the condensation.

If you can seal off your case enough, then yeah I guess you could do it. As long as you have filters on the intake, and their facing down, and your high enough to avoid snow-drifting to get at your vent. In the summer I have succesfully vented air from the AC into my case, no problems. All I used was seran wrap to cover the cracks, and it didn't damage anything. Just make sure that ALL of your intake fans are blowing the right way, and that they don't get any contaminated(indoor, moist) air.

 

[tracerbullet]

Jeez, that's 3 of us from St. Paul here. Some kind of geek density thing, or just that many lurkers with only locals responding?

Anyhow, I go outside in the morning and start my car. When I do this, I leave the glass storm door slightly ajar (it's a pain to close, so when I'm only out for a minute I just let it sit about 1/4" open). It only takes about 30 seconds for the window to frost over. It's a cold surface and warm air.

You'd be looking at the flip side - a warm surface and cold air. Honestly, I don't think you'd have a problem with condensation right away. But later on - like after the PC had run for a while and was then turned off, some of those parts would now be cold, and THEN you'd get condensation once the warmer house air was allowed to get in - maybe even enough for water droplets.

It would be fun to play with, but it would be a lot of work, and you'd have to rig and unrig a bunch of stuff to keep any damage from happening. Wouldn't be friendly to use on a daily basis.

 

[Big Lar]

Some good thoughts here,BTW I'm up in Northern Illinois, bit chilly here too. OK, The basic thing to remember, this goes for inducing air, as well as using chilled water in a setup, is that when there is a difference of 17 to 20f from ambient to cooled surface, you Will get condensation. The only way to avoid the condensation problem, is to insulate the heated area from the cooled area. This is pretty darn hard to do with an entire case, with hotspots all over the place. My "suggestion" would be to just leave a window cracked near the intake of the case, or in some way funnel the cold air "towards" the intake fan/fans rather than a direct induction to the case. Hope this made sense

 

[HardWarrior]

It's not the warm air meeting cold air that's the problem. If he could keep the warm air in his house bone dry, which isn't good for most things in the house, there wouldn't be an issue. If he could somehow guarantee that the temp would stay at -4 the situation would be perfect. However, no such guarantees are possible in this situation. The outside temp WILL fluctuate and the inside air will carry at least SOME humidity, even if it has to leech it out of your skin.

 

[Big Lar]

"It's not the warm air meeting cold air that's the problem."
I disagree, Even with close to Zero Humidity there will always be condensation at the temps I described.

 

[HardWarrior]

I think you missed the thrust of what I said BL. We agree that there's no such thing as zero humidity, unless he's will to spend a lot of money on extreme dehumidifying gear (and is willing to put up with bad skin, irritated tear ducts, crumbling furniture, etc) and can guarantee no oudside temp flucuations. When I said "warm air hitting cold air isn't the problem" I was right. It's the potential humidity from one or both sources that creates the problem.

It would be easier to just go with a TEC. I'm surprised I'd say that because TEC's are just too "out there" for me.

 

[Big Lar]

Well, Even with a TEC, There is a MAJOR problem of condesation, I know all too well. I ran them for many years, Check out a couple articles I wrote on them at Overclockers a few years back, 1 is called Big Lar at 1007, the other I can't remember right now, again... Insulation from the elements is the key to it all.

 

[HardWarrior]

The gymnastics you have to go through with insulation is just one of the reasons I've bever tried using TEC. Is it possible, even with today's technology to condensation-proof a pelt, Lar?

 

[Big Lar]

Yes, it is, but its a Bear, Besides the Layers of insulation needed, you need to protect the rear of the board as well, as the Cold will migrate thru, no to mention filling the socket with dielectric grease...... Takes some time, but is worth it if you want some serious cold on the cpu. Just about any decent water cooling will handle up to about a 71 tec..

 

[HardWarrior]

H2O is going to be my next excess in cooling. Everytime I've even considered a pelt, all I can think of is that I'd be ruining resale on both the board and CPU. Is it really worth it in terms of overclockabilty? I've been considering H2O with and aquarium chiller instead of radiators. As near as I can tell it SHOULD work much better, depending on the cooling power of the chiller. The most expensive version of the Titan could do the job easily. Even under heavy overclocking. What do you think of this, Lar?

 

[Big Lar]

I think that would chille the water off well enuff, I have heard some people who wanted to try the Aquarium chillers for water cooling chillers, but never heard results tho. I use a Dehumidifier presently to cool my water, and use a digital controller to run the dehumid. I honestly think a 1/2hp chiller will do the job tho.

 

[HardWarrior]

That's what I wanted to hear! Too bad I wasn't the first to consider it though. When I first thought about it chillers were still legendary in my mind from the old marine aquarium days. They used to cost 3-times as much too, and didn't have digital controls. I guess it's time to write up my proposal to the wife.

 

[GizmoDuck]

Thanks for the advice-

I am thinking if I get an indoor-outdoor thermometer-hygrometer I could see from day to day whether I should open the vent. It sound like if can keep ambient temps within a range of 20 degrees and reasonable humidity I would be safe. Is the juice worth the squeeze? It isn?t quite as extreme as an 80-degree relative difference but its better than nothing and it will definitely impress the chicks. Now if I could just get Paul Douglas to do a weather segment on overclocking conditions.

 

[Big Lar]

Yup it sounds like a plan to me.
GizmoDuck..LOL

 

[HardWarrior]

Originally posted by: GizmoDuck
Thanks for the advice-

I am thinking if I get an indoor-outdoor thermometer-hygrometer I could see from day to day whether I should open the vent. It sound like if can keep ambient temps within a range of 20 degrees and reasonable humidity I would be safe. Is the juice worth the squeeze? It isn?t quite as extreme as an 80-degree relative difference but its better than nothing and it will definitely impress the chicks. Now if I could just get Paul Douglas to do a weather segment on overclocking conditions.

Dodn't forget to post your results, and a list (with pictures) of the chicks you impress.

 

[GizmoDuck]

Will do----

Can I post nude pictures on these forums?

 

[HardWarrior]

Originally posted by: GizmoDuck
Will do----

Can I post nude pictures on these forums?

I hope so!