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Question Trying to cut down on PC exhaust

T

Traxan

Senior member
With the weather turning warmer, I can't leave my computer room window open. The problem is my tower, even though it is not overclocked or running heavy loads, still puts out that distinctive heat exhaust smell, not to mention the heat. I was wondering if an AOI water cooler in place of the standard heat sink and fan would make a difference in the heat output and not quite stink up the room so much. I know it still requires a fan to blow on the radiator but if anyone has experiences in the difference in room air quality on a heatsink vs AIO water cooler I would like to hear it. Thanks

My PC is a Core i7 8700, normal clocking, with a Nvidia 970 Strix video card.
 
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Traxan said:
With the weather turning warmer, I can't leave my computer room window open. The problem is my tower, even though it is not overclocked or running heavy loads, still puts out that distinctive heat exhaust smell, not to mention the heat. I was wondering if an AOI water cooler in place of the standard heat sink and fan would make a difference in the heat output and not quite stink up the room so much. I know it still requires a fan to blow on the radiator but if anyone has experiences in the difference in room air quality on a heatsink vs AIO water cooler I would like to hear it. Thanks

My PC is a Core i7 8700, normal clocking, with a Nvidia 970 Strix video card.
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Thermodynamically, it would still sink the heat in your room, so there's no difference. What's your cooling setup now?
 
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If something "smells", like electronics cooking or burning, I would investigate that and fix it. That's not normal, and has nothing to do with whether you leave your room's window open or not. (Or shouldn't.)

You might need to underclock or power-limit your GPU, or undervolt, or remove overclocks, or disable Turbo, or something along those lines.

Or possibly go as far as re-pasting the CPU and/or GPU. CPUs need re-pasting every 3-5 years, generally, unless you use really top-tier paste for longevity. (Arctic Cooling MX-4 claims 8-year installation stability.) GPUs can need re-pasting as often as every 2-3 years. Some GPUs have fan bearings where the oil leaks out as well.
 
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I've had plenty of components over the years have that "brand new" smell out of the box (like a power supply), but that small goes away pretty quickly after using it for say a week. I've never had a computer that had any kind of long-term smell like you describe.

Are you using a low quality/off-brand power supply or something that might put off an odor or something?
 
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I'm thinking maybe a capacitor(s) could be leaking, and it's burning or something and producing some funk. Heck, it could even be another component or even the PCB over-heating, and causing some kind of odor.

However, if you're positive the smell is coming from your PC, something is not right in there and you should figure out what it is before it becomes a bigger issue.
 
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Thanks, OP. I smelled something out-of-place and electronic-smelling earlier tonight as well. Not really sure what it was, it seems to have stopped, and I haven't changed anything.
 
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My goodness I set of alarm bells. Guys, PCs always give off a slight smell from heat ventilation. Been that way as long as I owned one. I just happen to be in a smaller room with no air flow. I'm surprised more of you don't notice it, but if you are using top end cooling and in a large room with air flow it's easy to miss.
 
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Traxan said:
My goodness I set of alarm bells. Guys, PCs always give off a slight smell from heat ventilation. Been that way as long as I owned one. I just happen to be in a smaller room with no air flow. I'm surprised more of you don't notice it, but if you are using top end cooling and in a large room with air flow it's easy to miss.
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Yeah, like Bill Lumbergh said in Office Space, "Yeah, I'm going to have to disagree with you there". 😉

Even when I had multiple PC running Folding @ Home projects for months at home, I never walked into any of the rooms and smelled "heat exhaust". They heated the room up, but there was zero smell.
 
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whatcho guys talking about my PC smells... oh wait... its because of the 960mm in full copper radiators i have, so its the copper smell...

Serious note tho... the smell could be a few things.
It could be some dust that got in your PSU and is now cooking on the heatsinks.
It could be picking up the smell from your dirty socks you have in front of it, and the fans could be diffusing it though out the room.

I am going with more, its probably dust that got deposited on your heatsinks inside your psu, that is baking.

As for how can i make my room cooler, you cant.
Your trying to cheat thermodynamics, and physicists say the 3 laws to it are:

1. you must play the game.
2. you can not cheat the system.
3. you can never get something for free.

So your trying to do 2 and 3, which would be breaking the laws of thermo.
 
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Traxan said:
With the weather turning warmer, I can't leave my computer room window open. The problem is my tower, even though it is not overclocked or running heavy loads, still puts out that distinctive heat exhaust smell, not to mention the heat. I was wondering if an AOI water cooler in place of the standard heat sink and fan would make a difference in the heat output and not quite stink up the room so much. I know it still requires a fan to blow on the radiator but if anyone has experiences in the difference in room air quality on a heatsink vs AIO water cooler I would like to hear it. Thanks

My PC is a Core i7 8700, normal clocking, with a Nvidia 970 Strix video card.
Click to expand...


That is about as attainable as trying to eliminate the heat from the exhaust of an internal combustion engine.
 
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