Water Cooling and Case Temps

[L8CS]

I'm trying to cool down the ambient air temps in my room where I'm running my gaming pc and a server. The gamer's a 3500+ running at 2.662 mhz with a Thermalright XP-90, a Seasonic S12 PWS and BFG 6800GT with an Artic Cooler. They're housed in an Antec SLK 3000 with Nexus 120's all around. It's a great quiet rig but it can get toasty. Short of getting a portable AC unit to chill the air at the case outputs, I thought I'd try water.

I haven't had any performance issues and the cpu temps are fine but it puts out a lot of heat so I'm wondering if converting over to a water cooling setup for the cpu and video card would lower lower the internal case temps and therefore the output case temps.

I realize that the heat would still be dissipated through the cooling condenser but I was thinking the output air temps from the condenser would be lower than the air temps of the current setup, and of course there is the noise issue of the pump. I also realize that the PWS is probably the biggest output heat source, but I have to start somewhere.

 

[mindwreck]

none of what you said would do anything. In order to cool ambient temps,you need to cool the room itself.

Using watercooling will not cool down your room as the cpu is still outputing the same amount of heat. All its going to do is allow you to get the cpu closer to ambient temps than aircooling.
What you need to do is open a window or put an AC in the wall or watercool your room .

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Watercoolers don't have "condensors"

Are you talking about the radiator?

The lowest temp that watercooling can EVER achieve is that of the ambient temp, provided you don't add any refrigeration elements into the mix.

 

[L8CS]

Watercoolers don't have "condensors

I guess radiator would have been a term but condenser also applies because to "condense" means to change from vapor to liquid and this could account for the need to periodically replace the fluid, because it has vaporized from the heat....sounds good anyway

All I'm trying to do is to lower the room temp without having to get a portable AC unit. I was hoping to lower the output temps of the pc's which would help reduce the room temps by a couple of degrees. However, I failed to think about the PWS and what I now realize is the main culprit, the Dell 21" CRT.

To have an AC unit with a directed duct blow down on top of the CRT would be ideal, but you take the chance of freezing the user out. An AC unit at ground level is only somewhat effective because the colder denser air pools on the floor while the hot air rises. So a portable floor style AC unit would work for cooling the output of the pc's but it would not be pratical for the CRT. I can probably get a small fan to blow across the CRT from the side and that would at least move the air away from the user.

Probably a better choice is to dump the CRT and opt for a fast LCD. My Dell 19" LCD for the server is warm but nowhere near the CRT.

Anybody have any LCD gaming recomendations for a 20" to 22".

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

I'm sure you're going to find lots of good reviews for the Dell 20 inchers. There's an LCD sticky in the video section that you should read.

I personally think you're thinking too much into this. The only way to cool down your room is to get a window AC unit. I've got central air and where my computer is, the cold air enters from floor vents, and it's completely and utterly useless for cooling the room. The rest of the house is cold while my computer room it hot. No matter how you cool the computer itself, the ambient temp will not get colder. You're basically removing heat from the computer out into the room. There's no two ways about it. The cooling unit has to dump the heat SOMEWHERE. Unless you find a way to pump heat out of the room, which is basically what an AC unit is; a heat pump, your room temp will not fall.

 

[L8CS]

I was trying to stay away from the window mount AC units because my windows aren't compatible with a horizontal mount unit. They're tall and narrow, so the only alternative is to get the portable floor mount AC units that have 6" hot air discharge hose that you run through a flange type gasket in your window.

Or I can run a new overhead central air supply duct and install it directly over the workstation. The cold air will fall onto the monitor and disperse the hot air from the CRT. At least the user can control the amount of air by using the duct register. I'll probably go for the latter. It just means doing some attic work this fall, when it's cooler.

I don't know why my Dell CRT puts out so much heat. I have a Cornerstone 19" CRT in another room that only puts out half the amount.

Thanks for the advice.