No air conditioning... and the pc is not happy about it!

[Heartborne]

Hello everyone! Long time no post. I've been focused on other things, like moving for example.

On the subject of moving (ooh subtle segue!) I am currently sharing a house with some friends and we are sadly bereft of air conditioning. Clearly, this produces a rather large problem... that being that the room is hot, and therefore so is the computer. I have five lovely fans in my pc case, so you wouldn't think temps would ever really be an issue, but it's a hot summer and the computer is definitely feeling it. When running a game the temps all read out as hot, speedfan giving me its cute little flame icon next to each temp.

The following picture shows the temps at idle, while venting the case:
http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/1138/21986492xm7.jpg

Now, hold onto your hat and try to choke back your fear as I reveal my temps with the case CLOSED and NOT VENTING. Warning: Not for the faint of heart!
http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/2669/asdfasdll7.jpg

I don't even want to show you how hot this baby got under load. I'm talking blue box in my taskbar. I didn't even know speedfan did that!

It's actually cooling down now, mostly because there's a nice cool breeze coming in.

Anyway, do you guys have any tips on how I might go about reducing the temperature around the machine? Any nifty devices? Case placement? Maybe it's better off on the desk than on the floor? Just any general things that will help me cool the box down will be awesome.

Thanks.

[mikhail]

This is a great topic because I have been wondering the same thing.

It gets hot here during the day and with my PC acting at a mini heater my room/house gets even hotter. Right now I have a room fan blowing on it and according to the temp display its keeping it down a couple degrees. Right now I am running at 95.9 F. Its usually at 85-90 F but I did just finish a long game of CoH4 on all high settings so I am sure it needs to cool down a bit.

[jlreich]

About the only thing you can do is open the case and have a house fan blowing directly on it. That will only help to a point, but it should make a noticeable difference.

[mjc]

Or game at night...

[Fruss Tray Ted]

There comes a point when you gotta do what you gotta do.

CALL THE FIRE DEPARTMENT!!!

They're trained in this sort of thing... ;)

[George Hallam]

well i live in cyprus and MAN it gets hot here in summer and im talking proper hot, i build my hole system around the heat.

things to do
-Fans, get fast high CFM fans even if they push warish air better than the hot air that is currently in the case
-keep the side on the case and keep it pressured
-Be prepared to sacrifice the quietness of your PC for cooling
-A nice big case
-Do what i did with my EVGA 780i MOBO buy a this for the NB to replace the stock cooling (cooled mine by an extra 15c i can touch it now)
-Put fans in the top of the case pushing air down this helps cool the RAM
-Do what i did get watercooling
-Do not OC to much
-Put the case on the desk in the little hole under your desk it gets hot and stuffy if you look at a pic of my PC you can see where all my fans are
-Get rid of stock coolers

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll221/jiggyghallam/SDC10368.png



hope some of that helps

Edit: heres a pic of my temps

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll221/jiggyghallam/HWmon.jpg

[jlreich]

heres a pic of my temps
Ouch! CPU temps that high even with water cooling? :eek: What are you running in there? Hot Chocolate? :p :D

[George Hallam]

Ouch! CPU temps that high even with water cooling? :eek: What are you running in there? Hot Chocolate? :p :D

i know the zalman resorator is not as good as i hoped getting my new stuff (proper watercooling parts) in two weeks time hopefully that will cool i a bit better :D

and when its 45c outside with no aircon inside you can imagine how hot it gets in a room with a PC in it :(

[Rick]

Water cooling or as I have always done
Run an after market heatsink and give it all the air it needs

[Heartborne]

all good advice, I was hoping for something inexpensive that wouldn't require any modding. The air coming out of the machine is HOT.

Anyway, if I can't do much gaming or watching videos on my pc, I may have to *gasp* rely on my console for a bit.

Putting a fan on it is a good temporary fix, but then what's going to keep me cool? :-P

I guess I'll wait until sundown to push my pc, and I'll try and monitor the temps to make sure it doesn't get too crazy.

[Rick]

What do you call inexpensive ?

$50 to $60 will get a very good Thermalright 120 ultra or the extrema model

Keep the CPU,North and South bridge cool and run it at almost any ambient temperature

Your GPU should be able to cool itself

[mikhail]

I'll look for the link later but I was considering (not much but stil thought) about a company that for $200 makes a "Liquid Nitrogen" cooling system for your PC. Only problem is that you have to provide your own liquid nitrogen which is expensive and dangerous to handle.

Although they had like -150 C with a system over clocked as high as it would go.

[larrymoencurly]

First, see that your 5 fans are blowing in the right directions, that is, not fighting one another. That means trying each fan 3 ways -- intake, exhaust, and off until you get the lowest temperature difference between the computer interior and the room. How much is 3^5 power? ;)