Thinking of moving radiator and fans outside

I'm currently water-cooling my XP2500+. The radiator, fans, and pump are mounted in a wooden enclosure bolted to the bottom of my case. The radiator is a Ford heater core a bit bigger than the two 12cm fans attached to it. Even with the fans running slowly the noise is more than I would like.

I've now realised that on the outside of the external wall behind the PC is the garage roof. I was thinking of drilling a couple of holes through the wall for the pipes and moving the radiator and fans outside. (It's my house so I can drill holes where I want)

I though I would build an enclosure like they use for mounting air temperature thermometers at weather stations. They have white painted boxes with the sides made a bit like louver doors. The air can get in but it avoids direct sunlight heating the box and throwing the figures out.

If I can put it where I'm planning, it wouldn't be visible from ground level and would only get direct sunlight briefly in the late afternoon.

I could get away no more than 4 metres of 1/2" ID pipe and the radiator, pump, and waterblock will be at more-or-less the same height.

If it works I will finally get a nice quiet computer and will benefit from nice cold water during the autumn and winter.

Assuming I'm running enough antifreeze to avoid it icing up can anyone see any major problems?



Not sure what happened with the double post. I don't seem to be able to delete either of them. I also meant to post in watercooling - sorry.

You could just 7volt your fans and see if that is quiet enough for you.

Assuming I'm running enough antifreeze to avoid it icing up can anyone see any major problems?

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Winter is drawing near and you may get condensation. Also you may need to get a more powerful pump, depending on what you have now, because you're trying to flow the liquid over a longer distance.

That idea would probably work, but you might get a hot spike during the direct sunlight period. One suggestion would be to put a mirror on top of the box. The mirror wouldn't be visible from the street and it would cut the heating significantly.

Thanks for the input.

The fans are already down to around 7volts.

I should be able to handle the condensation. I used to run TECs back when I was running PIII and managed to avoid any problems.

As for the pump, yes I may have to get something bigger. But I'm currenty running about 2 meters of pipe and the pump is having to do a 1/2 meter lift and temperatures are fine with my XP2500+ at 11.5 x 200. I'll have more pipe but virtually no lift to contend with.

The type of box I'm considering is used in direct sunlight to record air temperatures. The brief time I will have direct sunlight shouldn't have too much of an effect. The area of the garage roof I'm thinking of can sometimes take days to completely dry after serious rain.

There's a nice picture of the type of enclosure I'm planning

here.

The bearings on your fans may lock up if it gets too cold.

True.

I'll have to do a test using the freezer.

Although if its cold enough to stop the fans I would have thought I would get more than enough cooling with just the heater core.

What happens to a fan that's left stalled for an extended period of time? It may just warm up and unstick itself. I would be running the fans on a seperate power supply.

If you "pull" air through the heater core, the heating from the core should warm up the fan bearings enough to keep them from freezing.

Yeah just "pull" the air through. I like your idea, I would do something like it if I had water cooling and my own home. You should get very very good temps too.