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If it's cold outside, get yourself a tube! [Lots of pics]

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voodoomelon

Member
Joined
Oct 9, 2001
Location
Dundalk, Ireland
Well, seeing as it's that time of year again, it's time to take full advantage of the cold Irish air, it's between -2°C and 5°C during the day and night here, so applying that air to a water cooled system's radiator can only do magical things!

So, much like some of my older projects, the premise is to draw in cool air from outside and get it into the case, however this time I am cooling the radiator that is mounted on the back of my case.

So i spotted a huge yellow plastic tube in a pile of rubble on a local building site, i think its about 90mm internally. So I took it, cut it and set it up to lead all the way from my open window to the back of the PC. I then stuck and 80mm fan in the end to suck air all the way through it.

Onward with the pictures!

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Here you can see how I powered the fan. I just used 2 metres of speaker wire to extend the fans 12v wire and plugged the molex into Antec's handy external power connection.
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It's about 0°C outside now, so CPU and GPU temp are at a cool 15°C.
And as you can see the internal case temp is just over 17°C.

How about that, CPU temp is less than the case temp!
I know it looks a bit naff, but the curtain is always down over the tube so you can't see it, it's real neat.

Give it a go!

:D
 
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wowzers that's cold. I would get scared though when OCing with the cold weather. When the hot days come, get ready for some BSODs. Also, better help that a birdy doesn't make it's home in there!
 
My PC sits on my window ledge. The 120mm radiator is inches from the window. Now that it's winter, I barely crack my window to allow cold air to rush in. My overclocked P4 temps are 11C idle and 25 load. It varies on the outside temp of course and by how much I'm willing to open the window. I usually close the bedroom door and wear a sweater while playing games in the cold.
 
seven7 thats what i call sacrificing for more fps :)


voodomelon thats an awesome idea, unforunately i'm in southern california, but i'll try this for the evening hours or midnight gaming :) also whats up with that smirnoff bottle??? is connemara or cork to much of a mans drink for you :beer: :p
 
The money you're saving by using lower end components will be lost in heat thats being wasted from your house.
 
that looks like it is working out great for you =D I have done this before as well, but with a lot more duct tape. to save heat from your home, you might try to seal it around an open window with some tinfoil or plastic wrap. I used plastic wrap and it kept the cold out admirably.
you might also seal it to the back of your rad. since you have a plastic tube, id take the side panel off and blow the air clean out of the case instead of inward to prevent condensation, but that shouldnt be a problem as long as you dont turn your computer off. my setup used -35ºC air that was -8 when it finally left the case. Cooled my aircooled palamino @2000 mhz to 4ºC.

Glad to see people still use this trick he he. Lemme know if yours ever gets icicles =D! mine had a wicked display *i used the aluminum dryer duct* of 12" icicles hanging from its lowest point. Incidently, if you end up sealing it around the window, a little dip in its flow wouldnt hurt. punch some tiny holes in the lowest point *which would be lower than your computer's radiator* and put a drip tray under it.
 
I used to crack the door in my room in the winter and get some nice temps on my passive radiator I had in the day. I feel you seven on the bundled up gaming ;-)
 
Lionsault_100 said:
The money you're saving by using lower end components will be lost in heat thats being wasted from your house.

Hardly, the window is open only a tiny amount.

Thanks for the tips Valk, but i'm way ahead of you. :p
I use an old pillow case to cover the rest of the crack around the window to stop it becoming cold inside the room.
And I was thinking of moulding some kind of duct onto the radiator to meet the tube, but i doubt it would make much difference, the big 120mm sucks all the cool air in anyways.

In terms of condensation, well, it won't happen. No part of my machine gets even close enough to form any condensation.

CPU and GPU temps are always around 18°C, case temp is usually around 21°C, and my room temp is around 20°C.

It just goes to show the amount of heat being produced by 3 hard drives, graphics card, CPU and 2 optical drives, even with 0-5°C air being blown into the case, the case temp remains around 21°C.

As for the Smirnoff, it's a 3 litre bottle I got from my work pub years ago, holds all my coppers. :)
 
Condensation wouldn't occur unless you had the parts pre-chilled, turned on the computer and then let it warm up. I really doubt any condensation would occur especially if you allowed the computer to warm up first and then added the cold air afterwards. Most of the time the condensation won't occur unless the temps of the components are below 13-15c at a typical relative winter humidity of 20-30%. When I was doing some chemistry experimentation my condensors would only develop condesation beginning at those temps and humidity during winter months. I found that pretty much to be the safe zone as a lot of my reactants had to be anhydrous (without water). What I don't understand is that I've read here hot air moves to colder air, and if that is the case then I can't see why the computer temps would really go much lower than surrounding ambient temps in the room. Maybe I remembered it backwards as I thought that I once put a cigarrette near an open window during the winter and if I remember correctly the smoke went from outside to inside the house. Then it would make sense to why this works.
 
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Lionsault_100 said:
The money you're saving by using lower end components will be lost in heat thats being wasted from your house.
Not if you don't heat the room in the first place. Some freaks (like me) don't care if it's 40F in the room, just get a coat, hat, and some fingerless gloves and you'll be fine. Turning on the heat would pretty much defeat the point of even opening the window anyways.
And nice job, you're gettting some nice temps :)
 
Arch, how's it goin', been a while! :)

I switched to water there about 3-4 months ago, just thought i'd dabble in something new. :santa:

I got a pretty basic Waterchill kit for CPU, VGA and the Northbridge, got rid of all those loud 80mm's.

All I have now is the big 120mm on the back, sucking in air through the radiator at the rear, into the case, and real slow moving 120mm exhaust at the bottom of the case. Seems to work real well, contrary to heat rising an' all that.

As for the hard drive box, pfft, old news, big old paper weight now! :rolleyes: :)
 
I'm planning on ducting my computer to vent the hot air output directly into the air return vent in my room. That way my room doesn't get hot becuase of my computer in the summer.
 
Very cool. No Pun Intended. Unfortunately or fortunately however you look at it. That is not a possiblity here in Florida. I think It will snow in hell before I ever see temps like that here.
 
Hehe I have been doing similar things here in scotland
I found if I move my PC next to the window, I can get some nice temps!
I got the Mobo to 10c and the CPU to 9c at minimum (idle)!
Load temps were about 16c for the mobo and 36c for the CPU - but that was overclocked to 4.2ghz. Considering it is a dual core thats pretty good IMO.

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