It just dawned on me that a water cooling kit/parts would make a great
Christmas gift for my son but I think it won't solve his problem. He
has an AMD 3Ghz cpu and his whole room heats up pretty bad during the
summer. I thought water cooling would be the neat way to reduce all
the fan noise and heat but here are my thoughts which I'd appreciate
you confirming:

1) He'll still need a fan for the radiator so the noise may not go
down that much.
2) The heat from his cpu has to go somewhere so it will still be in
the room.
3) So the only way to get rid of the heat in the room would be to
mount the radiator outside the room.

Do you guys agree with all that? Is there a good way to extract all
that heat? It's a 10x10 room with one window and a/c vent. No, he
can't have a window a/c unit but I don't know that I'd object to
hanging something out the window but it can't be dorky.

If it can't be done then it can't be done.

"drhowarddrfine" wrote in message...
A badly made/assembled liquid cooling solution could also cause major
problems, so be a wee bit careful!

His PC will only be dissipating 140 watts or so of heat at outside. This
alone won't make a huge difference to the ambient temperature of a
reasonably sized room.

It won't reduce the amount of heat dissipated into the room. If anything a
water cooling solution will increase the efficiency of the heat removal from
the CPU - and thus even more of it will be radiated out into the room.

Corrrect. Whether the noise will reduce depends entirely on whether the fans
on the radiator are quieter than whatever he's using at the moment. As water
cooling radiators tend to come with large, low speed fans, it is possible
that a water cooling solution may create a net reduction in noise levels,
but this would depend on the components chosen and the existing solution.

Yes, and as mentioned above there may be more heat dissipated into the room
via the water cooler than there is via the air only solution. However, again
as mentioned, I tend to wonder how much the PC is actually contributing to
this warming during the "summer months". If the PC *was* largely to blame,
wouldn't the room be warm during winter as well?

That's one option, yes. However, whether it's a practical proposition is
something only you can answer.

Mounting the radiator externally would obviously require a waterproofed
fan - and fans sold for PC use tend not to be.

Like I said, I doubt the heat output of the PC box alone will be enough to
superheat his room. Does he have a CRT monitor and/or TV set, and a couple
of incandescent lightbulbs in there? If so all of these will be puttin' out
more heat than the PC case itself.

Of course it can be done, but the questions are whether it's a step that's
practical for you to take, and indeed whether it's going to achieve what you
hope it will.
--


Richard Hopkins
Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
(replace nospam with pipex in reply address)

The UK's leading technology reseller www.dabs.com

The more I think about this the more I think it's a bad idea. But,
perhaps I can still do water cooling if I can run the radiator hoses
out of his room and just outside the door, although it would just be
sitting in the hallway. Better yet, I guess, would be to run it into
the attic but the attic gets pretty hot in the summer, too.

On 4 Dec 2005 10:47:07 -0800, "drhowarddrfine" <robbelics (AT) gmail (DOT) com>
wrote:


This is not intended to be a smart-ass answer, but it might be cheaper
to buy him a small window A/C unit.
Lenster

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You know you've been on the computer too long when...
You start double clicking the TV remote!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Remove YourNightgown to reply by email

It's possible to buy fanless water cooling systems:

http://www.zalman.co.kr/usa/product/...x=160&code=021

(I don't own one.) There might still be pump noise, but I believe that the
Zalman Reserator is supposed to be quiet.

Of course, the heat would be released wherever the radiator sat.

If you could remote the radiator, it only remove the heat generated by the
CPU (maybe 100W), I'm not sure how useful it would be in keeping your son's
room cooler. Cooling blocks may be available for the mainboard's chipset and
graphic card GPU, but I'm doubtful about how much the total would help.

It might be a neat way to overclock the hell out of the CPU, though.


Address scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.

"drhowarddrfine" <robbelics (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote

A person sitting in a room generates about 150 Watts of heat. On average
your son's computer system and CRT monitor might generated about 150 Watts
of heat each. Water cooling of the CPU won't help the 'hot room' problem
very much because the heat generated by the CPU is less than 20% of the heat
generated by your son, the computer system, and the monitor. Since you did
not describe the fan noise (which fan? - CPU heatsink, case ventillation
fans, video card fan) nor the temperatures in the room, the CPU temperature,
the graphics processor unit, or the motherboard your questions are difficult
to answer. Basically, if the system is running okay in the summer, then the
CPU doesn't need more cooling,

For your son's comfort (this suggestion will not help the CPU), consider an
overhead paddle fan with wooden (NOT metal) blades. Run at slow speed this
will be quiet and help with evaporative cooling of your son (sweat
evaporation.) If the fan is reversible, it also helps in the winter by
moving hot air from the top of the room to the bottom.

Phil Weldon

"drhowarddrfine" <robbelics (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote

Thanks everyone. The main idea is cooling down his room. I'm not
worried about the cpu. I do notice its significantly cooler in there
when the cpu/monitor are off. By remoting the radiator I thought it
would help but I forgot about the monitor.

My current idea is to install a bathroom exhaust fan in the ceiling.
This would suck the hot air into the attic and suck coooler air into
his room. This may solve the problem because my wife bought him a
window fan that blows air outside. It does seem to help but when it
rains its a pain to close the window.

Bushy, I've seen the car radiator idea used before and if you google
for it I'm sure you'll find that article.

"drhowarddrfine" <robbelics (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote in message...
As has been mentioned elsewhere, watercooling the CPU of his computer alone,
and dissipating the heat outside the room, will make next to sod all
difference.

You notice via thermometer readings, or via less scientific means?

Not to mention the heat dissipation of your son!

It'd probably piss your boy off too, as the only bathroom fans I have
experience of couldn't exactly be considered quiet. They're not really
designed for long duration usage either.

You seem to be implying that your son's room is hotter than the rest of the
house. If so, I'm wondering why your boy's room produces so much heat?
Assuming he isn't secretly conducting experiments with a small atomic pile
hidden under his bed, a computer system and one human being wouldn't be
enough to cause uncomfortable amounts of heat in one room - at least nowhere
near enough such that unusual measures would become necessary to get rid of
it.

There may be other issues we're not aware of - for example the room I'm
sitting in now is always hotter than the rest of the house, because it's
immediately above my central heating boiler and thus there are hot water
pipes radiating out in all directions under the floorboards. However, if
these are the circumstances, you'd probably, as mentioned previously, be
best advised to fit a small aircon unit or similar to your son's room.
--


Richard Hopkins
Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
(replace nospam with pipex in reply address)

The UK's leading technology reseller www.dabs.com

"Bushy" <ex(underscore)boss (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote

in a high ambient temperature room, a peltier cooler may do the trick, you
probably wont get below ambient but you'll get closer.

"spr" <jaybruce (take out big space) @hotmail.com> wrote

also, cpu will be cooler but much more total heat will be generated in the
room by the process.