Computer cooling

[Walsingham]

I've been considering using TRIZ, to design a new cooling system. Could be fun. Does anyone else know TRIZ?

[WITHTEETH]

I would only water cool if your planning on overclocking personally. I overclock a bit on my system yet my parts are all quite cool... then again i have 10 collective fans throughout my system... most of which are 120mm

 

Edit: I wonder how many watts my fans take up alone....

Edited September 8, 2008 by WITHTEETH

[Deadly_Nightshade]

...be aware though that you will have to clean your room afterwards of that fine layer of dust...

 

I would recommend running a air-filter every now-and-then, I use a full-room HEPA filter and it really helps to keep the dust -and pollen- down.

[Bokishi]

Make sure you got air flowing through the case as well as air flowing on the videocards. I recently install a 120mm just under my DVD drive, to get air over to the cpu cooler

[Rostere]

Well, keeping your peripherals cooled and keeping your case cool are two different things. You can have good fans inside your computer, but they won't be of much use unless you have a flow of air through the case. Most good cases will come with several slots at both the back and the front for installing more fans.

[Walsingham]

I just realised that power costs are probably the biggest. My PC is running about 16 hours a day for either work or play. So having a lot of fans might not be very sensible. I mean, electricity is mad expensive at the moment in teh UK.

[Gorgon]

I surmise the fans make up an insignificant portion of the power usage. Board, CPU, peripherals take up the vast majority. Hell you can power one of those small case fans with a 12 volt battery. If you run the computer that long you might even want to underclock the CPU, and make it go into power saving mode sooner. Most important is matching the PSU to the needs of your computer, ensuring it's average output is cost effective.

Edited September 11, 2008 by Gorgon

[Rostere]

I just realised that power costs are probably the biggest. My PC is running about 16 hours a day for either work or play. So having a lot of fans might not be very sensible. I mean, electricity is mad expensive at the moment in teh UK.

 

When the computer gets hotter, energy costs will get higher as a side effect of increased resistance in the computer parts. As stated earlier, costs for running fans are diminuitive. You might just as well save some money adding fans to your computer (assuming it runs very hot without additional fans).

[Gorgon]

The heat is generated by wasted energy, but more heat as a result of poor dispersal doesn't mean you pull more power out of the socket. Does it ?.

[taks]

depends. the majority of electricity used in an active circuit is not simply resistive with constant current sources, so probably not.

 

taks

[Walsingham]

I've been thinking about this some more, and don't really see why I have to use a motorised cooling system. Instead my current plan is to use two heat exchange units. One to take heat away from the case, the other to release the heat in the system. The release pad will sit out the window (it's winter), or on the room radiator (which isn't on, due to the computer heating the room.

 

The difficult part is finding something which evaporates at a low enough temperature to be useful. Ethanol fits the bill, but - emergent property - if there was a fire this would act as an accelerant. Any ideas?