Air Conditioned Case?? Good or Bad?

[DrRockin]

Hay there, I have a question on using an A/C unit to cool my computer. I've been thinkng of using my a/c unit for awhile, but I havent found much info on this subject. I know I'll have to worry about some condinsation. is there any problems on how close the a/c and tower can be together? The a/c unit is fairly smal 1600 btu I think, I was thinking of directing the air to a fan I have mounted under my tower. Currently the duct directs fresh air straight in from outside. I cut a hole in the bottom of the case to fit an 80mm fan since the tower sits about 1.5 ft off the floor, theres some room for the intake, I have to work on the exhaust, Just have the pau fan for exhaust right now. Cant mount a fan on top cuz the tower sits right up under the Shelf with my monitor.This little room gets way too warm from the computer and monitor.
I was told by one person something about electrical interferience. The a/c is going to sit below the tower on the outside of the wall and I plan to deflect air in by a 5" dryer duct. Any Ideas on how many Exhaust fans I would need or where I should place fans to prevent Condensation. Thanks for your Help all.
Dr.Rockin

[Spartan]

I have always wanted to try this. I think the condensation problem would be aggravated by the cycling of the compressor on and off. If it never went off I think the air inside the case would stay drier. I don't think you could place a fan where it would keep components dry, but then again it may not generate enough condinsation to short anything. If there is electrical interference then you will just have to move the A/C farther away.

I'm sure someone around here has tried it.....

If you do it be sure to post some follow ups.

-Spartan

[DrRockin]

I will do. I'm working with a tight space, so I am installing the A/c unit outside bolted to the wall, and just on the other side of the wall is where the comp sits, between the joists, I've cut a hole in the bottom of the computer and I have a 5" dryer duct taped to the bottom feeding straight outside. and an 80mm Fan in the case sucking air in. Thinking of trading up to a 120mm. Just means I have to get the dremel out again. If I could find my camera I'd grab some pics, I know the a/c will be cycling on and off, it doesnt get super hot here yet. But the room I'm currently in is only 6X3.5, Ya small but it works for now. So Anyone know Just what the worst that can happen from interferience??

[DrRockin]

Also Can someone Refresh my dead memory, What spray can I get to protect the board from condensation. I remember seeing somewhere someone using a peltzier system and they sprayed there board with somethign that made the board totally waterproof. Just cant remember what it was.

[KMARTshopper]

if you go with ac.....

make sure you port it in through the bottom..... drill mini holes in the base of the case.

This should keep condensation at bay (if any). Also,,, if you want to do it in a very efficient and "cool" way,, get clothes drier hose from the hardware store...(looks silver) zip tie the hose to the side door port or fashion a piece of plexi- plastic- whatever to fill up 2 pci openings in the back..... cut divider for pic at bottom and second to bottom,,,, usehinges, tape, screws, aluminum tape, whatever to add it in as a slot device...

make sure that your inflow does not dirctly or indirectly disrupt the cpu fan .... watch rpms.....



KMARt

[pop-tart]

you should hook a commercial compressor up to your pc, it'll run so cold santa could live in there.

of course, the noise factor would really have to be taken into account, heh.

[enhanced08]

here is an idea i've been thinking about doing sometime. use water cooling but add 2 cpu blocks to the setup. one cpu block on the cpu and the other on a thermalelectric cooler (the cold side) mount a cheap heatsink on the hotside and have it sitting outside the case. this should keep the water cool and inturn the whole system cool.

[nocturnx]

thats an interesting idea enhanced, I wonder if that would work good.

I dont know about air conditioning the case, seems kinda pointless because you can get better cooling by using water. Plus condensation will be bad.

[bailey]

why not just place the air cond. in a window like it should be and cool the whole room.
then there would be no humidity in the room to worry about condensation.
the ambiant room temp should be enough to cool your system and you while you doo what ever it is that you do.

I keep my room at 68 deg all the time. year round

[morriswindgate]

AIr conditioners act as de-humidifiers so the cool air stream is moderately dry, however as the case gets cooler you will end up with condensation all over the place. To correct this you will need to have some sort of dehydrating chemical (like the little packs you get in shoes and other products) and this will need to be changed often.
But the truth is that you do not need this type of thing on your computer, unless you are overclocking by a huge amount. The fact is that computers are not fragile or subject to problem with heat as long as they have good ventilation and properly installed heatsinks. Nor will you get any better performance, unless of course you take the temps down with something like liquid nitrogen in order to get it toward super-conducting status.
I am presently sitting in a control room with 8 control computers, 2 PCs, a server rack, telephone system, and in the next room is 6 dual control system computers which run the plant. All of these computers are air cooled, but are the rooms are kept at 70 degrees F. And believe me these computer put out a lot more heat than any PC ever will. But at the same time we have had air conditioner failures where all we did was open the door, and never did we have any problems even though the Control system computer room was above 90 degrees F. (yes I was worried about failure, but they ran this way for over 24 hours without problems until the air was fixed)
So do what you want, but you are really asking for a lot of work and more problems to solve if you do this.

[Punked Out Comp]

This all sounds very complicated, but what would the big deal be if you just set the air conditioner about three feet away from the vents in the computer so the computer would be getting cool air inside, but the out side of the case would also be cooled, and when its the same temperture inside and out, there is no condisation (i think).

[Geonosis]

too me it sounds like a good idea, I also wanted to try a fridge mod, where I build a PC inside of a mini fridge, but being the newbie I am I couldnt pull that one off for a while, well untill I learn how too build a little better :D . As for the AC, I would kinda fear condensation.

[Punked Out Comp]

As for the AC, I would kinda fear condensation.


when its the same temperture inside and out, there is no condisation.

so therefore condinsation wont be a problem, it would only be a problem if all the cool air was concentrated on the inside of the case and there was no air on the outside of the case. then when the cold air inside the case hit the less cold case "walls" condensation would form.

[Spartan]

so therefore condinsation wont be a problem, it would only be a problem if all the cool air was concentrated on the inside of the case and there was no air on the outside of the case. then when the cold air inside the case hit the less cold case "walls" condensation would form.

Just remember that your A/C unit will cycle on and off and that will cause a temp change inside the case. Enough to be a problem? I don't know....

why not just place the air cond. in a window like it should be and cool the whole room.

That would be far to easy. Besides....it smacks of common sense.....and we can't have that. LOL.

-Spartan

[RedKangaroo]

too me it sounds like a good idea, I also wanted to try a fridge mod, where I build a PC inside of a mini fridge, but being the newbie I am I couldnt pull that one off for a while, well untill I learn how too build a little better . As for the AC, I would kinda fear condensation.

Hey Geonosis, I like the mini fridge idea. You could vacuum seal the parts in plastic and hook everything up and stick it in the fridge. That way you wouldn't have condensation and plenty of cool to go around. If you had a really good vacuum seal (no humidity being the key thing) you might even try it with a mini freezer. That'd be awesome.

[mattg2k4]

too me it sounds like a good idea, I also wanted to try a fridge mod, where I build a PC inside of a mini fridge, but being the newbie I am I couldnt pull that one off for a while, well untill I learn how too build a little better . As for the AC, I would kinda fear condensation.
Hey Geonosis, I like the mini fridge idea. You could vacuum seal the parts in plastic and hook everything up and stick it in the fridge. That way you wouldn't have condensation and plenty of cool to go around. If you had a really good vacuum seal (no humidity being the key thing) you might even try it with a mini freezer. That'd be awesome.
The problem with fridges is that they can't remove the heat as fast as the computer puts it out. Thus they run at 100% duty and quickly fail. Condensation wouldn't be a problem as long as you kept the door shut while it was on. And how are you going to vacuum seal a motherboard in plastic, especially when you've got so many things connected to it? Plus the insulating plastic will not help things out.

As far as airconditioning goes, I'm with bailey: stick it in the window. A/C's use so much energy it's a waste to slap it straight onto your computer. If you want good cooling (better than stock that is, which is already pretty good), get a high end air cooled heatsink, Swiftech comes to mind, and some arctic silver and I can guarantee you will be happy. If you really must, go with a watercooled system which is at least elegant, whereas slapping an A/C is definitely not.

To answer your question about the exhaust fans, you don't precisely need any. If air comes into your case from the A/C, it's going to go out through the PSU fan, or any opening, and I'm pretty sure the A/C will be blowing much more air than any reasonable number of exhaust fans, so you're going to have positive air pressure (more intake than exhaust) no matter how you swing it. I'd just put as many fans as you've got slots for, and if you find you don't need all that airflow, 7v them or otherwise slow them down to improve your noise:cfm ration, or just remove some of them.

For electrical interference, I wouldn't think an air conditioner would be enough to mess with your computer. Your monitor however stands some risk. I have a desktop fan which will cause noticeable wavy lines on my CRT from about a yard away. If you go forward with this, you might try a dry run before you bolt everything down to see if your monitor is close enough to be interfered with.

[QuickSilver]

Build a computer and stick it in a full sized chest freezer. That should do the trick! :D

[Punked Out Comp]

Just remember that your A/C unit will cycle on and off and that will cause a temp change inside the case. Enough to be a problem? I don't know....



That would be far to easy. Besides....it smacks of common sense.....and we can't have that. LOL.

-Spartan

It's not just that, it's because if I put the A/C close to the computer all the cold air is directed to the PC, but if I put it in the window then the cold air would spread out throughout the room and wouldn't be as cold. It's the same way that if you stand in right in front of an air conditioner with it blowing right at you, it's alot colder than if you stand on the far side of the room. It's not just a little difference, its a very noticable difference.

[MaxRat]

man you guys got way tooo much time here.....

First of all if you duct cold air from an AIR Conditioner or from Central air (house register) condensation IS NOT going to be a problem!

you can only have condensation in the pressence of humidity and since air-conditioners are Dehumidifiers, if you run them constanly, you won't have any!

The only time you would experience condensation would be having you air off and the room was real hot and you turned the air on cold for a rapid cool down but this would be a very breef period....but with the case fans running and venting the case any chance of formation would be slim to none.....

as for the fridge or deep freeze theory...you WOULD get condensation from those as they are NOT fully dehumidifiers just coolers...

so It would NOT be a good Idea to run a water-cooling line looped thru a fridge or freezer as it would pick up moisture....

just for your info...i work with air....

I also have a window air in my room as is the same place my pc is....on a hot day 85-90deg F.. my pc runs 39-41deg C.... with the air set to 65-70deg F (I like it cold) my pc run at the lowest temp I seen (cpu) 25 deg C.

The air is atleast 12 to 15 feet away fro the pc....do you need to duct it? I don't think so....just close the door....