Building a new rig - cooling issue

So the people that read the AFK thread know my old PC died some horrible death. Turned out to be the motherboard being fried. That all aside though, a new PC is going to be coming soon(tm) - hopefully within the month.

The one issue I'm still struggling with is heat. My room (attic with a flat roof) is pretty much one of the seven hells in terms of temperature. During summer I can barely live here without a large 45cm fan blowing slightly-less-scalding-than-my-surroundings air into my face. The old computer.. don't get me started on that. Summer (or warmth in general) might well be the reason it died like this.

That brings me to my question though; what to do about it for my new computer?

I know that just stuffing a bunch of fans into a case will not get me far. If hot air gets sucked in through the front fans, it won't miraculously be any cooler on the inside of the case.

Since cooling with air would require actual cool air, it might not be the way to go. Water on the other hand might do a better job?
I'm not talking about those closed-loop things like the Corsair H50/100 or something, but going with a proper set-up. Grab a case that will fit a 3x120mm radiator and see how it goes from there?

If anyone has any experience with this, I'd love to hear em. Or any other good solutions for that matter!

And no, buying air conditioning for my room isn't an option. My parents won't fund it, and for me to finance it on my own it's too expensive. That would be making the choice between installing airco now or getting a new PC..

- BIG hole on top of the case -> passive cooling as higher temperature heat exits from the case

- Arctic Cooling or any other good manufacturer of [Si] paste to your CPU

- Watercooling / double-fan layout for great cooling (might require high grade PSU to give the punch)

- Liquid nitrogen?

Bemetson wrote:
- Liquid nitrogen?

on the air con front you haven't done your homework, small portable AC's are cheap, easy and relatively inexpensive to run and are very reliable, i had to use (and get contracts for) some for use in various broken growth rooms a few years back and intuition told me exactly the conclusion you have come to, i was wrong, £100 will get you a brilliant unit and if you route the drain in a permanent position they are fit and forget units.

also air cooling doesn't work in the way you are thinking, unless your room is 90 degrees C the the air being forced over the cooling fins (no matter how uncomfortable it is for you) will do the job necessary for the chip set.

for water cooling talk to Orford, Kop and Nayt (i think) as they have experience.

the obvious reason for water cooling over air cooling is that as the chip gets used and creates heat air cooling will have lag in cooling response whereas water cooling will be able to respond almost instantly, which in turn will create a very stable temperature environment for what is after all a very delicate piece of electrical equipment which can never be a bad thing hey.

I know that as long as the temperature of the air blowing past the cooling fins is lower than the cooling fins themselves, the airflow will indeed take some of the heat along. Just not as effective as when the flow itself would be cooler.

And I don't know which kind of airco units you're talking about, but most ones I've seen online cost a fortune. The mobile/portable ones, after a quick search are at the very least €300, up to about €700.. sadly.

I'm air cooled, got 4 pulling air in and 3 pushing air out. Plus a in and out on my CPU cooler


Orfs the one you want

the thing about getting old is............oh i've forgotten what i was going to say.....

quick search just now, yes they have gone up in price as it was a few years ago... but i still found 1 for £150 an Amcor 10000 btu unit.

the thing about air cooling on your chip set is, does the heat given off get cooled by the air flowing over the heat-sink ? and as long as the sink and the chip are coupled the answer will be yes, even in a hot environment, as the heat generated will be around the 100 C mark and the flowing air will be substantially less and it will be consistently less.

so i gues the question your facing is, do you want to be comfortable or do you want your comp to be comfortable ?

i know for a geek that's actually a hard question

if you want to computer that is cold.

Look at the fans cfm through put. The moor cubic feet per minute it can shift the better the cooling. Not all fans of the same size or rpm have the same cooling efficiency. It's all about blade shape and mass air flow.

So even if the air going in is warm increasing its mass and making it move will give out cooler air than whats goes in.

If your buying a CPU now get one of the i5 or i7 k series, as you know on stock cooling they can be overclocked to 4ghz. So good aftermarket air cooler and some good cfm 12cm case fans, you'll still be able to overclock even if pumping above average ambient air over the cooler.

If you really worried, get some of the freezer blocks you put in the bottom of cooler bags, put one of them in front of the front case fans. That will lower the temp of the air going in by half a degree or so if your that bothered.

Also aircon units need to let out a lot of hot air, just feel and look at the back of your freezer at home, thats one big ass heat exchanger. An airon unit that's expected to cool a room has small heat exchanger but a fuking big fan to spill out all that hot air. It needs to be pumped out side via an open window and that just defeats the purpose. Although window adapters can be found for even more expense, or make one from a sheet of stiff foam like I did.

I'd stick with good fans and don't over clock too much.

Heh, funny you should mention those cooler blocks. I had to use them on my old graphics card (8600GT) in the computer before that. Just put them in a plastic bag and just put it on the PCB, otherwise it just wouldn't run at all when it was hot. To be honest though, that was a shitty thing, with a way too tiny fan to keep everything cool.

As for the fans, I suppose I'll go look at some high airflow fans. Sucks they make so much noise but it's better than nothing I guess. I'm thinking about waiting for Ivybridge and see what the prices do for the current 2500/2600's. It's only two more weeks, if I'm to believe Intel.. which I don't. Might even go all in and just grab a 3930k. They're only 500 euro's nowadays =P

I've got antec 1200 cases on both of mine, but I've seen a coolermaster case with more fans than a take that concert!

Cases.. yeah. Have to look into that a bit more. Most cases I've seen so far are either loudmouths or hotheads. I also fail to see the 'trend' of cases with a door on the front, and then have fans behind it. Last time I checked a solid aluminum/plastic door doesn't really allow for air to be sucked through. (yeah yeah, open the door when you have the PC running, but that sort of really beats the point..).

Been looking at the Corsair 650D case, but apparently there's a fair few issues with the front fan and the grill in front of it resonating. Could just get 3rd party fans in there, which most likely are better anyway than the stock fans.

Most full tower cases are rather flashy, like the CoolerMaster HAF series, or indeed the Antec 1200

Nixy23 wrote:Cases.. yeah. Have to look into that a bit more. Most cases I've seen so far are either loudmouths or hotheads. I also fail to see the 'trend' of cases with a door on the front, and then have fans behind it. Last time I checked a solid aluminum/plastic door doesn't really allow for air to be sucked through. (yeah yeah, open the door when you have the PC running, but that sort of really beats the point..).

There's still ventilation. Take my Fractal Design R3 for example (I have a black one, I can't, nor want to, pull off the white look). It has a front door, with two 120mm fans behind, yet the airflow is practically as good as most standard Mid towers or full towers, and this is with bitumen-esque coated side panels.

Don't forget that it is also air Nixy, it's not treacle or any other thick substance. It gets places

Shaydee ? is that you in the pink shirt standing like a puffder ?

Alas Scotty, you wish it was me. Nah, that's a picture from google

TheShaydeeOne wrote:Alas

Dafuq!? ^^


ooo ok

^Nah Scotty, Shay is the one in his avatar.

And the pope shits in the woods right?


if you go down to the woods today do do do do do do doooo!

speedhound1-WYD- wrote:
for water cooling talk to Orford, Kop and Nayt (i think) as they have experience.

Kop!? His idea of overclocking was sitting on his watch, I'd assume his watercooling would involve bunging his rig in a washing up bowl and pouring on the water for 5 minutes

Watercooling is relatively simple, I'd recommend the Raza kits, a bit costy but hey, they're ample for a beginner. Even easier, get a close loop factory one, IE, Corsair H80/90/100, Air ones are better in the price range but H100 with Push/Pull set up with half decent fans is a decent loop all the same.

I'd reccomend a Noctua NH-D14 too, they're f'in beautiful coolers, although a little large, and for 120mms, Scythe Gentle Typhoons are superb -
Scythe Gentle Typhoons

The bigger the better. I've got an Arctic Cooling freezer xtreme rev.2 for 3 years, has done a good job so far. Also requiers some proper thermal paste.

1 230mm intake fan 2 output (120 back and 200 top) and im all set, with idle temps 20-25C (amd 1055T 3.5ghz). In summer my room also gets very hot and idle temps are around 30C.

Aye. Guess I'll grab the Corsair 650D (do love the looks of it) and replace the stock fans. I'll just have to look for a good 3rd party 200mm fan and some spare 140mm fans to replace the exhausts at the back/top with.

Thanks for all the input guys. Really appreciate it!

Here's my Rig, 2 years old now only upgraded the RAM to 8gig and clocked to 4ghz. She still flies.


http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18156262