Slashdot Mirror
Computer Room Hot?
Anonymous Coward writes "Here is a cool PC ventilation product I ran across. Like many faithful on here, I have multiple computers in a small room which really heat up the place. My office is a good eight degrees warmer than the rest of the house This product called R.A.C.H.A.L (Reduce Annoying Computer Heat And Loudness) vents computer exhaust into the wall, not the room. Might cut down on the electricity bills during those hot months.." Another approach: An anonymous reader writes "If your 'puter is getting to loud, you might want to consider some silent cooling. And the gang at OverclockersClub has just that. A three page review of the Zalman VGA Heatpipe Cooler. This thing is pretty nice looking, and with no power, no noise, what else could a guy ask for? Check out the review here. How come more companies don't do the "silent" thing?" Borked link fixed.
my computer wakes up the people below me when i turn it on..well, i do have a pent 4 overclocked to 4.0 ghz, but thats not the point!
At least the war on the environment is going well
I just heard some sad news on talk radio - Horror/Sci Fi writer Stephen King was found dead in his Maine home this morning. There weren't any more details. I'm sure everyone in the Slashdot community will miss him - even if you didn't enjoy his work, there's no denying his contributions to popular culture. Truly an American icon.
My house is freezing, and I wouldn't be able to survive in my computer room (Basement, AKA utility room) without the heat. Good for corperations, not for me. Anyone else use spare clock cycles for warmth?
How long until Slashdot becomes completely shameless and starts just admitting to their advertisements all over their front page?
So take off all your clothes!
Chicks love nekkid geeks in hot computer rooms.
How come more companies don't do the "silent" thing?
The problem is, silence is golden. So therefore, in this poor economy, companies can't pay for the gold required and consumers can't really afford it.
I would love manufacturers to start taking this issue more seriously. Choice of fans is important, but also the hard drives as well. Apple fans can look smug here I think - Apple do take this stuff seriously. The PC world? Not so much, and it's a real shame.
Cheers,
Ian
If you don't have to yell to hear over it, how do you know it's working? ...or is it just me and my Sparc?
An anonymous reader writes "If your 'puter is getting to loud, you might...
BZZZT! Sorry Sparky. You lose any geek points by using the term "'puter".
Trolling is a art,
90% of my excessive volume and heat generation comes from various rack-mount appliances (like Cisco switches), not pee-cees. It doesn't look like these things are very friendly towards that type of environment.
The basic concept might still be sound, though. Turn your rack into an enclosure, add some intake fans, and vent the entire rack's exhaust somewhere else. (I wonder what the exhaust temperature for an entire rack would reach?)
If they can generate silence, then they're MAKING gold! That's something people have been trying to do for thousands of years.
I've got 6 boxes in my apartment, and they keep it around 70 degrees all year. I save about $20/month since I don't need to run the heater.
Where does the heat go once it is in the wall? Won't it eventually radiate back out into the surrounding environment? That might be ok if your goal is only to reduce the temperature gradiant between the computer room and the rest of the building but overall I don't see how this is going to reduce the amount of heat inputted into the building.
Unless we are talking about an exterior wall, in which case it SHOULD be well insulated but you never know.
Hmmm... wonder how those roaches and other critters living in the wall are going to enjoy a blast of heat from my power supply fan? KFC (Kentucky Fried Cockroach) anyone?
Like anything else, the quest for silence and coolness involves a tradeoff, or Devil's Deal.
The obvious way to keep your PC quiet is to strap pillows to the case, but this increases heat retention. Likewise, the obvious way to keep your PC cool, adding case fans, makes your PC louder.
It turns out that you can't have it both ways...a PC generates excess energy, and it is going to manifest itself either as heat or as sound. It's basic conservation of energy. So choose your poison now, and learn to live with the side effects.
Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
another approach to cutting down on heat in the room?
Just do the right thing to begin with. If you want silence and no heat use a Cyrix C3. I'm sure you'll say it's too slow for you. Hey, you know what the saying is:
Silent/Cold/Low-Power. Fast.
Pick 1.
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
Computer Room Hot?!!! more like celda
After reading this, there are other options out there.... some even quieter. Thinking back to my old house that had a central vac system, if one was to eventually abandon using the central vac, you could replace the vac with a smaller fan and use it to suck the hot air out of the computer instead of using the PS fan to blow it out. :
-Or for those who really want things cool, they can just use the central vac to suck it out, but it may also suck out your powersupply!
The cavity at any given point in your wall, if it's to code, is about two cubic feet, surrounded by wood and plaster. Unless you had a magically powerful fan in your PC you won't be getting any circulation at all, because you're pressurizing a fixed cavity. Furthermore, the tube isn't insulated. This is a really silly idea. However, if you vented it *outside*, then you're talking something useful.
--Mike
Yeah, that's right, try to avoid Slashdotting www.computerexhaust.com by re-directing the URL to slashdot. As if we're not techy enough to figure it out.
JA
http://www.johnalex.org/
Dead Link? What the heck do we pay the slashdot editors for?
Of course we pay, there are ads, aren't there?
42 - So long and thanks for all the fish.
but wouldn't that be against fite codes or something...... and wait.. my room will be cold as hell if I turn all that shit off..
...except that often, the pressure inside the wall is greater than in the room, hence the market in little foam inserts so cold air doesn't gush in between the spaces of your electric outlets, switches, etc.
PC fans are incapable of moving air against even the slightest resistance- if you're not careful, you could end up frying stuff when the fan stops moving air. Especially in the summertime, when attics can be VERY hot, you could end up force-feeding your PC 100 degree air when the wind blows a certain way.
Also- what about the second exhaust?
Sorry, not impressed. And what the hell is with all the linking to these crappy 2-teenagers-in-a-dorm-room hardware review sites?
Heat (and nosie for that matter) are only a big problem if your top priority is speed.
My latest system has a top priority of silence, with raw horsepower a second thought. The purpose is to record audio in a live setting (burn off CDs of a church service immediately following the service.) so I don't need a 2GHz P4. Once you back away from the bleeding edge, heat becomes much less of a problem.
The solution in my case is a VIA C3 650, decent copper heat sink and no CPU fan. The video needs are minimal, so no GPU fan. The thing draws less power than most, so the temp-controlled fans never turn on.
I'm still trying to decide if the liquid-bearing hard drive is worth the extra $100 though.
It sounds like the hot coolant water from powerplants being dumped into a river and affecting the local conditions.
I'm really not into C.H.U.D. evolving in my walls.
...one of the most stupid names for a product I have ever heard of! R.A.C.H.A.L? Who ever thought of that should have already been fired and shot at dawn!
Another example of the Marketing dept thinking they can fit in with the tech scene...
Mod away, 'cause modpoints are worthless anyway. Not like I can buy a new Corvette when I get 100,000 points, or bitch-slapped if they fall below -20, right?
Stupid cliques....
WHAT'S THAT? I can't hear you over my Dual AthlonXP 2600+ casemodded box with 8400rpm fans and my overclocked GeForce 7 Ti 7700 that gives me 8000fps in the Quake IV beta I have. Now leave me alone, I'm busy frying my steaks on the aluminium case.
...aw man, not ANOTHER 1GB DDR RAM chip blown. Time to sell my other kidney...
*pfzzt*
It seems to me that venting the heat into your walls could cause condensation or other moisture problems inside of your walls. It also seems like you could get some very strange noises resulting from the forced air going into an enclosed space. The backpressure from exhausting into the wall could also shorten your fan life or possibly worse. If you have fire blocking in your walls, you could be blowing hot air into a space as little as 16" x 24" or so, and once that heats up you'll be getting the heat back into your room as it radiates through the drywall.
You also couldn't effectively use this on an exterior wall because insulation should be taking up all of the available air space inside the wall cavity anyway. Also, not all of the heat your computer generates is going to be exhausted by the fan, so this may not result in a huge reduction anyway, and it becomes even more problematic if you have more than one exhaust fan. Just a few thoughts I had.
At first I always wondered why there aren't more people that bitch about computer noise. Then I realized that:
1. Most people have a sepearate room for their pc
2. The rest (kids and college students) don't care because they shut off thier pc at night
...And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me." - Martin Niemoeller (1892-1984)
Has anyone tried using a heatpipe to move heat to the case?
Seems to me, someone should be able to use the entire case as a heatsink to dissipate the heat of the CPU and GPU and do so without a fan.
During the winter I wish I could actually harness the heat from my PC's more effectively, lower my gas bill.
I guess I could just run a hose like that on the back of my dryer from my fans to other parts of the house.
Perhaps new houses should be built with ventalation shafts where computers are likely to be just like where dryers go.
On a funny note sometimes I had to sleep at work after working till 2 or 3 in the morning. At some point in the night our heat would cut off and the office would become pretty cold. So I slept behind the server rack.
You generally have a 2*4 box sealed on either side with drywall. So, you essentially would just be pressurizing this box, and eventually overwhelming the ability of your machines fans to pump air. Sounds like a great idea!
Here is the correct link: R.A.C.H.A.L..
Neat picture, though, I don't know whether it will really cool down the room. Won't the heat just build in the wall, and not dissipate as quick because of the lack of air. Then, the walls will be warm and again warm the room. Hmmmmm.
The servers running in my office drown out that crappy elevator music the company prez insists on playing...
Ummm.... it's Winter right now. My room (at college) would be positively chilly without my two computers running. It does raise the overall temp by 8-10 degrees (f), but that is welcome at this time of year. It also means I don't have to turn the heat on very high.
In summer, I'll go home and the parents have central air on all the time, and cold for summer (my mom doesn't like the heat much). My computers then keep my (slightly larger) room tolerably warm for summer. Like 70-5 instead of around 65.
What I'm saying is: GO HEAT!
Wouldn't R.A.C.H.A.L (Reduce Annoying Computer Heat And Loudness) really be RACHL, such as the United States of America isn't USOA? Aren't Ands, ors, thes, all not supposed to be used in an acronym?
Is it just me, or does any computer really make that much noise?
"This isn't a study in computer science, its a study in human behavior"
nice advertorial!! wow, a piece of plastic pipe and i'm supposed to pay for this? What if I don't want air blown into my walls? What if there is stuff in there like insulation, dead rats and umbrellas? What a dumb idea... what you need is like a bathroom fan that actually has an outlet somewhere, otherwise you are just blowing warm moist air into your walls. Hello mold and rot.
wowza buttse!
-- OMFG = Oh My Floatse Goatse
Somehow, I think reducing the output from 80mm down to a 1.5" tube is going to cause air flow restrictions. But then, on top of that, you direct the exhaust into a wall cavity, which is designed not to allow air to pass thru? What if the wall is full of fiberglass insulation, or even worse, blown-in cellulose or that expanding foam stuff?
I would think that a better solution would be something along the lines of a "clothes dryer vent", with a direct connection to the outside (you know, they have the little louvred doors that "blow" open from the exhaust air). Plus, dryer vent pipe is around 4" if I remember correctly, which would have significantly less airflow restriction than a 1.5" tube.
Flex-hose in a variety of sizes is commonly used in work shops all over the place. See for example:
http://www.oneida-air.com/ductwork/flexhose.htm
I would think using parts available from sites like the above would allow a significantly better "exhaust" system to be home-grown...
Hook the tube up to a water faucet, and connect it to your computer's intake fan (rather than exhaust), you can lower the temperature of your computer with an efficient, cooling mist!
$8.95/mo web hosting
..who's missing the http:// in the link? - shame on the slashdot story submittors and editors!
I telecommute full-time and have lots of machines in my home office. I suffer from the same warm room problem, but I find that most of the heat comes not from the CPU's but from all the CRT's.
Give me something to help divert that heat and I'll be happier.
Still, this is a neat approach towards trying to solve the problem. Kudos to them for the effort.
- Hsoi
Damn false advertising!
What if I have two exhaust fans?
If you have two exhaust fans, the ideal solution would be to install two ventilation systems. If you only want to install one, install it on the power supply fan, this generates the most heat.
You mean, they don't have an option to hook two hoses up to one hole in the wall? Seems like they just want to prey on their customers and stupid people. But I repeat myself.
42 - So long and thanks for all the fish.
The link in the story is incorrect.
It says "http://slashdot.org/www.computerexhaust.com", which is (obviously) a nonexistent page.
Somehow, it got munged in with slashdot's own url.
copy what one company did with their Novell server... put a wall around it! That'll not only hide the not-always-so-good-looking machine but also keep it fairly secured ;-)
In the new Emery building in downtown Portland, Or. there is no furnace. The entire building is heated with the waste heat from the computers and server rooms.
It works well.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
As a carpenter/electrician/plumber in my spare time, I think sending computer exhaust to a residential wall is one of the dumbest ideas I've heard of. Venting to another room, crawl space, basement, outside, etc. is OK, but a proper wall cavity with normal studs only has a few square feet of volume. For an outside wall, breaking through a vapor barrier and sending the exhaust to fiberglass insulation is very, very bad.
The only valid application I can think of is for some commercial office space, where usually cheap extruded steel studs hold up sheetrock and the wall tops are open to the space above a drop ceiling. Also, the steel studs have holes in them to allow for cables and some horizontal air movement.
The website does not have any of this information concerning checking the validity of walls. Ugh.
My room is hot because of all the porn I watch on my pc... it gets me all hot and bothered. Can't really vent that into the walls, now can I?
Defender of Microsoft and Communism!!!
..because those vents aren't made for blowing throw a pipe which is some feet long. They just can't. So you'll have to get stronger (and louder!) vents.
Moreover I have to wonder where the air is going to go. Not that walls are completely airtight but they aren't exactly open either..
Why not just jam the fan to stop the noise and keep the heat in the case?
This must have been brought to us be the same hucksters who sell those cell phone antenna boosters
there are 3 kinds of people:
* those who can count
* those who can't
This computer is hotter and louder than any: Man Gets 70mpg in Homemade Car-Made from a Mainframe Computer
Cheers!
Eddy.WriteLinux.Com
Tempreture outside the house : -1c
Tempreture inside pc case : 27c
Tempreture of processor : 43c
Room tempreture : 19c
This is the exact same thing as a dryer vent, except it blows into the ever clean area between the walls. Id have to modify this thing with a fan to suck the air out of the case and blow it into the wall, and a small filter to prevent any sort of blow back into the case. Even then, at $19 a pop, i could just excess flex hose from my dryer and modify a 3 switch wall cover, and Id pay about 2 bucks... That or if the temperature in my room was really that big of an issue, id get a fan for the room...
Does anyone else find it horribly bad journalism/science to report with a graph where one bar is a third as long as another bar, yet the large value is less than 1% larger than the other because they start the graph at a random number instead of zero, and then just using a graph break in the scale?
If you make a bar graph and the values are 1% different, the sizes of the bars should be 1% different. Why do they not understand this?
one two three four
I've seen this at other websites, too. Does it irk anyone else?
It heats up my office too. Call up apple and they say they do not know of any technology that could cool the dual g4 any bettter and quiter..
I am going to hell and I am going to take all of you with me.
A better idea might be to vent it into the cold air return if you have forced air heating/cooling. Otherwise the fellow who commented about the walls being relativly sealed is correct. This wouldn't do much but hurt the fan.
--Should work--
where does the exhaust then go.....
2X4 Studs with 8foot high = 6144 cu/in
512 cf/m fan would fill the gap in minute....
How many CFM do you think a powersupply fan spits out?
Go to mini-itx.com if you want a silent router/media computer. That _includes_ power supply - no fans at all.
If you want a powerful computer, that is a different story, but there are better solutions to the heat/noise problem that putting holes in your wall.
Besides the problems with insulation ...
...
...
....
Lets say you work somewhere that doesn't have too much insulation in the walls
Would you REALLY want to send the sound from the fans into the wall, where it is hollow and can reverbirate? That doesn't seem to make much sence either
Why not isulate your comuter box and use liquid coolong if you're looking for a "cool" box with no noise??
If you REALLY want cool and quiet, you're going to have to pay for it
HallmarkOrnaments.Com
Global warming caused solely by the heat of so many computers!
In solviet russia, computers cool you!@#!
...and not only will it provide opportunities for some extreme overclocking, but it will keep everything within a couple of feet of your PC spotlessly clean.
I remember, many years ago, discussing with people how one day all of our ordinary home appliances would be computerized.
Then four or five years ago, two things happened: I moved into an apartment with inadequate heating and insulation, and I bought a P2-266.
And now, my space heater runs UNIX! I just put xflame on, and it's an instant fireplace...
If venting into a wall ain't your thing, have a look at Quiet PC have some slightly more conventional ways - low noise fans, quiet PSUs, hard drive acoustic insulation. Looks pretty good, yet to try any of it though...
Some knucklehead attaches a 50 cent piece of plastic tubing to his power supply fan and makes a stupid acronym for it and now its front page news on slashdot? This must be the slowest news day in history.
please fix the fix the link: it should be www.computerexhaust.com
I'll have something intelligent to add one of these days...
Why would I want to do that? My AMD dual-functions very well as a space heater, thank you very much.
Looks like the submitter messed up on the URL--the RACHAL link should be http://www.computerexhaust.com
Uh, because most companies use "real" cooling solutions, most of which aren't "silent". Putting the heat into the walls, by the way, doesn't miraculously remove the heat, it just relocates it to another area.
Mine clicks from the magnets moving in the solid state memory.
I honestly don't see what the "problem" is, here. ;) We have a dozen or so computers running in our house (including monitors...21" and 25" monitors really generate much more heat than computers, actually). Because of these, we don't really need to pay to heat the house. Just close all the doors, open the curtains during the day, and you can maintain a pretty consistent temperature.
"Quoting famous computer scientists out of context is the root of all evil (or at least most of it) in programming." - K
leave the house/office/whatever furnace fan circulating... A proper HVAC setup has both a forced-air vent, and a cool-air return vent.
If the PC room is too warm, leaving the fan on (w/out turning on the furnace burners) will effectively move the heat from that room to the rest of the building. (Pushed into the return vent, mixed at the furnace, redistributed via the forced-air vents to the rest of the building...)
There is an associated cost with running that fan all the time, but it seems like a better solution than venting the heat into a tiny wall cavity...
I can't see it being a problem if you were to duct the hot air from the computer into your home's cold air return. (Provided the house uses forced air heat.) After all, cold air returns typically aren't ducted and are just formed with the drywall/plaster and studs.
Then again, monitors give off plenty of heat on their own, so this may all be a moot point.
These crazy solutions to hot running computers show that we've reached the point of diminishing returns as far as current PC technology goes. All this active cooling nonsense and five fans per box and so on is getting silly. The upcoming NVidia cards even require external power supplies. Here's hoping that someone goes off in a different direction and breaks the trend. I'm all for faster computers, but not at any expense.
This is one of the "evils" of server consolidation. I guess.
Lasers Controlled Games!
What excessive heat? I have three computers in the Master bedroom and I still have to sleep wrapped around the computers. It's fucking Cold!
I mean... I sleep with lots of blankets... really...
Black and grey are both shades of white.
than most of the fancy-pants cooling I've seen:
Take your hottest running box, upgrade it to a P4 3.06 and UNDERclock it to a 2.9 and use a nice quiet fan. Period. C'mon, it's not like you're going to miss the last 166mHz. Plus you get to upgrade (woohoo!). Problem solved.
Operator, give me the number for 911!
For once there's a Rachal that prevents hot gas! /. more!
Now, if only I could convince my gf to read
IN SOVIET RUSSIA, sig changes you!
I would like to echo the "This is not a good idea." Here is why:
1. Older houses used to have shredded newspaper put between the walls and/or floors. The newspaper was sprayed with a flame retardent chemical. Only the chemical breaks down after ten years or so and the newspaper breaks down to paper dust. Ever seen what paper dust does if you throw it up and light a match?
2. Fiberglass insulation is better except it is usually sold with - guess what - a paper exterior which, like #1 above, has the same problems.
3. Our house had something called Mo-Hair. Sounds like a bad afro campaign to me, but this stuff was just terrible. After our house flooded we decided to remove all of the old insulation and put brand new R-13 insulation into place. The new insulation is protected by a microthin plastic sheath. Better than paper that's for sure. The Mo-Hair though - we took a piece out and tried burning it. It burned really well. Nice stuff.
If you really want to do this you should at least talk to an electrician and possibly a plumber. They probably will suggest that you create a vent pipe leading to the outside of the house. Something along the lines of what is used for a dryer. If you go to Home Depot (or Lowe's or whereever) you can get pre-made parts for installing an exit vent for a dryer. Some of the things even come with a little trap door you can open and close so the heat recycles back into the room or to the outside of the house. Nice for those really cold days. Then you just get an appropriately sized fan, bolt it to the vent box, (be sure to get a fan with a standard ac plug) and let her rip. The fan will suck the air out of the house, and the fan on the computer will blow the air directly into the vent pipe. Sort of like below:
+---+
|...|
I hope this posts correctly - the preview cuts some of it off!
Someone put a black hole in my pocket and now I'm broke.
I installed R.A.C.H.A.Ls on the wall for my 5 desktops but my neighbor called the apartment office for overheating his bedroom and I got evicted !!
Should I sue R.A.C.H.A.Ls ??
With all the dust and/or fiberglass in the walls the inside of the computer case will be a mess within days. Using some sort of dryer vent going outside would be better.
their dragon collection?
KFG
NEWS AT 11: Computer exhausts responsible for global warming.
>> A three page review of the Zalman VGA Heatpipe Cooler. This thing is pretty nice looking, and with no power, no noise, what else could a guy ask for? Check out the review here. How come more companies don't do the "silent" thing?
Because that VGA cooler weighs 400 grams (almost a pound). The sunflower CPU heatsinks are twice CPU mfg specs as well.
They work great, and are fine if your PC is generally stationary, but I wince thinking of the damage one of those suckers would to my machine if it broke loose while transporting.
Thats why more companies dont do the 'silent' thing.
Besides, I can hardly hear my new P4 rigs stock CPU fan and 4 7-volted 80mm's. Point being that quality fans are virtually silent anyways.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
I really don't have a problem with the heat from my computer, but more with the 19" monitor. A 19" monitor with my 36" tv in the same room is where all the heat issues start. Now if they could cool down the monitors and tvs, I think I would be ok. As for the noise issues, I used to have a Dragon Orb fan for the cpu, but I could hear it on the other side of the house. Dr. Thermal cpu fans get the job done and I can sleep with the computer on now. Also, desk manufactures need to get into the loop on the heat issues. They make nice desk, but give you a small spot for you to jam a computer case in. They need to make the space a little larger and precut/drill a couple of holes for ventalation fans. I have fixed a few computers that overheated because of this problem.
When all else fails, piss on it. At least you will feel better in some kind of way.
...Don't have to open up the computer case to install
Which are you more comfortable with, opening your 500 dollar computer or gouging a hole in your 20,000 dollar wall?
This Sig is a mnemonic device designed to allow you to recognize this author in the future.
I did something similar, but much more effective. My PC is on an outside wall, and it is in enclosed cabinetry. There is a 4" hole in back of the cabinet with an AC muffin fan mounted on it. The hole opens to a 4" round pipe leading out to a dryer-style vent opening. It works wonderfully; the cabinet stays cool even in summer, and I have two original-model Cheetah X15s.
I have to agree with other posters that venting to "the wall" is unlikely to work, since you're really only venting to a single stud bay - which probably doesn't leak enough to allow much airflow, and if it does, a good portion of that is leaking right back into the room anyway. Can't win either way.
...what else could a guy ask for?
;P
Too easy.
"Quoting famous computer scientists out of context is the root of all evil (or at least most of it) in programming." - K
I pulled a similar stunt over a decade ago.
Had an Altos 68000 Unix box. Made a very good space heater. Heat came out a 4" exhaust fan in the back.
So I got a couple drier vents, which use a 4" hose. Mounted one on a board that replaced a window, cut the other down to make a fan-to-hose adapter. Really cooled the room down.
Got one of those drier-heat-saver valves to switch it to exhausting into the room during the winter, too. B-)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
That is pretty sweet!!
I wonder how well it would work hanging out of my window. =)
Hmm.. add a screen, some mounting so it doesn't swing in high winds.. Hm.. I think i'm going to have to vent mine outside. =)
With the fans being blocked off you could even use this to provide heat for those tube like Gerbal farms. =)
Now I can run my computers 24x7.
And when the wife moans about the waste of electricity I can tell her it's the "wall cavity heater" I installed to help reduce the damp.
Do you mind, your karma has just run over my dogma.
I don't know about you guys, but even though my box is probably putting out an extra 30-40 db, quieting it is not an issue. Just grab one of those mid- to high-end sound systems, plug in, and start jamming. I hardly even notice the noise from the case.
"The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion."
No doubt the various electronic paraphernalia scattered about the premises offer "free" heat, too.
We've effectively overheated his web hosting provider's box, switch, and router.
Apparently, someone decided to do two things:
1: Spoof Slashdot
2: Possibly make money due to massive advertising
So he made up this little kit, invested in some bandwidth (notice the servers are just fine?) and submitted as AC.
Disgusting. And stupid. And an example of what happens when geeks rush in where engineers fear to tread. He might as well produce a water-cooling kit that runs water from a faucet adapter, through a heatsink, and then into the wall. Hey, we have a limitless untapped void in there, right?
Only if you believe the premise behind Dexter's Laboratory.
...
Don't most houses (unlike my apartment) have an air intake inside of each room? Instead of hooking it up to the wall, attach it to the intake inside the room, and spread it over the rest of the house.
In fact, I wonder if you could use something like a central vaccuum system to be the cooling fan for all of your machines, just make sure you have dust filters on the front of the machines.
At least the noise would be out of the room.
I have two 17" iMacs. Very quiet machines. They have a fan, but the only way I can tell they're running is by looking at them.
More companies should go low noise? Who more than Apple, with the ill-fated Cube and the late-model G3 iMacs, has put more into building a "quite" computer? (The newest G4 towers not withstanding....)
My Athlon box howls like a Phantom at takeoff. Mostly because I choose to use cheap components. My Mac on the other hand certainly cost more but is practically silent.m
It seems like the ideal solution would be a heatpipe system that dumped the heat directly to the case chassis, probably using an intermediate-stage heat spreader that could be bonded to the case. I've looked for such a thing, but never found one. Does anyone know of one?
"Research is what I am doing when I don't know what I am doing." -- Wernher von Braun
in agreeing with the guys who are the "wall people" :-P
he also suggest the heat pipe solution which is also completely stupid to the average user.
Alot of average users do not realize that a heatpipe solution condenses alot of water on top of your cpu. Sure your processor will be cool and your computer quiet.
But I can argue it's even quieter when your computer stops working and you can't turn it on anymore.
I can't believe a product like this is being marketed. Your power supply fan will simply not be able to push through outside-wall insulation. Even assuming an inside wall venting into an attic, the static pressure of a hot attic will be enough to overcome the stoutest of power supply or case fans, rendering your airflow non-existant, or possibly even in reverse, blowing hot air back through your case.
It is also a cose violation to install anything like this. That's a no-brainer.
Do not fold, spindle or mutilate.
(I can care about the electricity bill later, electricity at about 0.10 USD/kWh is not really very funny when the only heating that is available is electric).
Oh, well, at least it's looks nice outside with all the snow...
Of course you could just seal up your computer and run a hose to it and fill it with water and turn it on like this guy did.
:)
Is it a joke? Yes. But it was funny.
"Won't fill up with hot air?
They have yet to build a wall that is air tight, anyone who has ever worked in construction will tell you that there are probably 50 different places air flows into your walls. "
I'm guessing testing the prototype involved a pringles tube and a hammer.
LETS DECOMPOSE & ENJOY ASSEMBLING
I bought this product because my small trailer gets pretty warm with my computer running all day. When I drilled the hole in the wall I noticed that I could see outside (watch where you drill). I stuck the tube through the hole and it worked fine for about 3 days. On the fourth day when I was walking out to my car, I noticed straw coming out of the hose. When I took a closer look I noticed a small bird made a nest in the hose. I cleared out the nest and put a screen over the end of the hose and it works great. My trailer no longer gets too warm.
I might have to look into these, or a variation on the idea... I have 9 machines in a 9x10 room, along with two RAID chassis that have about 10 drives each, plus UPS, a CD tower, etc...
It gets so hot in there you can't really function without the AC running. I had to buy a window-mount air conditioner that runs 24/7 to keep the heat down, and even then it's still about 10 degrees warmer in there than the rest of the house. I can really crank the AC and get it cold- I went in there one morning and could see my breath - but that chews up a boatload of power, not to mention sometimes freezes up the AC when it's foggy outside. Oh, and it puts a strain on my residential wiring to push the AC any further than I do.
I've been trying to come up with ideas for venting the heat that didn't involve major renovations. One thought I had was putting some quiet fans in the floor and blowing the warm air under the house- no basement. Of course, I could also blow cold air up... might be better; it stays fairly consistent cool under there.
Not into the wall, at least.
They vented an old IBM System/7 into another room for cooling. Those beasts were bipolar, and really hot.
The people in the other room didn't know that they were being used as a computer cooling resource, they just knew that they were too hot. So they blocked the vent. The System/7 overheated, destructively.
Moral: When getting rid of your heat, make sure you've sent it to an acceptable and accepting place.
The criticisms of sending heat into the wall focus on pressure and humidity effects. How about a really old home where the walls are stuffed with old newspaper, corncobs, and magazines?
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
If your 'puter is getting to loud, you might want to ...
I'm assuming this person meant TOO LOUD. Unless, maybe, there's a little noise guage on the case with a little arrow indicator, and it has gotten to "Loud". But I doubt that.
Anyway, here again are some samples of the correct usage of To, Too, and Two.
1. I am going TO the grocery store.
2. Not only is Elvis dead, but he's stinky TOO!
3. Between the numbers one and three is TWO.
Unless English is not your first language, you should have mastered this by now.
Thank You
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
This might be a better idea! Plus, you can sneak it past the wife more easily!
Seriously, though, if you actually ran ducts to the attic or basement or outside or wherever, this might not be such a bad idea. You could even put the fans at the remote end of the duct to cut down on the noise.
Dumping it straight into the wall cavity is about the 2nd most retarded idea I've heard all day, though.
I keep a few machines running just to keep my office warm. I figure it is motivation for me to work hard on really big files to keep toasty....sometimes I compile random stuff just to get the CPU crankin' out a few extra milli-BTU's.
If you want it cheap and cool it won't be fast. If you want it cheap and quiet it won't be cool. If you want it cool and quiet it won't be cheap. If you want it cheap, quiet and cool you're pretty much screwed, but these guys are willing to take your money anyway.
I hear this a lot. The simplest solution really seems to be just get really long (15 meters) kvm (plus audio!) cables and move all your computers to another room (like the furnace room). Where the heat and noise do not bother you. As long as you get high quality cables you don't get much signal degridation and your screen still looks great. The only pain is when you want to get to the computer or change a cd rom drive. But this is well worth it for quiet and no extra heat!
Some old style apartments, like mine, used to have centralized vacuuming. Basically instead of purchasing a vacuum cleaner, a tube would be inserted into a wall socket and it would activate a vacuum located in the laundry room.
The entire place is like this...I wonder if I could use my pc's to heat the building..heheheh...(they are all linked so it could be workable.)
I don't see what the problem is. My 386 requires only a cool 1 W of power with no needs for fans. I'm sure if it even made noise, the 40 lb case would block it.
... check out the ISObox and the ISOmac at Sound Construction and Supply. They make equipment for recording studios to eliminate noise from rackmount and tower systems.
It is snowing away here in Boston. My fiancee is from Bermuda and also must have some sort of circulation problem. She is always freezing. We have electric baseboard heat in a converted apartment in an old poorly insulated house.
We only run our two laptops in terms of computers (although just this weekend I finally got the PII mp3 server up and going, but it was deemed too noisy to run all the time, and our apartment is small enough that noise is bad for TV and reading and such). We have Tivo and a tv and a dvd player and some lights, which is about it in terms of power consumption.
Our electic bill was very close to $300 this past month.
I thought about not using the electric baseboard heat (it is noisy and a fire hazzard since my fiancee is apparently unaware of what are "normal" household temperatures and it routine gets hot enough to melt things that we didn't realize were on the baseboard heaters - such as my phone charger cord, shoes, etc).
Instead of the heat, I would put together a Beowulf cluster and use those. Ideally a quiet system to more energy is expelled as thermal energy instead of accoustic.
Then I could get the benefit of parallel computing of financial data analysis AND heat during the winter.
I can put together an Athlon XP2100 system with 30 gig drive and half a gig of ram for a little over $300 - meaning a 5 node system for around $1600.
That is far less than my current dual PIII system that now just sits there lonely.
I suppose if I used my 21" monitor often that would help with the heat too - that thing is quiet, but cranks heat out the back.
My Athlon laptop gets pretty warm too - esp if it is really "thinking" hard - just need to put a distributed.net client on there and then warm the house all day long sans the heater.
Haven't tried to calculate out yet which way is cheaper.
I'm moving soon enough though, so I'm not too keen on the beowulf idea and then having to sell it all off in under 5 months.
Still considering it though - as long as I could make it quiet (perhaps those noise dampening mats that the car stereo modding fellas use?). Noise is very noticable in our small place.
There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
You lose all your points for using the obnoxious
"BZZZT!" and "Sparky".
So instead of "Here is a cool PC ventilation product I ran across", he should really be saying "Here is a cool PC ventilation product that my company makes."
Sure, it's kinda neat. But I hope
Tuus crepidae innexilis sunt.
I live in my parents' basement, so my 13 computers are an excellent source of heat for me. Although at work it's a totally different story. What with a 7 component Audio rack system and around 58 servers, you can really sweat your balls off. Cheers.
I know what you're thinking. Did he fire six shots? Or only five?
this is woefully unimpressive, and uninspired.
...if i ever find a fridge and hook this up, i'll be sure to post pictures :)
first off, with 16" on center stud walls, constructed of 2x4s, and an average studheight of 92 and 5/8ths inches, you can see that the volume inside a stud wall "cell" is pretty piss poor - roughly 5800 cubic inches.
There are a few issues that make this "solution" stupid.
1) the heat doesn't go anywhere. there should be a correspondingly large diameter cut out in the top plate of the wall, so that the air can escape in the attic (where it might do some good, as the attic is cold and properly ventilated, unlike the interior of a wall)
2) there may be cold water supply pipes in wall. do you want to heat your cold water ? especially if they're copper pipes with a very effective heat transfer characteristic
2a) there may be runs of NM-B (romex) electrical cable in that wall cell. The ampacity of electrical wire is a function of its rated capacity, and while most ampacity ratings are given up to 70C, if this thing were _seriously_ efficient at cooling a computer, then it would perhaps begin to cause problems with in-wall structures
3) how does the national fire code feel about stuffing heat into closed interior walls (made of flame-retardant drywall, typically)
4) if the excess heat it dispells isn't enough to cause any code violations, then it clearly isn't sucking enough heat to be worth installing
5) this does little to eliminate the overall heat+noise of _systems_
My idea for this was to find an abandoned refrigerator, or better yet, freezer, and just putting whole systems inside there, and then running flue-spec double-walled exhaust vent pipe elsewhere. Having all the PCs stuck inside a fridge/freezer (shut off, of course) that was properly vented should make things cool _AND_ quiet. Don't beleive me ? Try putting your battery powered alarm clock in your freezer, and see if you can still hear it once the door shuts. You want whole-system noise cancellation ? Then you need real insulation. Want to keep your office cool? then you'll need to do a lot more than putting a turbluent undersized vacuum hose on the back of your PC.
My opinions are my own, and do not necessarily represent those of my employer.
Check this out - that's just the stuff in the kitchen.
My power bill averages about $130-$180. It just depends on how stupid your local power company.
Can I get it in chrome with a resonator tip? If I had a, say 9 inch tip, how much extra horsepower would I get?
I already have 12 stickers on my case, and I know each one is good for 2-3 HP increase and I've cut down the rubber feet by half to make it sit lower (better cornering!) which probably adds another 20 horsepower.
My case spoiler is on backorder. I'm disapointed, but I just got told my platic case bodykit just shipped today.
Hilary Rosen's speech was about her love of money and her desire to roll around naked in a pile of money.
Cmon, my clothes dryer can't be vented more than x number of feet unless it is through a smooth walled vent. And it isn't restricted down like the fan to hose connection that is on this system.
1. The dust (regardless of how "clean" your room is) is going to collect in the corrugated hose on this system--further restricting airflow.
2. The fan on a computer system like this is NOT designed to do what this is doing- force air through a restricted connection x number of feet. When it can't force the air through he hose, go back to number 1.
All this adds to a hot power supply being made hotter. Hotter power supply creates a hotter chassis. Hotter chassis means more equipment failure. More equipment failure sucks.
Regardless of where the hose is vented, this design is not going to work. You would need a much larger hose so that there would be no restriction of air flow at all. You could vent this thing into a refrigerator if you wanted-- your power supply is still going to heat up and get hotter as time goes by.
"Look! There! Evil, pure and simple from the Eighth Dimension!" --Buckaroo Banzai
And, yes, chocolate works, doesn't give them worms, and to do any harm (it's not the chocolate that's harmful, it's the theobromide added to the chocolate) you would have to feed them enough in one dose that, if you ate it, it would harm you too. Of course, I'm talking decent-sized dogs. Animals under 100 pounds, you have to be more careful :-)
My cpu fan was unbelievably noisy. So, I replaced the 60mm noise maker with an 28db 80mm fan and a 80mm:60mm funnel (all of which I found at CompUSA).
The bigger fan is almost silent and blows a lot more air than the little fan did. It also has cute little blue LEDs spinning in it.
Now the nosiest fan in my box is the power supply, which is soon to be replaced by a near-silent Antec Truesomething powersupply.
Is it just me, or did anyone else expect something fun and different from the "Exploded View" on the Zalman website?
According to the website, their "Warranty" on this item is:
Warranty
Waiver: The failure of either party to require performance by the other party of any provision of this agreement shall not affect in any way the first party's right to require such performance at any time thereafter. Any waiver by either party of a breach of any provision in this agreement shall not be taken or held by the other party to be a continuing waiver of that provision unless such waiver is made in writing.
Yup. I've got my AMEX out right now and putting in an order for 10 of them!
My PC doesn't look quite enough like a clothes dryer. This looks like the answer!
for one reason, in most homes (and likely some offices too) the wall cavities may either be insulated or the wall cavity is closed in on both sides by adjacent wall studs and closed at the top and bottom.
While you will be able to vent air into this cavity and you may see some immediate difference in temperatures it is likely not to have much effect when the closed wall cavity becomes presurized and no more significant quantity of air can be blown in.
This may be different in offices or homes with metal wall studs since there are quite a few holes punched into the metal studs for running cables, etc...
When I'm trying to get geek points I use the term 'box.' When Im trying to be uber-geeky I find a way to incorporate the term 'boxen.'
This is to be preferred over "'puter." Personally anyone who puts a ' in their slang might as well use the whole word.
This has so many obvious problems, it isn't funny...
First off, I've worked in PC repair for years. So many machines power supply fan is so weak, it can barely make a breeze behind the machine. The restriction of that pipe would pretty much kill off the flow. Make a straight smooth walled pipe would do better, but not that flex hose.
Next, the 4"x16"x8' space is going to be very small, and heat up quickly.. My office is roughtly 8'x12'x8'. You're dumping out the heat into roughly 3 cubic feet of space, with minimal ventalation. My 768 cubic foot, with a 24 square foot hole in it (doorway), with 4 PC's and 2 monitors running gets rather warm rather quickly, even with forced cooling (A/C ducts).
So, besides ruining the insulation in the wall, if it's an outside wall (interior walls are usually uninsulated), he's going to build up lots of heat and moisture (the heat won't be enough to really dry out the air).
I don't think the heating of the wall will be much of a factor, since the PC will overheat rather quickly and die.. I'd give it a few months, before the user wonders why it crashes several times daily, and then finally won't boot.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
Room is hot. Instead of using a large external fan or airconditioner to cool room, I will attempt to use the tiny little fan in my computer to redirect the heat it creates into a small, confined area. Nevermind that the fan was probably selected for its cheapness more than the it's ability and is probably barely capable of dealing with it's normal function.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
This product called R.A.C.H.A.L (Reduce Annoying Computer Heat And Loudness)
Am I the only one that wants to buy dual Berettas and get my Cleric Preston on with everyone who makes stupid-ass acronyms that are supposed to spell something clever?
Please tell me I'm not alone.
"...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman
This product is a scam, that can destroy your computer. The fan that comes with so many computers are known as axle fans. They are designed for high CFM (cubic feet per minute aka the AMOUNT of air flowing though the machine). Axle fans are not designed for high static pressure (aka air resistance). A centrifical fan (like the fan blowing cold air from an air conditioner) is designed for high static pressure (aka duct work) but typically blow less air the an axle fan. There is a trade off. More air, less pressure or less air, more pressure.
Computers are designed for free air discharge, hence the use of an axle fan. Placing a duct over the axle fan WILL reduce air flow, causing less air to flow over your CPU and that fancy video card. There will be an increase in temperature.
If you were to use this product, you are pulling air from you computer room (creating negative pressure, though very little), pushing it into a wall. Eventually that air will come out somewhere. Positive pressure "hot wall air" will go to negative pressure cooler air.
Basically you're risking your computer for something that doesn't work.
Hey read the "reviews" link. Coming Soon.....
This product is an engineering hack. If things where this simple, it would of been invented a long, long, long time ago for other things. Can't fool with physics.
But he gains back some "haphazardly clever" points for the fact that someone named "sparky" can appropriately be associated with a "bzzzzzt" sound :-)
Damn, I just lost some geek points for using the word "haphazardly"...
$8.95/mo web hosting
I can tell you until recently I had a rack with 18 servers and poor ventilation (colo in a rack that used to hold telco stuff) that got 118 degrees inside on the exhaust side.
The doors on this cabinet only have slats in the top and bottom sections, similar to what I had on my highschool locker. No fans on the top, and only 3 120mm holes for fans, with no good mounting method aside from drilling holes in the metal and bolting them in place.
So if anyone else is looking for colo space, be wary of airflow, especially if you have a high density of small servers you'll be cramming into them. I'd really prefer mesh doors on the front and back, along with a good number of big fans on the top.
FYI: 16 1U servers, 9 of those diskless, the other 7 with 2 10k RPM disks. 2 2U servers w/ 6 10k RPM disks. In total, 16 P4's and 18 P3's. 3 ethernet switches, 3 remote power management units and a bigass UPS.
Is it just me, or is this new invention just a plastic tube?
Here's a thought I had, but probably will never get around to building.
Lots of people go to the expense and effort of building/buying radiators or using large tanks of water as the heatsink for their water-based CPU cooler systems.
Last year, I started measuring the temperature of the water in my toilet tank. After a flush, it drops to 5-6 degrees Celsius. Between flushes, it gradually reaches room temperature, of course, but this is still no worse than a radiator or bucket. In practice, however, it never actually gets above about 10C (while room temperature is about 20C).
In other words, it's a supply of cold water which you were going to simply flush away.
Place a small bucket inside the toilet tank. Put a submersible pump in there, run the water to the CPU coolers, bring the water back and drain it over the bucket in the tank.
Everytime you flush the 6 beers you went through while flaming me for my Linux isn't ready for the desktop article, you can rest assured that the water which cools your CPU is being replaced with fresh, cold water. No mold, no mildew.
The purpose of putting the pump in the bucket is so that there's always a supply of water for the pump, even during the flush. And the purpose of draining the return line over the bucket is so that if your toilet tank doesn't refill for some reason, you'll still keep your bucket full of water and buy some time for hardware monitors to shut the system down if it's getting too warm.
I don't know how hot the water in the toilet will get, but think about this:
Of course, the only thing I'd worry about is the quality of the submersible pump. After all, if water leaked into the pump, then the water in the toilet could come into contact with one side of the AC line... the other side of which is grounded to your fusebox. If you happened to touch another grounded object while urinating (concrete floor, sink faucet, etc), then enough current could find that your stream of urine and urethral tissues are a more attractive ground path than the plastic sewer pipe. I think I'd invest in an isolation transformer (search ebay) to reduce the risk of highly ...unpleasant... damage.
Ahh... the joys of being an eccentric genius.
Fire and Meat. Yummy.
Ah, and don't forget:
- Enjoy your job
- Make lots of money
- Work within the law
Pick any two.
I'll pick #1 and #3.
At least I am honest. Why practice demolition for profit when I can do it for fun? There isn't that big of a market for demolition anyway...
I don't read or respond to AC posts
They seemed to do well, kept things from toasting with out any fan at all...
Mainly on the cpu.. but they did their job.
Found one during a laptop repair, never thought twice about it till now.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Whoa... this is why I should not be working until 6:30...
I don't read or respond to AC posts
It's a computer, not a 'puter. That is the lamest 'abbreviation'. Get with it!
Either way, the wall cavity will quickly pressurize and the back pressure will reduce the airflow and your machine will run hotter!
Also, if you look at the picture, the device is connected to the power supply vents, which do produce heat, but you'd need another for the vents that come off the cpu to really get the heat.
Basically it is inefficient, heats up your 'puter' (I hated typing that!) and the heat still ends up in your house one way or another, just spread out a bit more. If you like other moronic useless gadgets there is no reason not to get two or three of these!
I'm sure the poster will get plenty of orders...
Keep passing the open windows...
1. Turn on three computers, lower thermostat, shut door.
...
2.
3. Profit!
The NEC PowerMate eco runs cool and quiet because it requires no fan. It's powered by a Transmeta Crusoe 5800, speed 900 MHz (with an upgrade coming soon, when Transmeta sells its Astro CPU, in about 6 months). The NEC PowerMate eco contains no dangerous materials in its body and can be disposed easily. For more information, see http://www.transmeta.com/everywhere/products/deskt ops/nec/nec_powermate_eco.html
Drilling 1 1/2" holes in friends' walls isn't a very good idea.
For more or hotter equipment, I'd cut a hole in the floor and put the equipment in the basement, running the kvm cables through the hole. Another solution would be to install a bathroom style exhaust fan in the closet.
I got the idea from a friend who had an "equipment room", and his desk was on the other side of the wall. KVM cables came through a hole poked in the wall.
Heat pipes are pretty awesome, and the two machines sitting next to me are proof. The first is an Athlon TBird 900 in a full size case. The second is an Athlon XP 2100+ settled nicely in a Shuttle SK41G mini computer with heat pipes (under half the size of the first computer). While they both run at about the same temperature, I can barley hear the system fan on shuttle (heat pipes) but I still get a late night complaint call from my neighbors about the first machine on occasion :)
I took advantage of my company's downsizing auction and bought a pile of Pentium II laptops to replace the loud, hot Pentium desktops I've been running. Nice and quiet. They run pretty cool as well.
Now I'm actively trying to kick people off of projects based on whether that have laptops. Maybe by July I can upgrade my web server to a nice quiet P3-500.
Well, I live in the midwest, so at least I'm currently free from the power headaches CA is suffering. Nonetheless, I have serious power usage concerns because I live in an older home (built in the mid 1950's) that has the smallest capacity electrical service they offer.
My old fuse panel has seperate sub-panels with circuit breakers for the electric dryer and central air - but everything else in the house runs through one of 8 screw-in type fuses.
I have 6 computers running pretty much all the time (1 as a dedicated firewall/router for my DSL), and so I'm right up against the maximum power load I can use without blowing the main fuses on the panel.
One way I freed up quite a few spare watts was swapping all my regular light-bulbs with the flourescent replacements. They typically use about 14 watts while giving off as much light as a 60 watt bulb. When you consider most of my light fixtures take 2 bulbs each, the savings really starts to add up.
As others mentioned venting into the wall is a bad idea. But, the real concern is the US$19.95 price. If you order in the next ten minutes, we'll even through in a free drill bit...
People posting some pictures of the nasty critters that crawled out of their walls and into their computers for warmth.
Great! Finally Ive found something that make the babe in the next cubicle to take off her clothes :P
The cold water faucet dispelled hot water. And the hot water dispelled hotter water...
Facilities people investigated, and determined in the "remodel", the hot water pipes should not have been run in parallel to the cold water pipes...
Damn, you guys are suave.
Absolutely!! Send the picture to support@computerexhaust.com and we'll tell you if your system is compatible or not.
I just sent some pics of the Nvidia plant tour (pics somewhere in the middle)... I wonder what they'll tell me :-P
The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a democracy should be the weapon of openness.
Just emailed this to there info@ address:
Wouldn't this just heat up the walls of the house and then the room? I'm no engineer, but I do know that the wall cavity in an average house is only 3.5" x 16.5" x 93" or 5400 cubic inches. Routing your cooling fan in to such a confined space would mearly where out your cooling fans faster due to the increased back presure. And drywall doesn't transfer heat very well, it might cool the computer for an hour or so till the drywall heated up and then the computer would overheat.
This is one of those jokes/scams that occasionally fools the overtired editors of Slashdot .. right?
... ummm now what? You turn your PC off? Poke another hole in the wall somewhere?
I mean venting into a wall cavity between studs? - ru freaking nuts? Ok, lets see now - the air cavity is now full of hot air
Its one of those rackets that just seems plausable enough to con the casual observer into thinking it was not a scam.
If its not a gag - its outright irresponsible and retarded to say the least
---- "Logoff! That cookie shit makes me nervous!" - A. Soprano
I would recomend a UPS. That way, if you turn on something that requires extra power, the UPS will temporarily alieviate the drain on your home's lines.
If the drain is from something plugged into the UPS, the UPS will provide the extra power needed if the power lines cannot keep up... If you get the extra drain from something not on the UPS, the UPS will notice that the line current is dropping, and use it's own power rather than your house's lines.
Hopefully I don't need to say it, but the proper solution is to rewire your house. Not only are you limited in the current you can pull, but you are at risk of fire becuase the lines are so old, as well as from running your lines much closer to capacity than they should be.
While I don't know your exact situation, most people have hazardous electrical situations around their homes, and yours sounds like it's much worse than average.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Although the extra cooling on the OC'd R9700 or Ti4x00 might be a lil loud
Too many T:NG marathons.
Fools ignore complexity; pragmatists suffer it; experts avoid it; geniuses remove it. ~A. Perlis
Me, I just toss a bucket of cold water on my PC when it gets too hot.
Heat is the least of my problems. I find I have to buy new PC's frequently -- anyone else have the same problem? What's up with quality control these days anyway?
Rich people are eccentric. Poor people are strange. Me, I'd be happy with odd.
Heat travels from hot areas to cold areas.
This won't work for the same reason why you can't make an airconditioner with only an inside unit (you need the outside unit as the heat sink).
Now, if your computer room/home office is in a basement, geothermal cooling could work.
They know its a bad thing, we know its a bad thing, however they probably have miles of 1.5 inch plastic pipe, that they need to sell. If it overheats your computer, then it is your fault for not installing the pipe(s) correctly. Come to think of it I have several 1.5 pipes, any buyers???
Unless the wall you are "venting" into is totally uninsulated, and has a lot of holes somewhere for airflow, where does the manufacturer think the heat is going?
At least it will quiet down the system... right after it melts down.
Don't know about you, but our houses here are built from stone, concrete, or brick. So what cavity are you talking about?
This is plain and simple a fire hazard. Heat is being continually forced into a closed space (well it's usually closed in a home) with nowhere to go. So the drywall, plaster, wood or whatever the building is made of is kept as hot as possible. Imagine several of these into the same section of wall. Now imagine doing this with a clothes dryer instead. Clothes driers are required by fire codes to vent to the outside. There is a reason for this. I suspect the fire marshall of anyone's municipality might well have a citation waiting for this contraption!
your furnace would be much more efficient at making heat than your computer
Hmmm... Ever take a physics class? Did you learn about the law of conservation of energy, and did you ever notice where the "wasted" energy usually ends up going? That's right: heat! I'd bet you that a computer is extremely efficient at producing heat. There is probably some energy loss due to radiation of radio waves, etc., but somehow I don't think that would amount to more than 5% (or even 1%) of the total energy.
Furthermore, if the furnace operates on some sort of chemical fuel, it probably doesn't completely burn the chemical fuel, so lots of energy is escaping in the form of chemical potential energy that was not used to produce heat. In that case, since the computer is electric, it's quite possible that the furnace would be less efficient than the computer at producing heat!
On the other hand, the furnace might be better at distributing the heat to the places where it's needed. But even that's not hard for the computer to excel at if the computer is near where you're sitting, preferably near the floor or on the floor.
Houses there are c-c-c-cold! It's -25 degrees centigrade outside right now and I can wear a T-shirt and shorts inside. (Finland)
Just a side observation: I've noticed that most issues people have involving computer(s) and the local environment can be solved with products already on the market. The real issue is how much money they're willing to spend.
~A'Ëq'i4d)^'$ÊSÈòB
I work in a cybercafe as one of my jobs. The heating bill is nonexistant. Its a basement until for one, with over 30 computers (p4's) running geforce 2's and 3's... in fact, its the middle of a canadian winter right now, and we have the air conditioning on. Now, i have NO idea what the electricity bill runs - but its interesting to knoe that there is No money spent on heat.
The cool water in the toilet tank cools your CPU.
The toilet seat brews your coffee and warms your buns during your morning download.
Searching for prior art on this,
Conspir8or
"Alright, alright dear. But if you get that
central vacuum cleaner I showed you it's
only fair that I get a new computer."
At last... a use for the central vacuum system in the house! Even has pipes in the walls! Wonder if turning on the vacuum improves cooling or just keeps the computers clean?
Hey, I could buildthat out in my garage! Might as well try, just gonna get me some building material :)
QuietPC.com
These guys have a lot of stuff to make yr life quieter / cooler, including the old flower heatsink thingys.
The little radial socket-370 coolers are luvverly - have two in my dual PIII and never raises a sweat.
B.
Uhm, not to nitpick, but theobromide isn't added to chocolate, it is a natural component, caffeine on the other hand is sometimes added (and at other times mistaken for theobromide, as the two chemicals look very alike: http://www.mrkland.com/fun/xocoatl/caffeine.htm
-- To dream a dream is grand, but to live it is divine. -- Leto ][
Yeah, I do already own 2 UPS systems. One is a "personal" size unit on my workstation in my bedroom. There's also a large capacity unit (big marine battery inside) that my web/file server is attached to in the basement.
Upgrading the wiring in my home is obviously the proper solution - except it's also quite expensive. If I can keep my total current usage down to safe levels, I should be able to get by with what I've got - and save thousands on a new circuit breaker box, etc.
An electrical service upgrade may indeed be in my future - but I'd prefer to use less power to begin with, if it's at all possible. Fuse boxes never really were "safe" - and some insurance companies won't even write homeowner's policies on homes still using them. Nonetheless, I try to keep a close eye on things and occasionally check for problems like warm wires.
Hey guys I posted submitted this as a story because I thought the product worked well...but figured I'd share it here at least. Muffled Computing fan mufflers and foam kits really hooked me up. My computer runs as cool and fast as ever, but now at less than half the noise as before. Check them out at http://www.muffledcomputing.com
Real chocolate has theobromide. Many dogs are under 100 pounds. Even half a pound of baking chocolate might be lethal to an 80 pound dog.
:).
:(.
Typical candy-grade milk chocolate has a lot less chocolate in it (cheaper) so it is less likely to kill dogs. But it's still better not to feed dogs chocolate. Not sure if you can train them not to eat chocs - most dogs seem to be greedy gluts
As for salt, so far the health/med folks seem to think people in general take too much salt (the health/med folks have been wrong before, but they seem to have enough ammo for this).
Maybe sea salt could be better - because it has traces of other minerals as well. It could be that the dog has a mineral deficiency, but perhaps the dog's tastebuds only go salty=minerals - which worked well enough in the old days, but may not nowadays with processed foods. That said, hopefully they pick the right sea for your sea salt - you don't want concentrated pollution or heavy metals
Usually the mains supply voltage drops when the load goes up.
:).
Trouble is most decent UPSes will just maintain the output voltage and suck more supply current in order to produce the same output power.
Of course the UPS usually resorts to the battery after the main fuses blow
so it's good to smother your pc fan by forcing it's output into a dissipation area of:
3.5" x 14.5" x 91.5" (assuming 8ft celing with no firestops at 4ft)
why not just place a kitchen sponge and some duct tape on the back of the pc?
this just seems like an interesting idea that missed the r&d phase...
I figure the easter bunny is mainly milk chocolate so isn't as toxic.
:). You're probably doing something right :).
e mplate_ Process.cfm?specie=Dogs&story_no=257
Yah, I suppose could be like alcoholic beverages. A little bit can be good for health, but you can kill yourself if you OD
Though in most cases we are similar, there are exceptions. Some stuff we can tolerate but significantly more dangerous to popular pets:
Aspirin (salicylic acid): ok for dogs, toxic for cats.
Paracetamol (acetaminophen/panadol): toxic for cats
Fumes from nonstick pans: toxic to birds.
Interesting info:
http://www.petalia.com.au/Templates/StoryT
I see lots of dogs eating garbage/scraps and they sure don't look too bad. Maybe they're more experienced.
Oh yeah, my aunt used to feed her spaniel chocolate chip cookies (Amos). cookies = baking choc = should be more toxic.
And the dog lived quite long (>=14?), despite ingesting rat poison when very young (almost died, probably permanent damage to organs).
Then again, maybe the prime beef and steak cuts my aunt fed the dog helped (definitely a well treated pet too).
If just one piece of mail gets lost, well, they'll just think they forgot ...
to send it. But if *two* pieces of mail get lost, hell, they'll just think
the other guy hasn't gotten around to answering his mail. And if *fifty*
pieces of mail get lost, can you imagine it, if *fifty* pieces of mail get
lost, why they'll think someone *else* is broken! And if 1Gb of mail gets
lost, they'll just *know* that Arpa [ucbarpa.berkeley.edu] is down and
think it's a conspiracy to keep them from their God given right to receive
Net Mail
-- Casey Leedom
- this post brought to you by the Automated Last Post Generator...