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.

Comments

Desperate for silent machines

[mccalli]

I rate ambient noise as being important to me when buying a machine, and I usually pay extra for after-market fans to keep the noise down.

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

That's not gonna work.

[PhantomHarlock]

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

Re:That's not gonna work.

[Grishnakh]

What we really need is a total ventilation system for the computer, in which both the intake and exhaust vents are connected to the outside or inside by ducts with motorized doors, and controlled by a microcontroller with inside and outside temperature sensors. When the temperature is cold outside, the system draws air into the computer from outside, and exhausts it into the house; allowing the computer to stay very cold but also help heat the house. In the summer it reverses, drawing cooler air-conditioned air from inside the house, and exhausting the hot air outside.

The case needs to be redesigned a little though, so that air intake and exhaust are both on the back; a hose attached to the front of the case would look pretty ugly.

Re:My apartment

[shepd]

>What are you running there to generate that much of an electric bill?

He probably lives in the US. I got flamed last time for discussing the old "is it cheaper to leave the lights on?" idea because it was so hard to believe that I only pay $0.0275 US / kwh... IIRC, a "normal" computer only costs about $2.50 USD per month to run in Canada.

Re:So...

[tomhudson]

You can buy a dryer exhaust kit and vent your box to the outside world, for less. And the dryer exhaust kit comes with a little flapper valve that will keep the cold air from coming in when the box is down, and also keep the birds out, etc.

Or you can open a window :-)

Re:What about appliances and rack-mount?

[jhoffoss]

These are generally designed for closets, enclosures etc. anyway though. And all our racks at my employer are in our server room which has it's own [very large] air conditioning unit. (At least large for 5 racks and 2 SANs.) So the sound from the fan in our Cisco switches are negligable.

as a home owner...

[bmajik]

this is woefully unimpressive, and uninspired.

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. ...if i ever find a fridge and hook this up, i'll be sure to post pictures :)

Re:Slashdot: Hidden Advertising for Nerds

[tit4tat]

Actually, I think it's even worse than you (Greedo) suspect. Elance appears to be a site where "freelancers" bid to provide services in response to project posts (i.e., reverse bidding). I think your google sleuthing uncovered that the anonymous poster won the bid for this "Web Template & Graphic design" project from Computer Exhaust Systems. I wonder if submitting this Slashdot story was part of the deal and, if so, whether they got a success fee when it actually got posted!

Re:the tradeoff

[BrianH]

One of these days I'll borrow someones digital camera and throw up a website, but for now a description will have to do you:

For the fans, I picked up a pair of Panaflo 120MM Ultra Quiets (PanaFlo L1A P/N:FBA12G12L1A). These are great fans for a low noise setup because they move a LOT of air with practically zero noise. I mounted these inside the front of my case (below the fdd) by cutting two large holes in the cases sheetmetal (many cases already have one fan mount here). Next, I picked up a 3*3 sheet of very thin sheet metal from a local HVAC supply store, and sat down with a pencil and paper to design the CPU vent. Basically, I designed a four sided, open-ended metal box that passed from the front of my case to the back. At the front, it's mounted to the fan and is the same width as the fan (this allows it to mount to the fan boltholes, and prevents air leakage. From there it tapered down to the width of my CPU heatsink at the CPU mount, and continued on to the back of the case at that width (picture an odd looking square funnel in your mind, with a few kinks to get everything to line up). Once I had my sketch, I glued it onto the metal, cut the sheet in the appropriate places, and bent it to create the finished box (take your time and do this right, sheetmetal is unforgiving if you bend it wrong, and it can be VERY sharp). I then cut a square hole midway down the vent for my CPU heat sink, and closed the seam with a few sheetmetal screws. This basically gives me a square tube running from the front of my case and out the back. The fan pushes cool air into the front, and because the heatsink sticks into the vent and the air is forced through it, the hot air passes out the back. The system works very well, and my CPU temps (P4 1.6@2333Mhz), never crack 55C under full load.

Here's THE most imporant step to the project: After test-fitting the duct, I picked up a can of rubberized tool dip-insulator (PlastiDip) from the local hardware store (dayglow yellow). Mechanics and electricians buy this stuff to dip their metal handled tools in in order to protect against electrical shock or heat transfer, but I used it to keep the metal duct from shorting anything, and to provide a little extra sound dampening (keeps the vent sides from vibrating with the airflow). I'd suggest buying enough to dip the whole thing, but if you're short on cash you can just pour it over the outside (I've heard that there are spray-can versions, but I couldn't find them). After it has hardened, take a brush to the inside and make sure your seams and any protruding edges are also coated to smooth out any spots that might impede airflow (and generate noisy vibrations.)

The second fan sits in a much simpler five sided sheetmetal box. This box just has vent flaps cut into it that direct the air to specific parts of the case. For spots further away from the fan, small tubes were fabricated from the sheet metal and pop-riveted on above the vents in order to "aim" the air at a specific spot. This targeted cooling means that the overall case temperature is a little higher, but that the items I'm really worried about (RAM, video chipset, mobo chipset) get all the air they need. After the fabrication was done and the second box was tested, it was treated to the same dip-insulation as the first vent.

Couple this with an Enermax Whisper power supply, and you've got a silent computer that runs pretty cool. The whole project, BTW, it took me about a week to finish, and about $50 worth of materials. If you don't have sheet metal shears and a smooth faced hammer (for folding the metal) it might cost you a little more.

Re:My apartment

[evilviper]

Welcome to California... The power went out twice last night alone, and that's while I'm paying $150 in electric bills (for two people).

I'm on a mad dash to crop the power-usage in my home, and the first casualty was my Athlon desktop and 19" CRT, in favor of a notebook.

Next, I'm thinking of replacing my lights with candles, and putting the frame of my TV around my window. I'll just tell everyone it's permanently tuned to the "Bird Watching" channel.