PC Case Cooled by Window AC Unit

[darbie]

So I've seen people cool their PC's with mineral-oil, water-chilled CPU coolers, and put their PC's in fridges.

How come I have yet to see anyone build an air-tight(ish) PC case cooled with a window AC unit?

A 1500W PC system should produce about 5,000 BTU of heat, which can be accommodated by a $150 window AC which can run continuously without trouble (assuming you don't mind the enormous heat generation or power bill .

https://www.amazon.com/Frigidaire-F...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=JN3CTT79E0ZKYFBRPSR4

You are dehumidifying the air at the same time, so you shouldn't (maybe?) have any condensation issues.

You should be able to build a relatively air tight PC case with MDF and some hand tools to house the whole thing
https://diyperks.com/product/custom_pc_case_kit/

For $200 and a bit of time, you could do this!

Please do it for me. My wife won't let me. I wanna see pictures.

 

[AnalogOzerik]

So I've seen people cool their PC's with mineral-oil, water-chilled CPU coolers, and put their PC's in fridges.

How come I have yet to see anyone build an air-tight(ish) PC case cooled with a window AC unit?

A 1500W PC system should produce about 5,000 BTU of heat, which can be accommodated by a $150 window AC which can run continuously without trouble (assuming you don't mind the enormous heat generation or power bill .

https://www.amazon.com/Frigidaire-F...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=JN3CTT79E0ZKYFBRPSR4

You are dehumidifying the air at the same time, so you shouldn't (maybe?) have any condensation issues.

You should be able to build a relatively air tight PC case with MDF and some hand tools to house the whole thing
https://diyperks.com/product/custom_pc_case_kit/

For $200 and a bit of time, you could do this!

Please do it for me. My wife won't let me. I wanna see pictures.

Heh, I think you nailed it with the "enormous heat generation or power bill" thing. Plus the noise. Evaporative cooling is a thing, and a window units are LOTS more powerful than your typical PC solution so...

 

[magda]

Or you can get a phase change cooler, if you can find one, like the Vapochill

 

[matt167]

Jayz2cents did it kind of And it worked. But no its not practical and somewhat ridiculous

 

[pendragon1]

yup jayz did it already. works fine but as said, kinda impractical.
i used to suck winter air through a long dryer duct and that worked good. 12' was enough that i never had condensation issue.

 

[thecold]

If I was your wife I'd let you do it. At a certain point you'll likely go crazy from the noise and heat and then kick it out the window. At which that point, she can bring it up in friend meetings.

 

[VanGoghComplex]

Nobody's ever done it because it doesn't make sense, basically. The heat would quickly saturate the room, and your setup would lose efficiency. You'd have to deal with the condensate on the back side of the unit, it would be unbearably loud, it would draw more power than the computer it was cooling, etc etc...

The only way I can see it being even semi-practical is if you installed the unit in a window so the heat is outside, and then duct the cool air into your chassis or build the chassis into the inside part of the unit. Even then you've done a lot more work than would be required for a much less finicky custom loop.

 

[darbie]

Or you can get a phase change cooler, if you can find one, like the Vapochill

View attachment 144250

Vapochill causes condensate on the motherboard. The only way to do this (in my opinion) is to get a cooler with at least 3x the capacity of the Vapochill and cool the whole case - that way, the condensate is kept away from the electronics

Thanks for sharing the Jayz2Cents - that is somewhat what I am envisioning if the AC cool air went into and was trapped inside of a case with the electronics.

 

[Dayaks]

They have industrial units for control cabinets that are designed to evaporate any condensate into the air on the hot side. $$$$ though.

I’d do a chilled water loop with the PC in a sealed chamber and desicant before the air conditioner... just doesn’t gain you that much anymore, unforunately.