Safe to vent AC directly into PC?

[Chrisroman]

I picked up one of these to vent into one of these

Plan is attach the cold air duct from the AC directly to an intake on the HafX, either side panel or bottom front intake.

I'm assuming that since this AC unit was designed to do exactly what I'm planning to do, that it should be safe, but I've been told that AC units can create condensation/moisture in a PC. I contacted the manufacturer, and they say the moisture is vented out the exhaust hose, not through the cold air duct.

But I'm curious if anyone has used one of these units in a server environment with the spot cooling feature? Any issues with moisture/condensation?

 

[EQWoody]

besides the fact that it's major overkill, you should be okay.

 

[Robertmarcus]

what exactly do you plan on cooling?

 

[JayJapanB]

Is that thing noisy?

 

[longblock454]

I cool a 900 square foot addition with a 9k btu air conditioner!

Note that most AC only has about 15 degree drop across the evaporator, granted this is measured with plumbing losses of a normal house.

 

[WorldExclusive]

For that price, a good watercooled loop would have done the job internally.

 

[Skripka]

Depending on what the dewpoint and humidity is, I'd still be concerned about dew forming internally.

 

[JayJapanB]

For that price, a good watercooled loop would have done the job internally.

... I was thinking of mentioning that though I was afraid of ruining the fun.

Though +1 ^^^

 

[Krenum]

I would be concerned about condensation....

 

[DraginDime]

I don't know about directing the air conditioner directly into the case. I would suggest just to put it blowing air on the outside of the case. The haf-x has enough fans to pull in plenty of air from the outside. If it has a cold breeze hitting it, that fans will pull the cold air in. Then I wouldn't be too concerned with condensation.

 

[Richneerd]

Condensation forming and then having it drip on the electrical components is a no no.



I tried it, fried my mobo, psu, and cpu.

My GPU lived though .

Gooduck!

 

[MrWrong]

Kinda seems like overkill to me.

 

[Chrisroman]

what exactly do you plan on cooling?

My system in sig, and adding two more 7970's.

Is that thing noisy?

12,000 BTU unit is so oversized for the space I'm using it in, that the condenser doesn't run much, usually all I hear is the fan blowing cold air. but when the condenser kicks on it's about as loud as a refrigerator.

I cool a 900 square foot addition with a 9k btu air conditioner!

Note that most AC only has about 15 degree drop across the evaporator, granted this is measured with plumbing losses of a normal house.

Exactly. This is why I like the single hose portable units. We've been having triple digit days here in California, and my home AC struggles to maintain 80-85 deg (My office will be around 90+). But in the room where I have the portable AC, it is using the conditioned air to cool rather than the hot outside air, so that room can get down to a chilly 60 deg even with an outside temp of 115, a nice 55 deg difference.

For that price, a good watercooled loop would have done the job internally.

Very true, but then the heat just gets dumped into the room. With the AC solution, the entire room stays cool, including the computer and I don't have to mess with maintaining a water loop.

Depending on what the dewpoint and humidity is, I'd still be concerned about dew forming internally.

I was worried about this too. Turns out, where I am in California the Dew point is <49 deg with relative humidity of 30%. But the AC acts as a dehumidifier, so the Dew point is likely even lower that.

I don't know about directing the air conditioner directly into the case. I would suggest just to put it blowing air on the outside of the case. The haf-x has enough fans to pull in plenty of air from the outside. If it has a cold breeze hitting it, that fans will pull the cold air in. Then I wouldn't be too concerned with condensation.

True, but with three 7970's on air, I'm wondering if that's good enough. having the cold air duct feed directly to the case, I know for certain would adequately cool it.

I talked to an HVAC guy and he said the only way I would get condensation is if the computer was super cold in a hot room. Sort of like a glass of ice water on a hot day. If the surrounding air temp, around the cold computer, is hot, then there will be condensation.

This scenario is unlikely to happen with a 12,000 BTU unit in a 120 sq ft office. It's going to cool the entire room no matter what. Unless I created a sealed system, I can't imagine how there would ever be enough of a temp difference between the computer and room air temp to create condensation.

Kinda seems like overkill to me.

My office is upstairs, on the West facing side of the house. It was already the warmest room in the house, add all the equipment to that and I'm always 10-15 degrees warmer than any other room. So I needed to cool the room any way. With this setup I can air cool a tri-fire setup and control temps in the room at the same time.

 

[Chrisroman]

UPDATE

Results of AC vented directly to computer with single 7970. Promising results. Issue is controlling temp when system not under load... really would need to move temp gauge into case to control properly.