Question cooling

scottmsr62

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I am planning a new build using the Thermaltake w200 case. I will be using liquid cooling and wondering if I should cool the exhaust. My thinking is I don't want the warm arm circulating back into the case
 

scottmsr62

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Maybe I wasn't clear. I have radiators to cool intake air. The air in the case is hot air and needs to be pulled out of the case. The law of thermodynamics states warm moves to cold. By way of applying this idea if the exhaust had a radiator to cool the air being pulled out of the case the air would move better. Also that air leaving the case would be somewhat cooler. Air which eventually circulate back towards the case
 
What do you plan on installing in that case that needs exceptional cooling?

In time, all of the heat generated by the pc will exit the case and enter the room.
Without ventilation, the room will heat up, reducing the effectiveness of whatever radiators you have in place.
 

Rathnhake

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Jan 8, 2020
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Maybe I wasn't clear. I have radiators to cool intake air. The air in the case is hot air and needs to be pulled out of the case. The law of thermodynamics states warm moves to cold. By way of applying this idea if the exhaust had a radiator to cool the air being pulled out of the case the air would move better. Also that air leaving the case would be somewhat cooler. Air which eventually circulate back towards the case
On that note, cold air from any cold room will be leaving the room close to the floor. So by dispatching the air in an upwards-back direction, you will indeed be helping out a lot, as a matter of fact, the exhaust of air is a must since the air inside the case will typically get hot when under load. So yes, you need to exhaust the hot air from the top and back (if possible).
 

scottmsr62

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What do you plan on installing in that case that needs exceptional cooling?

In time, all of the heat generated by the pc will exit the case and enter the room.
Without ventilation, the room will heat up, reducing the effectiveness of whatever radiators you have in place.
I am not sure if I understand the logic you present. All the air leaving the case is hot and that will eventually cause the room temp to rise. This will reduce the effectiveness of whatever radiators that are in place. Are you saying that liquid cooling is not effective, not worth the added expense.
 

Paperdoc

Polypheme
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All the common "rules" of what hot air does, etc. do NOT apply when you use FANS to force that air to flow somewhere. Sure, wherever it goes it carries the heat with it.

Inside a computer case the flow of AIR is how heat is moved away from hot components and ultimately out of the case into the room. Since the room air is what is brought into the case for this, heating of that air is a small factor. The impact on room air temperature is not huge, however. Consider that a heavily-used computer may consume 600 W power, so that's like having a 600 W electric room heater operating. If that were to warm the room so much you find it uncomfortable, you'd find a way to cool the room. BUT YOU would be "uncomfortable" at a much lower temperature than what might reduce computer innards cooling significantly.

It would be rare that the room air temperature is so high that you might want to cool it BEFORE it enters the computer case. For purposes of removing the heated air from inside the case to the outside by fans, there is absolutely NO need to cool it first!

A liquid cooling system (typically used for the hottest component, the CPU) is a means of removing heat from the CPU and getting it out of the case. Good ones ARE better at this job than the best simpler systems of a fan cooling a static heatsink mounted on the CPU, so for very high performance systems they are a good choice. Many systems of lower performance do not need them but may benefit. They operate by mounting a heat transfer chamber on the CPU chip and circulating a liquid (using a pump) through that chamber to absorb heat, out to a radiator mounted on an exterior opening, and returning it to the chamber. At the rad there are FANS that blow air to cool the liquid passing through. The most common arrangement is to mount the rad and and fans at a front intake opening with the fans sucking outside room air though the rad fins and into the case. Then there are more fans mounted elsewhere (top and back) to blow warn air outside. In the meantime the incoming air that has been slightly heated at the rad is also used to pick up heat from everything else inside the case (just by blowing around them) before it is exhausted by the fans. It is important to note that the heating at the RAD is typically a very few degrees, so that the impact on the air's ability to absorb and remove heat from all the other internal component is affected only to a VERY small extent, and is managed effectively merely by allowing the exhaust fans to alter their speeds. The speed of the INTAKE fans on the front-mounted rad is controlled entirely by a measured temperature inside the CPU chip so that the CPU's cooling requirement is "in charge of" the rad fans.
 
I am not sure if I understand the logic you present. All the air leaving the case is hot and that will eventually cause the room temp to rise. This will reduce the effectiveness of whatever radiators that are in place. Are you saying that liquid cooling is not effective, not worth the added expense.
Liquid cooling is really air cooling.
The difference is where the heat exchange takes place.

Th e cooling capability of an aio or air cooler is closely tied to the radiator each employs.
Size and design matters. A 280 sized aio is comparable in cooling capability to twin tower top end air coolers.
Past that, it takes a 360 or 480 sized coolers to do much better.

I think if an air cooler can do the job, that is what I would prefer.
Some like aio coolers for the aesthetics. I can't argue about that.
Aio coolers do not last forever. Think 5 years.
In time air will intrude through the tubes or the mechanical pump will fail or get clogged.
One good use for an aio is where there is limited room available for a tower type cooler.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
I am not sure if I understand the logic you present. All the air leaving the case is hot and that will eventually cause the room temp to rise. This will reduce the effectiveness of whatever radiators that are in place. Are you saying that liquid cooling is not effective, not worth the added expense.
You're expelling a tiny bit of slightly warm air, into a HUGE volume of air....the whole room.