Question Is PC Air conditioning a thing?

[ch33r]

And I mean... Without mods? Is there any air conditioning units that are designed to be mounted into a PC to give off really good cooling? Does such a thing exist?

 

[Gam3r01]

No, nothing like that is on the market.
Sure custom extreme solutions exist (called sub-ambient cooling) but they are bulky, ineffective, and can cause issues with condensation.

 

[rubix_1011]

Correct, not that I have seen. Most are some sort of phase change cooling that are meant to directly cool the CPU, but nothing that chills the ambient air to then be used by the PC...that's what your house A/C unit is for.

 

[USAFRet]

Also, you have to be careful of falling to the trap of thinking "Cooler is better".

Unless your actual temps under load are north of 80-85C, "cooler" does not gain any performance. The CPU is designed to give full performance at that level.
Getting that number down to some magical 65, or 55, or 40C...gains you nothing except temporary bragging rights.

 

[Karadjgne]

Yes, there is, sort of, but it's extremely specialized.

Not exactly something you just buy at any store and add on to existing equipment, although I suppose you could go the DIY route if you got the cooling apparatus without the case.

 

[Math Geek]

never had a problem keeping mine cool on a simple air system

 

[DreadPirateRogers]

never had a problem keeping mine cool on a simple air system

Wow that's rad. Is this a positive pressure build? What RPM do you have it set to at idle vs max loads? Were the performance gains worth the effort of this custom build vs an AIO cooler?.. ah nevermind I could never afford something like this even if I had the technical knowledge😔 props though mate.

 

[hotaru.hino]

You could always get a small or portable AC unit and jury-rig a ducting system so the cold air is fed into the PC. Though the problem is that if you fire it up, you need to be sure that no condensation builds up on the components before powering on the PC.

But as people said, unless you're hitting a thermal limit, there's no performance benefit.

 

[rubix_1011]

You could always get a small or portable AC unit and jury-rig a ducting system so the cold air is fed into the PC. Though the problem is that if you fire it up, you need to be sure that no condensation builds up on the components before powering on the PC.

But as people said, unless you're hitting a thermal limit, there's no performance benefit.

The ducting of A/C air into a case wouldn't likely get anywhere near cold enough for condensation to occur, but at the same time, isn't likely going to net you the long-term cold you'd hope. Air conditioning units are intended to cycle on and off and constant operation can cause ice buildup on the evaporator coils.

Sure, ducting in cold air is great for short term benchmarking, but isn't going to be a 24/7 solution. Plus, depending on model of A/C, you're looking at another $100-$500 depending on what you end up purchasing...that money could easily be better spent on a better cooling solution overall, or better/more powerful hardware.

I used an A/C unit to submerge into an insulated cooler full of glycol to use for my beer fermenting setup. There are 2 temp probes - 1 which runs into the beer inside a sanitized stainless dip tube (in the rubber stopper with the airlock bubbler) as well as another in the coolant tank of the Igloo cooler. When the beer reaches a specific temp (defined by the ale or lager fermentation profile I want) the circulation pump switches on and pumps cold coolant through the copper cooling jacket on the fermenter.

When the coolant temp reaches a certain temperature, the A/C unit kicks on until the coolant temp drops back to the temp I want.

If you replace the beer fermenter with a watercooling loop, you get chilled water cooling.