Question Directing PC exhaust to my room window ?

[K77X]

Hello,

My PC heats up my room quite often during the summers and hot seasons. I'd like to do a setup where all the exhaust gets ported to outside my window.

I have moved my PC near a window (about 10" from it) and was thinking of connecting a vent to the back of the exhaust 120mm fan, then connecting it to an AC window kit.
My questions are:

1. Does my one 120mm fan (Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM) blow enough air out to vent all the heat from my PC?
2. My case (NZXT H6 Flow) has a mesh backside. Do I need to cover that up so all the air will be vented through the fans or is it not a big deal?
3. What should I use to connect the air blowing out of the 360mm AIO fans to the exhaust?

 

[Lutfij]

IMHO, I think that's pointless. So long as you're running air-conditioning in your abode or the room where you're running your PC, you're fine as is.

If you're adamant at doing what that user has done, then you should have the PC in it's own isolated system whereby all heat produced by the innards of your case are ducted away from the PC and essentially the room. As it stands(using the linked user's work as an example), some of the heat is exhausted into the room and isn't truly being fed out into the window courtesy of the venting on the rear of the case being as is.

Just curious, have you tried undervolting your CPU and GPU?

 

[K77X]

I actually don't have air-conditioning in my room so it does get quite warm after 4+ hours of heavy use, which is why I'm looking into it in the first place.

I think it would be a fun project to think about, but yes I agree that for it to be fully efficient I would need to cover/reroute all the airflow into a tube and out the window.

I have not tried undervolting my CPU/GPU. If anything most of the heat in the system comes from my GPU's so would undervolting help with heat management? I'm currently running my new 9070XT on stock settings so no OC or anything. It also has a dual bios mode where the quiet option stops the fans from spinning at <50C so would enabling that help with heat?

 

[Misgar]

My PC heats up my room quite often during the summers and hot seasons.

I suffer the same problem on hot summer days, so I don't often run video transcodes which dump 400W of heat (7950X / RTX4070) into the room. I don't know anyone with AC in their homes where I live. It's something you find in some shops and offices. A few rich people might have AC in their luxury mansions.

My case (NZXT H6 Flow) has a mesh backside.

Not ideal, especially if you have an AIO radiator at the top of the case and all 3 fans are blowing air out of the case into the room. You'd need a fully enclosed case with solid side panles where the fan exhausts are covered by ducts, including the PSU fan.

I have several cases without mesh panels which might work in the way you're considering, but I'd need two or three ducts. It's quite common to see hot air clothes dryers with flexible hoses dangling out of peoples' windows.

One (not very practical answer) might be to place the computer in another room and extend long cables to the monitor/keyboard/mouse. Or you could get a less powerful computer, or stop using it on hot days/nights. This assumes AC is not an option.

 

[COLGeek]

Many years ago, I recall some efforts to use ducting to more effectively cool hot spots on PCs. This same sort of thing could be applied as suggested above.

You would need to design an enclosure that would still allow intake of cool air and then a means to direct hot air elsewhere (like out a window). Not something that will be small and unobtrusive, particularly when the design would need to account for all the cables attached to a typical PC.

As @Lutfij suggested, not really worth the effort for a typical home user.

 

[Lutfij]

I actually don't have air-conditioning in my room so it does get quite warm after 4+ hours of heavy use, which is why I'm looking into it in the first place.

I think it would be a fun project to think about, but yes I agree that for it to be fully efficient I would need to cover/reroute all the airflow into a tube and out the window.

I have not tried undervolting my CPU/GPU. If anything most of the heat in the system comes from my GPU's so would undervolting help with heat management? I'm currently running my new 9070XT on stock settings so no OC or anything. It also has a dual bios mode where the quiet option stops the fans from spinning at <50C so would enabling that help with heat?

I'm an architect actually, have practiced for a while and, to me, the simplest solution is getting an airconditioning unit, which is actually economical in the long run(with all resources considered). You don't need to adapt the DIY ducting if and when you choose to change platforms or cases. With aircondtioning, your room is the sealed system, with the heat evacuated from the room into the outdoors. Either that or you introduce cross ventilation in your abode, so the heat is evacuated but you might not be in your comfort zone(a term used to refer the optimal temperature/humidity/environment for an individual) to be habitating in as you're inferring to your ambient outdoor temps being high during summer, with macroclimates/water bodies/trees being sparse to mitigate the heat soak in your abode.

Might I ask why you're working with more than one GPU? If one is the RX 9070 XT, what is(are) the other GPU(s)? If it's in your sig space, please include that in your thread's body or a followup post as sig space specs can and will change. When that happens this thread will be rendered moot to the end user in the same boat as you are.

Pertaining to your undervolting question, yes it does help bring some temps down as you're pumping less voltage through the components.

 

[Gururu]

Yeah the CPU cooler fans kind of make it a challenge since they are probably dumping most of the heat up top. For the mesh on the back you could simply put some aluminum foil tape over it, but its the heat up top I would be most concerned with.

 

[COLGeek]

1. Does my one 120mm fan (Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM) blow enough air out to vent all the heat from my PC?
2. My case (NZXT H6 Flow) has a mesh backside. Do I need to cover that up so all the air will be vented through the fans or is it not a big deal?
3. What should I use to connect the air blowing out of the 360mm AIO fans to the exhaust?

To address these specific questions.

1. The fan is sufficient (along with the AIO fans in the top of the case) to remove hot air from the case. They are not sufficient to move that hot air any appreciable distance away from the case and out a window via some ducting solution. You would need something to supplement that airflow (additional exhaust fan).

2. This could improve airflow, minimally, to the exhaust fans, but does nothing to reduce heat generated by the system overall.

3. You could fabricate a shroud to collect and redirect hot air elsewhere, but see the other discussions in the thread.