Taking advantage of a case's air intake

[Leon.]

In my free time, I like to create the simplest of things made for a specific task, even if I'm never going to use it. Though, being able to use it would be nice too.

Anyway, inside of my computer, I have two fans that influence airflow significantly within my computer. On the lower front side, there is an opening that allows cool air to move in, which later gets blown out the back end. I was thinking, what if cooler air than what room temperature is was flowing through there (anywhere from 40-50 degrees Fahrenheit)?

I thought up a quick way to take advantage of simple ice cubes to allow cooler air to move in the air intake. When ice begins to thaw, it gives off a steamy looking gas off of it that's pretty cold when you feel it (obviously water vapor). I was thinking I could let it go into the air intake, but I remembered - Water vapor = can condense = water in PC = . Therefore, I can put the ice cubes in a container and seal it over with clear plastic wrap. How would this work? As the gas rises up to the plastic, conduction causes the cool air to make the plastic cooler, which in turn continues to make the air rise through when it is cooled above. The water used can then be recycled!

Obviously, the convection and conduction going on is going to make the cold and warm molecules permeate, making the area less cooler than I had intended. So this is going to be a problem. And cool air sinks below warm air - but let's not forget, the density change between cool air going into warm air will eventually reverse.

Give me your ideas and thoughts. Would this work in the first place?

[DellStorm]

Hi MetalLuigiX,

Great Post & Topic!

The answer to your question is yes, but the ice part needs to be altered!

Great Fan placement, i would not change anything with it at all.

The idea of you melting ice ( i presume putting it in the freezer and then drinking it during the day that way it would stay fresh right? ) sounds a very good idea, however if you were to keep doing this for a great many weeks, you would get water particles forming on the hottest components which when cooled (when you turn the computer off) creates what is called LIMESCALE! Fancy having that in your system for a bit of cooler air, Not Really!

So! What can we change? Well how about you change your ICE!. Yes you heard correctly.

There is another product out there which is called DRY ICE (google or youtube) which is a waterless ice? Strange but true. Basically in hot countries dry ice is used in order to cool systems when they REALLY Need it.

I have no idea on where you get it from or how you make it, BUT this is the way you can get you system cool! Did you know because its dry you can literally slap your motherboard with with it!

Whilst we are on the subject, for those interested, have a look at the idea of oil cooling. Very Very clever stuff! They take what is a fish tank (albeit a very small one) pour a special kind of oil into it, then their computer components, remove the fans and hey presto, you have a system that NEVER gets hotter than the room temperature. Over-clockers field day!

But the down side is that once you oil your system, its like that for life! still though what an amazing idea!

Good Luck with Your dry ice! and i hope to hear what you decided!

Happy Gaming!

Regards,

DellStorm

[Todor]

because its dry you can literally slap your motherboard with with it!

Whilst we are on the subject, for those interested, have a look at the idea of oil cooling. Very Very clever stuff! They take what is a fish tank (albeit a very small one) pour a special kind of oil into it, then their computer components, remove the fans and hey presto, you have a system that NEVER gets hotter than the room temperature. Over-clockers field day!

But the down side is that once you oil your system, its like that for life! still though what an amazing idea!

Good Luck with Your dry ice! and i hope to hear what you decided!

Happy Gaming!

Regards,

DellStorm

   As you guys and ladies have probably learned by now I am probably one of the most critical people on earth. And not just of products I do not own or I can not afford but with all of them . If I find a hole I will pick it, pull it and heave on it until it opens into a wound and then for good measure throw in some salt and vinegar. Basically what I am trying to say is I am an Ahole.
   Well the first bit, that you can put DICE on a mobo, that's complete bollocks. Also it's not a very good idea, at all, to introduce cold air to warm components as it forms condensation anyway. It doesn't matter what you do, unless you go watercooled it's pointless. On the other hand even water cooling can suffer from the liquid being too cold. What could improve your temps more is replacing the TIM on your CPU and GPU heatsink, but doing it properly. If you don't it's going to screw them up even more. Don't like your temps? Check out THE BEST Air cooler out there - The Noctua NH-D14. It may be expensive and the fans' colours aren't everybody's cup of tea but it's magnificent. Forget those all-in-one water cooling kits.. they're bollocks, a pointless waste of money. They're more expensive and are much much worse than say a 30$ air cooler, and I'll tell you why. Fancy a long gaming session? Well it won't happen. You switch your PC on after installing, for arguments sake, a Corsair H70. You get to the desktop and you see amazing idles of around 30 degrees.. you think to yourself - "WOW! This thing actually works!" Then you settle in for the gaming but you don't keep track of your temps. You're playing a heavy game, say Crysis. After about an hour the water in the H70 is so warm that it doesn't really matter how fast it's flowing - you're done for, the teeny-tiny radiator can't cool it. BAM! Your first BSOD. You restart the computer, download CoreTemp and see that you're idling at 60 degrees and you go "You taking the piss?". 
   Onto oil cooling - it's mineral oil you should use. Problem with that is that it eats away at plastic at a rate of a hundredth of a mm per day or so. This may not sound like much, but it is very dangerous. Also you have to change the oil as, over time, it starts to conduct due to impurities which could spell disaster with a capital D.
   Best idea, by far, is investing into some proper water cooling OR a good air cooler (Noctua!).

[Bilbo]

Ice = Frozen Water
Blowing in air colder than water's freezing temperature = Very high chance of producing moisture
Moisture + Electronics = Not ideal.

[Todor]

You could, however, put a PVC pipe around your air cooler and whack any holes around the socket full of silicone. The pipe goes through the entire case, I don't know if you can imagine it, but I can't draw for shit so I won't even try. This is probably the only way to do something similar.

[Leon.]

Ice = Frozen Water
Blowing in air colder than water's freezing temperature = Very high chance of producing moisture
Moisture + Electronics = Not ideal.

Note that the conduction from the water vapor as it comes in direct contact with the plastic wrap will cause some cool air to permeate throughout (turning warmer), hence turning it to liquid water. The liquid water cannot go through the plastic wrap; the temperature can. The water will simply stay on there for some time, hopefully long enough to cool the air above it slightly (note the , and then eventually drip down when enough drops accumulate right back into the container the ice is in. When the ice cubes are submerged a lot (if any ice cube left...), I can simply refreeze the *@!$*!) and reuse!

Anyway, I am legally unable to get a hold of dry ice in my state (American). The nearest store I can buy it from is in walking distance; a few miles. However, I am too young to get it, as the minimum age requirement to buy dry ice is 21.

What I'm doing here is taking advantage of the air temperature around turning the ice into water vapor directly (think about the frost around your wine glass), which would touch the plastic on top, as it will rise over. In turn, the cool temperature would transmit through the plastic via conduction, which would also result in convection starting. The air is slightly warmer, and there's not much of anything to be condensed, so that risk is immediately eliminated.

[Todor]

What you don't seem to understand is that this would still cause condensation just because the temperature difference between your heatsink and the ice is 60 degrees or over.

[Sisko]

Buy a canister of Nitro,

Cheers
Sisko

[Biggo2]

omg noooo!!1112

hot air + cold air = tornaddooooo u crazy or smthn???

Buy a canister of Nitro,

Cheers
Sisko

OMG Stop post hunt is not nice leve posts alone what they do 2 u stop huntin them???!!!

[Bilbo]

Or even better, hydrogen - in liquid form.