16

I've got a little room in which I use my Gaming-PC. In Summer, i've got a little temperature issue. Not seldom, temperature of the room goes to 45°C (<30°C outside).

This is my little hot gaming room. There are no windows. enter image description here

How could I handle this issue?

My Ideas so far: Hardware with lower TDP(equivalent power), Watercooling (Radiators in next room (25m²)) but these are both expensive.

A simple fan does not help very well and is annoying.

Improve this question
8
  • 1
    Excise some part of wall to get a window!
    – nicael
    Commented May 12, 2015 at 21:00
  • Is that a picture of Taylor Swift? And if so, is that because of Infosec Taylor Swift?
    – Nzall
    Commented May 12, 2015 at 22:24
  • More fans will indeed help, but make sure you position them well. A fan blowing into the computer needs to be on the floor in front of the computer's intake fans. Then, if possible another fan pulling the air out of the top should blow into another fan above the computer that helps expel air to the top of the room. Really the best bet is to move your computer, though.
    – TylerH
    Commented May 12, 2015 at 23:39
  • Better casecooling would not help. It would move the heat faster off the computer, but the energie produced by the components, and thus released into the room, stays the same, even if the components keep cooler.
    – jawo
    Commented May 13, 2015 at 7:09
  • @TylerH lol I thought about fans going there to help him.
    – o0'.
    Commented May 13, 2015 at 10:18

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
17

IDEA #3: You can also try making a cheap 5-gallon bucket Air conditioner. Check out this video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxSLbpAwibg *Someone commented on why this would not be good.

IDEA #2: Now that you added the fact there's no window in the room I have another idea. How about you move the computer outside of the room and just run a longer cable under the door to connect your monitor. That way, the computer won't make the room hotter. You can also use wireless keyboard/mouse or get cheap USB extension cables. All the cables you would need can be purchased for cheap online.

OLD IDEA #1: You can do something like this image below. Basically, you get some ducting from a hardware store (shouldn't cost too much) and then re-route your computer's exhaust fan to go straight out the window instead of blowing the hot air into the small room.

Ducting to blow computer's hot air straight out the window

Improve this answer
5
  • Addet a picture. Sadly no window available, but nice idea.
    – jawo
    Commented May 12, 2015 at 18:14
  • 3
    Regarding idea #2, I wouldn't recommend using wireless devices for longer than 10ft if it goes through anything but drywall. Any sort of interference will cause poor performance, the same kind of performance issues that currently plague me for trying that very thing. Get yourself a powered USB hub and a USB extension cable (25ft would be good), and that will be significantly better.
    – BlueBuddy
    Commented May 12, 2015 at 21:15
  • 1
    Idea #3 is worst thing ever. #1 and #2 are solid though. Window isn't a must, merely routing air to the hallway will work.
    – Agent_L
    Commented May 13, 2015 at 14:24
  • 1
    #3 is going to end in tears. Even though most of the computer will be too warm for condensation, running very humid cold air through it is a Bad Idea(TM). You will get corrosion even without visible condensation, and chances are good that at times you will get condensation.
    – Adam Davis
    Commented Mar 10, 2016 at 10:52
  • Good point @AdamDavis I crossed #3 out.
    – jimmyplaysdrums
    Commented Apr 21, 2016 at 22:44
8

If you can modify the door, add large vents on the top and bottom. This should completely resolve the issue with normal convection currents, but could be improved with a few low speed low noise fans on the vents, bottom blowing in, top blowing out.

If you can't modify the door, take it off the hinges and put a cheap door in its place you can modify, or replace it with a louvered door:

enter image description here

Then when you move, or for inspections if necessary, put the old one back in place.

Improve this answer
6

If you play your games on Steam you could use their in home-streaming service Steam Link for ~50$, put your computer in another room and stream to your monitor in your box room.

Steam Link doesn't produce any warmth that matters, it's as small as a hard drvie and has inputs for 3 USB-devices, LAN and W-LAN. HDMI as output.

I believe Steam lets you stream non Steam games too.

Improve this answer
5
  • Does not work for games with complex grafics. The videocard sent's it output directly to the HDMI/VGA/DP/whateverport, there is no technical way to let the videocard calculate the pictures and sent it to the networkcontroller.
    – jawo
    Commented May 13, 2015 at 7:08
  • Steam streaming works well in LAN and well enough in WLAN. I can't really understand why the above commenter spent time writing something that is not true.
    – Vladimir Cravero
    Commented May 13, 2015 at 7:24
  • @Sempie The barebones pc (Client) should only need enough processing power to decode the streamed video. Resolution would be the only factor , not the complexity of graphics.
    – Bobby
    Commented May 13, 2015 at 7:28
  • I confirm that Steam let you stream non-steam games.
    – Gilles V.
    Commented May 13, 2015 at 8:53
  • Steam streaming works by injecting a layer into the graphics drivers (just as is done for the steam overlay) which diverts the graphics to an H264 compressor. On some cards this is hardware-accelerated. blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2014/08/28/… . "Directly" is a bit of a relative term in modern PCs. Another way to observe this is what happens if you Windows-tab out of a game.
    – pjc50
    Commented May 13, 2015 at 11:33
-3

You could mount the computer outside in a weatherproof housing. Maybe get an old heatpump outside unit and take all the gubbins out. Or move to Alaska.

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.