Air conditioner to pc case

[ji4ko0]

Hi guys i have one idea and i want to ask you it will work and it will good for pc and no have damages so i found a mini air conditioner that i can put in the case what is your opinions about this ?

 

Picture

 

[Kilrah]

Absolutely terrible, this cools air slightly by evaporating water into it, and moisture isn't exactly what you want in a PC.

[Eigenvektor]

Unless you can vent the hot air to the outside, you'll just end up heating your room, which will decrease the benfit over time.

 

I'd also expect it to be very loud and use more energy than simple air cooling with little to no benefit.

[Kilrah]

It's not an actual AC unit. Just a fan blowing air through a water-impregnated filter, aka a humidifier.

[Eigenvektor]

14 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

It's not an actual AC unit. Just a fan blowing air through a water-impregnated filter, aka a humidifier.

Yeah, I didn't think of that. If it's just an "air moisturizer" then yup absolutely terrible idea.

 

~edit: To be fair, the picture wasn't visible on my phone when I first replied.

[porina]

Evaporation of water cooling can be effective, but I'm not sure this implementation of it is. People have run open water cooling loops where in part the water is directly exposed to moving air, and the evaporation causes greater temperature drops than a radiator by itself. Obviously this comes with many different problems...

 

If that unit is small enough to fit in a case, it is unlikely to be powerful enough to make a meaningful difference. The PC would probably be hot enough that condensation isn't a problem, but you might be at some elevated risk of corrosion.

[Eigenvektor]

9 minutes ago, porina said:

If that unit is small enough to fit in a case, it is unlikely to be powerful enough to make a meaningful difference. The PC would probably be hot enough that condensation isn't a problem, but you might be at some elevated risk of corrosion.

Warm air can carry more moisture than cool air. And warm, moist, air coming into contact with cooler surfaces (e.g. the top of your case) will cause condensation (which will then drip down). So I'd be very careful about vaporizing water in a small enclosed space. Even if the PC is warm enough while in operation, you'd get condensation once you turn it off.

 

Unless you pull in fresh air from the outside and vent the heated, moist air out of the case I doubt it'll do much to cool the PC in the long run. If anything, you'd need a real AC unit that vents to the outside.

[porina]

36 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

Warm air can carry more moisture than cool air. And warm, moist, air coming into contact with cooler surfaces (e.g. the top of your case) will cause condensation (which will then drip down). So I'd be very careful about vaporizing water in a small enclosed space. Even if the PC is warm enough while in operation, you'd get condensation once you turn it off.

We're guessing without more details as it depends on both temperature and how much moisture is put into the air. I doubt the unit would be able to put out that much moisture, and given the case fan will be running it wont be staying trapped in the case. A small amount over ambient could diffuse out easily.

[Eigenvektor]

Just now, porina said:

We're guessing without more details as it depends on both temperature and how much moisture is put into the air. I doubt the unit would be able to put out that much moisture, and given the case fan will be running it wont be staying trapped in the case. A small amount over ambient could diffuse out easily.

True. we don't know the exact details. I'm still saying it's not a good idea At the very least I wouldn't want to risk it.

[porina]

Just now, Eigenvektor said:

True. we don't know the exact details. I'm still saying it's not a good idea At the very least I wouldn't want to risk it.

I basically agree. In my case, it is more the lack of benefit than the risk of doing it. Had similar arguments before when I proposed to have an outdoor enclosure to run systems in order to keep excess heat out of the house.

[Kilrah]

I have one of these things, it will evaporate about 200ml of water per hour or so.

It does feel cooler than a fan when it's blowing at you in the hot summer, but it would not be doing anything significant with the amount of heat a PC puts out.