Cooling techniques for hot climate - no air-conditioning?

[M A J O R]

I live in AUS, it gets really hot here (30℃+ averages during summer). In my current housing, there's no air-conditioning and I'm considering other options before potentially investing $1k + running costs on a window air-conditioner. Temps are tolerable before introducing a PC to the room but I'm about to build a new fairly high end system, something like this: (https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/NJBm2m) and I'm a bit concerned that my room will turn into a furnace during the hotter months. In the past the ambient room temp gets to a point where I have to stop what I'm doing and let the ambient drop. Any tips for cooling without air-conditioning?

 

The room has 3 small 0.5x1.5m windows along one external wall and one 2x1.8m window along the adjacent wall. The room is 3.6m x 3.6m x 2.7m high the ceiling fan is centred in the room. The large window gets sun during the hotter part of the day the smaller ones are mostly in shade from ~9am onward.

[WereCat]

As I am in prety much the same situation, except I live in Slovakia. I had up to 36*C during the hottest days in my room and I was only using my PC at around 300W and it was absolutely unbearable.

 

AC is definitely what I wanted to get but the people that were supposed to install it havent showed up for 2 months now and at this point I feel like it's a waste since summer will be over soon anyways.

 

Have in mind that the better cooling your PC has the more heat it will decipate so you will have a lot hotter room. I have 360mm radiator on my CPU and even if the CPU is not doing much, the heat buildup during summer was definitely noticeable.

 

I ended up sitting at the PC without shirt and just having wet towel from cold water over my shoulders and back during the worst days. Even now it's 3AM and I have 29*C in the room and its not even hot outside.

 

Regarding the build you linked, I had that Noctua cooler and I absolutely can't recommend it because it performs terribly for the price and it's not even that silent and I was using it for R9 3900X which is way less power hungry CPU than 12900k. NH D15 is much better cooler than this one while usualy even cheaper (some incompatibilities with RAM may occur so it is what it is though as it's so big).

[Donut417]

26 minutes ago, M A J O R said:

30℃

For us Americans thats around 86F. I personally dont like running the AC if I dont have to because it dries out the air and I get sinus issues. 

 

At my job we got these big ass industrial floor fans that work pretty well. Our warehouse is not air conditioned. We also have an industrial strength swamp cooler and that bad boy works fairly well too. 

 

At my bed I have a floor standing fan and a Window fan, each on the opposite side of the bed blowing on me. Does pretty well. I also have shades on my windows which do ok for blocking the sun. 

[M A J O R]

22 minutes ago, WereCat said:

As I am in prety much the same situation, except I live in Slovakia. I had up to 36*C during the hottest days in my room and I was only using my PC at around 300W and it was absolutely unbearable.

 

AC is definitely what I wanted to get but the people that were supposed to install it havent showed up for 2 months now and at this point I feel like it's a waste since summer will be over soon anyways.

 

Have in mind that the better cooling your PC has the more heat it will decipate so you will have a lot hotter room. I have 360mm radiator on my CPU and even if the CPU is not doing much, the heat buildup during summer was definitely noticeable.

 

I ended up sitting at the PC without shirt and just having wet towel from cold water over my shoulders and back during the worst days. Even now it's 3AM and I have 29*C in the room and its not even hot outside.

 

Regarding the build you linked, I had that Noctua cooler and I absolutely can't recommend it because it performs terribly for the price and it's not even that silent and I was using it for R9 3900X which is way less power hungry CPU than 12900k. NH D15 is much better cooler than this one while usualy even cheaper (some incompatibilities with RAM may occur so it is what it is though as it's so big).

That's strange about the NH-U12A, I've seen a lot of folks saying that it's comparible to the D15 with some small trade offs with performance vs size/compatability. The CPU cooler is the least concrete choice (besides RAM, just going with cheapest DDR5 kit until prices drop). Still deciding between air and water cooling atm. Thanks for the feedback WereCat.

[M A J O R]

5 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

swamp cooler

We've had a few bouts of extreme extended rain here in AU, so I'm doing all I can to avoid humidity. We're running a dehumidifier quite often to keep the moisture levels in check. There's a big mould problem because of the set-in moisture across most of my state. I can relate to the sinus issues with air-con but I'd primarily be using it intermittently to keep a nice ambient temp during Summer.

[WereCat]

10 minutes ago, M A J O R said:

That's strange about the NH-U12A, I've seen a lot of folks saying that it's comparible to the D15 with some small trade offs with performance vs size/compatability. The CPU cooler is the least concrete choice (besides RAM, just going with cheapest DDR5 kit until prices drop). Still deciding between air and water cooling atm. Thanks for the feedback WereCat.

It's just slightly better than the Arctic Freezer 34 which is 1/3 of the price.

 

The cooler performs fine at low wattages but once you throw a lot of power on it, the fans alone can't keep up. You will overload it. In those situations the NH D15 pulls ahead quite a bit.

 

Look at reviews:

 

https://www.anandtech.com/show/14621/the-noctua-nhu12a-cpu-cooler-review/4

Those are all at max fan speed with 

 

100W load



 

200W load



 

 

250W load



 

340W load



 

 

 

Considering the 12900k has no issue using up to 250W, I would recommend to reconsider

[BiotechBen]

8 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

For us Americans thats around 86F. I personally dont like running the AC if I dont have to because it dries out the air and I get sinus issues. 

 

At my job we got these big ass industrial floor fans that work pretty well. Our warehouse is not air conditioned. We also have an industrial strength swamp cooler and that bad boy works fairly well too. 

 

At my bed I have a floor standing fan and a Window fan, each on the opposite side of the bed blowing on me. Does pretty well. I also have shades on my windows which do ok for blocking the sun. 

Swamp coolers are really good for keeping humidity in the air. Being in PA, it's humid from March till October, and unbearably hot from late may to mid september, (thank you changing climate), ac has always been around, but it's like putting a bandaid on a second degree burn. It's great if you never make any heat, but if you have a heat source: it can get overwhelmed easily if it isn't designed for it.

[Donut417]

5 minutes ago, BiotechBen said:

Swamp coolers are really good for keeping humidity in the air. Being in PA, it's humid from March till October, and unbearably hot from late may to mid september, (thank you changing climate), ac has always been around, but it's like putting a bandaid on a second degree burn. It's great if you never make any heat, but if you have a heat source: it can get overwhelmed easily if it isn't designed for it.

Which is why I suggested industrial fans. They move a lot of air. Might suck if you need to use a Mic, but it will keep you relatively comfortable. 

[M A J O R]

3 minutes ago, WereCat said:

The cooler performs fine at low wattages but once you throw a lot of power on it, the fans alone can't keep up. You will overload it. In those situations the NH D15 pulls ahead quite a bit.

Wow that is a considerable difference, thanks for that info. I'll probably be building in a large mid/full-tower (7000d or Fractal Torrent) so I'm still considering all my options as I won't be short on space that's for sure. Was also looking at AIOs particularly the ones from EK although all that RBG cable spaghettti is a big turn off. The EK aio basic looks fantastic but unfortunately doesn't share the same pump as the Elite. The Liquid Freezer II looks like a top performer but that pump is ugly imo. Choices choices haha.   

[thrasher_565]

there probably a way to force air thow a window thow the house but i dont under stand it how it works but when you have windows open some times you go close a door and it slams shut as air comes in. but as so as its cooler out side then inside you can fan air in. i think a big problem is the roof is so good at keeping in heat that in summer it becomes bad. wonder if there a way to make it no so good?

 

 

Edited August 14, 2022 by thrasher_565

[WereCat]

8 hours ago, M A J O R said:

Wow that is a considerable difference, thanks for that info. I'll probably be building in a large mid/full-tower (7000d or Fractal Torrent) so I'm still considering all my options as I won't be short on space that's for sure. Was also looking at AIOs particularly the ones from EK although all that RBG cable spaghettti is a big turn off. The EK aio basic looks fantastic but unfortunately doesn't share the same pump as the Elite. The Liquid Freezer II looks like a top performer but that pump is ugly imo. Choices choices haha.   

I've got the Liquid Freezer II 360mm, it was even cheaper than NH U12A...

 

Yeah, the pump is kinda meh considering the visuals, imo it looks fine in black and whtie build though. The performance is really good as the radiator is big as heck. And single cable for everything. Arctic has much thicker radiator than most other AIO so it may or it may not fit depending on what case you are going to use.

 

This is vs the NH U12A cooler (without fans) and how it looks in my case (bad photo, had to pull down the shutters on a window and shoot with aa flash coz of reflections on the side panel)

Spoiler

 

[M A J O R]

these

45 minutes ago, WereCat said:

depending on what case you are going to use

At this stage the Corsair 7000D. Plenty of room. Might start with a D15 and switch to an AiO if the cooling isn't good enough. My goal aesthetically is full blackout, as little RGB as possible, like this but obviously in a full tower. The D15 looks sick especially with these on.