Cooling ideas -/w console PC; in mustang?

I've had this going for a couple years now. I've got just about everything under the sun setup with it that I set out to do, but..

This is the only lasting hurdle for this, since this is probably a faster PC than most people's desktop, coupled with being in such a confined space it's quite the pain in the *** in winter. Odd I know, summer is fine, but in winter with the heat going the console gets a decent amount of the floor heat syphoned into it, and it has nowhere to go, so the PSU and/or the MB cut-off due to exceeding their heat specs. It's quite frustrating.

I'm just wondering if any others have come across this issue and what they've done to resolve it, tubing, cutting into the car's ductwork, etc..

I've done all I could think of offhand, replaced the CPU cooler to a server based low profile 775 heatsink with blower, put a single slot fan blower over the GPU heatsink.. trouble is they really have nowhere direct to push the air to since the back is butted up against the car's firewall.

Try liquid cooling system look for it on the web

I cut one duct and blocked it with insulation. The air was redirected to other outputs.

[IMG]http://cdn-2-service.phanfare.com/im...ee8f0848086d_1[/IMG]

More here.

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Originally Posted by jontheinstaller

Try liquid cooling system look for it on the web

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I'm familiar with the concept, but the idea of using water even without factoring the space constraints with a normal water-block on a stable desktop makes me nervous, let alone in a car-pc that's constantly jolted. Not a "bad" idea per-say, but at least in my opinion not something I'd even try in a car setup.

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Originally Posted by RipplingHurst

I cut one duct and blocked it with insulation. The air was redirected to other outputs.

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So you just cut out a section, then molded a tunnel of insulation around it, with no tubing or the like right? What did you use to cut into it? I suppose I could dremel out a section in my center console, then adapt some kind of flap with some kind of large plastic tubing to follow the flow as to not be countering the effect if the car's HVAC was on.

In my Tracer install I filled in the vents closest to my CarPC with "Great Stuff" or whatever it's called. Sliced off the extra after it dried and called it good. I looked around for some kind of flap or butterfly valve style but came up empty. I think this would be a fantastic idea if the parts could be found.

A water cooled system would probably be a terrible idea in a car depending on your location. I know of no automotive grade liquid coolers that can withstand such extreme changes in temperature. I could think of pumps seizing, coolant freezing, lines breaking, etc... bad idea. However... I've been thinking about using one during the summer and switching over to a heatsink/fan during the winter.

An issue I could see with this is pumping around and cooling the coolant if my car has been sitting out in the heat for while, before I power up the PC. Otherwise I'm going to be pumping around extremely hot liquid.

Pics of where your PC is installed?

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Originally Posted by Wayne613

So you just cut out a section, then molded a tunnel of insulation around it, with no tubing or the like right? What did you use to cut into it? I suppose I could dremel out a section in my center console, then adapt some kind of flap with some kind of large plastic tubing to follow the flow as to not be countering the effect if the car's HVAC was on.

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Yes, exactly that. I used a dremel. It can be very hard plastic (as it was for me), so plan accordingly. It's very hard to tell more without pictures, but I believe you're on the right track with the above.

not saying to get it or not to get it, but if you do liquid cooling i highly suggest only using compression fittings, so you don't have to worry about it leaking at the fittings I use bitspower and koolance (for my desktop pc), but I doubt it matters what name brand really. Also water cools really fast, so you don't have to worry about hot water flowing through your system once you turn it on (as long as radiator is placed where it can get air and fans put on it), but you might have to worry about the water heating up well the computers off?

Another thing I just use distilled water and silver because the coolant you buy is pretty much water and anti-freeze most of the time and anti-freeze doesn't absorb heat as good as water does. The reason for anti-freeze is to kill bacteria, but if you use silver and distilled water it will do the trick ;). The silver I use are called killcoils. You can use those or you can go out and buy a piece of 99.9 percent pure silver just make sure it is big enough, so it won't go through the tubing and can just sit in the tank.

If your afraid of the water freeze due to cold winters though maybe putting like 25/75 or 50/50 anti-freeze will solve that problem since that is what they do in cars anyways.

Once again I am neither suggesting or not suggesting using water cooling.

Most of the non-conductive coolants have a temp range from about 150F to -30F...plus you don't have to worry about a leak causing a problem.

Correct me if i'm wrong, but I believe if you poured it for example on the motherboard then you might still have issues. I believe it is just a lot less likely to mess something up. If you used compression fittings you pretty much would only have to worry about the tubbing getting snagged on something or damaged.

Anyways yeah they do make non-conductive or w.e. coolant I forgot about that and in a car because of winter it would be a lot better then using anti-freeze if somehow you did get a leak and as long as temps don't get below there freezing point.

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Originally Posted by Tidder

In my Tracer install I filled in the vents closest to my CarPC with "Great Stuff" or whatever it's called. Sliced off the extra after it dried and called it good. I looked around for some kind of flap or butterfly valve style but came up empty. I think this would be a fantastic idea if the parts could be found.

A water cooled system would probably be a terrible idea in a car depending on your location. I know of no automotive grade liquid coolers that can withstand such extreme changes in temperature. I could think of pumps seizing, coolant freezing, lines breaking, etc... bad idea. However... I've been thinking about using one during the summer and switching over to a heatsink/fan during the winter.

Pics of where your PC is installed?

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Yeah, I'll have to browse home-depot with this in mind sometime as there's got to be something suitable for this use there I'd think; maybe even just block off a single vent entirely for exhaust purposes.

Even though liquid cooling is hinted at still, with all the issues I can think of off-hand that could be problematic, space, leaking, temp variables, being constantly jolted, etc.. The temperatures can reach 110F to -30F here, the later is unusual, but it does happen in winter some years. So while that would solve it, I think long-term I'd be looking at an insurance claim in the making.:sick:

Afraid I don't have any of the console with everything removed. But my old thread with my install pics is still around, here is one of the unit installed for reference, and here's the full thread, of course this it doesn't help much as you can't see how jammed it is by this, but it is butting up to the main HVAC plastic vent base, which is part of the problem.

The further refinement has helped, it's not cutting off due to heat now that I can tell (I ran it for a 45min trip with the heat on yesterday), but it's still insanely high to me. Highest values being 69C for GPU, and a few celcius less for the CPU cores.