Thread: COOL carputer with AC?

speaking from my own experience, i've been running my carputer in my enclosed glovebox for about a year and have it cooled with a/c (ran a tube into the back of the glovebox and installed a valve so that i could have it closed during the winter). i have the m10000, full size dvd-rom, 3.5" hdd, and atx psu all in the glovebox being cooled with the a/c without any issues with moisture...and i'm in atlanta where it's about 95 degrees F with 95% humidity during the summer.

Curious...what kind of temps does the computer run at? People talking about tapping into the cars factory cooling system. Well those systems run in the 160 degree and up range. Alot of cars operate at higher then 200 degrees. I do not think this work well at all to cool a computer and for certain not something you want running into the passenger compartment of your car. All in all.....tapping into the factory cooling system is a bad idea.Tapping into the factory freon lines...another bad idea. I think the rerouting of the factory AC air travel line is a good one. What about using water cooling made to cool a computer?

well I still agree with them about humidity... low humidity or not, it doesn't take much to blow stuff. My buddies computer blew from taking it from outside in the cold to into a heated (forced hot air, notorious for dry air) house.

How does vibration put the liquid cooling out?

As for AC cooling and saving money... it will cost more money ultimately to run the ac all the time then to just buy the liquid cool unit. Like I said, there may be cheaper ones. But I'm interested to know why vibration puts liquid out.

Any of you thought about doing that?

http://www.markusleonhardt.de/en/oelbilder.html

This guy is using oil to keep his pc quiet and cool. He doesnt even need the fans anymore...

You are correct. By doing it the way you describe, there should be almost no moisture inside the case. However, you should expect to see some condensation on the outside of the case. As long as you take the appropriate measures to do something about that, I say go for it.

Somewhere up there somebody mentioned something about water dripping down from under the hood and out of the exhaust. The water from the exhaust is somewhat normal. You see that most on a car that is either not driven enough or has not had a chance for the exhaust to fully heat up yet. Water vapor is a normal product from burning gasoline, and it has been allowed to condense before leaving the tailpipe. The water coming from under the hood is the moisture that the a/c system has removed from the air. If you look under there you will find that it drips from a little pipe. This is by design and completely normal.

EDIT after seeing more posts about moisture: Go outside on a humid day and run your car's a/c for a bit. Now look under your car about where the dash is. See the water dripping down from a little pipe? That is the moisture that would otherwise have come out your air vents. The a/c system condensed and drained it. It didn't come out your air vents and it wouldn't get into your carputer.

Ok, I just talked to my dad... he worked for 20 years designing refrigeration systems for high and low temperature environments... We all are right... The AC is dried because the hot air from the car condenses on the evaporator in the heater/evaporator core... which is then dripped out the bottom of the car like we said. The air is then dry (also because its cold it naturally can hold less mosture then warm air) blowing it onto the computer would be completely safe as there is no moisture to leave behind on the board... the problem arrives when you shut the car off and remove the ac... The computer is then not the same temperature as the ambient environment... some of the board will be much cooler, and the hotter parts may be closer to the ambient temperature, but the warm air from around the car which was previously blocked by the "blanket" of cold air from the ac duct then moves in and condenses on the colder surface causing much damage.

so, basically the problem is that when the car is turned off, hot a humid air would get into the carputer and condensate because of the temperature contrast... I see.

thats a big problem, no doubt.

But, what about KimaX´s experience? KimaX, could you please tell us a bit more about your carputer?

thnx

i wouldn't, i have seen a number of amps being scrapped because they were installed under a seat, with the AC vent breathing straight at the amp, and the moisture builds and totally kills it.

Not worth it.

Originally Posted by pate60

i wouldn't, i have seen a number of amps being scrapped because they were installed under a seat, with the AC vent breathing straight at the amp, and the moisture builds and totally kills it.

Not worth it.

Yeh, try peltiers that are appropriately sized for your CPU. And if the processor gets too cold, you can always heat it with the same peltier