Comments on: Using your foundation to cool your PC https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/27/using-your-foundation-to-cool/ Sat, 29 Aug 2009 17:05:22 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.6 By: elle https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/27/using-your-foundation-to-cool/#comment-543335 Sat, 29 Aug 2009 17:05:22 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/27/using-your-foundation-to-cool/#comment-543335 Yes Ma’am, Mz. Stephanie! That is an affirmative.

]]> By: Argon https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/27/using-your-foundation-to-cool/#comment-543334 Thu, 27 Aug 2009 23:36:15 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/27/using-your-foundation-to-cool/#comment-543334 omar: “The trick is to put your house on a foundation of ICE!!”

Heh, Ice nine.
Or, the gentleman could wait a couple years when cooler chips with the same processing power come out at half the price…

If you’re serious about overclocking, at least use liquid nitrogen.

]]> By: Stephanie Z https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/27/using-your-foundation-to-cool/#comment-543333 Thu, 27 Aug 2009 19:00:54 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/27/using-your-foundation-to-cool/#comment-543333 L, you’re stopping back through Minnesota so we can buy (or make) you drinks and hear all about it, right?

]]> By: John Swindle https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/27/using-your-foundation-to-cool/#comment-543332 Thu, 27 Aug 2009 17:30:55 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/27/using-your-foundation-to-cool/#comment-543332 Ryan – tsk. Another great idea ruined by reality.

]]> By: elle https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/27/using-your-foundation-to-cool/#comment-543331 Thu, 27 Aug 2009 17:27:22 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/27/using-your-foundation-to-cool/#comment-543331 One of the Antarctic experiments, Ice Cube (out of Madison WI) has a whole server room cooled by the outside temps, while here inside the Amundsen-Scott Elevated Station there are a few rooms that are set up the same way. Keep in mind that temps during most of August have been around -90F, so the intake is slow.

We also utilize the cold temps to store our life line of fuel, AN8 cold. While stored at -60F, it is below the lower explosive limit for the fuel, so not even vapors are present. Only when it is warmed do we smell the fuel.

And, by the way, the sun is approaching the horizon after 6 months!!!!!!

]]> By: John Swindle https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/27/using-your-foundation-to-cool/#comment-543330 Thu, 27 Aug 2009 17:10:26 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/27/using-your-foundation-to-cool/#comment-543330 Wow, Greg! you know somebody at Antarctica? Cool!

What I envisioned was some kind of heatsink rigged to ice. But just letting a room leak a little sounds much easier and more direct.

]]> By: Ryan https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/27/using-your-foundation-to-cool/#comment-543329 Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:40:30 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/27/using-your-foundation-to-cool/#comment-543329 As for the ISS, it is “cold” outside, but the density of space is too low to transfer much heat away.

]]> By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/27/using-your-foundation-to-cool/#comment-543328 Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:56:41 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/27/using-your-foundation-to-cool/#comment-543328 John [9]: I have sometimes daydreamed about such things, though I’ve never had a computer worth so much trouble. Does anyone know if computers in the ISS are designed to take advantage of the fact that it’s cold outside? What about all the geeks in Antarctica? Surely theirs are plugged into the environment…?

OK, I just got word back from my homegirl who is at this time underground at the South Pole. I asked her:

Question: Do you use the fact that it is really cold outside to cool down any of your indoor electronics, like computers and stuff?

Her answer: Yes. Most of the electronic rooms here leak in the cold air to cool the rooms.

So there you have it, direct from the South Pole.

]]> By: travc https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/27/using-your-foundation-to-cool/#comment-543327 Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:35:34 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/27/using-your-foundation-to-cool/#comment-543327 When I finally get around to actually owning a place I can modify, I’m definitely going for a proper machine room/closet. Decent cooling is very important if you need stability, even if you aren’t overclocking.

Geo-exchange is a really elegant solution for temp regulation generally. The guy should put in a lot more pipe and integrate it with the AC system.

BTW: I haven’t played a game in months, yet my desktop has spent many an hour with all 4 cores chugging away… alaylsing data. I haven’t overclocked per-se, but it is tempting.

]]> By: Nathan Myers https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/27/using-your-foundation-to-cool/#comment-543326 Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:31:18 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/27/using-your-foundation-to-cool/#comment-543326 What makes this a better idea than burying the pipe underground is that concrete is astonishingly heat-conductive, so a small amount of copper pipe dumps heat to a large solid heat sink that is, in turn, in contact with a large area of cool earth. I probably would have used a single length of corrugated pipe.

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