Water cooling a car PC?

[rowan194]

I've had a half built car PC sitting on my desk for a couple of months, had some hardware issues with USB wifi modems and can't move forward until they're resolved.

One of my concerns about sticking the PC in my boot is obviously heat. I just had an idea, how about a water cooling system that has a radiator somewhere in the air duct? (Mine is a large sedan so it has rear passenger ducts)

Or going even further... a bong cooler hidden in the boot. slosh slosh, lol

[TheTorrie]

why not link it to the current cars radiator and cooling system something like instead of it pumping coolant to the interior heater core for it to also split to a separate core for the PC? just an idea but could be interesting to see

[DeejW]

Sounds like it would be very complicated, Id just stick a few 120mm fans over it and be done with it.

[Butcher9_9]

Originally Posted by TheTorrie

why not link it to the current cars radiator and cooling system something like instead of it pumping coolant to the interior heater core for it to also split to a separate core for the PC? just an idea but could be interesting to see

the problem with using the cars built in radiator is that the water in them can get very hot

also the problem with cooling a pc in a car is that the air temperature is very high so water cooling a pc using a an external source of air is a good idea now you just need to implement it

[2_stroke]

probably to much hassel for a car, i guess if you had a boot install done nicley you could pull it off. Really inst pratical but it could be done, i would just keep it on air though

[terroristone]

mount a small rad outside the car like in behind the front bar or even up under the rear bar.

[rowan194]

Hmmm, perhaps something more low-tech like a duct between a hole in the rear parcel shelf (mine has an unused cutout for a speaker which is covered by carpet) and the inlet fan for the PC case. At least that way it's getting "cooler" air from the passenger area rather than being like an oven.

Could still use water cooling and have an air loop, with the inlet and the outlet both on the rear parcel, and a radiator in the middle? Too bad if one of the passengers complains about the warm air hitting their hair.

[TRAG!C]

Any carputer should be running low spec gear intel atom or via chipset. With a max around 20w's you are not generating much heat here. If you are worried about the stock cooling any air cooler would be up to the task. WC in a car seems like a lot of effort for no real gains.

[alvarez]

Its been done before over on MP3 car,
Putting it into the cars existing WC system is useless as that water is usually at boiling point anyway, remember you are cooling constantly exploding petrol.

also any extra holes you are cutting in the firewall or wherever would need to be engineered at least in Victoria AFAIK.
but if you can find a small enough rad to fit in a vent and still have enough water flowing etc I can see it being viable.

[rowan194]

Originally Posted by TRAG!C

Any carputer should be running low spec gear intel atom or via chipset. With a max around 20w's you are not generating much heat here. If you are worried about the stock cooling any air cooler would be up to the task. WC in a car seems like a lot of effort for no real gains.

I'm using stock desktop parts, an mATX sized mainboard and an E1200 CPU. I'm mainly worried about the oven effect when the car has been parked out in the sun for a while. There will be some leakage of cooler air from the passenger area through the back of the seat once the engine is on and the A/C is going, but it would still take a fair while to cool the boot down. CPUs are used to running at higher temps, so that's not my concern - I'm thinking more of other parts which may not appreciate being cooked over long periods, such as capacitors... of course this is going to happen even when the comp is off...


Here's the full specs of the system

E1200 CPU
2GB DDR2-800 RAM
2 x 250GB 2.5" SATA drives in RAID1 configuration
2 cameras (front and rear windscreens), plus capture cards.
2 x USB wifi sticks - one for phoning home, one acting as an access point
1 x 32GB USB stick
GPS mouse mounted on front windscreen
12V ATX power supply
Custom electronic instrument case, hacked a little
FreeBSD 7.1-RELEASE, Apache, PHP, MySQL, custom software

[MooGliSH]

Mount radiator vertically on roof, maintain high speeds

[mrmas]

Originally Posted by MooGliSH

Mount radiator vertically on roof, maintain high speeds

LMAO! Add some blue LED to it so don't have to slow down at red traffic lights

[Arbite]

Maybe just use one of the cheap swiftech ktis, the one with the pump on the cpu block.
It cxomes with a 120mm rad.

[hi_lectro]

Originally Posted by TheTorrie

why not link it to the current cars radiator and cooling system something like instead of it pumping coolant to the interior heater core for it to also split to a separate core for the PC? just an idea but could be interesting to see

not sure whether to think if this guy is actually being serious or not... but LOL

Originally Posted by MooGliSH View Post
Mount radiator vertically on roof, maintain high speeds

Bozo spec, yo!



but seriously, like others have said, just run a pretty average comp, as the car's going to be bouncing around a bit anyways, and running high end components will require more power which it either won't put out, or won't put out for long, letalone at a good stable voltage.