Beer and PC's do not mix...

MrMephitis said:

...just knocked an almost empty bottle of beer over on my desk...my PC which happens to be on it's side, workings open to the world alongside the desk...can we see where this is going yet?
Yes, you guessed it, no longer than it took to grab the bottle and the sound went "fzzzt-pop" and the screens on my monitors went blank...beer in the PC
I hit the power switch pretty quickly and went and got a good strong light to survey the damage. A few drops and a small puddle greeted my eyes....erk!
A quick removal and insepction of the graphics card (brand new HD 5770) showed a couple of small spots so I carefully used a bit of tissue to absorb them, give them a good blast with the compressed air and set it on top of the radiator. I then repeat the process with the motherboard, but use a 250w lamp to dry any residue.
Less than 10 minutes after the fateful accident I power up expecting the worse...but it seems that the Gods must have been smiling on me as here I am posting on here using it now.

Time to sort a new case out I think, one that can accomodate my CPU cooler.

That's NOT what "liquid cooling" means!

MrMephitis said:

...just knocked an almost empty bottle of beer over on my desk...my PC which happens to be on it's side, workings open to the world alongside the desk...can we see where this is going yet?
Yes, you guessed it, no longer than it took to grab the bottle and the sound went "fzzzt-pop" and the screens on my monitors went blank...beer in the PC
I hit the power switch pretty quickly and went and got a good strong light to survey the damage. A few drops and a small puddle greeted my eyes....erk!
A quick removal and insepction of the graphics card (brand new HD 5770) showed a couple of small spots so I carefully used a bit of tissue to absorb them, give them a good blast with the compressed air and set it on top of the radiator. I then repeat the process with the motherboard, but use a 250w lamp to dry any residue.
Less than 10 minutes after the fateful accident I power up expecting the worse...but it seems that the Gods must have been smiling on me as here I am posting on here using it now.

Time to sort a new case out I think, one that can accomodate my CPU cooler.

I have come SO close to doing that before! Now I keep the beer on one side, and the expensive stuff on the other.

DreemWarrior said:

MrMephitis said:

...just knocked an almost empty bottle of beer over on my desk...my PC which happens to be on it's side, workings open to the world alongside the desk...can we see where this is going yet?
Yes, you guessed it, no longer than it took to grab the bottle and the sound went "fzzzt-pop" and the screens on my monitors went blank...beer in the PC
I hit the power switch pretty quickly and went and got a good strong light to survey the damage. A few drops and a small puddle greeted my eyes....erk!
A quick removal and insepction of the graphics card (brand new HD 5770) showed a couple of small spots so I carefully used a bit of tissue to absorb them, give them a good blast with the compressed air and set it on top of the radiator. I then repeat the process with the motherboard, but use a 250w lamp to dry any residue.
Less than 10 minutes after the fateful accident I power up expecting the worse...but it seems that the Gods must have been smiling on me as here I am posting on here using it now.

Time to sort a new case out I think, one that can accomodate my CPU cooler.

I have come SO close to doing that before! Now I keep the beer on one side, and the expensive stuff on the other.

Besides, I have a low profile case with the LCD on top. I'm right handed and the computer is on my left. I bought the case because I can have the back, and left against the wall with the top and right exposed. There is a 60mm fan exhausting 4GB o/c ram and all my 3.6GHz o/c quad core2 heat. A beer set on that side of the bench will not stay cold long!

LOL. Glad your pc works. Very lucky.

That's why I keep my drinks on the stand next to my desk. The stand has a my printer on it. I'd much rather replace my printer than the pc.

Not to mention, I'd have a hard time wasting beer by spilling it. That's just mean to the beer.

baarod said:

.......There is a 60mm fan exhausting 4GB o/c ram and all my 3.6GHz o/c quad core2 heat.....

Dude, by your specs, you're using a stock cpu cooler and you're O'cing a 2.4ghz quad to 3.6ghz!!! are you looking to fry it?

anyways, beer + pc really don't mix

oidicle said:

baarod said:

.......There is a 60mm fan exhausting 4GB o/c ram and all my 3.6GHz o/c quad core2 heat.....

Dude, by your specs, you're using a stock cpu cooler and you're O'cing a 2.4ghz quad to 3.6ghz!!! are you looking to fry it?

anyways, beer + pc really don't mix

I've found that CPU cooling efficiency is only partly dependent on the heatsink efficiency and fan CFM. If you look at MIT's Professor Lienhard's thermodynamic equations published here http://web.mit.edu/lienhard/www/ahttv131.pdf you'll see that doubling the temperature gradient between source and sink can almost double the heat transfer with all other variables being held constant.

The Intel stock cooler is really quite good with it's copper slug for for package heat absorption and large surface area aluminum for it's radiosity. It's got a fair heat capacity and the fin design creates it's own turbulence to avoid inefficient laminar flow. To make it cool better we can either increase the airflow which in reality is just moving cooler air next to the fin surface or make the source air cooler to start with. Increasing CFM past a certain point makes no difference as the air is moving so quickly as to no longer collect any more heat and contributes to surface drag resulting in non-optimal air-air heat exchange -- essentially trapping hot air next to the fins.

Case temperatures in my low profile box under h.264 encoding on all cores at 100% is about 110-115F depending on ambient. It would be a lot higher without my ducting and the heat gradient problem would be worse. Instead, constant ~70F air is drawn by a dedicated intake directly onto my CPU fan cowl and the waste heat is blown out a dedicated exhaust. The rest of the case is cooled conventionally -- holes in the back of the case for intake and an exhaust fan drawing air directly across the memory heatspreaders.

Just a little attention to airflow saved $$$ in fancy heatsinks and gets me a machine that can h.264 encode a DVD in about 20 min.



Reputable info links:
Electronics Cooling
Heatsink 101: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know - Mentor Graphics
http://web.mit.edu/lienhard/www/ahttv131.pdf

I can also proudly confirm that Captain Crunch sodden milk does not mix well with your keyboard either.