PC gamer - It's that time of year again.

I live in Germany and know absolutely nobody with an AC at home. Only (some) offices, stores or (some) public buildings have such things. If a heat wave strikes we have fans, the
electricity prices here are high and I think an AC would be really costly.
I'm glad that we have one at work, but I'm not planning to buy one for my home.
It's funny to read how natural an AC is for Americans.
My PC is pretty new, so far there are no problems with the occasional summer heat. But I also don't really play really demanding games. (Dark Souls Remastered atm)

FastRedPonyCar said:

Meanwhile (last summer) in Alabama... 15 fans total but all running at super low rpm. System was practically silent even at heavy loads.

I have a new system now in the phanteks evolve with the amazing noctua D15. It's a 6700k instead of the 4770k so just the newer architecture dropped the temps significantly. One of these days I'll delid the haswell.

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Your build looks fantastic, well done!

I'm practically living in my summer house at the end of the garden where it's much cooler. PC is hardly on and only late at night. Netbook and console usage mainly when it's this warm.

Why doesn't Europe have AC? Is it because of older buildings and cost of retro fitting?

ACs been around awhile. I couldn't live without it.

Lucifersam597 said:

Why doesn't Europe have AC? Is it because of older buildings and cost of retro fitting?

ACs been around awhile. I couldn't live without it.

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Because a lot of places are only hot enough for AC for a brief time in the year, so it's just usually not there.

Lucifersam597 said:

Why doesn't Europe have AC? Is it because of older buildings and cost of retro fitting?

ACs been around awhile. I couldn't live without it.

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Depending on country we really don't get hot enough and especially not for a long period.
Maybe for 1 week a year it gets really nasty for our standards

Air-source heat pump is pretty useful, it warms in the winter and cools in the summer. They are more and more common in Finland, great help for your other kind of warming system. I don't have one because I live in a rented place (joys of being a student). But both my and my wife's family houses have one, and it is good.

Since we have good insulation, it is usually enough to just block the sun with heavy curtains. Cools a lot, but our house is like a cave most of the time. I don't mind but my wife likes to have some light. Our living room windows are towards the south, so it could get pretty fucking hot without good curtains.

When I build my own house, I want those windows that deflect sun, keeping the inside cooler.

TheZodiacAge said:

Depending on country we really don't get hot enough and especially not for a long period.
Maybe for 1 week a year it gets really nasty for our standards

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Even when it gets to the lows 80s here in the south USA it feels hot enough in doors for AC to be turned on. Does it not hit the 80s F often in the UK? I've been to London and Cambridge before for a week in the fall of 2006 but stayed in hotels with AC so didn't notice the lack of it.

Also with AC you have central air flow through a building which makes it more comfortable.

devSin said:

Sometimes it gets up to 80-degrees (F) here in the summer.

It's miserable.

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mean while, i am drinking hot tea in a 45c (113 F) degree outside my home.

Lucifersam597 said:

Does it not hit the 80s F often in the UK?

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Yeah, for a few weeks every Summer. Maybe it's more humid where you're at, a dry heat is much more bearable without AC. Temperatures don't tend to change dramatically over a short period of time here so we acclimate to hot weather as it steadily rolls in.

Even though we have Central Air AC, I don't control the temps unfortunately. Ambient temp in the PC room is 75-80 F in the summer which sucks.

Playing demanding games I've seen my cpu i7 6700, temps as high as 66c, 970 GPU temps 75c, very much depends on the game though, and typically not that high. Only overclock is a factory one on gpu. Acoustics coming from the pc was more important than watching temps.

As far as I'm aware the temps are within normal operating temps so eh, I'm fine with it. Last pc was way to loud even at idle, so went with sound dampening, lower fan rpms this time.

My PS4 on the other hand, heats up this room far more than this PC does, which I still find odd. PS4 is much much louder too, playing something like God of War.

Lucifersam597 said:

Even when it gets to the lows 80s here in the south USA it feels hot enough in doors for AC to be turned on. Does it not hit the 80s F often in the UK? I've been to London and Cambridge before for a week in the fall of 2006 but stayed in hotels with AC so didn't notice the lack of it.

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Humidity makes a huge difference. In most parts of Europe humidity is low, even when it gets really hot, and dry heat is significantly more bearable without AC. I've spent some time in eastern Texas and temperatures that wouldnt have bothered me much in Germany could get really uncomfortable simply due to the humidity.

I just upgraded to the h150i pro and when coupled with a cpu w/soldered ihs (5820k) the temps are amazing. My apt is on a 5th floor walkup in an old nyc building and gets pretty warm 75-77 f with ac and 85-88 f without. Despite the high ambient temps the liquid stays a chill 28-30 c idle with fans on quiet. The 5820k is over clocked to 4.5ghz at 1.28v, package temps are 38 c idle

At full load I never see package temps get above 50c and liquid temps never exceed 38 c.

Here in Buenos Aires I might as well get an FX 9590 and a GTX 480 Quad SLI. Coldest time of the year for us.

I leave the PC case open

Don't you guys worry about stuff climbing into your pc like bugs and more dust? Or even having more moisture into your pcs? I would leave the case closed personally

If anything just invest in better CPU cooling water cooling like h60 is not that much more than a regular off the shelf mid or high end air cooling CPU fan

Custom loop on my 6700k @ 4.8 and Titan X Pascal. I've never seen the GPU above 45c or the CPU above 55c. No fan ramping so it's just as quiet at load as it is at idle. Feels good.

Yeah, it's been hot here too and looks like it's going to go on for the next week at least. My flat gets to 26-29 during the worst of it.

I have a bigass standing fan circulating the air, that's about it.
I don't think I've ever seen an ac unit in person.

L.O.R.D said:

mean while, i am drinking hot tea in a 45c (113 F) degree outside my home.

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Ah, the smell of fresh-baked bread...

Oh, wait. That's just L.O.R.D.

here it's about 24C (not sure of ambient room temperature)

my cpu is idling at about 26C and my GPU is at 35C. lowest i've seen it go is 17C/21C but usually sits around 23-24C/30C. while gaming never goes over 70C on either CPU/GPU. CPU is usually maxes out at around 65-70C and GPU is 60-65C. i have 4x140mm case fans in my system and my CPU cooler has 2x140mm fans. i actually overclocked my PC last year on the hottest day of the year so i had that working against me when considering temps.

it's warmer than usual but nothing crazy. my system can handle it. once the cold weather comes back i'll probably open up my system and give it a clean out which i do regularly any way.

112 F (44.4 C) here in SoCal ... my game room has ceiling to floor windows and faces east.

I'm gonna melt.

Khamsinvera said:

112 F (44.4 C) here in SoCal ... my game room has ceiling to floor windows and faces east.

I'm gonna melt.

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But you must Praise the Sun!

Lichtsang said:

I live in Germany and know absolutely nobody with an AC at home. Only (some) offices, stores or (some) public buildings have such things. If a heat wave strikes we have fans, the
electricity prices here are high and I think an AC would be really costly.
I'm glad that we have one at work, but I'm not planning to buy one for my home.
It's funny to read how natural an AC is for Americans.
My PC is pretty new, so far there are no problems with the occasional summer heat. But I also don't really play really demanding games. (Dark Souls Remastered atm)

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Heh, I'm an American in Germany and have a portable AC unit for my game room/office. Couldn't deal without it. Too much hot gear in here.

Hey guys I'm melting. Send help.



It's been like this for about a week and looks like next week will be even worse unless something changes.

I bought a mobile AC unit long ago but it turned out too damn loud and I had nowhere to put the heat output pipe on that thing.

The windows here in Germany open like this:



Impossible to stick a pipe through that without the heat coming back in through the rest of the opening.

As far as the PC, if it gets heat problems in the summer that means it needs to be cleaned. I don't think its heat output changes the room temperature much.

Parsnip said:

Hey guys I'm melting. Send help.

It's been like this for about a week and looks like next week will be even worse unless something changes.

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It's funny to see how different weather seems for people.

I live in Florida, so those temps (77-85F highs) are pretty common even in the winter, that would feel like fall to me right now lol.

Luckily everyone here has Central AC so it doesn't ever affect my gaming, inside is always the same temp.

Bony Manifesto said:

The problem for me isn't that my PC is loud or overheating, it's simply that it heats up the room too much to play a game. Even with all the doors and windows open, the heat just hangs there as there's so little breeze.

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I have seen people who heat pipe the exhaust out a tube to the window to remove the heat from the room. I'd suggest you just get a portable air conditioner they make them so you just attach a board to your window and all the carbon goes out without having to mount something in your windows!

franklyshankly said:

It's funny to see how different weather seems for people.

I live in Florida, so those temps (77-85F highs) are pretty common even in the winter, that would feel like fall to me right now lol.

Luckily everyone here has Central AC so it doesn't ever affect my gaming, inside is always the same temp.

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I'm in northern Finland so 2 weeks of this, while not entirely unheard of, is not super common even during summer.
I don't mind it at all when I'm outside, but my shitty apartment is just a god damn sweatbox.

I live in a house...
PC is in basement, the concrete on the basement floor remains cool all summer, as of yesterday basement floor was 63F..
Only time i need a fan in when it's over 90F for consecutive days, and it's only when i am gaming...

low-G said:

If we didn't have AC (here in U.S.) I would not get a chance to play VR most of the summer.

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Hell, even with AC and fans I'm struggling to play VR due to sweating and lens fogging here in the south. Our rental house is poorly insulated, old single pane windows etc. and the HVAC unit is dated and probably undersized for the house after the remodel (owner bought to fix up and turn into a rental) expanded it a bit (turned garage into a master suite with some addition). It just can't keep up when it's 85+ outside and it's been 90+ most days for months. We set it at 74 but till just run constantly and not get below 79ish until the sun goes down and it's probably hotter than that in my gaming room a bit away from the thermostat.

Alexandros said:

Your build looks fantastic, well done!

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Thanks. Build took way longer than I planned but having to DIY a lot of stuff paid off.

http://www.overclock.net/forum/1808...enthoo-primo-4770k-980ti-project-fastred.html

impact said:

According to the OP, it's a yearly thing. Seems frequent enough to buy an AC for a couple hundred bucks and live like a normal person does in the heat.

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I definitely would as I can't stand being hot. I can get not shelling out thousands to have central a/c installed, but $200-300 for a window units in the rooms that need them would be a high priority for me at the least.

MRORANGE said:

It normally does not get this hot in the UK - we are getting for it for a couple of weeks so this is very usual as we normally have a week at max hence why people don't invest in them.

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So I buy a cheapo (non energy efficient) air conditioner and stick it in the window. Since you only use it for a few weeks every year, it will last a really, really long time.

Idk, maybe there's something I'm not understanding as an American... but to me, it seems worthwhile to be comfortable for a few weeks.

LMAO Yeah, it was ~115F here last Friday. Didn't even want to play PC games since our office is the furthest from our A/C (we have central air), so it's like an oven at peak hours. So I just sat in the living room where it was cooler and played Switch handheld.

Wowfunhappy said:

So I buy a cheapo (non energy efficient) air conditioner and stick it in the window. Since you only use it for a few weeks every year, it will last a really, really long time.

Idk, maybe there's something I'm not understanding as an American... but to me, it seems worthwhile to be comfortable for a few weeks.

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I dunno about the UK but many places in Europe don't have sliding windows so a window AC unit wouldn't fit.

It always surprises me how far south the US actually is. New York is roughly the same latitude as Barcelona. Florida the same as Egypt.

So yep, AC is a requirement for most the of the US at this time of year.

Living without AC in 2018?

Europe is so fucking weird sometimes.

I had to downclock, might do it even more.

I should probably just get a better fan too, cos this tower fan is pure shit.

I have my AC running almost 24/7 so I never feel the heat off my PC. Shit feels great, lol. I couldn't imagine not having it... fuck that.

Stop it with the "you don't have AC in Europe?!" overreactions
Like it's been said many times already, except for a couple of weeks where it can get really hot it would be utterly useless for most of us
There's no comparison to places like Florida/Arizona/Texas/...

Marmelade said:

Stop it with the "you don't have AC in Europe?!" overreactions
Like it's been said many times already, except for a couple of weeks where it can get really hot it would be utterly useless for most of us
There's no comparison to places like Florida/Arizona/Texas/...

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Very true. But it's also that all of us who've always had A/C are also just spoiled and have very poor heat tolerances and are going to sweat and be miserable at lower temperatures than people who've never/rarely had A/C. I'd be miserable in a lot of places in Europe without an A/C in the summer, as I have when getting rooms without A/C when on vacation there. Indoor temps above 75 or so make me miserable.

Winter here in Namibia. My room rarely gets more than 16°C (25°C outside at day aren't enough to heat up the house after a 4°C night) so my PC just fine.

Oh, and before someone says "you don't have insulation in Namibia!?", no I don't, for two months tops of very cold nights. ;)

I have no reference for if this is expensive or not but I pay $.10/KwH for electricity and 2 $130 window A/C units raise my bill by about $15. We have an old central air AC/heat pump unit but it raises the light bill by $120 a month so we just don't bother with it until we can upgrade.

Parsnip said:

Hey guys I'm melting. Send help.

It's been like this for about a week and looks like next week will be even worse unless something changes.

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Haha! Same here =P South East England, 25-30 degrees for over a month now, not a single drop of rain that whole time where I live. What is going on..?

Duxxy3 said:

It always surprises me how far south the US actually is. New York is roughly the same latitude as Barcelona. Florida the same as Egypt.

So yep, AC is a requirement for most the of the US at this time of year.

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People down clocking PCs to deal with it in Europe so I'd say it sounds like a requirement everywhere.

Imperfected said:

I've found the optimal solution is to take my pants off.

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That's the optimal solution for me as soon as I get home. Everyday.

Our windows aren't really designed for AC units, so unless the flat comes with a good solution built-in, we just deal. Movable AC units with a heathose that you stick out of a window also kind of suck in my experience.

SpecDot said:

That's the optimal solution for me as soon as I get home. Everyday.

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Why wait, get pantless now.