Modder routes PC water cooling loop outside to keep CPU and GPU below 50C in winter

For winter, redirect water cooling loop outside to an external radiator to avoid heating up the room with the PC. This PC mod fixes a common problem that PC users face – having their PCs in a small place with poor ventilation. It employs the use of an automatic valve to switch the cooling location from inside to outside. This is based on environmental sensors.

Automated valve switches cooling loop to external radiator to prevent room overheating

It runs an Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus and an NVIDIA RTX 4070 Ti Super. Both of them are completely immersed in a direct die water cooling loop. The modder, Motor_Attention1865, created this PC setup to keep the temperature low while maintaining the comfort of the room interior.

Specifications

• CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus (delidded)
• GPU: NVIDIA RTX 4070 Ti Super
• RAM: 2x24GB DDR5-8400 G.Skill
• Internal Radiators: 120mm (rear) and 360mm (front)
• External Radiator: 240mm with two Noctua iPPC-3000 fans

It has a Thermal Grizzly 1851 Mycro Pro water block for the CPU and Bykski water block for the GPU. It has EK Kinetic D5 pump and reservoir inside the PC. It also has a separate Bykski D5 pump to send the coolant outside. It is cooled by two Noctua iPPC-3000 fans running through a 240mm external radiator on a wall or window.

The modder has an Arduino Mega board that runs a python script to control the 3 way valve to redirect coolant flow. It pulls information from temperature and humidity sensors to avoid condensation. This is to keep the coolant above dew point. For outside coolant, the modder has used pure ethylene glycol to reduce the freezing point to -28 degrees C.

When under heavy load, CPU temp is around 45-50C when gaming. While in Cinebench R23 it can reach up to 52C. The GPU temp is at a constant 37C when gaming. 3DMark Steel Nomad can push it up to 48C.

The modder said that he’s tired of the PC heating up the room. So he decided to do something about it with this external loop design.