Desktop computer heat output

[sammm]

We have a desktop computer in my home office. It seems to throw off a bunch of heat and really makes my office uncomfortably warm as the day goes on. Any way for me to reduce the heat output (besides turning it off) ?

[jeff_man]

http://www.xoxide.com/watcoolcas1.html

removed all but 1 hard drive will give you less heat. get more powerfully fans, there loud but they move more air. buy a laptop. down clock your pc so it uses less power and runs cooler.

[channelmaniac]

Activate any power saving stuff you can...

Lower the resolution or bit depth on your display...

If on Vista turn off the Window Aero stuff and go with standard Windows themes. Those fancy transparent windows and stuff eat up GPU power which can give off massive heat.

RJ

[Radio-Active]

You can have it shut off the hard drives automatically when there is a period of non-use. Also, you have it go in a standby mode that will allow it to come back to life in a few seconds verses having to fully reboot.

Check out the power management screen for options.

[CobaltFire]

As far as the water cooling goes, that will not reduce the heat output. It just runs the comp cooler. My home PC's have been watercooled for the last 6 years.

As far as lowering the temps, the only thing that will help is what was said above regarding lowering the power demands. Otherwise, get a newer machine that is more power efficient. If it is an office machine you can build a nice one that will put off almost no heat for ~300 (provided you can reuse the monitor, keyboard, mouse, and windows).

[Nexus Flux]

Also a good dusting will help it run a little more efficiently; blow out the power supply, CPU and GPU heat sinks. No sense in having dust acting like insulation in there.

Like others have said, checking out the power saving options is a good step.
Going to a low power consuming LCD is also an option. I run a Dell G2410 LED backlit LCD, here are the power specs

Power Consumption Operational:
Less than 20 Watts (typical)
Power Consumption Stand by / Sleep:
Less than 0.15 Watts

It stays room temp the whole time, just for comparison another 24" LCD (Dell S2409W) uses 45 Watts (maximum), 31 Watts (normal)

+1 on the water cooling, it doesn't reduce the amount of heat, it's just a different way of dissipating it. Think of it like putting a bigger radiatior in a car, engine still makes the same amount of heat, but with a bigger radiator it can be dissapated more effectively.

[onething]

Move the computer into your garage and use a really long set of cables for the mouse, monitor and keyboard.

OR, work by the pool and you won't notice the heat from the computer.

[ken o]

Add another vent to the room. I did that in my home office and media room. Worked perfect.