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I've got two long haired cats, a dog and I live with a smoker. I use my computer pretty much all day everday, and though I put it to sleep in the night, those fans are constantly going during the day.
In just 6 months the rear fans have so much hair wrapped around them it looks more like something from a vacuum cleaner rather than electronic equipment!
Due to this, I'm interested in liquid cooling. However, it appears that liquid cooled systems have fans and liquid cooling? Are those just hybrid solutions? They wouldn't really help my situation.
There does appear to be fanless systems that use a radiator to dissipate heat. If I implemented one of these could I seal up the vents on my PC and never have to dust it again? Is there a disadvantage to fanless liquid cooling?
I don't need to overclock at the moment but I ever want to push my components will fanless liquid cooling be pretty rubbish?
I do mean 'seal up' the vents, not the whole thing. The Radiator in the image is sitting there without the need for an airflow. It seems to use surface area to dissipate heat instead of moving parts. – Starkers – 2014-06-08T22:47:25.873
It will still collect dust, and that dust will still clog heat. Remember that cooling systems are not magical. The only thing they do is move heat around. A 'fanless' system just had a lot more surface area to grab what little airflow naturally occurs. Any dust will defeat that system.
The first thing to do is try and move the computer up off of the floor. Floors are where hair settles, and then gets sucked into the computer. Then look into pre-filters (ones that go in front of intake fans) that will catch it before it enters the computer. – MrDoom – 2014-06-08T22:58:47.420
@Starkers - I didn't see that image originally. You'll still likely get dust inside, which will still insulate components. That said - with that type of solution - you maybe slightly better off but you'll still need airflow, and it will still get clogged over time. – nerdwaller – 2014-06-09T00:18:21.287