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VJing out doors

Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2017 02:59
by Digitrevx
I'm curious as to how you guys tackle out door VJing in the summer heat with your computers?
Do they throttle off their turbo or boost clock? Do you rent an AC unit?

Re: VJing out doors

Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2017 11:45
by Daniel
Depends on where you live of course and how the FOH is set up. If you are in Las Vegas, bad luck... if you are in the Netherlands, then heat isn't that fast of a problem. Just make sure you keep it out of the sun. Especially with those Macs!

I got on my BTO, an option to put fans on max directly. That is all that I needed for my set. Other VJ's use stands with fans beneath it, giving the laptop breathing space. Besides that, you don't really have another option? Maybe somebody else knows something. You can't cool it with ice obviously ;).

Re: VJing out doors

Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2017 13:34
by Zoltán
there are utilities out there to set fans to 100%, for example Macs fan control: https://www.crystalidea.com/macs-fan-control
that will give you some headroom when the system is not always under full load.
Shading your laptop from the direct sunlight will help a lot too.

Re: VJing out doors

Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2017 13:59
by Digitrevx
Yeah I'm just curious because I have the option to build another custom pc or add another high end laptop to our gear.
And I'm considering out door use. I just know 1080ti's and stuff get's hot and I've never exactly used a computer seriously out doors so it's a new experience for me.

Re: VJing out doors

Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2017 14:31
by Zoltán
for a racked pc removing heat from the inside the case is just as important as getting air in, so if you can get Ti-s with the blower fan design and the same time you can add fans to the front of the case you'll have a push-pull design that also will help to cool other parts inside.

to add just an example, I have a testing rack case in a climatized room, with 2 MSI 1080 Aero OC , and an Asus 1080 Ti founders edition under full load and overclocked to the limit, and 3 10 cm fans on the front.
Video card fans are both the blower type running at 100% the 1080-s are at 71 degrees celsius, and the Ti is at 56 degrees celsius!
Ambient temperature is 22 degrees.

Re: VJing out doors

Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2017 15:20
by Digitrevx
Ahh yeah I'm just curious as to what happens in a 35c environment. The budget I'm given is about what a full spec'ed razor blade pro costs. For that I could have a custom rack made by protocase and water cool the thing haha. The down side is rack mounted computers tend to weigh a lot. I gota ask if they have any brilliant idea's to use aluminum still. But the weight ans size makes mobility the new challenge. So I'm trying to get a feel for how bad is it for a laptop in those conditions and do they out weigh the pit falls of a larger computer.

But yeah the rack mounted experiences you have are interesting. The ti's I have aren't reference blowers however. They have a open air cooler design from the manufacturer.

Re: VJing out doors

Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2017 15:47
by Zoltán
people good with math could calculate what would happen to a gear like this in 35 degrees if you know how it behaves at 22 knowing the TDP-s. - Not me right now :)

A black razer blade would suck in heat from direct sunlight, getting a white skin could help reflect much of it,
Last year or the year before in a FOH in direct sunlight, my macbook would get pretty hot, almost unbearable to touch it just playing audio from ableton live, until I put a rack door between it and the sun. and this was a silver laptop.

Re: VJing out doors

Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2017 07:27
by Digitrevx
I'm reading some experiments showing the cpu is 1:1 ambient temp to cpu them and the gpu is a hair less then 1:1.

So your ti you said would be 70c in a 35c environment. My ti's are evga FW3's. They are overclocked one is 2080mhz the other is only able to do 2045mhz. While they have overkill stock air coolers on them when I'm stressing them I've seen them hit 75-80c in a 23-24c room on their defualt fan profile which is a bit aggressive. So from my experience in a 35c environment they will be in the 85c area. I believe boost clock throttles back at 95c but not totally sure.

Maybe you can 100% the fans and be ok with their stock coolers in a tropical environment with a desktop. I'm really not sure a laptop will be able to do that though.

Re: VJing out doors

Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2017 03:16
by dirtyjohn_lv
For custom PCs, use EVGA Precision XOC to control your fans. I run a pair of Titan X and card temperatures rarely go above 55C in a 35C environment. My FOH is sitting on cusp on an indoor/outdoor area (in Vegas) and has almost no air in it, so we get all of the heat from outside.

For laptops, use a laptop cooling pad with fans to draw heat away from laptop. I've used CoolerMaster pads for artists who have issues with heat (guys that use MacBook Airs or run Traktor since Traktor can't use the CPU properly and runs hot anyway). These pads kept laptops running with direct sunlight in the middle of July in Vegas.

Re: VJing out doors

Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2017 22:08
by Digitrevx
I'm very familiar with evga utilities. I build a lot of custom computers. I've just never thought hey I should take a pc out side in 35c heat and benchmark it.

I'm not a fan of laptops. So I'm going to build a $1000 mITX rig in a fractal node 202 and borrow a 1080ti and see how it does outside. It will take a week for the parts to arrive.

The down side that has nothing to do with heat is mITX boards and laptops tend to run short on options for IO and I rather have capture cards internal.