I've been to several places where people basically want to build a fridge in their pc. I know that wont work because once you drop under ambient temps there's condensation. What if your loop had a small isolated area where it was cooled using phase change, like a fridge, where the reservoir would be? Maybe do other things to make sure the water stays in there for a bit before it get's pumped out. Then it gets sent back to a standard loop. This will get rid of the condensation problem, and would constantly loop cool water.
Probably has flaws though. Just wondering if it can be done.
Chiller units are sold for this purpose they have a temperature control system that keeps the coolant temp at ambient. on a different note if you built a PC inside a fridge you could push temperatures even lower.
You can't put a pc in a fridge because of condensation. My idea is to get a condenser, compressor, etc. And keep the reservoir from a regular water loop in the chilled area.
Only had enough time to skim, but I think that's what I had in mind. I might take on a similar project for the hell of it. I think I got an old ac laying around
True, but you also have to worry about having a 100% seal from outside the case. That's a whole different ball game. Not to mention the moisture that's going to be inside the case to start off.
I'm not saying it's a great way to cool a PC, and I wouldn't do it myself.
But condensation will not be the major problem it is with open designs completely unsealed from outside air. Regarding the "initial moisture": You put the PC into the running fridge. The PC will be at room temperature, so considerably warmer than the back of of the fridge. So the water from the room temperature air will condense at the fridge's back, not on the comparatively much warmer PC. So the moisture you start off with will have condensed at the back and either freeze there or drip down (there are channels for the moisture to run down in most fridges).
That's why a room temperature can of beer won't get condensation when you put it in the fridge, but the old one already in there will get it if you open the door.
Ok so the fridge idea is doable, but a bit much. If you run a loop through a small refrigerated area ot can probably have same effect. Just gotta make sure the water loop has the radiator and reservoir in the refrigerated area.
Yes, and that you don't get the temperature in the loop too much under the ambient air temperature, because otherwise you will get condensation on the parts of the loop that are outside of the fridge.
Alright, so keep the tubes insulated? Not sure how much the price would shoot up. I guess I would have to make sure the cup & gpu blocks are insulated too.
If you control the cooling with a temperature sensor it's definitely doable, especially if you use a bigger reservoir - with a lot of water you should be able to pretty much keep the temperature swings in such a controlled system low, since the water will act as a temperature buffer.
Trying the whole thing out without valuable electronics is a must, though - that way you can test if you can keep below ambient but above the dew point.
Yes, you need to insulate all of the blocks, and most people cooling like this will pack the socket with a non-conductive grease. LTT has a video of their setup with a phase change cooler, you would need to insulate it similar to that.
So I'll just have it slightly below ambient. Its almost like I'm better off just setting the reservoir on top of an air vent lol Might not be worth all the trouble
No it's really not besides that there is little real advantage overclocking wise until you really hit sub 0 temps, Not to say you won't see any, just that it is unlikely that you will be able to push crazy numbers much past what a normal water cooled loop would do. Phase change can push the insanity clocks as it can cool below 0 however, it really requires full insulation, high end parts designed for L2N, and as always a chip that is able to clock well. Chiller units are really what you are talking about, however, as a practical matter they are used more so to replace radiators rather then lower the actual temperatures of the parts you are cooling. Performance PCs sells a few units if you are so inclined. http://www.performance-pcs.com/water-chillers
It is a fascinating topic for cooling enthusiasts such as myself, one day I will create a pc in a fridge that actually works, if one can lower the ambient temperature all cooling air, water, and otherwise become more effective on hot parts. The issue that I have been trying to figure out is how to dump waste heat from the system I.E. how to create effective airflow out of the unit without compromising the ambient seal of the fridge. the best I can come up with is use a liquid cooling system with an external radiator however this still exposes the water to the relatively much higher temperature air. This is pointless as the laws of thermo dynamics teach us heat dissipates faster based on the difference in temperature. Basically for this kind of system to work in the real world the fridge would need to have both a large volume of air to cycle and the ability to remove all the waste heat from components. Therefore I have deduced that a normal mini fridge would be unable to function in a sustained load environment. With a larger more powerful compressor and a better heat pump system you could in theory have systems working in sub zero temperatures with no risk of condensation. Just a thought
I say that it's a bit much, but I'm gonna end up trying this at some point. Just not now. Nice to know that it's possible to use phase change, but I gotta make sure everything is done correctly. It's probably gonna cost an arm and a leg, though.
