You know.....I have this idea.....and I wonder....

[§hinoßi]

I was thinking about something. If i got me like a $50 like 1 cubic foot refrigerator and modded it to put comp parts in, i wonder how good it would cool everything?? Or like a modded Ice Maker (ok the second ones a stretch, but im serious about the refrigerator)

[Crax]

Only prob... Condensation. Electronics + H20 = Bzzzzzzad.

[omga14]

some fridges have preventors to condensation. usually not a $50 one though. check with the manufacturer and if they claim no condensation then try it on an old celeron or k6 setup. that way your only losing about 100 bucks.

[chris000001]

ive been wanting to try sumthing like this out for awhile....but my mom wouldnt let me so i have to wait till i go off to college...but thats less than a year away...but tell me how it goes if ya do it

[Colin]

As the other guys suggested condensation is the biggest problem with what you want to do. Also it's a bit wasteful to cool the entire PC, what you'd want to do is use that fridge cooling power on a point like a processor. If you do that it allows the CPU to run much colder than normal (in the negative temp range).

Wait, that's phase change cooling. ;)

[Crax]

And you still have to worry about condensation :) Ive heard of it working but the guys usually end up paying way more than they thought they would and the benefits really arent that great. Instead of having a loud machine they have a bulky fridge unit which is probably loud anyways...

[Colin]

Actually those "pre built" phase change coolers pretty much take care of any condensation problems! I leave my R404A Prometeia Mach I on pretty much 24/7 and when I take the thing apart, there's never any water! ;)

http://members.lycos.co.uk/csmo/Computer/Cooling/Prometeia/System_Front2.jpg

Actually the coolers aren't really that loud... The 120mm fans spin quite slowly, there is a low pitch hum from the compressor but that's about it. :) No where near the dB level of those Tornado's! :eek:

-35 to -40C load temps on CPU, -30C on the videocard and no condensation problems! :D Note, when I was figuring out how to condensation proof the videocard part it costed me three cards. :(

[Crax]

Well, I wasnt directly refering to prometias cause those are pretty costly anyways right? I was talking about the home made fridge-coolers. I saw a pic somewhere and it looked just beastly, and not in a good way. But I guess if you could work out the condensation problems it would work just fine.

[Colin]

Haha if I ever get off my lazy ass I'm suppose to build myeslf a cascade cooler and yes it'll be much bigger and uglier.

Condensation is a b*tch to deal with but a good amount of dielectric grease and neoprene should solve all. :D I had to make a custom mount for the Vapochill and it really wasn't that difficult once everything was done. :)

[§hinoßi]

colin thats exactly why i said a $50 refrigerator, to save me from a $1200 Mach II or whatever they are now :(

In conslusion....CURSE YOU AND UR AWESOME COOLING!!

[Nova]

mach 2's are 480$ i believe, and if your lucky you can still find some

i've also had this idea i've never went through with (a lot of reasons, mainly don't have tools, parts, garage etc.)

you get a phase change cooler, then you basically make a copper pipe with insulation around it, and its supposed to be something similart to watercooling but using a mixture of about 60% antifreeze and 40% water and the radiator being strapped to the side of the phase change cooler

[NotMyBest2Day]

an idea i had for refrigeration is get a watercooling kit..and just put the resivoir and/or the radiator in the fridge...chunk of aluminum in a refrigerator..i know from experience that gets pretty cold pretty quick..even with a $50 fridge. it would cool the liquid well below the ambient temp, but not too cold to condensate. *shrug*...this thread is just the drawing board anyways, right?

[gokusimpson]

Not for Colin, it isn't.

Colin: That's such a cool setup! Too bad I don't have the space/money to get that crap!

[Avid6eek]

I was thinking about something. If i got me like a $50 like 1 cubic foot refrigerator and modded it to put comp parts in, i wonder how good it would cool everything?? Or like a modded Ice Maker (ok the second ones a stretch, but im serious about the refrigerator) You must definetly check the specifications of that refrigerator. It doesn't take much energy for a small refrigerator to keep cool inside. For that reason, the cooling system probably could not handle the heat produced by a processor. You should definetly be looking for something that can at least be a freezer, just so you know it has a greater cooling capactiy. Even then, you have to look at the exact cooling specifications.

[Assimilator87]

As the other guys suggested condensation is the biggest problem with what you want to do. Also it's a bit wasteful to cool the entire PC, what you'd want to do is use that fridge cooling power on a point like a processor. If you do that it allows the CPU to run much colder than normal (in the negative temp range).

Wait, that's phase change cooling. ;)

I disagree. I think cooling the entire computer would be a better idea because instead of having one extremely fast component, every component would get good cooling and be able to be overclocked to fairly high speeds. That's why I'd rather have an Asetek Vaphochill case cooler over a Prometeia Mach II. I couldn't find any reviews of the case cooler, probably because it's around $2000? Colin, do you think you could try to get your hands on one to review. I've never wanted to see anything reviewed more than the Vapochill case cooler.

[Nova]

ok first off, you would need to create a vacum inside your pc so condensation won't occur, and the temperature would have to be insanely low not to mention the fact that you would need an enormous amount of insulation, ontop of that wiring would be a b1tch, and so would installing the cd-rom drives and lets not forget that there are moving parts inside your pc like the hard-drive, if lets say you turn off your pc, or it doesn't produce enough heat (hd) it could freeze up and stop spinning and its more effective to focus the cold on certain components like the cpu and gpu, there is no point in cooling your entire system since that would waste an enormous amount of power, and if you can't (witch you porbably won't) hit extreme temps around -30C the components will stay hot (not to mention that you need a vacum, and then it's kind of hard for the heat to be transfered from the components into the air since there is no air)

[bluegreenshxt]

Actually someone has tried to cool an entire system by submersing it in a nonconductive liquid. Of course the harddrives, cd rom, floppy drives, etc were left outside. Results were pretty good I think. But it was expensive.

[NotMyBest2Day]

i've got a couple 5-gallon cans of an electrical degreaser..it's non-conductive. supposedly you can submerse a running 480vDC motor into it and it's fine.