Built It Yourself: Phase Change Cooling.

[Avid6eek]

Has anyone ever planned on building their own phase change cooler? Just wondering. I was looking at the price of a Vapochill LightSpeed, and was wondering if I could make a better cooler myself with the $800. Has anyone else attempted this? thought about attempting this?

[ElrichMeister]

didnt one of those guys who have the highest 3dmark scores do their own i forgot his name, i think they were called dual cascade, and they use laboratory freezer compressors

[PCgeek]

I always talk about my uncle making me one. But he works a lot and he fought with my mom a while ago so I haven't seen him. If he shows up he could hook me up with a compressor for about 150 and he can grab the rest of the parts from his van :D Only thing is it takes a while to build, and I said b4 he's busy...

[Avid6eek]

didnt one of those guys who have the highest 3dmark scores do their own i forgot his name, i think they were called dual cascade, and they use laboratory freezer compressors I'm pretty sure everyone in the top few spots in the 3DMark Hall of Fame has built their own Cascade. I was thinking of starting off a little smaller than a dual phase cascade. I'd be happy with single phase. My budget for the project would be anything less than the cost of a Vapochill Light Speed ($820) that can give similiar performance.

Has anyone read any good articles about building your own?

[Devils00Champs]

CrazyPc.com is still offering the Prommy Mach I for sale for $550

[Avid6eek]

CrazyPc.com is still offering the Prommy Mach I for sale for $550 I need performance! I don't think a Mach 1 will get my Athlon FX up to 3.5Ghz :p

[Devils00Champs]

You can always change the gas to R440, and since when are you getting an FX?

[Avid6eek]

You can always change the gas to R440, and since when are you getting an FX? If I spend that kind of money on phase change cooling, I wouldn't use it on a $200 processor. The unlocked multipliers would be a huge help in reaching a maximum overclock. None of this will happen until they convert the FX line to 90nm.

[Assimilator87]

Eh, I say get yourself a Mach II GT if you can find one and wait for the dual core FXes. Why phase change only one core when you can kill two birds with one stone? lol :D By that time, the Athlon64s will have converted to DDR2-SDRAM so you can keep 1:1 with the bus speed.

[Avid6eek]

As long as socket 939 sticks around for a while, now would be a good time to get a compatable phase change cooler. I like the Vapochill LightSpeed Revision 2. It performs better than the Mach II GT, and Vapochill is still around to support it in the future. Suxs that nVient went under.

[Avid6eek]

After doing more and more research, I have definelty decided against building my own phase change cooler. It is way to expensive, and you can't even run the things 24/7. That's a waste. I'd rather buy a pre-built one. I could have sworn that someone in the forums was working on their own cooler. I'll have to look it up in the mod section.

[GNXtreme]

This is kindof off topic but I plan on building a peltier type water cooler for my next rig. I had this idea when I was building my cooler case this spring.

[Avid6eek]

Peltiers are pretty awsome as well. They do draw alot of power, so another PS will be needed. My current plan, although extremely expensive is to have dual peltier cooled SLI 6600GTs, and a Vapochill LS to cool my processor. I don't know if I'm going to actually go through with it. Right now there are no motherboards for socket 939 processos that are awsome overclockers. Because the multipliers are locked on the Athlon 64's, I'd end up having to buy a pretty expensive one, just to get a high enough multiplier. The reason why I would not get a mobile A64 is that they are OEM. There is a good chance I may kill the processor in a couple months, then I'd be stuck paying for the new one. My goal would be 3.5Ghz. I think it can be done with a 90nm A64. That would easily hold me over for a year until dual core processors begain to show up.

As much as I love my new laptop, I almost have it all paid off already. I may sell it to fund my desktop projects :)

[Chipmonk010]

i suggest trying to build a phase change setup, there are many ways to do it really cheep, im curently building one all total i think im gonna spend maybe 50 bucks on parts. compressors are really easy to get for free. yes FREE. theres an appliance place near my house and when they deliver a new fridge they pick up the old one and throw it in a junk pile in the back....i got permition to salvage anything i want and i got a nice lil working compressor for nothing. i built the condenser out of a coil of 1/4" id copper tubing placed inside a piece of 4" pvc (debating whether to water cool or fan cool the condenser) so whats that leave 20 bucks worth of tubing some valves for charging no more then 5-10 bucks cap tube for 10 bucks and its built. next thing is charging equipt. if your interested i can give you links to where to get that stuff cheep to.

Chris

[§hinoßi]

colin told me not to go with mach's because their company is going out of business and u wont get support for future cpu's

he recommended a vapochill. The reason ppl build their own is because they can get the temps lower themselves. a bought vapochill or mach will get u to like -30C load, but if you build one (highly unsafe, could explode lol) you can get -100C load, plus its cheeper. what i wonder is, are u gonna get a better overclock in -100C than -30C

[Chipmonk010]

what i wonder is, are u gonna get a better overclock in -100C than -30C
Definately!!
Well anyway what i heard is because of the way CMOS based chips (CPUs) work, in a linear fashion they perform better the lower the temp. (has something to do with how semiconductors work) and this is with NO overclocking at all. so if you ran a benchmark at stock speed stock fan and then another at stock speed -30 and one at -100. the bench would get better and better the colder you go.

anyway you can make a -50 phase change unit that is vary safe and the only difference with a -100 unit is using gas under higher preasure, which just means you cant do anything stupid, its still do-able.

Chris

[Assimilator87]

Shiz, you should go to Xtreme Systems forums. There's tons of people with phase change experience and a lot of them are HVAC certified.

[Avid6eek]

I have decided that if I use phase change cooling, I will be using a Vapochill. I do not have the time to build my own unit. Dual phase cascades cannot run 24/7 anyways, where as a Vapochill can. I want this system to be functional, in addition to running low temps/high overclocks.

We'll just have to wait and see what my budget can afford.

[PCgeek]

Colin was the one working on the dual cascade... I think he's far too busy for it though... Maybe he scrapped it.

Oh no wait, Colin was thinking about it. IOU was the one working on one. Its was only single phase though, but he had pics and ************************...

[Avid6eek]

That's right...it was IOU. I don't remember if he ever got it finished....he just kinda disappeared.

[PCgeek]

Hes dissapeared before... he should come back

[Sadistic]

I know nothing of water or phase change cooling, other than the phase stuff seems expensive, and pretty much all of the "ready-to-go" watercooling setups on the market right now suck in terms of C/W.

However, this idea of DIY, cheap, sub 0 temps intrigues Teh SaDiStic. Post us a lil how-to Chipmonk

[Chipmonk010]

first of all i am by no means an expert or anything, this is the first time i have attempted phase change and its still a work in progress.
heres a link that will walk you through the basic setup and construction of a phase change unit.
http://www.vr-zone.com/index.cgi?i=714&s=1
the author does a pretty good job of explaining things what he doesnt really dicuss is the most important thing COST!!
thats what ill try to put in perspective.
Compressor: free, look for an appliance place that delivers refridgerators and picks up the old ones. usually they just throw the old ones away theres either nothing wrong with them or something that doesnt matter when it comes to the compressor. your local dump is also a good place to look, as well as the side of the road, if someones throwing out a window ac unit or a fridge, or freezer grab it! if all else fails you can buy a compressor new from here http://www.coolfreeze.com/mail-order/catalog.htm
i havent used this site but heard good things about it.
extracting the compressor from the fridge is pretty simple us a par of bolt cutters, pliers, pipe cutters whatever to cut the copper tubing going into the compressor. when you cut the first tube chances are gas will come out with a hissing sound, but dont freak its harmless.
next part
Condenser: free or fabricated very cheep
your could either scrounge this off a fridge also or build one by coiling a 20' role of 1/4' copper tubbing into a coil that looks like a spring a putting it in a piece of 4' PVC pipe. (construction instructions and pics here:http://www.wc101.com/guides/refridgeration/page2.php )
cost 7bucks for the tubing and if you goto home depot and get 4' PVC Sewage Pipe is 5 bucks for 10 ft(dont get the thick walled stuff since its 3 times the price and not needed. then just slap an 80mm fan on there a boom condenser.
running tally 12 bucks
next big item is the evaporator
made up of the filter/dryer, capilary tube and block for the cpu
filter/dryer: took mine off the freezer i got the compressor from for pics of what the think is and does visit the first link cap tube can be bought here
http://www.rparts.com/Catalog/Major_Components/valves/txvs.asp
10 bucks for that
the cpu block is probly the hardest thing to make im making mine out of the metal plate from my old volcano heatsink and 1/2", 1", 1 1/2", and 2" copper caps. a plate can also be bought from www.dangerden.com for 5 bucks + about 8-10 bucks for the caps
tally 30 bucks
you will need a 2 shrader valves for charging the system 2 bucks a piece here
http://www.rparts.com/Catalog/Major_Components/valves/solenoid_valves.asp
32 bucks the thing it built
you will also need a set or charging guages to get the refridgerant in
30-100 bucks goto www.harborfrieght.com and search for "manifold gauge"
i ordered the 30 dollar one.
a vacuum pump harbor frieght 15bucks (an awsome price) again just search for vacuum pump
a 30lb tank of propane 30 bucks 10-20 to fill it (thats what it cost where i am could be cheeper)
one more shrader valve to hook tank up to gauges 2 bucks
10' copper tubing to hook it all together 5 bucks
132 bucks!!!!
plus any tools that you dont have:
brazing torch and rods 30 bucks
flaring tool 15-20
pipe cutter 5-10

thats it! a premade unit costs upwards of 800 - 1000

good luck ;)
Chris

P.S with the stuff i just listed you could expect a cpu temp or -30 to -40 *C!

[Geedy01]

you know i actually watched on a show the screen savers, they have this guy yoshi that does mods all the time. the one time they showed his actuall computer. He had a something clocked up over 4.2 gigs. In his cooling system, he has pure silver running through the tubes. But anyways, in another show, he talked a little about making your own water cooling system and it actually seems really hard. not only will you have to mod your case to hell, especially the top for the refrig type part, but shiz, if you don't like messsy wiring, imagine alot of thick tubing running all over the place. If you do this though, i would like to see how you handled all the tubing, i'm shur it would look awesome.

[PimpMySystem]

4.2 Ghz doesnt suprise me at all to be honest. If you have a phase cooler like chipmonk
and a intel CPU of 3.73 Ghz it is a easily done if you have a good mobo it might be even
better than that see http://www.intel.com/products/processor/pentium4HTXE/index.htm
(and with might i realy mean might i havent seen it myself yet)