Computer cooling

[Vanyel]

I was reading about water cooling your computer at PC World, it's listed as 1 of 5 Insane Upgrades that you should never do to your computer. Now I can see the dangers of using a water cooling system. Just like in your car hoses leak or break. But unlike your car you can't just pull over to the side of the road and let it cool down before you replace the busted hose (or tow it home and replace the pump.) Water in the computer is a bad thing.

However I was thinking of a slightly different way to keep your computer cool. Refrigeration. I'm not talking about putting your computer into a minibar type refrigerator, but an even smaller one that can seal around the front of the computer and keep the internal temperature of the box the tower is in at about a constant temperature of between 65º to 70º F.

Water or freon could be used as a refrigerant. It would be just like the big server rooms where place is always cold.

Would that work? Or would a shut down computer cool rapidly enough to produce condensation?

This is just another of those things I think of at 5 in the morning. When I get up I'll most likely see any flaws in my thinking and read about here too.

Please be kind.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

The condensation would be created by and/or on the cooling unit (condenser) itself, I would think.
You would be blowing the air across the cooling fins and into the machine.
So like an A/C, if the part with the condensation was technically outside the computer, You would only have to worry about catching the water somewhere.
Now finding or making a mini A/C, that's not as easy.
I wouldn't mind this myself, with a power supply fan, 2 case fans and a CPU fan, the damn thing might start flying around the place one day.
Though with the water cooling, the cooling unit might be able to be placed outside the case, and an unbroken, single piece of tubing could run inside the unit to do the cooling. I never looked too closely at this option, so I can't be sure I'm right about this.

 

[farmkid]

I have seen a number of refrigeration systems for computers. All the ones I've seen function by mounting the evaporator directly on the CPU. These systems are even more agressive cooling solutions than water cooling. The first system I remember was one that was sold probably 8 or so years ago. The case was divided into two sections--the top was a standard computer case and the bottom contained the compressor and condenser of the cooling system. When turned on, the cooling system would start first and then start the computer once the CPU reached -40C. It wasn't cheap, but it allowed for insane overclocks.

 

[Iasius]

LN2. It's the solution to everything.

 

[anti-matter]

Just hose it down...esp the fan with some compressed air and that'll keep it cool enough.

 

[26138]

Just turn the room your computer is in into a big freezer like they have in the back rooms of grocery stores for storing frozen food. The downside - you'll need a winter coat to read the TrekBBS...

 

[Brolan]

The article is tongue-in-cheek. They say you should never do it in the title, then they tell you the best way to do it in the rest of the article.

I've considered water cooling to cut down on fan noise from my machines but the idea of mixing water and electricity kills it for me.

 

[Vorik]

in general i NEED to find something to keep my computer cooler....i'll probably get a better fan but the main thing that happens is coupled with my Xbox it puts out a lot of heat and my room is always a little warm

 

[Jadzia]

The most appropriate cooling systems are peltier pumps. These are square plates of semiconductor material which you pass dc electricity through a pair of wires. One side of the plate cools as heat is pumped to the other side (which get hot). A 40mm square plate cost around £40 or $80, will run off the 12v line in your computer, and pump 10s of watts of heat. The hot side needs a headsink and cooling fan, and you can mirror this on the cool side.

You could mount this setup on the side of your PC, with the warm fan outside and the cool fan inside. They can create a temperature differential of 70'C. So the inside of your PC could theoretically be chilled to 70'C below your room temperature. IF the power transfer is high enough, you could then hermetically seal your computer to prevent humid air ingressing and condensing around the chilled components.