Well I've seen many posts,reviews nd questions about these GROSSLY overpriced so called "phase change" cooling systems. All they are is a refrigration system to directly cool your cpu.
This weekend I hope to take my out of case ystem and stuff it in my beer frdge, no modding to the fridge just basically sitting my pc in a refrigerator and seeing how cool I can get my cpu atile nd with sisandra burnin.
my thoery is that I can get enough cooling from $20 dorm fridge to make these expensive cooling systems
look as overpriced as they are. I on't consider this a worklog worthy thing since I'm not doing any work other than relocating my pc for a bit. If it should be there feel free to move. well stay tuned,I'll attempt on saturday.

Say goodbye to your hardware. Something I learned in my few early years of school... when the atmosphere surrounding an object is cool, and the object produces heat, condensation will occur. If it was as easy as you said, don't you think all of us would have computers in a beer fridge?

mmmmm beer.......

However beer + dead computer =

I also must say that is a really bad idea...

You can always do what I did, make a copper heat pipe for you water cooling system and mount that in a small fridge. It worked too however did not improve my temps all that much...

Nice try, but your going to do nothing more than make yourself look like even more of an idiot. Listen to the BigDog and save yourself the trouble of explaining to the RMA guy just WHY you put you PC in a fridge.

Stock up on lots of beer. You'll need something to drown your sorrows after
your PC drowns in the condensation.

condensation only happens when an object is below the dew point in any given atmosphere
unfortunatly I was on call and was not able to do this but ! to alleviate any concerns about condensation
I will hook up my vacuum pump to the fridge to eliminate any moisture.
how can I do this?? In a refrigeration system when any repairs are made it's open to the atmosphere,
ANY moisture in bad !
By pulling a vacuum (200 microns) you bring the boiling point of water to down to almost below freezing
In all honesty I had not considered the points on the system that would be at dew oint because of the heat from the cpu, however if a pc is in a refrigerated space with enough air flow condensation won't be an issue.
my reasoning is I worked on a refrigeration system for a company that keeps their servers in a walkin cooler controlled at 38F all the time. the difference between their setup and my idea is that they have some serious airflow going in their rack systems and shut down saturday night for "dusting" all the while the room is kept at 38F. After your posts I researched this further and found that all there cpu's are at 39F all the time
with a second backup refrigeration unit thos systems are always cool!
maybe this hair brained idea will wait till I get my hands on an older system thats worthless but sill works.
It just amazes my that for less than $200 in parts their selling a "refrigeration system" for a pc and calling it phase change to make an xtra $700.
I've been doing refrigeration for 15+ years now just to prove I can do this I will look for ann acceptable
candidate for experimentation. Perhaps even my chest freezer instead of beer fridge
just cause I can.
btw kratos I can't stand idiots, I'm not an idiot.. I just havn't looked at all the aspects of trying to do this
true condensation will occure if steps are not taken to eliminate it . and yes just stuffing my mobo
in a beer fridge is hairbrained on second thought.........ok... fine I'm an idiot

all that doesn't matter a refrigerator doesn't have the cooling power to cool your computer. a frig works by cooling the keeping the cooled thing cold. it just cant disperse enough heat to keep your syster cooled. your system constantly puts out heat and the frig just cant keep up. you might be able to get away with it for a few minutes, but i think you'd be luckly if you get 30 minutes. the frig just isn't buff enough. and dont think a freeser would be better, its the same type of system. it just gets colder.

dont do it.

Quote: Originally Posted by elfuego all that doesn't matter a refrigerator doesn't have the cooling power to cool your computer. a frig works by cooling the keeping the cooled thing cold. it just cant disperse enough heat to keep your syster cooled. your system constantly puts out heat and the frig just cant keep up. you might be able to get away with it for a few minutes, but i think you'd be luckly if you get 30 minutes. the frig just isn't buff enough. and dont think a freeser would be better, its the same type of system. it just gets colder. dont do it.

Exctly, a fridge is designed to remove heat from things not creating heat. Buy a phase changer, I have one i wana get rid of, you will be more than pleased.

I in no way wish to start an argument, however any and all refrigerators and freezers that use
refrigerant have a btu capacity,meaning they can move x amount of btu's an hour.
the small fridge I got easily has enought capacity to handle my cpu. meaning it can keep my cpu temp. below ambient with room to spare. I'm not trying to toot my own horm but after 17 years doing refrigeration
a device measuring about 1" square operating under 12v being cooled by a 1 pound copper heatsink with
something like 72 cfm is not enough of a heat load for me to worry about.
as an example, a few months ago I was using an aquarius wc setup with 1/4" lines and my only method of cooling was a 2' piece of 1/4" copper tube bent in a circular coil submersed in a 1 quart tupperware dish
with a hand full of ice cubes in water and my cpu cooling block was sweating with 38F registering on mbm5.
I'm not running wc right now but I am working on hooking it back up, when I do ( I will document this with pics) I'll ONLY use that 2' copper loop inside my fridge as a radiator. Meaning....pump,cpu heatsink and copper loop inside fridge.
I realize you guys don't know me from the next guy, and I admit that putting my entire mobo in the fridge was not.....entirely.......well thought out.
But to prove my point I will put my cpu where my mouth is.
Hey look at it this way... If I'm wrong then you can give me the Pimp Rig dumb #$^ of the year award.
I'll keep you posted. Have a Happy Holiday!
(btw I mean no disrespect to anyone by my response If I offended anyone I apologise)

Good luck - Umm... just to be safe, why not get some dessicant bags to put in there too (most packaging places sell them) - they're cheap and, well, it can't hurt

Ok check this out! I got antsy and decided to hook up the wc right after I responded,
been up nd running now for about an hour just browsing and writing this my cpu is at
Ta Da! 69 deg. F!!!
I took some soda line off my truck to run the lines inside my fridge. drilled 2 holes in the fridge
for the wc lines, purged the ystem and hooked everything up.
I don't have a test psu so I just swapped heatsinks and fired up the system going right to bios.
temp stayed stable at 80 F then slowly dropped to 69F.
I'm going to set my temp. safeties at around 125-130F and leave the system running overnight.
Here are pics or the work and a screen shot of mbm5 dashboard
yes I will say it I Told You So!

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Wait... Is the whole PC in the fridge, or just your res?

If it's just your res, then interesting idea. Cheap alternative to phase change.

Otherwise, I'll see you in the Trading Post trying to replace some ruined gear.

That is coo, let us know the temps after a night in there.

I did a very similar thing with my setup. I made a large copper rad with 1/2" copper pipe, and then gently bent the cooling part of the fridge to go in between the rad. After hooking it up and letting her run for a night my temps were not any better. The fridge was empty so maybe that made a diff. Also I could not turn the fridge all the way up because my coolant would freeze

.....

I think I might try it again with some new coolant that can handle those temps without freezing.

Here is a pic of the rad I made....

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just the radiator, from previous ddiscussion i realized I could not effictively control
condensation on the mobo.
as an update I ran prime 95 then cpu burnin and the temp only got to 77F
it's like 80F in the house now so I'm still cooler than ambient.
I only ran for ten minutes,I don't want warm beer.
If this stays working this good I'll have to think about incorperating this some how with my new case
I'm working on.

icEmage, not to nit pick but looking at your rad your not getting full flow through it.
look at the in and out connections and think path of leastresistance. Meaning the
water is flowing to the first "t" going over to the other and out. the majority of your rad
is not getting any flow.
Try getting 2 three foot sections of 3/8" copper, and bend them both in a spiral pattern
and hook them up in parallel to each other.
the smaller tubing will increase the surface area for heat transfer and having 2
will equal the same flow as 1/2"
I'm running straight water with no antifreeze. I should not have a freezing problem
as long as I maintain flow.

In traditional WC setups anti-freeze or simiar product isn't used to prevent freezing, but to prevent corrosion.

Quote: Originally Posted by Executioner icEmage, not to nit pick but looking at your rad your not getting full flow through it. look at the in and out connections and think path of leastresistance. Meaning the water is flowing to the first "t" going over to the other and out. the majority of your rad is not getting any flow. Try getting 2 three foot sections of 3/8" copper, and bend them both in a spiral pattern and hook them up in parallel to each other. the smaller tubing will increase the surface area for heat transfer and having 2 will equal the same flow as 1/2" I'm running straight water with no antifreeze. I should not have a freezing problem as long as I maintain flow.

After running the rad and working with it I know coolant is running throught the entire rad. I agree that I could get better surface area however I do not what to inpeed the flow with smaller tubing.

Quote: Originally Posted by TiZakit In tradition WC setups anti-freeze or simiar product isn't used to prevent freezing, but to prevent corrosion.

That and that nasty green stuff that grows in fish tanks

grah, I hate cleaning that from my tank, I wish fish wouldn't die with that stuff in there.

But isn't that stuff photosynthetic? Meaning it needs light to survive?

Quote: Originally Posted by TiZakit grah, I hate cleaning that from my tank, I wish fish wouldn't die with that stuff in there. But isn't that stuff photosynthetic? Meaning it needs light to survive?

yep it is a plant thus it lives off of light, just put your fish under the sink

Although they have found some that can live near volcanic vents under the ocean where there is no light

And I think some fish can live just fine in it, I have seen tanks in stores that were full of it and the fish were fine. My mother had 3 tanks (one 30gal. and two 10gal) and the big problem with hers was the Ph of the water.