Does anyone have any experience with liquid nitrogen?

[steveeast112]

Im thinking about overclocking my cpu. it seems that in terms of heat dissipation that liquid always works better than air. Water cooling is what a lot of people use. however, liquid nitrogen probably works better. anyone here have any experience with this stuff? i might want to use this. i could get some mad overclockage going. i know that one has to be pretty careful with the stuff, as you could lose a few appendages. so, any experience?

 

[Mikki]

What's your system?

 

[bgeh]

i don't think LN2 cooling is permanent

 

[steveeast112]

ive got a athlon xp 2800+, a7n8x motherboard, 2 sticks of PC2700, and a 400 watt poer supply.

 

[AbsolutDealage]

Originally posted by: bgeh
i don't think LN2 cooling is permanent

true. You will always have a certain amount of leakage in a system like this, not to mention the overhead (and cost) of keeping a resivoir cold enough to keep the nitrogen in liquid form. LN2 cooling is used as a "gimmick" kind of cooling, it is not a realistic long term solution. If you really want to try something like this, there are numerous examples of "extreme" cooling that you can find here and there on the web. Google it if you feel the need.

 

[ChampionAtTufshop]

LN2 is not a viable long term cooling method.
its often just used tosee what the highest overclock they can post and get a wcpuid shot at.

LN2 evaporates at a ratio of 2:1, and is colorless. it can completely displace the air you breathe very quickly if you are in a closed area, or not a very well ventilated one.

the best long term extreme coolig would be phase change
you can get subzero temperatures at idle, and around 0C at full load

 

[techfuzz]

All LN2 systems I have seen to date have been open-air systems. Not a single one has been a closed system thus the LN2 eventually evaporates away. I believe one of the major problems with LN2 and its use is that after a while condensation forms on the apparatus and can eventually short out the motherboard/processor. In a closed system you would have lots of problems removing the condensation from around the system to keep it from shorting anything.

techfuzz

 

[ChampionAtTufshop]

another option ive seen:

submerge the mobo, cpu, vid card in mineral oil
use a sord of copper pipe maze thing pushing something that wont freeze and become to viscous at the low temps
and use the LN2 to cool down that maze



it works, but is not a long term application

 

[ChampionAtTufshop]

also ive seen dry ice being used
submerge mobo in mineral oil
put dry ice everywhere
turn on

again, it works but dry ice also evaporates so also its not a long term applicatoin

 

[KingofFah]

Uh, doesn't liquid nitrogen explode or something if it hits its extremely low boiling point, or am I thinking of something else?

 

[ChampionAtTufshop]

Originally posted by: KingofFah
Uh, doesn't liquid nitrogen explode or something if it hits its extremely low boiling point, or am I thinking of something else?

im intrigued

but it cant be LN2 i dont think....
perhaps nitro glycerin?

 

[KingofFah]

That's the one!
I figured it could not be liquid nitrogen.