Idea to cool system for overclocking - put it in a fridge!

[Wiz]

I was thinking of buying a small fridge - one of those short 2.5 - 3 foot tall numbers and installing my system (or systems) inside it.
The newer fridges are all power misers, some even have a setting for "more or less condensation" so that seems to be adjustable.
I've thought of this before, as I've considered modding one of these to store a brewkeg.
It wouldn't be hard to mod one to house several mobo's & power supplies and it should be easy to maintain a nice cool temp to everything.
I suppose it would be hard to avoid condensation but maybe this could be minimized by putting absorbant stuff in there, there's some product out there that is this granular stuff you could spread out in the bottom.
Any thoughts? Anyone know if someone is already doing something like this and how it works?

 

[GrInNer]

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[Wiz]

Well yeah but then that would require a lot of hoses running out to 4 or more PC boxes and buying water blocks, pumps and all that stuff. I was thinking if you could put the systems
in the fridge that would eliminate all that other complication and expense.

 

[Wiz]

Heheheh...
Phatsyl just pointed this out: fridge

I can just see it now- cables out the back and a floppy and DVD drive mounted to the door... Man that would be one cool case! Of course I don't know if it has the kind of cooling capacity I am looking for - it might be enough for one system.

That shelf in there would have to go!

Looks like a job for the holesaw, recipro saw and plenty of RTV

 

[Wiz]

This one is bigger but could still fit on my desk top.
I could fit two systems in it easily, with room for a 6 pak of my favorite beverage!

 

[kgraeme]

Hey! I started planning the same thing. And the brew keg too!

 

[Maniac9127]

Most refridgerators are designed to fight heat coming from outside the fridge through the insulation, not 100 watts of heat coming from the inside. That fridge will die in no time.

<< I could fit two systems in it easily, with room for a 6 pak of my favorite beverage! >>

Yeah and every time you open it you'll get a nice coat of condensation all over everything, not good.

If you want to spend the money on repairing your refridgerator every once in a while, then go for it, but I would recomend against it

 

[StanFL]

Actually, you will probably want to avoid a teensy weensy fridge. If you take a empty fridge and put a jug of water in it and nothing else it will barely cool it. However if you put 10 jugs of water in it the temp will drop dramatically (after enough time for it to cool everything of course). Other cold things already in the fridge help cool off a new item when you put something new in. To take it a step further your now introducing heat generating componets (once a puter is inside) so the fridge will be asked to do something it isn't designed to do. So the best odds of success IMHO would be a fridge large enough to hold all the componetry and a VERY ample supply of bottled liquid to help keep the temps down.

And all the above is IF you can keep condensation under control. Pshew...sounds like work.

 

[Wiz]

Well, it's just an idea. I know condensation would be an issue and I do appreciate the
thoughts about having a load of cool stuff in there to keep the temp down.
Thermodynamics and all that. I actually wouldn't be opening it much after getting it running.

 

[Belegost]

I would think this would be a good case for submerging the entire system in precision machine oil.

 

[Wiz]

I saw pictures of a project where a guy was doing that, seems he ran into some troubles though.

I know someone who was experimenting with that back in the 80's - he said they settled on using ultrasonic vibrations to get all the air pockets out from under the components.
Trapped air of course would cause hot spots.