Radiant cooling computer. Would it work?

[ahenkel]

Could you take say 1/8th inch copper tubing and create a coil around the sides of a case and then find a way to pump a coolant through it and lower the ambient temp in the case? I guess you'd call it radiant cooling.

 

[Rifter]

Anything is possible with enough money and time. I cant see it being cheap though.

 

[dajeepster]

just buy a small fridge and put the computer in it

 

[ahenkel]

lol unfortunately that would put too much strain on the fridge trying to keep it at the temp I set would probably kill the compressor. Plus i'd like to be able to add the cpu and gpu to the loop.

 

[cbn]

Could you take say 1/8th inch copper tubing and create a coil around the sides of a case and then find a way to pump a coolant through it and lower the ambient temp in the case? I guess you'd call it radiant cooling.

This sounds like watercooling to me.

The only difference is how your proposed heat exchanger will work.

 

[cbn]

lol unfortunately that would put too much strain on the fridge trying to keep it at the temp I set would probably kill the compressor. Plus i'd like to be able to add the cpu and gpu to the loop.

I think it would depend on how poor the seal was inside the refrigerator.

 

[ahenkel]

The problem is regardless of how good the seal is the components generate heat. Which is the equivalent of leaving the door open. Also in a sealed unit the hot air has no where to go.

 

[cbn]

The problem is regardless of how good the seal is the components generate heat. Which is the equivalent of leaving the door open. Also in a sealed unit the hot air has no where to go.

As long as the heat generated isn't higher than the compressor's capacity there shouldn't be a problem right?

However, common sense tells me individual components on the PCB that run much hotter than the others should have their own heat exchanger (possibly outside of the case).

 

[aigomorla]

sounds like he wants to mount an AC in front of his computer.

 

[ahenkel]

I'm thinking more like the pex tubing under my grandparents tile in their house that depending on the season pumps cold or hot water. I have a Cosmos case that I would remove the soundproofing install a loop of cooper tubing then cover with a plate of something. Basically creating chilled walls then I would extend the loop to my cpu and gpu.

 

[wiretap]

just buy a small fridge and put the computer in it

Doesn't work. A refrigerator cannot keep up with the heat output.

 

[daw123]

Doesn't work. A refrigerator cannot keep up with the heat output.

That is what I thought, since a fridge is designed to get the insides cold to begin with (max. cooling input), then once the desired 'cool' temperature is reached it takes very little additional cooling to keep the insides at that temperature (provided you don't increase the temperature by leaving the fridge door open). This is unlike PC components which require lots of cooling all the time whilst they are working.

This is my simplistic take on what happens. Just out of interest, what are the technical reasons preventing a fridge from cooling PC components?

 

[wiretap]

The refrigerator removes heat. The heat exchanger of even a large refrigerator could not keep up. The computer is an active heat producer. The refrigerator would be running at 100% load trying to keep up, and it still wouldn't cut it. Just take a walk over to [H]ardForum.. it has been tried and discussed several times. Not only that, but if you did have a refrigerator large enough, you'd have to worry about condensation and defrost cycles.

If you want extreme cooling, use the compressor and stuff from a mini-fridge and make a phase change cooling system. You'll get really cold temps for the fluid flowing through your waterblocks.

 

[ahenkel]

Yes thank you this is what I was trying to explain.

 

[aigomorla]

If you want extreme cooling, use the compressor and stuff from a mini-fridge and make a phase change cooling system. You'll get really cold temps for the fluid flowing through your waterblocks.

no your not suposed to use a compressor for a fridge period.
Fridges are not meant to cool something. There meant to keep something cold.

Completely different aspect your looking at.

If you want to butcher a unit for the compressor, a simple window AC compressor is 100x better since they have longer duty cycles.

 

[smackababy]

If you were to do that, you'd have to worry about condensation wouldn't you?

 

[wiretap]

no your not suposed to use a compressor for a fridge period.
Fridges are not meant to cool something. There meant to keep something cold.

Completely different aspect your looking at.

If you want to butcher a unit for the compressor, a simple window AC compressor is 100x better since they have longer duty cycles.

Compressors from mini-fridges have been used by a few people with success. There's a guy on Extremeoverclocking.com that used one. It kept his AMD X2 3800 at sub zero temps, but he was a fool and he got condensation which fried his components. I'm sure it crapped out after a while too, because that's a lot of load for a small compressor. I'm just saying, it will work. I agree a stronger compressor should be used liked you mentioned -- the ones from air conditioning units or other active cooling products.

 

[ahenkel]

Yea that would be my biggest worry is condensation. I wouldn't want sub zero temp. I don't need ice on the walls.

 

[wiretap]

You can get condensation even without sub-zero temperatures. A chilled water setup can get condensation on the hoses, then it can drip onto your circuit boards depending on how your setup is. Insulation is key.

 

[Rubycon]

You WILL get condensation ANY time a surface drops below the ambient dewpoint. Maintaining exposed surfaces above the dewpoint at all times is key. Cold surfaces must be insulated. Sometimes resistance heating is used to keep areas above the dewpoint. These are often controlled by a device which calculates enthalpy by using realtime relative humidity and ambient temperature. This prevents condensation while maintaining a good cold plate temperature. It can also get very complicated not just setting up but maintaining such a system.

 

[nsafreak]

The op's idea is actually do-able but it's quite expensive. I can't remember the name of the manufacturer (I think it was VooDoo PC) but I distinctly remember a company making a completely silent PC with a combination of a specially made case and heat piping to all of the components. The heat pipes went to the case which was designed to disperse the heat to the outside. It could be done DIY I suppose but it would not be easy nor would it be cheap as there was a LOT of copper tubing involved.

Edit: Misread the op's original post and missed the part about using a coolant. What I stated above though has indeed been done by VooDoo before they were purchased by HP, it was called the VooDoo Eden DCC.

 

[ahenkel]

I believe the case you're thinking of was made by Zalman http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/noiseless-computing,741.html