# Compact Refrigerated PC cooling suggestion



## KH0UJ (May 14, 2009)

hi fellow TPUers, i wanted to build another external refrigerated case that is smaller and only for the CPU tower,
i cant think of an exact design which is more economical while having the same benefits on my existing (bulky)
refrigerated case, i still wanted the blast type design so that if the refrigeration fails the CPU still 
survive cause it still has the air cooled heatsink, i still wanted to have an alternate method if the heat pump
fails, any suggestions on a typical external case design?

The goal is: Dustfree, Silent, and most of all Compact @ 15C/59F


My rig: http://www.techpowerup.com/gallery/2014.html


----------



## KH0UJ (May 18, 2009)

I guess i have to continue this project on my own


----------



## AphexDreamer (May 18, 2009)

I thought of an idea like this a while back but was shot down due to everyone claiming that the condensation that would form would kill my parts. Maybe you can pull it off if its at the right temp. Otherwise it looks great and good luck.


----------



## Geofrancis (May 18, 2009)

the problem is not condensation but trying to find a refrigeration system that can remove a 200W+ heatload from the entire system. a vapochill system can remove about 200w from a cpu alone and keep it just above freezing. but once you add things like psu northbridge graphics cards it all mounts up the other way i read about was passing a watercooling setup through a freezer ie leaving the resevior in a freezer or fridge but you cant let it cool below ambiant temp or you will get condensation.


----------



## Sir_Real (May 18, 2009)

I once had a play around with Refrigerating my case. My idea was to use a peltier for air cooling.
Basicly a small air conditioning unit to blow almost ice cool air into to case. 
I did build a prototype to test the idea but never bothered finishing this project. 
From my quickly knocked up prototype i concluded this defo works as the gpu cooler was blowing out 8c air. Much lower then the ambent temp of the room.
However i dought there was enough cool air blowing out to make much difference to the inners of a hard working pc. You would prob have to knock up a bigger version using 2 or 3 peltiers.







This cooler would have to sit outside the case blowing cooled air in through a vent. This cooler generates heat that has to be convected to the room & not inside the case.


----------



## Geofrancis (May 20, 2009)

i was looking at pelters on ebay you can get 200w ones for dirt cheap


----------



## KH0UJ (May 21, 2009)

*Peltier Cooler*



Geofrancis said:


> i was looking at pelters on ebay you can get 200w ones for dirt cheap



I think peltier cooling is the best bet when it comes to compact design, my rig can emit at least 400W of heat so I think im gonna need 10 pieces of 80W peltiers to give me at least 800W of refrigerating effect cause 5 peltiers is just gonna be equal to my room temp. I wanna achieve the 15 Celsius benchmark, I already had all the materials except for the peltiers, I think im gonna start saving today

Does anybody had an idea how long is the peltier`s lifespan?


----------



## crtecha (May 21, 2009)

A lot of it is based on heat cycles and how hot you let it idle.  I think if its over 90c they start to deteriorate.

This is a good article that I started reading when you posted this thread here


----------



## Sir_Real (May 21, 2009)

KH0UJ said:


> I think peltier cooling is the best bet when it comes to compact design, my rig can emit at least 400W of heat so I think im gonna need 10 pieces of 80W peltiers to give me at least 800W of refrigerating effect cause 5 peltiers is just gonna be equal to my room temp. I wanna achieve the 15 Celsius benchmark, I already had all the materials except for the peltiers, I think im gonna start saving today
> 
> Does anybody had an idea how long is the peltier`s lifespan?



How you planning on putting together this peltier cooling system? 

The obveus & prob most efficient way would be water cooling with a peltier water block. 
To try & keep all the air inside the case at a low temp seems unessersary. 
I had the ideir of using ducting something like vacumcleaner pipe to take the cold air blowing out my custom peltier air cooler directly to the cpu sink & gpu air intake. 


                Basic daigram.





I never bothered with this modd as it would most prob been quite noisy & would defo av looked a right mess !

Oh as for peltier life span?  Tens of Years !


----------



## Geofrancis (May 21, 2009)

if you were putting a pelter directly on the cpu you would have to insulate the board against condensation or find a way of automaticly varying the voltage to the pelter to keep the the temperature above ambiant as the cpu load changes. becasue if you had it set to keep the cpu at ambiant @ full load as soon as it goes back to idle the temp will droop and condensation will form.


----------



## Sir_Real (May 21, 2009)

Foam rubber around the cpu is the way peltier water block maufacturers have gotten around the condensation prob.


----------



## Fitseries3 (May 21, 2009)

this is not a good idea*.

most computers put out so much heat that they would overtake the cooling power of any fridge and a freezer would not cool fast enough to keep the air cool.

*it has been done but was a huge build that cost tons of money. the machine costs $$$ to even have it running. 






build log... http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=222942


----------



## Fitseries3 (May 21, 2009)

its completely rebuilt with a compressor that is 12x as powerful.


----------



## r9 (May 21, 2009)

@Fit I don`t think that it is the same design as the project you post. Yours is more like putting the whole PC in to the fridge this is more Air conditioner cooling type. Where you just put cold air in tho the case because the cooling is taking air from the room the air would be cold roughly the same whole time. But I`m just not too sure how cool it is going to be in from the start.


----------



## ZenZimZaliben (May 21, 2009)

If you raise the temp above ambient and then drop the temp below ambient. You will have condensation. There is no way to avoid this. Just ways to soak up the water. 

The only way to not have condensation form is to not have air. So the only way to achieve below ambient temps and not get condensation is if the pc is placed in a vacuum...By vacuum I mean removing all atmospheric pressure. IF there is no air (Oxygen,Hydrogen), there can be no condensation.


----------



## KH0UJ (May 22, 2009)

Fitseries3 said:


> this is not a good idea*.
> 
> most computers put out so much heat that they would overtake the cooling power of any fridge and a freezer would not cool fast enough to keep the air cool.
> 
> ...



Damn Bro!!!1/2 H.P. X2 that`s a lot of coldness acceleration you got there, 
I only need constant 15 C cooler, that`s an insane deep freezer you got there
-40 C, i think you dont need a fan anymore on the cpu and the VGA processors on that extremely low temperatures, my set-up can only emit 400 W of heat so i just need 800 W heat pump to divide the room temp. in a half ( 30 C divided by 2=15 C) anyways good job on the refrigeration system


My rig: http://www.techpowerup.com/gallery/2014.html


----------



## Nossy (Dec 25, 2013)

Fitseries3 said:


> this is not a good idea*.
> 
> most computers put out so much heat that they would overtake the cooling power of any fridge and a freezer would not cool fast enough to keep the air cool.
> 
> ...



This was exactly what im looking at doing but the constant power costs would be just plain crazy. Especially here in NZ. Im looking at a water cooled heat exchanger at the moment. There is always the peltier but working on them recently i just cannot guarantee how reliable they would be. Space isnt an issue with me as iv just bought a new house and retrofitting the sleepout into a man cave. So how would a wee glycol system work? Start with the plain water cooled units but instead of it going through a air cooled condenser it goes through a coil in a water bath that's say 5 degrees. That way the unit will have high capacity due to the glycol bath and give the compressor a cool down period. To control the set up you could also place a basic temp sensor that ensures the water is cycling at say 2.5-7.5ish degrees.


----------

