mothergoose729

Any idea, suggestions, or flaws in this design would be appreciated.

I am getting a little ahead of myself a bit, because I want to first put my computer under a good water kit before doing this, but I have been cooking up this idea for a custom case. The idea behind it revolves around a lot of Plexiglas and and a freezer unit (like from a refrigerator). I want to try and incorporate your average radon based refrigerator in the equation in a stylish way that takes into account the obvious problems with condensation.

My plan is to remove the actual cooling unit itself either from a standard fridge or a mini freezer (probably something about 2" by 4" in size). The guts of it, or rather the coils, will be used to cool a small vat of water. I am not sure yet if it will be best to run the coils through the tank or have it blow like a fridge against it. The water will be mixed with some UV friendly dyes and anti freeze. A standard water cooling kit will be housed in air tight compartment beneath this water. The resovior, pump, ect will be in air tight compartments. The tubing will run through the water, into a small case that houses my motherboard, CPU, GPU, and various addon cards. All of which will be suspended at the bottom of the case, where the cold water should sink, in an airtight sealed compartment with all the hotest parts. It will be fitted with water blocks for the GPUs, CPU, and northbridge. No water or frozen air will blow on these parts. The idea is that the water cooling kit will take heat away from the components, through this water (which I want to cool below freezing with the aide of antifreeze), and back into the pump and resevoir. The water around it will also cool the plexiglas case that motherboard sits in, which will hopefully lower the ambient temps inside it to under forty degrees farenheit, or 10C.


To give you a better idea of what it looks like, here is a rudomentary text drawing...


l .................................... l
l .....................................l
l .....................................l
l .............Water tank.........l
l ...............-------- ..........l
l ...............l mobo l ...........l
--------------------------- l
The motherboard will rest on the back and the outside of the case will be cut so that that the usb, DVI ports ect can be accessed from the back. Rubber and cocking will be used to seal any loose space. Everything that goes into the building of this part of the case is very permanent at the moment.... at least witht the design I have in mind.

Long cables will run from the motherboard (for power, reset, and sata cables, ect). to a dry part of the case underneath. This will house my power supply, hard drives, CD drives, ect. Some low CFM quite fans will circlate air through it on the sides. Every place where sata cables, water tubing, power supply cables, ect comes through will be sleaved and the wholes sealed with weather sealant.

The case itself will be made mostly of 1/8th inch plexiglass and tin rivets along the edge, mostly for aeshtics. I currently have at my disposal a diamond cutter ( a rather sharp buzz saw) that will be used to cleave it neatly, hopefully without cracking it.

The goal is to create a case that look pretty good and lowers temps on my hotest parts like a monster.

Problems: I am not sure how the mounting of the freezer unit will take place, or if it is safe to run the coils through the water which should cool it the best. I want to find a way of being able to salvage the heat sensor so i can set it to cool at a reasonable temperature that won't strain it to the point of blowing out if heat becomes a difficult thing to deal with. Also, I can't think of a good way of making sure the motherboard compartment is well sealed while still being able to have a way of removing and changing it out if needed. Same goes with most of the water cooling kit. Right now I plan on having a lid at the top of the case. The motherboard would have a lid bulted down on it top of it as well, so that need if be the tank can be drained, the bolts on the motherboard compartment removed, and parts fixed. I also want to find a way of incorporating copper or some sort of heat transfering metal into the air tight motherboard compartment, to provide better heat transfer. Problem is, water corrodes.

Any idea, suggestions, or flaws in this design would be appreciated.

Veltri

Wow, that was fairly protracted. I have no idea why you would go to the trouble of sealing everything in airtight little compartments. That will get you about 3C better than just good airflow. I cannot say I'm entirely sure what you are talking about but I will broach what I can.
First, without a doubt, it would be best to stick the coils (we call it an evap) in a vat of water. Blowing cold air on the water will mostly just speed up it's evaporating into the atmosphere. That being said, I don't think you will find a freezer that you can disassemble without either draining the refrigerant or having looking really crappy.

Regarding the the rest of this I have absolutely no idea what you are really getting at. I am entirely interested in your project but I don't understand it. The airtight business is retarded and is neither useful nor sensible. I don't know why you would go to so much trouble when in the end this will cool worse than a hacked AC.

Here is a link to a TEC AC'd case if this is what you are kinda getting at.
http://metku.net/index.html?path=rev...8200/index_eng

__________________
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e6300 489x7 @ 1.7V
8800GT (vmem, vcore) 780/1800/2000
MCR320, MCP655, MCW60

Noam Chomsky FTW

mothergoose729

The link was interesting, yet at least as impractical as my design.

The problem with blowing directly on it is that AC create a lot of moisture which turn into condensation on the much warmer components. The "air tight" is neccessary to lock out water.





Wholes will be drilled for wires, cables, and tubing. All of which will be sleeved. The wholes will be filled with weather sealant.

Better?

Veltri

I'm still not entirely sure what you are doing but note that just because it's airtight doesn't mean it will have no moisture in the compartment. You could put silica sand/beads in it if you wanted. Or you could vacuum the compartments but that would likely destroy everything in it. I dunno, man.

__________________
Waterboard
P5B Vanilla (vdimm, vdroop, vcore)
e6300 489x7 @ 1.7V
8800GT (vmem, vcore) 780/1800/2000
MCR320, MCP655, MCW60

Noam Chomsky FTW

mothergoose729

Hmm.... yeah.

Other opinions.

Reflexive

Sealing it doesn't make it condensation free, displacing the sealed boxes air with nitrogen would though. However using air condition in a sealed air box, the ac evaporator will accumulate all the moisture for sure.
Also, refrigeration systems do not use Radon, far off on that. But a freezer or fridge will not work either, search for "fridge" on this site to find a few hundred explanations on why.

mothergoose729

You all seemed to be missing the idea. The motherboard is sealed by it self in a seperate compartment indepent of the freezer or of air. Condensation can only occur from the air that comes in contact with the hot components of my computer. So only the accumulated moisture inside the motherboard inclosure can evaporate and become vapor, and seeing how that is a very, very , very ,very small amount it won't be an issue.

Basic science leason, condensation occures from accumlated moisture from air blowing agains the warm components. The air goes through, the hot CPU and GPU cause the water contained in the cold air to evaporate and condense on the components, the oxygen, CO2, and other components of good old air exits again. No new air equals no new moisture. Which is why sealing the motherboard in an air tight comparment will eliminate any real threat of condensation. Again, on the moisture contained inside the enclosure when it is sealed can evaporate so long as no new air is introduced. Computer parts don't sweat.

The freezer is going to freeze the water around the case. Or rather make it very cold, I want to mix the water with antifreeze so that it won't actually solidify into ice. The motherboard itself will not be in any direct contact with the freezer or airflow from any freezer. If I misinterpreted anything anybody has said feel free to correct me, but condensation is not going to be an issue, at least with the motherboard, GPU, CPU, and memory.

Reflexive

You are incorrect actually. Condensation is the process of liquid vapor CONDENSING onto COLDER components, not onto HOTTER components. Also you'd be very surprised how much moisture is in a "sealed" box big enough to hold your motherboard. More then enough is the proper amount.

mothergoose729

I think I will be ok. The box itself will be less then 1 cubic foot. Although I appreciate your clarity on the subject.

Veltri

Ok, I got it now. It still seems to me to be a monumental amount of work and ultimately not worth it considering the labour and expense. I can, however, imagine how it may look pretty cool. I hope you build it and post photos.

__________________
Waterboard
P5B Vanilla (vdimm, vdroop, vcore)
e6300 489x7 @ 1.7V
8800GT (vmem, vcore) 780/1800/2000
MCR320, MCP655, MCW60

Noam Chomsky FTW