3M Novec 7000 Group - Page 6

Originally Posted by technogiant 


Would seem like an ideal solution, they have to use a condenser to cool and re-condense the vapor generated at the components, why not go that step further and force evaporative cooling of the main body of liquid, and novec 7000 would be ideal for this as having a boiling point of 34c would tend to evaporate easily, obviously there would have to be a two stage cooling process as your novec system would have to be sealed.....the second stage cooling system could also be a bong cooling system....like the idea.

Originally Posted by jaov2k 

I've been toying with this idea of the Novec 7000. I even called and spoke to the 3M rep in the area so I could get a 4oz sampleto experiment with it and different materials.

My original idea was to make an acrylic case (a single piece "desktop" style), put all the components in it, and seal it tight with a copper lid. The lid would have some fins and such, letting the novec condense back into the case.

The reason I actually entertained the idea was the fact that I live in an A/C environment that is constantly at 22C (72F), permitting the Novec to actually condense.

There's unfortunately, a very REAL problem with the Novec vs all other cooling solutions, which has already been mentioned, but is worth mentioning again. It's $400 per gallon.

There are many alternative cooling solutions for that kind of money. Will they be fanless? Probably not. Will they be power saving? Nope. The attractiveness of the Novec is that it cools your entire PC, not a few components, its quiet, and its passive. Unfortunately, even the smallest of custom made cases will require at the very least 2 gallons of the stuff (12"x9.6"x7"). This now puts you into the $800 area. If you start doing the return on investment math of the Novec vs the fans/water, phase change solution I'm sure you'll find that $800 will take longer to pay itself off vs kilowatt hours of the alternatives over the life of the PC. In other words, over an assumed 5 year life of the PC, it would be cheaper to operate a compressor and fans, than to shell out $800 for a couple of gallons of this stuff.

Alternatives do exist which have also been mentioned, the Dupont Vertrel stuff. I don't know the per gallon cost of this. The only con is the boiling point of the dupont vs the 3M, with the Dupont being higher at like 56C, I think.

One thing I did like about the Vertrel vs the Novec was its compatibility with many more plastics/rubbers than Novec. Novec only likes to play with hard plastics, meaning you have to use nylon gaskets or some of the pour in place gasket forming stuff. Where as the Vertrel does work with silicon rubbers.

A con for the Vertrel is that its not compatible with acrylic. this isn't much of an issue, but when it comes to case fabrication on a small scale acrylic is much easier to work with than the thermal plastics. Plus acrylic has some really cool optical/light properties that the thermals dont have. Novec is compatible with acrylic.

Anyways. This is as far as I've gotten with a Novec 7000 solution. I'm not sure if I plan to continue with it due to the upfront cost and the lack of justification of the long term. I'm sure not cooling the cmos battery or the PCI slots won't kill my mobo over the 5 year life of the PC.

-jaov2k

Originally Posted by jaov2k 

Ah. Indeed, in commercial application this is a very tempting solition. Considering the price of an HVAC along with its O&M.