Condensation

[altec]

If I threw a bunch of ice cubes into a resovior to get the water just above freezing, would that cause condensation? If it does, what are the major risks with condensation, and why does everyone avoid it so much? Thanks

[frostmeister]

If you took the temperature of the water below the dewpoint then yes, it would cause condensation. You need to avoid condensation because moisture forming on your pipes / blocks and anything you're cooling below the dew point can drip on your mainboard / graphics card and damage it / short it out / corrode it. That's why people insulate any part of their cooling rig that goes below a few dgrees below ambient temperature. Ask the guys who use tecs/peltier modules to cool their CPUs about this. Needless to say, you want to be insulating it.

[altec]

Oh ok, for some reason, when someone told me of the condensation problem of doing this, I thought that they meant that condensation would form inside the components. Thanks for clearing that up.