phase change setup question

[dz_jad]

I have a question about phase change cooling. I've been reading a little about it the past couple days, and I think I have a pretty good Idea about the phasechange, and also the refridgeration part of it, But I'm still curious about the type of application. I have heard of the waterchill and other ones, but I was wondering about an idea I had.
I want to be able to achieve extreme temps, but I also want to be able to be just ambient air-cooled. In shorter: I want to have sorta like a window/central AC unit, to blow through ducts or something, and the beable to disconnect and run off room-temp air with a normal Heatsink and such.
I just am curious if anyone has seen such a thing, or had any experience with it, or if anyone has ideas about a setup.
You would need to have the condensor (radiator type process) and then an evaporator (?) to blow off the achieved cool-ness stuff. How does that sound?
Ideas? Suggestions?
It'll be a while, as I wont have any time or funds for the next 6 months, but I'd like to study a bit!
Thanks!

[matttheniceguy]

The best way I can think of doing this would be a chilled water setup with an extra loop for a radiator which can be switched on or off. There are lots of threads and junk around explaining how to mod a small AC unit into a water chiller. When you want subzero temps just switch on the chiller, cut of the radiator from the water loop and watch the temps drop. When you don't want extreme temps, you could turn off the AC, and redirect the water loop to run through the radiator.

One thing I don't get would be the point of this setup. You will still have to go through all the insulation and everything. You will save on some power when the ac is shut off, but the setup will be even more complicated than just an ac chiller.

[dz_jad]

well, the purpose would be air cooling. I really dont want to go throught all the hassle of water-cooling, especially since most of the kits out there (I understand some home made stuff does better) is only as good as some of the good air heat sinks out there.
would I still need all the insulation if I just had, more or less, a custom AC unit blowing in through a duct.
well, my pattern of Ideas comes as this:
I desired better results
-I studied copper ( i have a slk800 at home) and all other materials like silver and synth-diamond
- I studied a little bit more about diamond, and figured, aint gonna happen on the small DIY scale-
- I found out overclockers.com had a forum, so I found extreme cooling
- hmm, nice stuff, so I studied it and began thinking of possible setups...I dont really want a water setup...
- bleh...well. I just want the accessability of just regular air-cooling with a nice chunck of copper and be able to put cold air on it.....

plus I'm just automatically attracted to a phasechange setup over a pelitier or anything like that.
are it possible?

[Ad Rock]

..plus I'm just automatically attracted to a phasechange setup over a pelitier or anything like that.
are it possible?

Well your current idea of just blowing cold air over your PC from an AC unit is not really phasechange. I am sure it will help to lower your temps by 5-10c but it really will not be that effective for the ammount of money/power that set-up will use.

The best solution like Matt said would be to make a liquid chiller unit and run chilled water to your system. You will have to insulate and it will be a lot of work but the results that you will see from that set-up will by far outproduce anything you could muster from blowing AC air into your case.

Also blowing AC air into your case would proboly yeild you the same OC as a highend watercooling set-up would. You would certainly have more heat capacity in the watercooling set-up than you would with just "chilled" air.

[dz_jad]

thanks, I sure appreciate it
i'll keep getting educated, and in a few months, I may have something to run with.

maybe I'll just end up running two rigs. One for portability (air) and then another one for extreme, like high-end processing and then cooling...

[Ad Rock]

thanks, I sure appreciate it
i'll keep getting educated, and in a few months, I may have something to run with.

maybe I'll just end up running two rigs. One for portability (air) and then another one for extreme, like high-end processing and then cooling...

A member on these forums Zork has 2 yes TWO complete phase-units in his main rig. You can go with phase and still be portable, it just takes a lot of knowledge and skill.

Also what is wrong with carrying around an extra bottom case whenever you lug your computer around? I mean its not like you could take your comp with you on the bus, might as well go all out if your going to do it :D.

[dz_jad]

Also what is wrong with carrying around an extra bottom case whenever you lug your computer around? I mean its not like you could take your comp with you on the bus, might as well go all out if your going to do it :D.
bleh. thats not my question.. I already had made up my mind on something to do, and asked if it were possible, not ask to have someone to try and talk me out of it using opinion.

so, here is another question: why would the Idea I had not work...you mentioned it would just be cold air in the case, but if its -10C cold air, versus +25C, it'd work good, would it not?
Are you saying that the phase change does not work without the great difference in temperatures? does it need the direct-die contact to reach extreme-extreme temps? If I know why it wouldnt work, I can come up with another Ider' maybe.

[Ad Rock]

bleh. thats not my question.. I already had made up my mind on something to do, and asked if it were possible, not ask to have someone to try and talk me out of it using opinion.

Fair enough but sometimes when you make up your mind to do something that really is just not a good idea in the first place you will be blinded to the much easier and more effective options available to you.

so, here is another question: why would the Idea I had not work...you mentioned it would just be cold air in the case, but if its -10C cold air, versus +25C, it'd work good, would it not?
Are you saying that the phase change does not work without the great difference in temperatures? does it need the direct-die contact to reach extreme-extreme temps? If I know why it wouldnt work, I can come up with another Ider' maybe.

You would not be able to achieve -10c cold air unless you were able to seal the system and recycle the chilled air, but with all the work that would be required to do that effectively you would be much better off just making a water chiller.

You really must remember the problems that condensation will create and it’s much easier to insulate specific regions rather that trying to insulate/seal your entire computer.

[dz_jad]

You really must remember the problems that condensation will create and it’s much easier to insulate specific regions rather that trying to insulate/seal your entire computer.

so...just blowing cold air through it would cause a condensation problem too?
i dont know the physics surrounding it, so I cant answer that myself.... :shrug:

[Ad Rock]

so...just blowing cold air through it would cause a condensation problem too?
i dont know the physics surrounding it, so I cant answer that myself.... :shrug:

It depends how cold the air is... the problem with that is for you too see any real benefits from running the chilled air is you have to run it at a temperature so low that you will see condensation. If you want to avoid condensation you would have to keep the air temps pretty high.

You could make an cold chamber like Bazx did and just totally seal off the whole mobo, but the results you would see from that would not be as great as just simply going straight to chilled water or direct die.

Here is his project: http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=420654&page=2&pp=30

[Time4aMassiveOC]

warm air hitting colder objects gets colder and loses its ability to hold as much moisture so it condenses.