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How to make a cheap-chilled loop 56k beware

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4od

Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2006
Location
Westchester, NY
I recently came across an airconditioner a neighbor was throwing out and i thought, well, what the hell. The result is a chilled waterloop (and really cold case) that cost me absolutely nothing.

My case as it looked early yesterday, before installation...
DSCF2100.jpg
You can see the radiator is getting the hot air left over from the hard drives...
DSCF2103.jpg

As you can see from the pics below, the airconditioner will blow air into the radiator intake, to direct the flow, i plugged up most of the airconditioner output, and use ducting to make a channel into my comp.
I needed some insulation, so i did some heavy ghetto modding. the cloth on the sides of the air conditioner is old curtain, and the rest consists of an old sheet, a pair of pajama pants, and some boxers (all ripped up)...
DSCF2105.jpg
Attached to the airconditioner by tape (and magic)...
DSCF2106.jpg
attached to the case by twist-ties, tape (and magic)...
DSCF2107.jpg
You can see how the cool air flows right into the radiator
DSCF2111.jpg
My "new" system, considerably more spread out, and infinitely colder
DSCF2110.jpg

I'm very happy with the temps. Prescott 3.6ghz @ 4.25 is ideling at 17c SEVENTEEN CELCIUS! pretty sweet, and under load it barely scratches 35c
Only downside is the noise+electricty. I'm afraid ill break a fuse =(

glam pics!

DSCF2108.jpg

DSCF2109.jpg
 
sweet. i wonder what i could do with that.

are there any more practical solutions that dont involve extreme ghettoness/major mod?
 
thats the most ghetto mod i have seen in a while, terrible....


And no there are no easy ways to make chilled loops, most reliable ways are fairly invloved, and your better off getting an AC for your room, as opposed to trying to chill your WC loop.
 
If nothing else, the water/ambient temps within my case are down by about 20 degrees, and that more than enough for me, not to mention my cpu temps, and to a lesser extent, the gpu temps.
 
since the entire case is receiving the same temp, there shouldnt be condensation. (could be wrong though)
 
Theres a tiny bit of barely feelable condensation on the tube from the rad to the block, but nowhere else. like jcll said, the whole case is cold enough that there isn't enough temp diffrence for condensation to occur

BTW, i just broke a fuse cause i tried to turn on a fan bringing in cold air from outside :bang head
 
if ghetto gets you 20c then. heck yes there is a place, besides comical relief. :D

I like it, run an extension cord from another room so you can run that fan LOL
 
I prefer pretty and cool temps. When you got pretty cool temps, how can you knock it?
 
17c on a prescott?!?id say ghetto works lol.invest in a little foam insulation maybe?nah the jammies n boxers give it that lived in feel.
 
I'm currently looking into painting the air conditioner and making the duct insulation more professional

pic of temps on my rig, the aux is the water temperature, but they sometimes (rarely) go below 9c

lowtemps-1.jpg
 
My parents have decided that the airconditioner uses too much electricity, so i have to pay them 1$ for every hour i have it running :(. I guess i only use it if i'm trying to set new personal records :/

It was good while it lasted :(
 
Wow, $1 per hour. Power is only a dime per killowatt hour here. I think they're mostly trying to discourage you from doing that :D. An air conditioner doesn't cost $24 per day to run ;).
 
I am glad my power company only charges 5.6 cents a kw/h. I would go caveman on that high of a rate.
 
I think the whole thing is more symbolism than them actually wanting me to pay for it.

and congrats to you, enablingwolf, according to your sig you can have your beer back :clap:

:EDIT: i did a lot of cable management, and my compy looks much, much cleaner than b4. i'm also getting a new power supply, and it happens to come with sleeved, UV cables :D
 
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