Wanting to go cold, have a few questions.

Well as the thread says, I'm already sick of running benches on air.

I want to get into DIce and I know one important thing is the temperature probe. The Loaner pot for the benching team uses a K-type so I assumed it was the standard. Problem is, I was looking through ebay for K-type thermometers and it seems the only ones I find have a temp range of -50*C to 1300*C. With DIce getting around -80*C, obviously that wouldn't work so well. Does anyone have a brand they use or link to a K-type thermometer that won't break the bank? If I'm going to have to pony up $200 for a thermometer, be honest with me too. I want to be as realistic as possible with this endeavor.

Secondly, does anyone know of any good pots for sale? There aren't any in our classies and I'm not quite sure where I should even look to be honest.

All of your advice is appreciated, so thanks in advance.

-Chance Coats.

Search ebay for a "PID temperature"
Many of those work with K types and are very accurate into the ln2 range. It's not as quick swapping as most, but it will be the cheapest.

Check out XS's LN2/DICE section for a list of people who are putting pots together. It isn't a full inclusive list, but you should be able to find something there. Send a PM to them over there and see what they have in your price range. A few of those guys also have accounts over here as well, but I'm not sure how often they check things here.

Vince (kingpin)
Otternase
Bartx
piotres
Duniek
der8auer

To name a few. Miah's new pot was made by Otternase. Vince is brewing something new up that should be better than his current F1 line. If you find one and you need it shipped internationally get the priority mailing else it will take weeks to a few months to get through customs through regular mail.

Dice doesn't really require a temp probe. It's nice to have one, but not mandatory like it is with LN2.
I don't have one.

The Ks aren't rated for <-50, but work just fine generally speaking.
They may not be accurate to the real world but they don't have to be, they only have to be accurate to themselves. You know the coldbug is at where your probe reads -126*c, and hence can avoid it. It doesn't really matter if what reads as -126 is actually -100*c.

Thanks guys. If a temp probe isn't 100% necessary, I'll save some moolah now.

I have been looking through some XS threads also. Otternase's pots don't seem all that expensive from what I've seen. A dice and Dice only pot shouldn't be too much granted it's made of all AL. CU is where it starts to get expensive. I'll see how it goes. I have the $$$ to get one now, but I hate spending money with a passion.

Even though I haven't actually used a pot, I would suggest going with at least a combo material pot over a full aluminum one. Copper has a lot more mass and if you plan on doing any tests that take some time, like the longer Pi programs, the extra weight will help.

Good point. Come to think of it, Even the F1 EE is dual material. So I would assume you want the mass of the block to be on the cpu end of things because it'll help stabilize the incoming heat?

The F1 EE is a solid copper pot. What you see that makes it multi-metal is the aluminum extension some people use.

I know. That's what I was referring to. I know the F1 EE has basically the best temperature regulation on the market with Ln2. I was just pointing out part of it (even if the part is less important) was made of AL.

Okay so, bumping this thread. I'm now taking advice on getting myself a new pot. I want a pot that is pretty good all around, but won't be a hassle when running DIce (According to Brollocks, the F1 EE is a bit of a pain for DIce

The main problem with the F1E was that I could not get the dice/acetone mixture, the dice tend to clog up the holes and then the temps would just shoot up as no acetone was cooling.

Click to expand...

. I'm well aware of it being one of, if not the best pot for LN2, but I won't be doing that...yet. )

Anyway, he says the Koolance Cpu-Ln2-v2 is the "best" for DIce, but I was also wondering about the first revision of that pot. The main cons of the V2 are the higher price as well as an extremely wide base. From the looks, the v1 is much skinnier (which may not be the best for DIce though. Also, I've been eye-balling the Dragon Evo 2.4, but to be honest, there isn't much info to go off of and Kingpin's website isn't selling them. Either way, I'm waiting for my account to be activated on XS so I can browse the classies since not a lot of pots have come up around here.

All in all, taking basically any ideas. I would love to keep this around, or preferably under $150. I have no problems buying used and have the ebay/paypal rep to back a p2p transaction. I know there aren't many under that price, but if there were something of nice quality below that price I wouldn't mind biting. After all, It'd be a beginner pot.

Thanks in advance guys!

The first revision is still quite good for dice (not as good as the v2, by a decent amount), but not very good at all for ln2.
XS had a koolance v2 for $90ish over the weekend, donno if it's still there.

I looked into that but was too slow. Thanks for the advice though!