This is my first post here (Hi.), and it seems to be the only resource I can turn to to get the discussion and questions I need answered. While I'm not looking for handouts, support would be appreciated in the sense of pointing me in the right direction or to the right resources. I've attempted to use Reddit for support, and while I did get a good conversation with one person about my project, most of my response was to the effect of "You're stupid for thinking this and are just going to waste a lot of money and time.". Granted, this may be true, but nevertheless, it's a project that's fascinating me and one I want to see to completion. I've been doing a lot of research lately, so I'll describe my goal, and the phases of my project. I don't have the time or funds to make this happen immediately, but it will be steadily worked on.
Project Phases:
Overtime, my project phases will be adjusted accordingly, as well as my project goals if they need to be based on what I learn and experience. This will also serve as a database for everything that I research and learn over the course of this project.
Since I have enough information to talk about this now, I can go a little more in detail for my goals and what I've learned so far.
Target Temperature:
While most people look for cooling on their computer system, it's mostly limited to the CPU and a few other key components. There are also pros and cons for every choice, depending on how much time, or effort you put into them. What people don't seem to consider is entire system cooling, at least to sub-zero temperatures. I've read about submersion builds before, such as the one that Puget Sound computer shop did, and the success and learning they had while doing it; along with a few other people who have done this type of cooling with mixed results. The one thing I wasn't able to find was a minimum temperature for all the different components in a computer system. (This is where that one guy on Reddit came in, and he pointed out some key things that he knew about minimum temperatures.) Along with that, capacitors seem to be the most limiting component, depending on the type they are, failing once they start to get under minus 20C.
Other temperatures that I'm at least partly aware of, depending on the type of RAM, it starts getting weird under 0C. Intels start getting weird around -100C depending on the chip. NVidia GPUs, -130C and VRAM -80C, along with various other components starting to fail around -50C. That being said, I'm pretty sure a target temperature of -20C system wide should be reasonable, at least from a temperature consideration type of thing. Of course since there's a lack of material on this subject, it's one of the key points that I would need assistance with researching, or various other experiences of people getting specific component temperatures too low, etc.
Cooling Medium:
Novec would be ideal, as it offers good temperature control, people have done real world testing, and ease of maintenance. The big issue is there is a huge cost, especially since most losses would be unavoidable and would quickly drain funds. Mineral oil combats this, but at a cost. It basically wouldn't allow good temperature control as system response of the temperature would react sluggish, and it gels at lower temperatures.
So why isn't there a better option? I recently discovered a fluid that interests me, that I want to get some feedback on. Therminol. The link to specific data about it is below. Key points: - Max use temp is -115C - Pour temp is -135C - Very low acidity and corrosion - Dielectric constant is 1.99 (which is lower than mineral oil) - It also has a high safety margin, max temp of 175C and almost twice that for auto ignition.
Things I don't know specifically yet: - What the rate of heat transfer is. - Costs. (Though sources I did manage to find hinted it could be inexpensive.) - Long term component effects. If these are comparable to mineral oil or better, I think I might have just found an ideal immersion fluid. The comparable con to it would be that it's still an oil, so cleaning a component would be difficult for upgrading. Now if mineral oil itself is a suitable fluid for immersion, then why wouldn't something else that's equivalent be just as good, if it was able to handle lower temperatures and had good heat transfer qualities?
https://www.therminol.com/products/Therminol-VLT
- Goal: Provide entire sub-zero cooling for an enclosed computer.
- - Sub-Goal: Reduce sound-print at terminal to under 20db, or negate if possible.
- - Sub-Goal: Learn basic and advanced theory on the way of the heating/cooling loop. (Especially since this relates to my job, though on a tiny scale by comparison.)
- - Sub-Goal: Eliminate or minimize the maintenance required for general computer usage.
- - Sub-Goal: Provide an environment that a computer can be overclocked while still maintaining entire computer sub-zero temperatures.
Project Phases:
- Research cooling medium and target temperature. (In Progress) - Originally this was two separate phases, one where I attempted to locate the ideal cooling medium, and a separate one to pinpoint the ideal target temperature. Since they go hand in hand, I've decided to combine them. This is the part where I'm devoting most of my time to right now, researching the ideal liquid.
- Research cooling method - Assuming I get this project off the ground, and find a medium, I'll have to figure out how to cool it to subzero temperatures. Since I want to maintain my goal of minimizing the sound, my thoughts are going to end up being where I have a cooling station located separately away from the computer, and coolant will be piped into the unit. I have a few ideas for this, but I haven't heavily researched it yet.
- Containment design - When I get all the technical aspects planned out, I'll start having to come up with a modular design for both the unit and the cooling system.
- Warm testing - Out of all the research I've done, none of the fluids I've come across will make it work. Once phase one is completed, phase three will commence when I start testing the fluid at warm temperatures to determine the ability to maintain and function as a cooling medium. This will probably be with spare computer parts I have laying around collecting dust, or some other custom built heat load electronics to test the heat transfer capacity under load.
- Containment design and construction - This is more of a sub-phase where I will be combining phases three and four together using an actual containment that was designed, and with actual computer components.
- Cooling system - This phase will commence once phase two is complete, where the design, build, and testing of the cooling system will occur. The goal of this phase is to obtain and maintain sub-zero temperatures.
- Cold testing - This is where it'll all start to come together as I'll be able to cold test an actual computer system, build a temperature profile for that system, and adjust and bring temperatures to the targeted goals under various load conditions.
- Final testing - At this point I should have an operating system, able to maintain the targeted temperatures at any load conditions that meets all design goals.
Overtime, my project phases will be adjusted accordingly, as well as my project goals if they need to be based on what I learn and experience. This will also serve as a database for everything that I research and learn over the course of this project.
Since I have enough information to talk about this now, I can go a little more in detail for my goals and what I've learned so far.
Target Temperature:
While most people look for cooling on their computer system, it's mostly limited to the CPU and a few other key components. There are also pros and cons for every choice, depending on how much time, or effort you put into them. What people don't seem to consider is entire system cooling, at least to sub-zero temperatures. I've read about submersion builds before, such as the one that Puget Sound computer shop did, and the success and learning they had while doing it; along with a few other people who have done this type of cooling with mixed results. The one thing I wasn't able to find was a minimum temperature for all the different components in a computer system. (This is where that one guy on Reddit came in, and he pointed out some key things that he knew about minimum temperatures.) Along with that, capacitors seem to be the most limiting component, depending on the type they are, failing once they start to get under minus 20C.
Other temperatures that I'm at least partly aware of, depending on the type of RAM, it starts getting weird under 0C. Intels start getting weird around -100C depending on the chip. NVidia GPUs, -130C and VRAM -80C, along with various other components starting to fail around -50C. That being said, I'm pretty sure a target temperature of -20C system wide should be reasonable, at least from a temperature consideration type of thing. Of course since there's a lack of material on this subject, it's one of the key points that I would need assistance with researching, or various other experiences of people getting specific component temperatures too low, etc.
Cooling Medium:
Novec would be ideal, as it offers good temperature control, people have done real world testing, and ease of maintenance. The big issue is there is a huge cost, especially since most losses would be unavoidable and would quickly drain funds. Mineral oil combats this, but at a cost. It basically wouldn't allow good temperature control as system response of the temperature would react sluggish, and it gels at lower temperatures.
So why isn't there a better option? I recently discovered a fluid that interests me, that I want to get some feedback on. Therminol. The link to specific data about it is below. Key points: - Max use temp is -115C - Pour temp is -135C - Very low acidity and corrosion - Dielectric constant is 1.99 (which is lower than mineral oil) - It also has a high safety margin, max temp of 175C and almost twice that for auto ignition.
Things I don't know specifically yet: - What the rate of heat transfer is. - Costs. (Though sources I did manage to find hinted it could be inexpensive.) - Long term component effects. If these are comparable to mineral oil or better, I think I might have just found an ideal immersion fluid. The comparable con to it would be that it's still an oil, so cleaning a component would be difficult for upgrading. Now if mineral oil itself is a suitable fluid for immersion, then why wouldn't something else that's equivalent be just as good, if it was able to handle lower temperatures and had good heat transfer qualities?
https://www.therminol.com/products/Therminol-VLT
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