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Beer Flash Cooler

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Finlay got my camera working. Some pics of the set-up so far.
You'll see I've got zip ties on the chiller in/out pipes. These aren't permanent! I hate using ties and wouldn't use them inside the case. I'm due to get a handful more of the plastic XSPC clips I'm already using. The inside of the flash cooler's not to pretty either. It was in a shed for 2 years covered in crap! Still needs a proper clean.

The thermometer inside the case is a from the brewery too. That's why it says Cellar on it with an arrow for recomended room temperature of beer barrel storage. It's not to easy to see but it's showing about 19C. It reads a fair bit colder when the case side is closed.

The temperature gage in the cooler is from one of the larger chillers so it sticks out from the case a bit! Still works well though. The chiller had only been on 10 minutes when I took the pics, showing 0C. It usually drops to about -3C.

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Just added a 12 volt transformer to the cooler. The original chiller fan was 240v and worked from a thermostat but it was way to loud to run 24/7. So I switched the 240v fan for the Scythe 12v fan but it was powered by my PC. This meant that when the PC was turned off I had to switch the chiller off too. So when it was all powered back on, it took a while for the chiller to get down to a useful temperature again.

I searched the house looking for a small 12v transformer that could sit in the chiller case and could be powered by the original 240v fan supply.


Found one!

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All the ones I could find had a really low output, but this pushes out 3 amps so it's got plenty of headroom for more fans. The Scythe uses 0.53 amps at max rpm.


This is where it lives. The 240v thermostatically controlled fan wires are joined to the 240v transformer input. Then obviously this runs anything wired into the output at 12v.
I added a 120 x 120cm 12v Yate Loon fan to the back of the case as an output, to help get rid of the warm air from the condenser fan and from around the pump.
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The chiller is running all the time now, 24/7. After I turn off my PC, the chiller stays at around -3/-4C governed by the thermostat. The pump and fans are off most of the time. The tank insulation must be pretty good as the ambient room temperature is around 20c.


Lowest temp reading. The PC is turned off and the thermostat has turned off the pump and fans. It's actually a very quiet cooler when it's all running, after I changed the fan! The only thing I noticed was it vibrated a bit sat on the carpet. So it's sat on a layer of foam insulation in a bin bag, you can see it in the pics. Now you don't get an annoying hum coming through the ceiling into the kitchen!


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So what have you been able to push your CPU to now? Also, that is pretty awesome how you can pretty much set your temperature to whatever the heck you want.
 
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So what have you been able to push your CPU to now?
You hear a lot of people saying the Phenom 940's should be good for over 4GHz with good cooling. Has anyone seen one yet though, stable?

Mine has topped out at 3857MHz using 14.5x and 266MHz FSB. And with a broken CPU pin too. Damn I was lucky there. Can't believe it still even works! Whether it's the CPU itself or the motherboard and ram stopping it going higher I don't know. I'm happy with that though. An increase of 857MHz is pretty healthy! The most I got from my previous Phenom 9850 was from 2.5 to 2.9GHz, just 400MHz.


The biggest benefit with running the flash cooler though has been the overall drop in system temperature by using the internal radiator and fans. Most of all the 8800GT graphics card. This used to idle at 49C and go sky high when gaming, even with the Zalman Hsink and fan. Now it sits at a chilly 34C and doesn't get much above the old idle temps even under full load, or a damn good gaming session!
The highest it would clock before was from 600MHz up to 650MHz. Now it will go over 700MHz. currently on 710. Just from having icy cold air blowing onto it. Result!

that is pretty awesome how you can pretty much set your temperature to whatever the heck you want.
It's very handy!
Switch the chiller to 2 for general PC use and browsing.
Turn it up to about 4 for a good gaming session.
Crank it up to max 7 for a serious blast of benchmarking. Sit back and watch the temps fall... and the condensation appear!!
 
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flash cooler

I could do with some advice on the two questions at the end of my post, before i fit the mother board. All feedback welcome :)

I'm not aiming for minus temps here, something around 15C / 20C is good for me, so i won't be turning my D-Tek into a block of ice. How involved do i need to get with sealing for condensation. Just the CPU socket, or the whole area around the CPU including the back of the board?

Also I've cut the bottom of the PC case and bolted my triple rad 2/3 rd's of the way inside. It won't fit all the way in, it's too long! I've got two 120mm fans fixed to the rad drawing air from under the case and blowing chilled air onto the underside of my air cooled 8800gt and up into the case.
I've got two other 120mm fans, one at the front and one in the side panel, both blowing air out, so all air drawn into the case comes up through the bottom and is cooled through the radiator.

Am i likely to get problems from blowing chilled air around the inside of my PC? I don't know how cold it needs to be before condensation forms on everything.

hi I have been using a flash cooler for 10 years now and have never sealed a mb or anything else in the system it all depends on the ambient temp if you can keep the ambient temp down no prob the only fan I have in the entire system is in the psu happy cooling
 
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