I saw a pic online of a mini-refrigerator with PC components installed inside. It didn't say anything in detail, but it got me curious. I looked up the price on a few mini-refrigerators and for the price (under $100 USD) it looks like great cooling on the cheap. The first red flag in my mind concerns condensation. If the refrigerator is opened that will pose a problem. Any one know anyone who has this set up?
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Mini-Refrigerator...cooling on the cheap?
- Thread starter kindred
- Start date
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2005
- Location
- Texas, USA
Yea, If it takes a 6 pack of beer, that aint doing nothing but existing, over and hour to get cold, then what do you think a 114w of constant heat out put will do. Now if one were to hook up a LN2 bottle to one.......
- Joined
- Nov 18, 2003
no, its not that it doesnt get cold enough, its that it cant handle constant load well.
normal refrigerator use:
-put in warm soda
-slowly cool off the soda (this is the only load)
-keep the soda cold (this doesnt require much)
your proposed use:
-put in warm processor
-make that processor hotter and hotter (lots of load)
also, this might do a little better in cooling or extreme cooling. im sure it has been discussed before.
normal refrigerator use:
-put in warm soda
-slowly cool off the soda (this is the only load)
-keep the soda cold (this doesnt require much)
your proposed use:
-put in warm processor
-make that processor hotter and hotter (lots of load)
also, this might do a little better in cooling or extreme cooling. im sure it has been discussed before.
m3x1c4nj3w
Disabled
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2005
- Location
- Cupertino, California
Also the condensation would kill the system...
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2004
- Location
- Houston
What about this?
Soryy I dont mean to hijack the thread.......
What about this?
Make a water cooling setup and drill two holes in the side of the fridge then seal them off. Stick the radiator/heater core in there (by itself).
Could it work passivly of will it need fans?
I already have a 4 cubic food fridge and I am thinkng of sticking a heater core in there.
What do you guys think?
Thanks
Mike
Soryy I dont mean to hijack the thread.......
What about this?
Make a water cooling setup and drill two holes in the side of the fridge then seal them off. Stick the radiator/heater core in there (by itself).
Could it work passivly of will it need fans?
I already have a 4 cubic food fridge and I am thinkng of sticking a heater core in there.
What do you guys think?
Thanks
Mike
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2004
- Location
- Michigan, US
The same thing would happen, the rad would be constantly dumping heat into the fridge.
- Joined
- May 24, 2003
- Location
- southeast MN
A MINI-FRIDGE CAN NOT HANDLE THE HEAT LOAD OF A PROCESSOR. mini fridges are not plauseable for cooling modern processors, not to mention an entire system. if you insist on using a mini fridge for cooling, mount your power supply in it, or better yet, a cd-rom, won't handle much more then that. the issue is not how cold a fridge can get, it is, how many watts can it cool. my mini fridge is 40watts, great for keeping beer cold but it doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell at cooling a 100w processor. the condensor is not built to handle heavy loads, bottom line is that is isn't going to work, you might beable to run it in a meat locker, but that is about as small as it can get and still work for cooling a computer.
- Joined
- Sep 14, 2004
- Location
- Land of the What?
ill also add and say the heat out-put of a modern cpu cannot be handled by a mini-fridge, but you can maybe do something of similar....
check around the extreme cooling section, i believe theres still a live thread of a cooling unit made of a water jug dispensor (in office buildings) and i believe the person bought it for 70$, and has gotten nearly ambient temps on the cpu.
check around the extreme cooling section, i believe theres still a live thread of a cooling unit made of a water jug dispensor (in office buildings) and i believe the person bought it for 70$, and has gotten nearly ambient temps on the cpu.
- Joined
- May 24, 2003
- Location
- southeast MN
i have heard that if you are willing to go through all the work of installing a much better condensor it *might* have enough cooling to work as direct die. i am by no means an expert on phase change but i do remember reading that.
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2004
- Location
- Michigan, US
What might work are those pop/dairy coolers in the food market, their compressor is running constantly because most of them are open faced with no doors. If you some how got ahold of one of those and encased it, I would think that would work.
- Joined
- May 24, 2003
- Location
- southeast MN
unless you are willing to spend $3000 or rebuild a broken down one it's not a good idea. for what it would cost you, you would be better off getting a phase change cooler
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2004
- Location
- Michigan, US
It would still be perty sweet, i mean it cools your computer/pop/milk what ever lol. Wan't a quick snack grab a hot dog out of your computer, the uses are endless.
- Joined
- Jun 14, 2004
I think you would be best off dumping the fridge idea and just buy a small window AC unit. Then connect it directly to the side of the PC. You would be doing alot more then a small unit not intended to run long periods of time. The (mini-fridge) would fail faster than the AC unit by far. Plus the (Window AC unit) is designed to remove alot more heat than a 40watt cooling unit.
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2005
Two ideas I keep thinking about is a dual loop or fridge booster system. I have shot them down enough that I though you guys would enjoy helping shoot them down some more.
These are for a not continous or weak cooling system, for example that $89 special mini fridge.
Dual loop system
Using a big reservoir connect 2 loops. First loop is the standard WBs and Radiator loop. Second loop is that mini fridge or other cooling source. The source may not be up to full cooling but it would help draw some energy out of the water. Even if the second loop was not always cooler it would not matter as long as I was not heating.
Booster system.
Standard loop with radiator but after the radiator have the liquid pass thru a heat-transfer device and back into the circuit. The mini fridge or other device circuit would be connected to the other side of the transfer device. The extra cooling would be used to cool the liquid further.
I have worked this idea to death in my head and have 101 reason why they would not work but I would love to hear your ideas.
This is not a thread hi-jack the replies should help end the arguement of the mini fridge.
These are for a not continous or weak cooling system, for example that $89 special mini fridge.
Dual loop system
Using a big reservoir connect 2 loops. First loop is the standard WBs and Radiator loop. Second loop is that mini fridge or other cooling source. The source may not be up to full cooling but it would help draw some energy out of the water. Even if the second loop was not always cooler it would not matter as long as I was not heating.
Booster system.
Standard loop with radiator but after the radiator have the liquid pass thru a heat-transfer device and back into the circuit. The mini fridge or other device circuit would be connected to the other side of the transfer device. The extra cooling would be used to cool the liquid further.
I have worked this idea to death in my head and have 101 reason why they would not work but I would love to hear your ideas.
This is not a thread hi-jack the replies should help end the arguement of the mini fridge.
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2004
- Location
- Houston
skotti said:
Now you have got me thinking.
If this sounds redundant I apologize in advance.
What if I kept the Radiator outside of the fridge and used a shroud with two 12cm fans on it. Then the water flows from the radiator through a hole in the wall of a fridge through about 1.5 feet of copper coiled tubing (inside the fridge) then back out. This would greatly lower the heat coming into the fridge. I could try to find copper blocks with minimal flow resistance (one for CPU & GPU).
Just might work..........
Any thoughts on this?
Thanks Guys
Mike
- Joined
- Feb 20, 2004
- Location
- Murfreesboro, TN
Sticky on why a mini-fridge won't work (as in sticking your computer inside the fridge ... not gutting it and then using the parts to build your own cooling system):
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=373263
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=373263
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