Ok, here is my $60 solution

gmattox · Feb 18, 2002

I have given up on all of these fancy things like peltiers and water cooling. I am going to the Home Depot, picking up a mini fridge, and cutting the top piece of weatherstripping out. I am putting my entire case in it, with the back of the PC facing the front of the fridge. I am plugging everything back in, and then taping the top where the weatherstripping is closed with duct tape. Then I am cranking that baby....should be good for about 5C....I'll let ya know.

Intraveinous · Feb 18, 2002

Good idea but...

You may end up with problems... Most mini-fridge compressors aren't built to handle the thermal load of a constantly running Athlon, and will burn up trying to keep the inside of the fridge cool. If you do it, please, post your results, but wanted to let you know of the possible pitfalls before you spent the money and the time. Welcome to the forums and the addiction! Have fun and feel free to ask bout anything!
Peace
John

Hoot · Feb 18, 2002

Another tidbit worthy of mention is that if the fridge does manage to keep its cool, check your HDD and CD specifications for operating temperatures and make sure you do not go below that.

Hoot

gmattox · Feb 18, 2002

I was just checking out the front door of the fridge, to see its general composition....It is really just an insulated piece of plastic. So I figure I should still vent off some of the heat. I am going to cut a piece of dryer vent (the flexible kind) and fasten it to the back by my power supply. I am then going to cut a hole in the door of the mini fridge, attack the vent that would go on the outside of you house for your dryer, and attach the hose. That way, at least I am not circulating the hot air and trying to make the fridge recool that. ...

The Overclocker · Feb 18, 2002

if the compressor is too hot try cooling it with a fan, apparently it works very well.

Christoph · Feb 18, 2002

If you want to see how some other people did a similar mod, you can check out the US$100 fridge mod. They have a much more effective way to cool the CPU than just sticking the whole thing in a fridge, but it's also more involved.
Make sure and tell us how it goes.

gmattox · Feb 18, 2002

Thats a really interesting read....sound like an interesting idea. I am not that interested in subzero temps though. I just want the entire operation to be in about 40F air. That should put the air at about the 5C that aopen lists as the minimum operating temp for their optical drives. If that drives my temps even into the 10C case temp, and around 20C temp under load for the CPU, this will make me happy....

CraxySerge · Feb 18, 2002

After you cut the holes in the fridge try using the dryer duct toblow cold air out of the beer fridge into the case right over the hsf. Iwonder what kind of results that would yield. And maybe put a piece of that aluminum tubing on the inside of the case fo the cold air blows directly on the fan ontop of the heatsink. That would be and intresting experiment. I have a beer fridge, but i use it to keep my beer cold.

Starfoxer · Feb 18, 2002

good luck on the mod. looks like it'll work really well. i would be
worried about condensation though.

Ugmore Baggage · Feb 18, 2002

If you just want to duct air in, an airconditioner would probably be what you want. It would have the added benefit of pre-dehydrating and filtering the air. It would also include the fan, all you'd need to add is duct pipe.

Dehydrating the air is important because unbalanced temperatures form precipitation/condensation if the environment is at all humid. Clean H2O won't cause problems, but add a little dust and you're playing with fire. The only problem with an airconditioner is the pipes will freeze in winter.

Come to think of it, I may be wrong about airconditioners dehydrating the air. I don't see how that would happen, but somebody told me they do.

labrat · Feb 18, 2002

WOoHOO!!!

WOW,i saw this and it was like, INSTANT ORGASM!!! I've been browsing for the right waterblock to water cool my comp and I think i just found an Alternative solution, Of course i'll try it on my old PENTIUM, not p1 or p2, PENTIUM 90 that i managed to get up to 211. Be warned, read the pcrivals article on this. Ok, really, does anyone think of any reason I should go with water and not a fridge and alchohol??? Please post.

NuebieN · Feb 18, 2002

I use a fridge to absorb the heat out of my resivior and it's working great.

UserName · Feb 18, 2002

A little beer fridge takes about 1500W of power and delivers about 200W of cooling. if you put the whole thing in there, if you got a small power supply, and sealed the door tight it might be able to cool the whole thing down. if you open the door or stick part of it out two things happen.

One, you add more heat to the system, so it will start to loose the heat battle.

Two you introduce the potential for condensation.

Ok, here is my $60 solution

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