How do you handle condensation?

[FlashRZ]

Lately I've become obsessed with the thought of chilled fluid cooling the CPU, GPU('s), and possibly the motherboard. Just mapping it out in my mind, the condensation that forms on the actual pipes/tubing would be the easiest to deal with using something absorbable, but how do people deal with water that builds up in places like in between the GPU's water block and the card itself? Basically, what are the best practices for handling condensation in computer cooling?

 

[Lochekey]

For the tubing you can wrap it in pipe insulation to keep the condensation down. As for the block and cpu area you can insulate around it with neoprene foam and art eraser to keep air away from the block and help control condensation. You can also apply Vaseline around the socket area to prevent shorting anything if a little condensation does form.

 

[S_I_N]

what I did was spray my parts with a conformal spray coating. packed socket/pcie slot with dielectric grease or Vaseline. then used the neoprene sheets to build up a good layer front and back. wrapped my blocks the same way with multiple layer. Wrapped tubing with pipe insulation and then wrapped with more neoprene style tape to add bulk. My biggest headache since we used pond pumps back then, which are made out of plastic was trying to keep them from cracking under the extreme cold. Fluid was at -54c and easily cracked plastic if it had any type of pressure on it from tubing. JB Weld/epoxy became a good friend of mine during those days. I ran denatured alcohol cause its freezing point was super low.

 

[Johan45]

Wish I had a better pic of the card handy but I don't, CPU is pretty straightforward. On Intel, I need to put eraser around the socket because of their hold down, on AMD I don't. I have the gaskets cut to fit the block quite tightly so that tightening the block seals it. Exposed parts of the block are wrapped in a rag, mostly to keep the air away from it. Then under the board I cover the CPU area with vaseline. The GFX is similar but needs more attention. I use eraser between the block and GPU to seal it off from air and cover anyeaxpose ares with rags/cloth/shoptowels, An elastic comes in very handy to hold this in place. I also spread vaseline on the back over the GPU area, condensation will form there since it gets below 0° when idling and use another towel here to keep any condensate from running down the card into the PCIe slot. All hoses are covered in the pipe insulation, get the good stuff not the stuff that looks like foam but the soft flexible neoprene type with the self seal strip. The ends of the insulation are taped so air can't get between the insulation and hoses. You'll also want a fan on the GFX card VRM like you see here since they're no longer cooled and you'll be pushing them harder than you would on air.

 

[EarthDog]

We have insulation guides around here too (benchmarking section).

 

[Lochekey]

Here is a thread I had when I was first prepping for LN2. Not exactly the same as what you add doing but the same concepts.

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php/773726-Help-prepping-for-first-time-on-LN2

 

[FlashRZ]

Here is a thread I had when I was first prepping for LN2. Not exactly the same as what you add doing but the same concepts.

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php/773726-Help-prepping-for-first-time-on-LN2

Whoa! I'll confess, I had to stop reading that thread multiple times to ponder my overclocking fate and desire to go the distances you have as far as prep. My hat's off to you for what you went through for that. I woke up and set an arbitrary goal of at least 3-6 months of daily practice and research with overclocking before I move into subambient OC'ing. I've got a lot to learn before it would make sense for me to go that route. What's great is I found some really good guys here in Miami that sell ln2 as well as dry ice, at very good prices, so that's covered when I need it. But as you can tell from my other posts all over this site, I've got a lot to learn. Am very grateful for guys like you, EarthDog, Johan, et al. for all you're teaching me.

 

[Silver Surfer]

The best way to handle condensation is to control the coolant temperature so you do not produce any condensation at all.

Many think you cannot go below ambient any at all without condensation but that's not accurate you can safely go around the 10c below ambient with no condensation forming at all.

If you are above condensation forming at 10c below ambient you still have plenty of overclocking headroom much more than an ambient cooled system does.

You can click my link in the signature to chilled water cooling version 3.0, and see exactly what I am running today, below ambient above condensation, running my 8700K all cores OCd to 5ghz with P95 load temperatures about 48c highest core.

At this posting my ambient room temperature is 23c and my coolant temperature is 12c Max and there is zero condensation and that's 11c below ambient.

The 12c Max is because that's my TECs cut-in point and the TECs cut-out point is at 11c and at 11c that's 12c below ambient and condensation free.

Plus I can actually go lower than that and still be condensation free, but it's just not necessary to go any lower to maintain the 5ghz OC.