Is dry ice an all-or-nothing method?

[OCMusicJunkie]

I'm thinking about how to get my feet wet with extreme cooling and want to find the least complex way to just get a taste of some improvement over ambient. Don't need to get subzero temps through the run, just want to see if I can reap some benefit and feel it out before committing to finding a pot and all the gear for a true DICE or LN2 session.

What I'm wondering is whether it would be safe to try incorporating small amounts of dry ice into a normal benching session using a stock cooler? If using a cooler without heatpipes, would there be any danger in keeping a chunk of DICE on top of the cooler for a half hour or hour at a time? Beyond being safe, is there anything that I'm overlooking that would make this impractical/impossible?

Intend to do it all the right way when I really give it a shot. This is more or less just tinkering around to hold me over til I have time for that.

 

[Leegit]

Regardless of what you do, if there is a chance of condensation, you will need to insulate the board with eraser. That is a quarter of the battle in dicin or ln2in.

 

[keny]

You will almost certainly get lower temps but with them comes water (condensation) and the closer to the dewpoint you get the more condensation you will encounter, that's why its better to go really cold than just ~0c and with just a block on there you will probably get a fair bit of condensation, but as stated by Leegit, insulate it all and use lots of towels and you should be good.

 

[awktane]

Would be easier if this is accurate...

Could save some work!

 

[Dark_n_Beyond]

You'll want to insulate regardless, and if you're going to do that, you might as well get hold of one of the team loaner pots and go all the way, imo. Setting up a pot doesn't really take much longer that what you are suggesting,

 

[OCMusicJunkie]

Nuts.... didn't realize that the condensation would be that big of an issue. I've never done a cold run, so I didn't know if the insulation and condensation concerns were just being cautious or if they would really present themselves doing just this. I do live where it tends not to get too humid during this time of year, but I don't know if that factors in or if it's just going to be a concern anywhere when using subzero materials....

 

[EarthDog]

Its a concern regardless. Low humidity helps, but there will still be plenty of condensation in long sessions, and especially under LN2.

 

[OCMusicJunkie]

Ah well, guess I'll have to just do it the right way then with a pot and all.

I really wish they either made CPU's that will survive 100c core temps or boards that would be okay when wet. Simplify this whole benching process.

 

[EarthDog]

They do make both... You are just on AMD which cant...

An Asrock Z87 board (OC Formula I think) comes with a conformal (water proof coating) application on it already. Still good to put some artist eraser on it of course, but, at least its there and still under warranty.

 

[OCMusicJunkie]

Wow. As if there weren't enough things tempting me over to the dark side with Intel...

 

[Leegit]

Anyone on the benchmarking team wanna do a live cold run sometime in early July? I liked to get some schooling if possible

 

[OCMusicJunkie]

I'd like to meetup with someone who knew what the eff they were doing for a cold run, but there are too many surfers and not enough overclockers 'round these parts.

 

[EarthDog]

I may livestream something, not sure when, but it sure wont be insulating a board on camera... just action.

That said, PLENTY of great threads in this section about how to insulate and others doing it as well that started threads. Be sure to check those out... and if you have some questions about it, start up your own thread so we can help!

 

[hokiealumnus]

I'll be going cold sometime hopefully and it will probably be around that timeframe.

 

[Leegit]

Sweetness.

I've dug through those threads and I know the just of it. But I always like to see the entire process live before I do stuff. It may be boring for others... but stream it all man

 

[xsuperbgx]

I will likely do some single stage stuff this weekend and Ln2 soon too. Perhaps we need to get some live streams going. They used to be much more popular.

 

[xsuperbgx]

The easiest way to try cold is to use winter time outside temps. Next easiest may be a slush bucket / cold water cooling.

 

[Leegit]

The easiest way to try cold is to use winter time outside temps. Next easiest may be a slush bucket / cold water cooling.

Yeah. That's a good point. You could ease into the cold temps with a slush bucket indoors, should prevent any freezing problems

 

[EarthDog]

But condensation is still an issue. Not nearly as bad as DI/LN2, but certainly still needs to be considered.

 

[Leegit]

Ahh drats! Condensation What do you recommend to counter it?