Mini Fridge Cooling Mod

[MadHatter]

I'd like to build a mini-fridge that fits inside my computer and cools 12oz beverage cans (Mountain Dew, Dr Pepper, etc). I plan on modding this into a few of the empty 5.25" drive bays, and need to know what I should use as a cooling device, and how I should insulate the cooler compartment.

Ideally, this minifridge would hold 12 cans, and keep them at a nice chilly temp.

As of now, I plan on rigging up a plastic/plexi inner liner with a base of aluminum that contacts the TEC coldplates (aiding in spreading the heat pump effect to all of the cans) based off of the shape of a 12 pack. Then, I would insulate the compartment with some Great Stuff or something, and get it inside the PC.

Very sketchy, but I like the sketches so far.
What do you guys (and girls?) think?
Can your superior knowledge of sub-ambient cooling be of assistance?

 

[Dragoon42]

this sounds like a really wierd mod....

Why not just buy a mini-fridge?

The way I read this is that you want to put coke cans in your computer case to cool it down? Or did you wanna put the mobo and stuff in an actual mini-fridge?

 

[XeonStrikeForce]

well can be don with pelts a descant 120W pelt will cool it nice n chilly using a tiny fan to circulate the air inside, once it pulls the cans down there will not be too much disipationbest to use blue cyano board as insulation.

Can be don I thing though may not be too practical and you still need to blow off the heat taken during pull down and some form of thermostat or a continuosly running 50Watt pelt

 

[MadHatter]

well can be don with pelts a descant 120W pelt will cool it nice n chilly using a tiny fan to circulate the air inside, once it pulls the cans down there will not be too much disipationbest to use blue cyano board as insulation.

Can be don I thing though may not be too practical and you still need to blow off the heat taken during pull down and some form of thermostat or a continuosly running 50Watt pelt

I was thinking of setting up a thermostat-type circuit to control the temp inside...anybody know of a basic design to only run the pelt when temp is above X degrees?
Also, I was reading that a higher watt pelt might offer more efficiency...should that be a factor in my case?

And, in response to dragoon, I could buy a minifridge and mod it to fit in my PC, but I think it would be better to custom design a minifridge instead.

 

[Nautica]

you could probably get a probe style thermostat that could send a signal to power the pelt when needed probably need to look around a refrigeration supply store for something like that though as I dont have a clue what they would be called off hand.

also you might want to plan on a duct or something to dump the heat out of the case if you havent already. the pelts can cool down the cans but has to dump the heat somewhere and the inside of the case isnt the best place to do that.

 

[freakdiablo]

this sounds like a really wierd mod....

Why not just buy a mini-fridge?

for two reasons. 1. then what would he do with the extra drive bays and 2. its more fun bragging to your friends saying i have a awsome rig with a built in minifridge then just saying i have an awsome rig and a minifridge.

 

[Sir. BOBSONATOR]

Did you read the sticky?

 

[XeonStrikeForce]

Well for a therma state all you would need is a 741 OpAmp and a thermister.

Build the 741 into a threshold comperatore then calibrate with a mercury thermomiter the temps to write out the dial, you'd adjust the temp with the veriable resister to set the trigger current (Read up on threshold comperators using the 310 OpAmp or 741OpAmp) Use a MOSFet to switch the pelt.

Any thing over 120 is way too much even thats a bit heavy, an 80 watt would do, how ever with the 120 you'd get fast pull down. Again though what will you do with the heat?

 

[Zerius]

Did you read the sticky?

Did you read the post?

 

[orionlion82]

Did you read the post?

i did.

a.
im pretty sure all the girls here that we know of are spoken for. so dont get too excited.

b.
and youre gonna need to insulate that thing to death because enough space for a 12 pack means lots of surface area for condensation.

2.
how will you cool the TEC's?

3.
how will you power it?

4.
it will be noisy. unless you have a plan for all that.

c.
its all gonna be inside a mini-itx rig modded into a very large pumpkin, right?

 

[(Clanger)(DOA)]

i did.

a.
im pretty sure all the girls here that we know of are spoken for. so dont get too excited.

b.
and youre gonna need to insulate that thing to death because enough space for a 12 pack means lots of surface area for condensation.

2.
how will you cool the TEC's?

3.
how will you power it?



4.
it will be noisy. unless you have a plan for all that.

c.
its all gonna be inside a mini-itx modded into a very large pumpkin, right?

LOL

 

[praxis1452]

Oh also you've got to get a thermometer so that it doesn't drop below freezing... which if you cool it well enough it should...

 

[Pf.Farnsworth]

Oh also you've got to get a thermometer so that it doesn't drop below freezing... which if you cool it well enough it should...

Thermometer doesnt do that, it measures themperature.

Thermostat is the word you are looking for but did not find