A comfrigerator?

[dark55]

I have a lot of free time in Iraq (apparently helicopter engines don't break, go figure), so I've been looking into something to do for once I got back to the states and have loads of money to blow on things just to make me happy. I was kind of thinking of buying one of those mini fridges and putting a mobo and compononents inside it, and i know that i could insulate/drill all the approriate holes for i/o's and access to disk drives, but the one problem I've run into on this theoretical build...condensation. While it'd be great for keeping things cool (heck, half frozen pc's? heck yeah that'd kick some serious arse!), the constant heating/cooling would create huge amounts of condensation. Now, I know something of keeping water out of the air, just throw some dessicant in to do that and replace it every few months, but does anyone have any ideas on keeping water from forming on the electronics themselves? This isn't totally a serious project, just something to kick around in my vast amounts of free time. And really, who wouldn't want an overclocked QX6800 that would be kept at 35-45 degrees F?

My only current thoughts on this matter (these are simple, i work on engines, not electronics so bear with me):

1) Keep 'fridge settings on highest possible temps, and set up intake and exhaust fans right near the motherboard to regulate temperature to whatever is inside case, and keep ice from forming period (seems kind of worthless to set up it up like this since you would be exposing so much of the outside air to inside the fridge?)

2) Siliconically seal all the mobo parts that could theoretically get water formed on outside to the cirtcuits inside. I know people have done this with TEC/Peltier setups, but I'll admit it, I have no idea where to begin with this.

3) Possible just running a fan over the mobo inside the fridge, maybe that would prevent air from sitting over the top of the mobo for ice to form? My phsyics/chemistry grasp of ice forming and how fridges work is about 6-7 years old, so I'm kind of out of the loop...

I don't know if this would ever be something that's feasible to set up, but it'd be a fun project for me once I get out of the sand box, especially seeing as how my wife will be in OCS so that means nothing but free time for this guy. Thanks in advance for any advice!


p.s. if the whole actually being inside of a fridge doesn't pan out, has anyone ever tried airtight sealing a case and running copper tubing with coolant through the whole thing? i don't know how effective that would be, but i can guarentee i could build that with parts from my local hardware store for a fraction of the cost of water-cooling...

 

[RS3RS]

Won't work. People have discussed doing this for at least the last 10 years - I was even set on trying it a few years back before the [H] talked me out of it.

The problem is mini-fridges are designed to get the fridge cool, and keep it there. It's not designed to constantly remove heat, much less as much as a CPU produces. From what I understand, you'll probably kill the compressor.

Now, I know people have gutted A/C units to make super-cooled antifreeze watercooling. That's the route I'd go. Check this out:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/

 

[dark55]

See, I can see some easy ways out of that. Well, maybe not easy...relatively simple perhaps?

If cooling constantly would wear down the motors too quickly, perhaps an airtight vent/radiator that would blow at least some of the heat from the cpu out? Honestly, like i said, I'm bored to tears out hear and just trying to come up with some new ideas...and dangit, I'm a Marine, and hearing "this can't happen" isn't part of my credo...

 

[Dethman]

i always thought the condinsation was the biggest reason you couldnt do it,...but yea, a fridge is airtight, like a cooler, to be more efficiente, nothing is inside of it consitantly creating heat..so yea, I dont think so...I would stick with someone that is designed to cool computer parts, phase cooling would be a better bet