Insulating the microfreezer PIC

A

Asazman

Supreme [H]ardness
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I was having condensation issues with my Prometeia Mach I a while back, and I think I have found a pretty good solution.

I covered the entire thermal bus with rupaflex tape and applied zipties about every halfinch or so. I didnt' pull them very tight, but very snug.

After I did this and ran the system for about an hour, I noticed not only condensation on the side of the microfreezer by the socket, but drips of water, coming down on the video card. I immidiatly turned my system off, let everything dry, then wiped it down with q-tips and rags. I then very carefully and slowly, began attempting to fix the issue. I reapplied thermal tape to where the thermal bus meets the microfreezer, and all around where the microfreezer contacts the motherboard. I also reapplied thermal tape around the screwholes. Then, I went out to Lowe's and got some more rupaflex type tape (not the same brand, was only 15 feet and a little thinner and cheaper), and went to work on completely covering the socket. I tried my best, am I'm not quire sure if what I did was the correct thing to do...can anyone offer any suggestions on how to insulate the microfreezer to eleminate condensation?

Oh yeah, I also added a little bit of rupaflex to the top of my vid card (which is fine, by the way) to make sure drippage doesn't effect it in the future.

Here is a pic of what I did, feel free to make critiques. Thanks!

http://www.asaz.net/images/Misc/microfreezer.JPG
 
Looks like it will work well..... I just hope your case doesn't have a window :p
 
Grizzy said:
Looks like it will work well..... I just hope your case doesn't have a window :p
Click to expand...

oh, it does, but I keep it off half the time heh

any other suggestions? what else could i do or could do better? THanks!
 
i have a bad feeling about this bro---that vid card's gonna be in trouble unless you get some sort of drainage going.

to be clear--

so the condensation begins dripping onto that vid card, notprotected by tape...but where's it gonna go, this newly dripped condensation. as more condensation falls onto that piece of protective tape, the water already on the tape is going to be force to relocate..eventually your cup will runneth over...and that's when the sparks are gonna fly.


if i were you i'd go over to the vapochill site or other comparable ones to see what they do about this sort of thing....
 
dwayne001 said:
i have a bad feeling about this bro---that vid card's gonna be in trouble unless you get some sort of drainage going.

to be clear--

so the condensation begins dripping onto that vid card, notprotected by tape...but where's it gonna go, this newly dripped condensation. as more condensation falls onto that piece of protective tape, the water already on the tape is going to be force to relocate..eventually your cup will runneth over...and that's when the sparks are gonna fly.


if i were you i'd go over to the vapochill site or other comparable ones to see what they do about this sort of thing....
Click to expand...

yeah I was thinking about that, however my machine has been up for about a day solid now and so far nothing has dripped (i feel the top of the vid card to check).

If it does, I suppose i should get a drainage system going, however I would like to stop the issue at the source...anything else i can do to stop condensation? even though i think it's mostly gone now
 
three suggestions:
a) put a strong fan blowing air over the system, with a bit of luck you can dry any consensation off before it reaches critical mass and drips
b) since you're "ghetto all the way", lay the system on it side so that any condensation drips straight down, not onto something important and current carrying
c) get some heat tape and warm the outside of the insulation
 
whitewale said:
three suggestions:
a) put a strong fan blowing air over the system, with a bit of luck you can dry any consensation off before it reaches critical mass and drips
b) since you're "ghetto all the way", lay the system on it side so that any condensation drips straight down, not onto something important and current carrying
c) get some heat tape and warm the outside of the insulation
Click to expand...


what is heat tape?
 
Asazman said:
what is heat tape?
Click to expand...

Heat tape is a piece of tape with a build in heater. You can get them from 5 to 5000 Watts, regulated and unregulated, waterproof, as a glue on stick pad and several thousand other variations from places like Grainger, MSC and probably a lot of electronic stores (sorry, Im usually more into the industrial sizes).
If you dial it at your normal room temperature it should stop condensation on the outside, and, if you have decnet insulation, not interfere with your cooling system.
 
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