Low Budget Sub Ambient Cooling

N

nhusby

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 1, 2006
Messages
303
I'm looking for examples of your cheapest sub ambient cooling solutions
Preferably home brew, and pics / prices would be nice.
 
How far below ambient are you trying to get? I've heard that nuclear towers (or "bongs") can get the water temperature to 5C below ambient, in extreme cases.

Total cost, including pump and block, is under $150.
 
nothing huge... just below 50*F... I'm not that ambitius for my first phase change build.

*thinking* of building an OC Pentium D805.
 
50F, so around 10-15C. That's not realistic without some sort of extra chilling power. Your best bet is probably a Peltier setup, but be careful you set it up properly.
 
I havnt talked peltiers for years.. back when I built my first system I considered it... (the system in my sig)

so you think peltier + water or peltier + air? I'm really a stingey bastard....

if I remember correctly (research 5 years ago) they have a hot side and cold side, but because of their power consumption they actually create heat, so if not used correctly can do more damage than good.

I havnt seen any around for a long time...(havnt been looking) who sells em anymore?
 
Swiftech just released its MCW60-T for video cards in the last couple of weeks, and Danger Den's Maze4 is still a classic. (I just bought one used off the Forums.) I'd start with these two companies' inventories.
When you're dealing with TEC's over 200W, air cooling stops being a viable option. I'd strongly recommend TEC+Water.
 
I'm going to say a Bong. Not the kind that you smoke Tobacco* out of. It's basicly a tube-in a bucket, with the warm water going into the tube (4" sewer piping works well), goes out of a shower-head or something similar to that, into the bucket. The bucket would be somewhat filled up. From there, the water is pumped back into the loop.
It works because the showerhead "vaporizes" the water (for a lack of a better term) so the evaperating is what really does the cooling there. Just remember to top it off every day or so.
 
Go ahead and tell me if you think I'm retarded, but this occured to me today while I was sitting around doing nothing at work.

The ground is *around* 50*F all year...
I'm thinking: whats wrong with running a water block straight off of the city water?
it couldnt run 24x7, but it'd work for experimenting.

just tell me its retarded, or I'm going to buy a water block next week...
 
It's retarded.

Tap water temperatures can vary.
Tap water contains tons of impurities, metals
It is extremely wasteful.
The water cannot be re-used for cooking, because of the chemicals.

Don't do it.
 
that looks like a very good design. its simple and I would amagine its cheap & efficient.
 
Water towers...never seen that implemented into a computer cooling system before. Water + (Water tower + Fan) + Peltier = coldest solution I've heard of. Just make sure your powersupply has the wattage for the peltiers. I'd go to ebay for peltiers. They are a great price.

I'd imagine that on a dry day, you could get < 0*C with that setup. I think I'm going to try to make a watertower of my own...I'll have to wait on that until I build my next rig though.
 
"bong cooling" works if you are in a low humidity area or have a a/c system in house if not then the air is to saturated to take more "steam" and will not cool at all or very little. If you want to go sub 0c look into making a chiller out of a old or new window a/c unit and there you go. heat dump out the window and super cold in your pc :D
 
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