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Overclock in Space?

Moogoos

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 30, 2012
Messages
334
How well could I overclock my 3770k in space? Would I even need a fan?
 
No air means no heat transfer via conduction or convection. That leaves radiative heat transfer, which is not efficient at all, so you'd have to have a massive radiator that's shaded from the sun at all times. Heat pipes are out of the question since there's not enough gravity to effect the movement of the various density fluids inside. No mechanical hard drives either.

Then there's the radiation issues.
 
What if I was always on the dark side of the moon and had a dust cover?
 
a piece of steel in space while in the sun can reach a temperature of 250 degrees. astronaut working with metals in space often need to cover the pieces in blankets while working with them in the sunlight. That same piece of steel in the shade in space can reach a temperature of -100 degrees. Also as you move further and further from our star the temperature plumets. the surface of pluto is -240 degrees. thats only like 30 degrees above absolute 0, or -273 degrees celsius. some of the objects floating way outside the solar system are only like 20 degrees above absolute zero.
That being said, it all depends on how quickly your heatsink can emit photons out into nothingness. whenever you pump photons into an object, it heats up, but at the same time that object emits photons..... or heat. So the question is, how quickly will your heatsink emit photons into space vs how quickly your processor pumps photos into your heatsink.
 
How did this even become a though? All I can say is: "What the hell?"
 
a piece of steel in space while in the sun can reach a temperature of 250 degrees. astronaut working with metals in space often need to cover the pieces in blankets while working with them in the sunlight. That same piece of steel in the shade in space can reach a temperature of -100 degrees. Also as you move further and further from our star the temperature plumets. the surface of pluto is -240 degrees. thats only like 30 degrees above absolute 0, or -273 degrees celsius. some of the objects floating way outside the solar system are only like 20 degrees above absolute zero.
That being said, it all depends on how quickly your heatsink can emit photons out into nothingness. whenever you pump photons into an object, it heats up, but at the same time that object emits photons..... or heat. So the question is, how quickly will your heatsink emit photons into space vs how quickly your processor pumps photos into your heatsink.

not photons. those are the energy carriers for radiative heat transfer. processors transfer heat into their heatsinks via conduction, which is just a direct transfer of thermal (i.e. kinetic) energy from one molecule to another.

You'd have to design a liquid (not water) cooling system that collects heat from every heat dissipating component in the system (including SMD resistors) and pumps the heated liquid to a radiative surface. You can't use a finned radiator since there's no convection mechanism to carry heat away from the interior fins (they'd just radiate heat into each other). So if you're dissipating 550w, you need a box about 8ft x 5ft x 6in (actually a little larger since you'd want vanes inside to direct the liquid as it flows through it..

How did this even become a though? All I can say is: "What the hell?"

drunk posting maybe? It's giving me something to do for a slow work night.
 
Beyond the issue of not having air to efficiently carry away heat, exposing your desktop processor to cosmic rays and solar radiation is probably not going to help your overclock. You're going to want a bit more protection than your proposed lunar dust cover. ;)
 
Metal parts reach -100C in space yes, but they don't generate heat like a CPU does.
 
How would cooling work in low gravity rather than the vacuum of the void?
 
The effect of gravity has little to do with modern cooling systems, as heat-pipes are a sealed system that uses capillary action to conduct heat, and water coolers have an active pump which provides gravity-independent flow. If you are talking about inside a vacuum, then you would need a massive insulated tank of fluid that can equalize the energy released via heat radiation versus the energy being produced by the CPU.
 
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