Suggestions for Phase Change resources?

[AverageJoe86]

Hello,

I haven't been having much luck in finding good phase change resources.
Currently I'm just doing as much research on it as possible to see if it's worth my time, money and effort.
The websites that I have been finding like www.xtreamsystems.org appear to deal mostly with custom fabrication. Now this kinda stuff is by no means outside my skills (I'm an ASME Certified Tig/Stick Pressure Vessel Pipe Welder) but I think with all of the trial and error required, building my own Phase Change cooler is most likely going to consume too much of my time.

Now I have also seen some pre-fabricated boxes that the machine tower sits on top of, but I have no idea what styles and models are out there, nor any idea on reliability and maintenance specifications.

So does anybody have some good resource material that I can read up on?

Thanks for your time,
-Joe

 

[silent-circuit]

The pre-built systems are kind of 'secretive', you're not going to find much in the way of specs anywhere.

I'm personally envious of your skill set -- I've got a Prometeia Mach I that's been modified by Chilly1, but it's set up for older processors and needs a new two or three row condenser to work with quads... but I have no idea what I'm doing, so I'll probably have to sell the thing. Hiring someone to do it is just insanely expensive.

As for styles available, there's pretty much one. They're all designed to sit under Lian Li tower cases, generally the "PC" series, like the PC-7B and similar.

They're generally pretty reliable, though they do have to be recharged with refrigerant after a few years of service much like a car's airconditioning system, from what I understand. Not sure how many years of service you can expect out of the compressor, since it's run constantly or near constantly in this application instead of switched on and off, like in a refrigerator or freezer, but mine is from the late 90s in so far as I know and still going strong.

So far as prefab systems, you have the Prometeia Mach II / GT and the Vapochill LS. Expect to spend around $1200 for a new unit and mounting kit / accessories.

There are some serious downsides to phase -- namely, if set up improperly it can kill all your stuff. Yay condensation / icing. It's also not silent, or even as quiet as a big tower cooler like the Xigmatech HDT-S1283 or Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme. Certainly not as quiet as water.

Sure you will get higher overclocks, but you're looking at /maybe/ 500-700Mhz more than a quality watercooling system for about 4-5x the cost. A modern i7 based system can get above 4Ghz on good air cooling, and that's enough to do just about anything. Phase is awesome, but it's far from practical or cost effective. If your machine isn't already ultra high end (i7, 6GB+ RAM, 2+ GPUs, 1000w+ PSU, 24"+ LCD at 1920x1200+) you're much better off spending the money elsewhere. Modern systems are GPU limited until you're talking about Tri-SLI with GTX 285s anyway.

 

[AverageJoe86]

Thanks alot, that was very helpful.
The pre-built machines are for sure out of my pocket depth.