Condensation headed our way? (dont want a fried cpu)

Monkey34

Monkey34

Supreme [H]ardness
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I have a friend with a water-cooled P-4 something rig, and is obsessed with toying with the setup (it was someone else's build) like adding a second rad, re-routing the lines, etc.
Now he has modded a small refrigeration unit to cool the rad's somehow (I haven't been by to see it yet), and is ready to run it. Supposedly he turned the unit down to around 35-40deg, and wants to cool it with it.
I am thinking if his mod works at all, he might be creating some condensation on the blocks. Am I headed in the right direction? He's willing to hold off running it until we find out more.

(on a side note, he's convinced that his computer will run faster just because its cooler. He doesn't know a thing about overclocking.):D
 
im sorry hes using refrigerated cooling and he doesn't overclock?

could you beat him over the head with a frying pan for me? please?

when hes regained consciousness we can get started...

actually we can't, do it again just to make sure we got all the stupid out of him....

I wouldn't worry about condensation when the rigs fired up, if its producing say 300W of heat then that water, even after its been refrigerated, isn't likely to be below the temp required for condensation.

When its off, your going to have problems. I don't know what you could do, yeah a foam of some kind, maybe lots and lots of caulking? I don't know. The guys over at Xtremesystems would probably know better.
 
MrWizard6600 said:
im sorry hes using refrigerated cooling and he doesn't overclock?

could you beat him over the head with a frying pan for me? please?

when hes regained consciousness we can get started...

actually we can't, do it again just to make sure we got all the stupid out of him....
Click to expand...

Heh;) I'll use whatever is handy.

I thought there were insulating kits or something, but we can always ghetto it.
 
Monkey34 said:
Why? Isn't it just a matter of case temp vs. block temp? There is insulation or something to cover the block isn't there?
The case is very similar to this one, except its black, no alien, and full of uv-everything :http://www.boingboing.net/2004/03/14/radical-alienstyle-c.html
Click to expand...

No... because we're talking about heatload too... You can laser cool the surface of your chip down to a few degrees from absolute zero, and still not get condensation if your surface produces more heat than the lasers can remove.

If you're using a 1/16th tonne compressor to do the cooling, it would get saturated quickly, and probably break down after a few minutes of running 100% load. You wouldn't even have to worry about condensation :p.
 
lol.

The guy is nuts if he's putting tons of energy into cooling a CPU and not clocking it.
What is his goal?

If the CPU die or surrounding area drops lower than ambient, you may hit the dew point which will cause condensation.
You can easily prevent this being a problem by sealing round the CPU/socket/heatsink base with something like putty.
 
Whether condensation forms depends on what the ambient temperature is compared to the block temperature (or whatever), and what the relative humidity is. If the surface you're worried about condensation forming is at a higher temperature than dewpoint, no condensation forms.
 
1) his computer MAY perform better if its cooler... electricity flows better in cool metal rather then hot metal(thus why we try to cool our cpu's so much!)...that being said, he should be overclocking.....!

2) condensation could occur if the water gets below ambient.

go to a hardware store, get some foam tubing and put it around the tubes. also get some dielectric grease and cram it all around the cpu socket. ALSO put something on the back of the cpu socket to ensure no condensation there either.

if you search for insulation for vapochill cooling units you can see what other people do and get more good ideas. I am skeptical, as if he just has his radiator in a fridge it probablly wont do shit. Refridgerators are not built to deal with a constant heat source. that's why they are so insulated, have a closing door, etc. BUT be sure to post back and let us know how it goes!
 
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