Refrigerant cooling systems

I would like to cool a container of water using a refrigerant system. The water which is in the container will then be pumped through computer components like the motherboard, CPU, and GPUs.

You can purchase refrigerant cooling systems specifically for the CPU only, which do not involve any water. However, they operate at temperates very low, and the problem becomes the condensation which forms. So, I want to use a condenser and pump, with a coil that bathes in the water tank. Then I can regulate this water temperature more easily to a temperature above the dew point, but lower than ambient air temp.

Can anyone point me in the right direction for possible systems which I could use to cool the water tank?

Thanks

I don't know much about them, but it might be useful to look up the water chillers used for marine fish tanks.

I thought propylene glycol/ethylene glycol mixtures were used for cooling computers given the better thermal conductivity and boiling point. You might not need any cooling at all if you use this, given a large enough volume... But im not sure.

What temperature are you aiming for? Do you know how much heat you have to dump? Unless your home is bone dry, the pipes will sweat if you cool the water below teh dew point temperature.

There's a whole ton of aftermarket component coolers, both heat pipe and liquid cooling. None are cheap. The better heat pipes will do about the same as a poor to midrange liquid cooling system.

Bob

Chrisn said:

I thought propylene glycol/ethylene glycol mixtures were used for cooling computers given the better thermal conductivity and boiling point. You might not need any cooling at all if you use this, given a large enough volume... But im not sure.

Click to expand...

I read that pure ethylene glycol mixtures actually perform worse than pure water. It was stated a useful ratio is 9:1 or so water/EG. I don't quite understand why they actually use any of it at all in that case. Maybe to help with corrosion? Though I know water wetter will help with corrosion.

Bobkrech said:

What temperature are you aiming for? Do you know how much heat you have to dump? Unless your home is bone dry, the pipes will sweat if you cool the water below teh dew point temperature.

There's a whole ton of aftermarket component coolers, both heat pipe and liquid cooling. None are cheap. The better heat pipes will do about the same as a poor to midrange liquid cooling system.

Bob

Click to expand...

Right now I do not know for certain how much heat I will have to dump. I haven't figured an exact number, but I know approximately 300-500W worth. 1 CPU, 3 GPUs, and the north and south bridge on the motherboard. Since efficiency of the conduction is a large factor, as well as desired temp, it's hard to pinpoint an exact thermal wattage.

So anyways, my plan is to simply use a unit which is likely to provide excess of what I will need, then simply run a thermostat on the cooler. Temp falls out of range, it turns on. The actual temperature needed I am not certain of. My hope is to attain the lowest system temps without actually creating any dew. So just above dew points. Climate conditions will be a factor and I will have to experiment with them. I'm thinking right around 55-60F degrees.

The problem with heat pipe and standard liquid cooling is that you are only attempting to pull down to ambient temps, since the air is really whats cooling the water. I want to input water below ambient temps, so that CPU voltages can go even higher than what those systems would allow.

I've never taken an air conditioner apart, I just know I need to find something which would have a suitable sized evaporator coil that I could submerge in the liquid tank. So I assume just about about any type would work, so long as it was easy enough to separate the parts and remotely place the evap coil in the tank, and of course large enough in thermal capacity--which I assume most are.

Thanks guys.

in that case, a standard car antifreeze would work (organic, EG bassed) since that would have the water wetting chemicals you need, I have heard of a thing called a peltier which may work in your situation (google, since I know nothing else about them)

Don't know how compact you are trying to keep this, but how about just putting your liquid tank into a dorm sized refrigerator?

One other possibility would be to remove/remote all moving things from the motherboard and seal everything up real good and submerge the MB in liquid nitrogen.
Get real screaming speeds that way.

Back to the real world.
I have the stuff to liquid cool my system but have not done it yet.
I'm more worried/concerned about noise.
The peltier systems, as I understand it, cause very low temps and one needs to protect against condensation.

11Bravo said:

One other possibility would be to remove/remote all moving things from the motherboard and seal everything up real good and submerge the MB in liquid nitrogen.
Get real screaming speeds that way.

Back to the real world.
I have the stuff to liquid cool my system but have not done it yet.
I'm more worried/concerned about noise.
The peltier systems, as I understand it, cause very low temps and one needs to protect against condensation.

Click to expand...

I was going to place the tank, pumps, and AC unit a few feet away from the PC. I usually wear headphones that seal my hearing, so the noise won't be a problem most of the time.

Yes, and the peltiers are very expensive, too.

Indiana said:

I don't know much about them, but it might be useful to look up the water chillers used for marine fish tanks.

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Indiana, I found what you are talking about. Perfect! It turns out there is a modified fish tank cooler specifically intended for PC use.

https://www.aquastealth.com/modified15hpchiller.aspx

Peltiers are not that expensive--I got a pair of 46w ones on Ebay for $15 shipped--but they will not really help you. If your CPU puts out 85W, for example, you will need a peltier that can transfer at least 85W of heat, then you will need probably 170W of cooling on the hot side of the peltier because they are inefficient. Also, my 46W peltier is already a bit larger than a CPU, and one with enough wattage for a CPU will be even bigger, so you will probably need some kind of heat spreader, which adds more resistance to heat flow. You could use peltiers to cool the water tank, but you will need a big CPU heatsink on each one, and some kind of heatsink in the water, so I don't see the point.

How about just going this route! https://www.metacafe.com/watch/565060/mineral_oil_submerged_computer/

You could always go with a vapochill system:

https://www.asetek.com/content/view/51/101/