RSSAC/PC cooling mod
Posted by Gareth Branwyn |
Feb 12, 2008 12:00 PM
Computers |
Permalink
| Comments (9)
| Email This |
| Digg this!
Recent Entries
- Brickarms molds
- LED people remake
- <3 your maker: MAKE's Valentine's Day gift guide
- Don't walk! Controlling a pedestrian sign with an Arduino
- UC Berkeley has "Nobel Laureate Only" parking spaces
- LEGO PCB Agitator
- Volkemon in Space: Additional launch pics
- "Batteries Out of Thin Air"
- From typewriter to teleprinter
- Turning a motor into a sensor with the Peppermill
Comments
Oldest comments listed first.
Leave a comment
Subscribe to MAKE Magazine!
Subscribe today, save 42% and get web access to MAKE free. MAKE Digital Edition is available only to subscribers.
$34.95 / 1 year
(4 Quarterly Issues)
Congratulations, your PC now uses more electricity than your refrigerator. Global warming here we come!
Reply to this comment
Ever heard of a Peltier Junction? Much, much, much, MUCH more efficient and magnitudes more quiet, and cheap.
Reply to this comment
Supercooled Customized PC - $4999
Custom Tri-panel monitor - $2999
Setting it all up a $10 folding table from a swap meet - Priceless
Reply to this comment
there is a fine line between stupid and interesting. This one is so far over the line... That contraption wastes so much power and is such overkill that its an abomination. Worse, if it worked well, it would generated enough cold that it would fracture chips from the heat stress. Its not even particularly clever.
I have to agree with all the comments before me! Don't try this at home!
Reply to this comment
you can tell the people who live in their parents' basements because they don't pay their own electricity bills. sort of like the 14 year old who thinks that running an old pc 24/7 is a great way to save on $5/mo web hosting.
Reply to this comment
I wonder how long that AC will run on that tiny UPS.
Or, how long the CPU will take to crack when the power fails :-/
Neat trick, though :)
Reply to this comment
My main concern would be condensation. I once built a system that used a peltier to chill the air blowing across the processor heat sink. Unfortunately I underestimated the amount of condensation I would get from the heat sink attached to the peltier.
As a result the processor fan shorted out and since this was an old K6 II system the power supply didn't shut off when the processor over heated. I was away at class at the time and by the time I came back I had a block of ice inside my case.
Lesson learned: Cool air in a computer is a good thing but cold wet air is a very bad thing.
Reply to this comment
you know there are things called dehumidifiers...AC is used extensively to cool radar/NAVAIDS/COMM electronics and these work wonders on the condensation problem.
Reply to this comment
contrary to every other comment on here this is a great solution to cooling your computer and if done right, it will give you -40C/F temperatures on your cpu and cooling with a peltier sounds cool but is actually very inefficient and itll triple the amount of heat going to the heatsink and if it fails for some reason it'll not only stop cooling it it works as an insulator and most people that try something like this coat the motherboard in conformal coating add dielectric grease in the cpu socket and also insulate everything to make it condensation proof. overall it works out pretty well and the only reason it draws the normal amount of amps is because most people make it stay on all the time instead of biasing the temperature sensor as the heat load of a computer is far below what the ac unit can put out. i really want to see someone go all out and run the return line through a radiator submerged in oil to cool every other component in there.
Reply to this comment