Chiller set up in progress.. Advice welcome

[Easy*e]

New to water cooling and water chilling. Caught the water bug and am now ready to make the jump.

Picked up this unit from a friend who had his work donate it for scientific research :)

Im not sure what direction I am going to head. I mean, I am not sure if I just want to take the heat out of the water or actually want to chill
it to -0c. This little puppy was made to refrigerate liquid and circulate it so I am sure she can handle whatever I throw at her.
I was thinking about using a peltier but really have not decided what direction to head. Any and all advice is greatly appreciated.

I have ordered an DD TDX and am going to run 3/8ID 1/2OD tubing. Have dual heads on the vavle on the back so I can run seperate I/O lines to
the CPU block and GPU block(when I get one). I know this is a dream machine and can reach some pretty low temps(cfc free mp-39) but I am just getting my feet wet so to say and don't really want to jump to fast. I really like the idea of -0c temps but need to do more research(reading) before I take the jump.

Now some pics of her... :CTF:

[Onycho]

Wow...really nice!

You're in the Chilled Liquid Cooling forum of XTREME systems...push that little baby till she screams!

Just realize now that if you start at higher temperatures you're always going to be asking yourself, "What if I just lower it a bit...?" And you'll lower it, then again, and again, and again...till you have it as cold as it can go. I say skip the middle stuff, insulate the hell outta your board and go for broke!

Also, I'd stuff some more insulation around the tank and see if you can possibly insulate the top of the tank a bit more.

[JSU]

looks like a nice professional unit. mp39 aint the best stuff (-30 - -34) but if you dont even want to hit 0 you should be fine.

[JSU]

yowsers i just realized that the condensor isnt actively cooled. that could be a problem

[bh2k]

Get a nice medium CFM fan going on in there and you should probably get some better temps.

[Easy*e]

Thanks for the replies.. I took the fan and shroud off so I could buy a new fan. Not sure what CFM fan to get. Looking at a 78cfm @ 36db 4 11/16 x 1 1/2 ball bearing fan(DAYTON Model#:3LE76). Do you think that is enough CFM? Kind of trying to get a high CFM fan with a low db. Any suggestions on something different and where can I buy it also...

Great idea to insulate it further. Will only make it that much more efficient. I could put an big pad of Neoprene on top. With only enough cut out for the pump and another little hole to poke a funnel through to fill.

The only real concern I have is how easy is it going to be to control the temp at ambient. I mean, if the room changes temp from 20c -> 30c and the temps in the water stay at my original setting of 20c will the lines condensate? It's like 79% humidity today.

I should be able to put this puppy together tomorrow and test her for a couple of days. At least find out a couple do's and don'ts.

One more question is what do you all think about Dowfrost heat transfer liquid(clear)? I have some of that and think I will be using that with a little blue uv dye.

[JSU]

About your condensation problem. Just concensation proof everything and run it at -20 :)

[Onycho]

#1 Test it if possible. Fill it, put on some tubing and test it using say a 176W tec. See how it stands up to the heat output. Most of those units are designed for keeping chemical reactions in small test tubes at a specific temp...so I don't know how well it will stand up to a large heat load.

#2 Realise that you are human and male with a fun toy. Insulate your board. Sooner or later you WILL want to try pushing your system as far as it can go, it's a genetic male trait. Insulating will let you do this as you feel and it will also protect you in case of ambient temp increases. Also, insulating the lines is ALWAYS a good idea. The more insulation, the less the compressor has to work and the longer life you'll get out of it.

(DOH! Well, not always. If you water temp is > than ambient, the less insulation the better as heat will X-fer out of the system. However, if you run at less than ambient, ALWAYS insulate.)