The Freezer

I wanted to create a cooler that was easy to make control the tempreature of and not have to worry to much about condensation. What I decided on was using a chest freezer. I chose one of the smaller models a 140 liter capacity.

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The first step was to make it water proof so it could hold the coolent. For this I simply bought a tube of glass silicon and sealed up all of the joins.

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For the pump I used an old aquarium pump I had an ehiem and placed a water filter cartridge on the input. This has proved to be a bit of a problem as the water filter wants to float.

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For the water block in the PC I chose the EK Supreme HF.

I then filled the freezer with water and added the ethylene glycol at a rate of 5% for the moment. I might increase this to 10% depending on the temperatures I go down to. I am cautious of the warning on the bottle about painted surfaces as the freezer is powder coated.

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For temprature control I am simply using the turn it on and off method at the moment but will probally use a timer and a Camille Baure V604 temperature comtroller in the future.

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The capacity of coolent at 100 liters is a big advantage as you can cool the liquid down overnight when the electricity is cheap and it takes a long time for any heating to occur from the pc.

Well for the new year after trying out the concept for a few months I decided to make things a little bit more permantent.

I drilled a couple of holes in the lid of the freezer to take the pipe inlet and return, upgraded the pipe to a reinforced type that kinks less easily and insulated the pipe and the cooling blocks.

Pics to follow.

What type of temps are you getting and for how long can you sustain this? I assume this is not a 24/7 setup.

This is absolutly my 24/7 setup. I can get the coolant down to about -7 which then runs the CPU at about -3 to 3 depending on the core at idle

There is not much advantage to running temps this cold as apossed to running coolant temps of about +5 which then means no or little condenstation to worry about. Idle is always about 5-10 degrees above the coolant and 100% load is 30 degrees higher than idle.

The system is working perfectly with absolutly nearly constant coolant tempreatures.

Sent a PM with some questions.

THANKS!

Well I have successfully been running this system for a few months now and it is working brilliantly.

The major advantage of it is its simplicity in operation and to be modded into a unit that achieves the objective that was planned.

I have made a few simple mods since the proof of concept. The first was to permanently install the supply and return line and to insulate these, both to stop heat loss and to stop condensation forming on the tubing and dripping into my computer room/home office.

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Here you can see that a lot of condensation forms at these temperatures and it be a big problem. Nearly as bad as a leaking water loop. At least the water is distilled.

Here you can see that I am also using the standard water block that comes with the GA-X58A-UD7. The chips were running a little warm (in fact quite hot) but this fixed that immediately the heat pipe does a good job of acting in the reverse and spreading the cold to the other chipsets so well in fact I have condensation issues on these as well if I am not careful

The next step was to insulate the blocks as well as I could. I used a small cut-off of a 2inch copper pipe insulation foam rubber for the cpu and then glued stips of the rubber to it using super glue. Not fixing the rubber to the cpu block but the rubber ring.

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I then also wrapped a piece of this around the other water block.

To soak up and evaporate any condensation I have a cotton towel on top of the video card that takes care of condensation forming on the heat pipe distributors and other parts of the water blocks

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Absolutely Awesome!!!

That is absolutely ridiculous...in a good way!

Well I thought I would do a 2 year update also. The system has been working nearly every day for the last 2 years nearly flawlessly. As far as the cooling system goes there has been no problems. I have changed mother boards and did need to replace the water block as I was not happy with the look of it a year or so on,, it looked very tarnished and in some places corroded. It got replaced and I found the best form of insulation was to completely encapsulate the non working surface of the water block in silicone. It is great as an insulator and stops any leaks as a bonus.

So new CPU, new SSD's but the cooling system remains the same. I should have water-cooled the video cards these buggers in SLI produce a lot of heat and are the one thing that will lock the system up due to overheating when playing games or have to put up with very high fan noise.

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Has there been used any socket or backplate insulation against condensation ?

No I try to run the unit most of the time at temps that don't cause too much condensation in these areas. A small amount of beading on the back plate is ok. Before I encased the water block in silicon I did have more trouble with condensation mainly dripping down onto the video cards. it would run down the arm of the water block attachment. Now that these exposed areas are small not much condensation forms there that doesn't evaporate off before it drips.