Insultation needed?

[filmbot]

I was thinking of trying to make a chiller with a big jug cooler and a piece of sheet metal. The piece of sheet metal would more than likely be a piece of aluminum ducting that fits inside. I would seal up around the bottom with caulk to make it water tight. The "X's" represent the tubing. I plan on keeping my radiator in the loop and just using this to replace the res.

My question is, if I keep the bottom sealed and the water doesnt come in direct contact with the DI, would I need insulation or would the heat of the GPU give off enough heat?

Also, if I was to seal up the entire jug airtight, would I have to worry about pressure building up instead from the evaporating DI? Or would I only have to worry about that if I added Acetone?

[[XC] 2long4u]

Anytime you get the coolant below the dewpoint you have to insulate.

[[XC] mysticmerlin]

The question I have is if you are trying to cool the loop not just DI on the GPU then why not make a copper coil and put in a say 6" pvc res that you can put DI in and cap for the little extra. Or am I reading you wrong?

[Pete]

So you plan to use the waterloop you have set up now and just take the rad and use that a res/heat exchnager in a tube of DICE to chill it all down?

DICE will be -70 ish, insualte you will need to do.

You'd also have to add something to the water lopp to stop it freezing.

Like whats been said getting some copper tubing, make a nice coil out of it and use that to replace the rad and that will be come you HX. You put that in a tube and add your dice there etc, thats going be the chiller part!

Im no expert but to me that makes sense

[filmbot]

I know what you guys are saying with the coil, like a more traditional chiller.

What Im asking is, do you think that with the heat dump of the VGA and pump, does that sheet of Alu. have good enough thermal properties to transfer the cold to the water to point where it freezes?

[Pete]

Draw us a photo or explaine in more detials

[filmbot]

Post and the picture is clear enough.

Im not sure what more I can show you with out actually making it and showing you pictures

[Starkiller42]

Well, to answer your question, yes, you are gonna need to insulate. Even without direct contact, the subliming CO2 will bring the water temp down enough to reach your local dewpoint, at which bad things happen. Think of it this way; there's quite a number of Alu pots out there, and if a big pot can conduct heat to lower a CPU down to -60*C or colder, then a thin sheet of Alu isn't going to pose much of a problem for the transfer of heat.

BTW, since you're separating the DI and coolant, you should submerge the DI in alcohol to increase the surface area contact with the Alu; that will provide a much more efficient transfer. Have a good amount of antifreeze in your coolant, too; not only will you need it for temps, but using that much aluminum is just begging for galvanic corrosion.

[dietwaterrr]

sorry to hijack your thread, but if i make a mini chiller just to get temps around say 10-20 degrees celsius with a controller, would i need to insulate anything?

[Polizei]

Probably. Your room temp is most likely higher than 10-20C, which would mean the water in the tubes is below ambient. Whenever you are cooling something below ambient, condensation is/can be a problem.