Anyone Ever Attempted Liquid Helium?

[GunnerMan]

I say give it a try. Yes it is very very dangerous, get a friend or 2 or 3 or 4 over there to help you. Place motherboard on a styrofoam bed so it does not shatter, get a fridn to hold a blow drier on the motherboard, and pour the helium very very very carefuly, dont spill any and make sure everyone is wearing gloves filled with insulation. Play it safe then why not. If I were you I would tak to the guy that handles the stuff on a daily basis to at least come and help/supervise. If you don't feel comfortable then don't do it.

[sjohnson]

Trying to find some info on dewars, I came across this. Thought it was interesting

(Fermilab insulates its liquid helium lines with both liquid nitrogen and vacuum.)

From http://www.fnal.gov/pub/news/history_lowtemp.html

So, a pipe in which they run LHe is surrounded by a second pipe and the space between the two is evacuated, creating a vacuum.

Then a third pipe encases the first two, and they run LN through it.

Or maybe the LN is first and the vacuum is last. Who knows?

All to keep LHe from heating up.

There's a wild, xtreme cooling design for LHe delivery lurking in there.

[redwraith94]

My Helium rig is complete but the capacity is so low that is not not a good option. We are working on a practicle use for it. One problem that exists is the freezing of capacitors near the CPU socket. I found once fired up they stay running but beyond -50c they are deaded when I reboot.

you could just desolder the caps, and put a foot or so of wire on them, so they don't freeze. Any Updates?

[evilentity]

Well, you could always do something truly suicidal and use liquid hydrogen.

It seems like solid Nitrogen (melts at -210C) would be a better solution than LHe, at least it would turn into LN2 instead of a deadly gas like LHe

[dippyskoodlez]

you could just desolder the caps, and put a foot or so of wire on them, so they don't freeze. Any Updates?

Hmm... SPDL or someone would probably want to comment on that one. He would suggest thats a bad idea, but an idea, atleast.


I still propose we make a mini heatblanket for all capactitors and stuff?

[RAMMAN]

helium has been around since like, the big bang .are you guys trying to say no one on this amazing forum has even tried to bench a liquid helium rig yet .just dont start up a liquid hydrogen rig and create another big bang than without internet we would have to start all over again from square one.

[dippyskoodlez]

helium has been around since like, the big bang .are you guys trying to say no one on this amazing forum has even tried to bench a liquid helium rig yet .just dont start up a liquid hydrogen rig and create another big bang than without internet we would have to start all over again from square one.

wtf?

[RAMMAN]

so, no one likes my sense of humour i can take a hint .

[dippyskoodlez]

so, no one likes my sense of humour i can take a hint .

I didnt understand a single thing that post had....

[RAMMAN]

never heard of the big bang theory? the beginning of the universe?

[dippyskoodlez]

never heard of the big bang theory? the beginning of the universe?

well yea, but what does He have to do with it?

[RAMMAN]

big bangs, liquid hydrogen, hydrogen bomb anecdotes...get it yet?

[Revv23]

but we are talking about liquid helium, not hydrogen.

[redwraith94]

Hmm... SPDL or someone would probably want to comment on that one. He would suggest thats a bad idea, but an idea, atleast.


I still propose we make a mini heatblanket for all capactitors and stuff?

Well, AFAIK the electrolytic caps are only for power line conditioning and 1 foot of decent copper wire shouldn't affect anything that much imo. If they are smaller caps i.e. not electrolytic than they are probably used for other things and would be sensitive for variations in wire length, but I still think it is a better idea than heating what you're trying to cool

[M.Beier]

Hmm, didnt TAM use it once ? - And actually succeded ? - Anyway... As far as' Im told its not good at transfering the heat... :\\

[dippyskoodlez]

Well, AFAIK the electrolytic caps are only for power line conditioning and 1 foot of decent copper wire shouldn't affect anything that much imo. If they are smaller caps i.e. not electrolytic than they are probably used for other things and would be sensitive for variations in wire length, but I still think it is a better idea than heating what you're trying to cool

we arent trying to cool the caps :P so it wouldnt be heating what we're trying to cool.... I'm sure teh CPU wouldn't notice a thing.

[redwraith94]

but why install a heater, when you don't have to? especially with Liquid helium, that stuff evaporates extaordinarily quickly

[sokarul]

Liquid helium is a natural resource so it is controled buy they government. I dont think they will give it to you to use at home on your computer.

Not sure if anyone said that yet.

[FireDragon]

only the helium 2 has the superfluid feature...

This is not true He III will "defy" gravity when a test tube is put into He III and the He III will climb the side of the tube and fill the test tube until the He III is level with He III outside.

The unfortunate part of ANY liquid He ANY isotope of it is that it will be so cold that the semiconductor of the cpu no matter how pure or how oxidized some of it is it will turn into an insulator and will take a VERY VERY large amount of voltage more than ANY stock board can provide (not that if you are doing this that you would have a stock board…) to over come the increased resistance of the CPU and because of the increased voltage and increased resistance the CPU will generate so much more heat then normal and because of He molecular structure it will turn into a gas at about the same rate that you can sanely poor it in not to mention that you would have a room full of He that could make you float off the face of the earth!!! (ha that would be great if that could happen) Not to mention that the caps and ALL of the surrounding resistors with have to be heated to maintain a “normal” operation that will allow everything to properly work…so it is truly more work then what it seems at first glance…

Just my .2

Dragon

[Grayskull]

Before considering the effects of electron mobility, consider the fact that ASICs are produced with specific timing checks at certain process, voltage and temperature corners. Having an ASIC work properly at -100C is actually quite miraculous, considering that -100C is so far away from the pratical limits anyone characterizes with. Going beyond this, especially significantly beyond this, is only going to be an exercise in frustration. You wll run into other problems before electron mobility becomes an issue.

This is not true He III will "defy" gravity when a test tube is put into He III and the He III will climb the side of the tube and fill the test tube until the He III is level with He III outside.

The unfortunate part of ANY liquid He ANY isotope of it is that it will be so cold that the semiconductor of the cpu no matter how pure or how oxidized some of it is it will turn into an insulator and will take a VERY VERY large amount of voltage more than ANY stock board can provide (not that if you are doing this that you would have a stock board…) to over come the increased resistance of the CPU and because of the increased voltage and increased resistance the CPU will generate so much more heat then normal and because of He molecular structure it will turn into a gas at about the same rate that you can sanely poor it in not to mention that you would have a room full of He that could make you float off the face of the earth!!! (ha that would be great if that could happen) Not to mention that the caps and ALL of the surrounding resistors with have to be heated to maintain a “normal” operation that will allow everything to properly work…so it is truly more work then what it seems at first glance…

Just my .2

Dragon