1st chiller

[SexyMF]

I've watercooled so some time now. I have an entirely fanless system. But now I'm interested in phase-change cooling.

So here is my first attempt. I'll add that engineering is not my forte.

The system has been through several evaporator coils with 1/4" tube but I have now upsized to a dual 5/16" coils in series. The 1/4" tubing was able to maintain the load at -23C. The 5/16" is still in testing.



The pump is submersed and circulating the coolant.



Previous load testing.



The system is using 1.3m of 0.7mm cap tubing and a 1/3hp HT class compressor charged with R290 (propane). The reservior is around 9 litres of coolant mixed to about 5:4 coolant/water. Pulldown of the coolant takes several hours.The pressures start around 8"hg/150psi and went up to 5psi/200psi during pull-down and then came back to 8"hg/150psi.

So far things are ok I think.

Thanks for looking.

[n00b 0f l337]

You have ur red hose over the fan while its moving? Looks awfully close to the bladeee....

[Gimmpy224]

*slice, sprrraaayyy* OMG!!!

[MeltedDuron]

LOL! looks tied to the condenser.... tbh i'd be more worried about it actually being there now, as it's charged up...

[SexyMF]

OK. I've tested the new 5/16" evaporator coils. They seem to hold 180W+pump at around -25C. I think this is ok looking at what others have achieved. The physical build needs to be changed. The fan is sucking (ccw) so I need to move it to the other side of the condensor and make a decent shroud. But for now I'm off to find some insulation for my board.

Although I have NB/GPU/CPU/PSU watercooled I'm not risking insulating all of these, so I'm going to do the CPU first. I shall try it with a Duron750 first, since they are worthless. Then if all is well I'll pop my 2500M back in. Even overclocked I expect less than 100W load given it's a 45W CPU. The MB is an Asus A7N8X Deluxe.

I'm thinking of letting the chiller swing between -10C and -20C so its not on all the time. What duty cycle do you people use?


No pics yet because I don't own a digital camera. Borrowing takes time.

[marvt74]

Welcome over SexyMF

[SexyMF]

Cheers marvt74

[RussC]

So far, my system runs 6min on 3min off to hold a 180W load between 5c and 12c. I think yours might be similar, but you have such a large resv, I'm not sure what that would be.

RussC

[SexyMF]

RussC:

Is that -5 and -12C?

[SexyMF]

Awesome. I am sucessful. I have braved it and turned the rig on. It's only running enough to show BIOS.

The 2500M @ 1.6V 11x200 shows 0C in the hardware monitor. I know this is maybe 10C below the real temp but it is 35C lower than it started at.

The coolant is comming out from the CPU at about -20 and the temp next to the coils is -30 thereabouts. This has taken about 80minutes to pulldown 9 litres from 20C with the CPU at idle. This is good. Only now is the holddown plate starting to condensor moisture. I want to swing between -10 and -20.

Onward and upward!

[sluflyer06]

So far, my system runs 6min on 3min off to hold a 180W load between 5c and 12c. I think yours might be similar, but you have such a large resv, I'm not sure what that would be.

RussC

only 3min off is pretty hard on your compressor doesn't give the high side and low side much time to equalize..if your refrigerant is on the high pressure side you'll eventually kill the compressor.

[RussC]

No,
My thermostat runs in the +c range. Lowest setting is cool to 2c, turn off. When it gets to 6c, turn on. At the highest setting, cool to 8c, turn off. When it gets to 12c, turn on. Thats how my thermostat works. With a large load like I have, the resivor will rise 6c in ~3-4mins. Then it takes 6-7min to cool down w/R134a.

These times will vary with resivor size.

RussC

RussC:

Is that -5 and -12C?

[SexyMF]

RussC:

How does the system perform if you bypass the thermostat and swing between say -10 and 0?

[SexyMF]

I finally put everything back into my puny-mini-case. The MB is max size for the case.

I've had a look at the temps in speedfan and the CPU is about 5C when the inflow is about -20C. This is with 200x12 for 2.4gig @ 1.6Vcore. I run my PC2700 @6-3-3-2.5 on 200FSB. Using Sandra the 2.2 -> 2.4 jump gave me ~9% boost in synthetic benchmarks.

Cycling on and off manually (as in I'm pulling out the plug when the sensor hits -20C and turning it back on when it's -10) I can do 15minutes on 30minutes off under full-load (Simcity4). I'm very happy with that. Time to quieten down the load compressor now by way of a lid.

[RussC]

My thermostat wont swing between those temps. I can manually do it when I get my system back together over the weekend.

RussC

RussC:

How does the system perform if you bypass the thermostat and swing between say -10 and 0?