Old-fashioned

kharnakkharnak Miami
edited March 2004 in Hardware
I'd like some feedback on this idea i tried a couple times.
I take an aluminum drink bottle, and i fill it with crushed ice and i dump in some rock salt and close it.
Then i place it on top of my case and put a couple layers of foam packing material to insulate it, so that the bottle of melted ice is the only Cold Reserviore that's in contact with it.
The thing is... I've calculated that this process of forcing ice to melt causes a thermal "energy debt" that's really super juicy to me. It gets so cold that i cannot hold it with my hand or else it sticks to it. The condensation on the bottle turns into frost. Then i did some very cpu intensive work, like... using Pifast or something.
After a while... the power supply fan begins to blow out tepid air. :D isn't that great?
No i wasn't overclocking. And i only have a 1.050ghz Athlon, and a whoooole lot of pagefile space.

I have pictures of this actually. It's wonderfully ghetto-fabulous.

Comments

  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited March 2004
    That's pretty cool...


    Never mind the pun. It really is pretty cool.
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited March 2004
    How long does it last?
  • edcentricedcentric near Milwaukee, Wisconsin Icrontian
    edited March 2004
    The salt just lets the water stay liquid at lower temps. You should build a shroud that lets you pull your intake air over the cold bottle. Just make sure that you don't restrict the air flow. I saw a rig like this that was built to use pop cans. The guy filled them with water and froze them solid. Then the droped into holders in an intake plenum to cool the air.
    It doesn't actuall remove much energy, but every little bit helps.
    2x12oz x heat rise /time` well, you don't really want me to do the math. My guess is that you are talking about lowering system temp by a few degrees for a couple of hours.
  • kharnakkharnak Miami
    edited March 2004
    yes it's essentially a chemistry problem. It was really impressive to me at first.
    And instead of building a shroud... well that's a nice idea actually. i just took several more plastic cups of ice, and set it right next to the intakes, so it draws in the cool air too. good thinking though.
    I do have a better idea that would not involve the risk of condensation. It involves going to home depot, buying a bunch of aluminum or copper or whatever, and making a large external structure to transfer heat, and it will get dumped into a nice cold reserviore such as.... Those gel packs used for medical purposes.
    I used to use those to cool down a 400w amplifier in the car. Those things generally use the entire body structure as the damn heat sink. And those things get <b>hot</b> and i mean more than a measly 70C.
    Of course it is limited. Even a frostbite inducing gel pack turns soft and warm if i leave it on the amp long enough.
    The ice bottle lasts a good while too, about.. 5 to 6 hours if it's well insulated(Newton's law of heating, bla bla). But personally... i still think big blocks of metal and replaceable gel packs are more yummy. Just because the power supply fan is blowing out cold air, doesnt mean the cpu itself is being cooled.
    I have suggested that people mount their motherboards seperately right next to the air vents in their home if they have central air. Just a thought. I'd like to see it.
    ...ooh... Dry Ice... hmm
Sign In or Register to comment.