I'm starting to build another pc, and I was wanting water cooling. I am also planning to put the resevoir in a mini fridge on the basis that it would provide more cooling if the water was at 4 degrees.

Then it hit me today, why not put the whole pc in the fridge and have the entire environment at 4 degrees? This would mean I'm not messing about so much.

So is the inside of a fridge a damp environment enough to bother a pc?

I would think the fridge may become overwaorked due to the heat generated from the PC the heat and cold would potentially increase moisture levels.

the damp in a fridge is moisture in the air condensing on the cold parts. So long as the door isnt opened excessively, then the computer shouldnt get wet, especially since it would be warmer than the rest of the fridge.

That's a good point, would it be able to handle it?

The door would only be opened if I had to get inside it, as I'd wire up the dvd drive to be outside (I do know that discs get damp on them when cold)

I would be amazed if a fridge could get rid of that much heat. And it would be hard work to get it airtight with the wires in and out.

It is an interesting idea!

Does this help??

http://www.ehow.com/how_5793999_cool-computer-mini-refrigerator.html

Edited to say I would be far to scared to try this!

[Edited on 25/10/12 by david_hornet27]

That article reads like itwas written by someone who thinks it should work but has never actally tried it with their own computer.
Just go for a tried and tested fluid cooling system if that's what you are after.

Agreed.

Fridges are designed to keep cold things cool, not to cool things down that produce heat...

All this seems like a way to massively increase your electricity bill with little to no performance gain.

The old school option would be a peltier to cool your cpu with a wc loop to remove the heat, or you can try all kinds of silly things. I used to duct outside air through my radiator to keep it extra cool.

Anyway, I'd check out somewhere like OCAU or Hardocp for other interesting and viable cooling options.

Fridge is a bit overkill..

Get a proper watercool system, they are pretty cheap these days.....

I'm sort of ashamed to admit that I actually did this once. It was way back when I was at university and into over clocking. There was an article about it on some forum I frequented (via a dial up connection!).

I was running a massively over clocked Pentium (or even Celeron, I forget now) 133 with a Voodoo 2 PCI graphics card which shows you how long ago it was. I didn't run it for long and I just did it to prove to a mate that it would be stable, but it didn't get wet. A fridge is just a heat exchanger really. As others have said it's not until you open it up that you get any moisture. Would be much easier now with all the cheap small fridges you can get. I seem to rember I also experimented with a simple metal conductor, one end connected to the fridge gubbins and one end to the heatsink. Happy (if skint) days!

about 10 years ago you used to be able to get refrigerated cases - they had heating elements to stick on the back of the MB to stop condensation forming...



[Edited on 25/10/2012 by mcerd1]

A small fridge won't be able to cope with anything like the heat output from from a PC. You could build an evaporative cooler which can work pretty well.

No point at all, the size of fridge you need to shift ~300-400W of heat output would be pretty large. It won't get damp as the moisture will condense on the colder bits, which will be the walls of the fridge, not the warm computer.

You can buy peltier cooling systems to refridgerate the CPU/GPU etc directly, they DO have condensation issues as they're making the CPU the coldest spot in a warm room, but they're also one of the best ways of getting the CPU cold.

Unless you're planning on massively overclocking it's pointless anyway.

By far the best idea for "coolness" is to build the computer into a fish tank and fill it with mineral oil, remove all fans and grin as the oil removes the heat nice and quick and is insulating <HSE> Don't do this unless you know what you're doing</HSE>

As per what coyoteboy says in his last paragraph. I did this 10 years ago with a clocked AMD, used normal sunflower oil as this is dielectric, so will not affect the electrical systems of a PC at all, I did though leave a fan on, but not on the CPU, all it did was recirculate the oil around the container thereby dispelling yet more heat. I had the system running for about 6 months without shutting the PC off once, I helped run a now defunct IRC chat server, and as such it had to be online 24/7.

Using oil as a cooling medium is not without its issues though, after those 6 months, the room did kind of smell like your local chippy does on a busy Friday night......

I tried watercooling but the oil was by far the better of the two.

Just my 2p's worth ....

this is the sort of thing I was meaning:

http://www.trustedreviews.com/Asetek-VapoChill-XE-II-Refrigerated-PC-Case_Peripheral_review


did see one that claimed to be able to overclock the compressor and run an old athlon 2600 or similar down to -30°C

I use a radiator from a mini, keeps everything nice and cool. It'd be nice if I could rig it up so the radiator was outside the house, in winter it'd be cold as flip

quote:

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Originally posted by Benzine
...It'd be nice if I could rig it up so the radiator was outside the house, in winter ...

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