Upgrade time!

[IVIYTH0S]

I'll stick with good ol' air

[GabrielT]

I haven't let the cat out the bag yet, but my long term plan is to eventually have the chillers end up on my GPUs, keep the TEC block on the CPU, but make a phase powered insulated chillbox where the internal case temp stays single digits...I would literally be the first fully TEC cooled, phase chillbox rig EVER  . The great part about the chill boxes and what really appeals to me is that you don't have to insulate anything in the box because the ambient is so low.

 

Are you sure that you wont have condensation issues? I live in a cold ass place and I have done some extremely cold air-cooling runs down to negative 30c ambient temperatures. You just shove the whole case side panel open in a window and try to insulate your room with a blanket or two and shoot for the moon.

 

Whenever I did this I always notice slight condensation after I pulled the case out of the window and let it go back up to temp. It might be different than what you are planning but as long as there are cold and warm spots I would think there would be condensation.

Edited March 20, 2015 by GabrielT

[Braegnok]

I built a few direct die TEC coolers years ago,.. condensation was always a concern but finding quality hardware was always main issue.

 

Here is a link for 500W Qmax TEC Blocks,.. (model TEC1-24130) are top line hardware,.. http://www.taileng.com/en-temodule-special.htm

 

The chillbox rig sounds interesting,.. Good Luck 

[Nerm]

If properly insulated condensation is not that big of a concern. I have had several parts covered in condensation over the years, some fried and some didn't.

[Puck]

 

I'll stick with good ol' air 

 

Booooooo

 

 

I haven't let the cat out the bag yet, but my long term plan is to eventually have the chillers end up on my GPUs, keep the TEC block on the CPU, but make a phase powered insulated chillbox where the internal case temp stays single digits...I would literally be the first fully TEC cooled, phase chillbox rig EVER    . The great part about the chill boxes and what really appeals to me is that you don't have to insulate anything in the box because the ambient is so low.

 

Are you sure that you wont have condensation issues? I live in a cold ass place and I have done some extremely cold air-cooling runs down to negative 30c ambient temperatures. You just shove the whole case side panel open in a window and try to insulate your room with a blanket or two and shoot for the moon.

 

Whenever I did this I always notice slight condensation after I pulled the case out of the window and let it go back up to temp. It might be different than what you are planning but as long as there are cold and warm spots I would think there would be condensation.

 

Condensation depends on dew point, which changed based on humidity and ambient. For example, my current controller shows my ambient inside my case at 26c (its like 90* out and I just got home so my AC was set high). The humidity level in my case is 31%, fairly typical for muggy humid FL. This means my dew temp is currently 10*c, which is towards the high side that I get year round...in winter dew point is as low as 3-5c. This means that as long as my block doesn't go below 10c, there is no chance of condensation forming, and is around what I run for 24/7 use. I insulate my socket and block anyway so I can set it below dew point when I want to, so I am safe either way.

 

Now, If the whole case is insulated, and you have a chiller running through rads with fans that blow the cold air around, you end up with a sealed system with air temps extremely low because you are constantly circulating and cooling the same air. Dew point in this case would be so low that even below zero condensation cannot form.

 

 

 

I built a few direct die TEC coolers years ago,.. condensation was always a concern but finding quality hardware was always main issue.

 

Here is a link for 500W Qmax TEC Blocks,.. (model TEC1-24130) are top line hardware,.. http://www.taileng.com/en-temodule-special.htm

 

The chillbox rig sounds interesting,.. Good Luck  

 

 

I am(was, now its just the block) running a direct die TEC block in series with two chillers, roughly 600w of TEC power total. TEC's perform best at roughly half their rated voltage, and those are rated at 30v, so those 500w TECs at 12v would be barely any more powerful that the ones I am using three of. If I had a meanwell to give em 15-20v instead of 12v and more rad for the hot side to cool it then those would be sick for a chiller though.

 

 

If properly insulated condensation is not that big of a concern. I have had several parts covered in condensation over the years, some fried and some didn't.

 

Edited March 20, 2015 by Puck

[GabrielT]

Neat information, I guess I never looked into how condensation worked. There is so much general knowledge to be learned from these forums in general.

The collective knowledge of all of these nerds in one place is humbling, we should put it to good use instead of just making our PCs run a little faster.