Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

SubZero Chilled Alcohol PC Cooling

Posted by Hemos on from the fun-with-substances dept.

Joseph Tan writes:"Tech-Junkie's own attempt on a liquid cooling project, this time we used a combination of liquid alcohol and frozen carbon dioxide. Less than -65 degrees Celsius was achieved, and amazingly our motherboard and CPU are still alive. "

2 of 157 comments (clear)

  1. another one... by chowda · · Score: 5

    Here is what I expect to see next...

    Today Mr. Random Geek launched his motherboard and CPU into deep space hoping to achieve another 4 FP operations per hour. Mr. R.G. said "Liquid oxegen just wasn't cuting it anymore. I had To do something.. buying new hardware just isn't an option for me, I'll be overclocking this 486 for the REST of my life!"

    --

    YouTube & Google Video -> podcast http://castcluster.blogspot.com/
  2. There is such a thing as too much cool by satch89450 · · Score: 5

    I've read the various stories about cooling computer components/motherboards down using insane ambient temperatures. Many of these guys forget a basic tenant of computer design: the temperature of the silicon die in each package is what is important.

    The ambient-temperature specification quoted in the spec sheets take into account the thermal resistance of the packaging in order to keep the die within an acceptable range of temperature. If you keep the ambient temperature at the package at, say, 0 C, and the thermal resistance between the packaging and the cooling method is insanely low, then all components will run within specification and you can overclock until you run into race conditions in the processor itself, or perhaps in support circuitry.

    On selected hot-running components like the processor, you might want to drop the ambient temperature a little bit more -- say to -20 C -- to compensate for the compromises that CPU makers make between thermal resistance of their packages and other considerations. The goal here is to run the hot die, not package, at the lower end of its temperature specification.

    This does NOT mean that you should subject cool-running components to the same out-of-range ambient temperature, as the cooler-running dies will then be running outside of thermal specification envelope.

    In this particular experiment, they cooled EVERYTHING on the motherboard, plus a video card and network card. In their writeup they say that they picked a cool-running card, as opposed to a heat-filled monster. The experimenters subjected all the components, perhaps ineptly, to the same ambient temp of -60 C. Even military components are designed to run above -55 C. Most commercial-grade components are speced to run at an ambient of 0 C.

    The result could be predicted: The overclocking of the cool-running Celeron chip was sabotaged by the overcooling of the support chips.

    Just my pair-o-pennies(tm).