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Off-The-Rack Liquid-Cooled PC Case
hummer357 writes: "A Korean company is making a computer case with a nifty liquid-cooling system (for psu, video and processor) that doesn't use any fans or motors. The CalmPC. Here's a review. Maybe this is the thing we have been waiting for ... finally silence on the desktop. Too bad the supplied case is extremely ugly"
I don't - I want to run a 2 CPU athalon system as a server for my website, and knowing that it's not going to croak like that one on Tom's Hardware is very important to me. I may just have to get one of these.
"Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without your accordion." - Jed Babbin
Entering inside a server room and the only thing you can hear is "gloup".
--- Bouh !!! ---
this page says
2. Applicable types for the CALM(CPU , Graphic card)
CPU Less than 1GHz socket type (Intel, AMD)
it must be cheaper now, to buy a >1GHz chip than a slower one and this case.
Why would I cut the noise? Nothing like waking up to the sound of 3 80mm delta fans whirling away keeping my baby cool. If one dies, you'll instantly :)
having a passive liquid cool PC is nice and all, but if the hard drive is loud, then that takes away all the benefits of the quiet...espesialy since the anoying whine of a PC is normaly caused by the hard drive.....give me the barracuda IV any day.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
I don't care if the case is ugly or not. What's bad is that the cooling system isn't powerful enough to let me overclock the CPU twice, as with the home-made nirogen thing discussed the day before yesterday.
I don't THINK so.
The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination
- Douglas Adams
If you want something for the higher-end CPUs, Koolance has had a pre-built waterblock tower case for a few months now. Try one of those.
RW
Koolance have been doing this for the past year or so. Their cases look *alright*, but not great :( They have two models, the 'silent' model and the overclockers model. Both are at least "pretty decent." [H]ard OCP have a review of the first one, and I think the overclockers model too.
...I could combine it with one of them nifty Lian Li aluminum cases, I start building a new system to replace my P2-300.
But can it keep my beer cold like thouse refrigerator cases? I think not.
a couple of days ago.
:o)
I didn't have a problem with the max. of a 1Ghz PIII processor,- this puppy is going in my AV rack, so all I care about is noise. (or lack of)
However, it is but-ugly, and since I saw the same enclosure for sale in the non-Calm-PC version, I had hoped that I could rip out the cooling system and place it in an other enclosure.
Well, it seems to be possible,- the PS has normal dimensions. The rest of the cooling system isn't all that crazy either. BUT, the cooling elements are mounted on the side panel of the enclosure. The thing is that this is a customized side panel. It's about twice as thick as the original one.
This got me a little worried about heat distribution if I mounted the elements on a surface that does not have the same 'body' as this panel. So now I'm thinking, maybe I'll keep the original construction, cut off some of it, and fit the entire thing in an other enclosure.
I had hoped to creat a horizontal enclosure, but I'm worried that cooling system might not work if the elements aren't mounted in the right orientation.
Anyways, waiting for my solid-state disk and CPU to arrive so I can start playing around with it. I'll post my findings.
Early glimpses of the plan suggested a system in which water is replaced by a fluid that evaporates over the hot parts of the pc, is then moved by convection to a radiator where it cools, condenses and is returned by gravity to the start of the cycle. Sadly the idea remained vaporware for a long time.
Sounds like it still is?
"And like that
... I am a great fan of PC's cooled without a fan.
You do realize that noise, even if you've grown used to it and are not consciously bothered by it, has been shown to have an adverse effect on you? A constant background noise above 40 dB causes stress thus increasing your blood pressure and affects your concentration. On the long term the stress becomes harmful.
Combine noisy computers with work related stress, too much caffeine and listening to music at work no wonder the young coders burn out.
Although conventional wisdom has it at the top so that the heat gets sucked out the top. Which raises a whole question of air circulation in the design that is troubling.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
How are you suppose to impress non-techies with your server room, when it sounds nothing like a 747 preparing to take off?
If I could just figure out a way to let it dump it's excess heat into the cold water line that feeds my water heater, the case would pay for itself! But why stop there? We could run pipes all over the house (to the refridgerator, the Air Conditioner, etc) and dump their excess heat into the cold water line...we may not need a hot water heater at all.
Ok, it's a loony idea, but I have to find some reason to justify a water cooled PC to my wife.
Kind thoughts do not change the world
Looking through the DigiKey catalog, I've noticed that small fans cost anywhere from $10 to $50. Instead of paying extra money for a water-cooled case, why not just buy fans with better bearings, closer tolerances, and whatnot to make them more quiet? I'm sure there are very quiet fans available.
Sig (appended to the end of comments you post, 120 chars)
Price delivered ~$202 each. Cost of balls of toilet paper stuffed into each ear so I don't have to hear my noisy case: free if I steal it from a public restroom. Plus I would really miss the feeling of hot air blowing on me as I sit next to my computer. Yeah my components would last longer, but what excuse would I have to upgrade if they didn't burn up now and then?????
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
Move to the north of Alaska and place your computer outside the window. Make a hole in the window, so you can change the CDs and operate power switches. And don't forget to screw it down securely, just in case a moose likes it... :) But you'll never have to worry about noise or the components overheating.
:)
Condensation, you say? Hell, you were going to pump water into that case anyway...
Kinda limits the overall usefullness. Liquid cooling is generally the thing for overclockers, but if you're overclocking, it's probably going to be more than 1ghz. And if it's not, would you really want to spend upwards of $200 for a case for it?
It's a good idea, but they need to get it to the real speed ranges. Especially with 2.5+ ghz on the way. Copper heatsinks still seem to be the way to go right now. And lots of fans, sadly. (Clearing box for takeoff, engaging primary propulsion units.)
.cig - what you do after winning a good flame war
The future started in 1998 when the iMacs were relesed with *gasp* no fans, Just a heatsink. Followed shortly thereafter by G4 towers with no fans (except a small one in the power supply). Besides, as someone here already said, the harddrive contributes noise, as well as the CD ROM.
'sides, I'm still not sure if having liquid running through my PC would be the best thing for it should it be ruptured.
T Money
World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
Here's one made in the United States and is highly regarded by many OCers and it looks better IMO.
http://www.koolance.com/
I have 4 pc's in my computer room right now, I love the pleasant hum. I don't see what everyone's problem is with it considering when you do anything audible it drowns out the fans without a problem.
:)
When I was living at home and these PCs were in my bedroom, the gentle hum made me fall asleep in an instant, it's very calming if you ask me.
I just think you all are fan-nazis.
I just wasted your mod points! HA!
Is it just me or is the case upside down in the picture? If they made a mistake like that on the site, I think I'm going to be a bit wary of the hardware...
Error: PANTS NOT FOUND. Press <F1> to continue.
You can have a -4C vapochill case
Didn't the PowerMac G4 Cube run silently? Haven't all of the latest iMacs come without fans?
Hmmm....
And don't the new iMacs have a variable speed fan, that comes on when you need it, and rests when you don't?
You guys should try a new Mac to find out what a quiet machine can be like...
Most laptops are pretty tightly packed, though, so it would be difficult to modify this for an existing laptop, but it would be nice if a laptop manufacturer built liquid cooling into one of its models.
Am I the only one who wants a truly ugly case? Not something that hurts my eyes, but something tacky, gaudy, or otherwise un-trendy. I'm jobless at the moment (just outta college), but I was thinking of spending a little to customize my own case - something in a fake wood grain sounds nice.
Anyone else feel the same way, or should I seek professional help?
[PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
I bought a dual AMD for a while ago. I thought I could make it silent enough, but I'll probably have to sell it now. The noise, although only moderate due to the slowly rotating fans, is still too much even for a daytime working. The hum of two Miprocool CPU fans (80 mm, 1300-3000 rpm and huge heat sink) and a power source was too much even after I padded the case with carpet and soft foam.
The problem is the huge 60+ W power consumption of the processor. Intel's new Tualatin PIII line has only is rated at only 27 W and I've been thinking about building a new machine based on those and Zalman's passive heat sinks. If the passive cooling isn't enough, I'll get a large, slow and silent fan to move the air around a bit.
I thought I clicked on english . . .
1q2w3e4r5t6y7u8i9o0pqawsedrftgthyjukilo;p'azsxdcf
G4 towers have fans in them... a big one over the cpu heatsink (and that entire area of the motherboard)
they are fairly quiet, but there IS a fan there.
From the webpage...
Cost with shipping to the US 202.70.
Applicable CPU with the case: 1Ghz or less Intel or AMD
So you have to pay 200 bucks for a case that can't handle one of those fancy new processors we all want. That is a shame.
The above post is an editorial, the poster cannot and will not be held responsible for all or in part for it's contents
The damn thing sounded like a jet engine and I reasoned that if I put it in a closet I could keep it running 24 h/day and still get some sleep. I ran some network cable from the closet to my desk where I had a diskless 60 MHz Pentium Classic (no CPU fan either) as a terminal. It was a nice exercise in building a machine that boots over the network. In the end, however, there were a few problems.
Firstly, in the summer the air got too hot in the closet and the computer crashed regularly. Opening the closet door and/or installing a fan would have defeated the purpose of the whole exercise. Secondly, running X over a 100 Mbit network was annoyingly slow. The slowness of the terminal computer didn't help either.
But I guess you can't both have the cake and eat it? If you want reasonable performance you must be prepared to accept the noise.
From the 'how to setup' page:
1. Check the voltage behind the power supply. It is 220V when provided.
Adjust the voltage for your power.
2. After you finish assembling the product perfectly, turn on the
power.
3. After you turn on your computer, check if the coolant circulates.
If not, reset ypur computer in an hour.(that is not considered as
a technical defect. It could happen from the heat of users)
4. When you setup, stand your computer case as possible as you can.
I personally don't think it's terribly ugly, being basically upside-down is odd, though.
However, WHY OH WHY can't I get something like this for my SLOT PIII's? All this watercooling/fanless/whatever stuff, is for sockets. Can't SOMEONE make something for my slot CPU's?
Please?
I'm not a prophet or a stone-age man,
I'm just a mortal with potential of a super man.
What I haven't heard mentioned here is the reliability of this system. If this system is reliable enough that it will work indefinitley, then its cost might be justified in that it has no annoying fans that will inevitably break down. In that case, it would be a logical step toward a better no-moving-parts computer.
So, now that it uses common pc parts, the looks suddenly matter? Wasnt it mentioned a few days ago that looks dont matter? (re:iMac)
Could the guy possibly be more obnoxious about posting his name all over the review?
What you're seeing in those JPEGs is part of a copyright notice. Give the fellow a break; would you want credit if somebody else used JPEG images that you created in his own review?
Will I retire or break 10K?
And pray the electricy stays on in cold weather...or sell antifreeze at the local geek shop...
Fans make so much noise that I can't even hear my HDs.
Gentlemen, you can't fight in here, this is the War Room!
Liquid-cooled PC cases have been around for a while.
Here are some links to other companies that sell them:
Koolance
Ioport
PC Case Gear
And, by the way, here's how to build your own computer water cooler.
So, what about having boxes with two slow, but very large fans (one on a side to inject air, another one on the other side to reject it)? It would probably be cheap and quiet.
{{.sig}}
Go to an Apple Store and play with that new iMac before you condem it. It's practically silent too.
I'll take it!
first you start using this next, and then you end up killing your puppy and making a dog stew.
All these liquid cooled systems look great. What happened to refrigerated liquid cooling though? The temperatures I've been seeing on some of these liquid cooled systems doesn't look that great to me. Although I know most CPU's are made to run stable pretty hot 54C is quite a hot temperature. My air cooled Athlon 1.4Ghz hits a high of about 107F in a space with no air conditioning.
I always thought you wanted to make your system cooler so you could overclock it to outragous speeds. That was the purpose for the refrigeration. To make your system really cold. More like sub arctic temperatures. I can only guess that these liquid cooled systems were created for the fad not really for overclockability. People just want the liquid cooling and didn't want to put in the work to properly insulate their system for refrigeration.
The whole liquid cooling thing seems pretty pointless to me unless you are actively cooling the coolant.
Feel free to flame me if you think I'm crazy.
-- Ignorance is the pinnacle of religion - Me
I LIKE THE SOUND OF MY FANS!!!!
/comfortable/ with them going on in the background.
:( (besides, how would I know if its on as I approach it from two rooms away? :) )
Seriously.
They wake me up in the morning and put me sleep at night.
They are like the sounds of an apartment to a New Yorker. I just feel more. . . .
A quite PC would suck.
Need help treating your acne? Come here!
Not exactly the first quiet computer...or have we forgotten apple's convection-cooled g4 cubes already? They always seem to be the first ones at doing these kinds of things....
the Right Reverend K. Reid Wightman, UCTAA
The Right Reverend K. Reid Wightman,
If they're coming out with new bearingless fans (lost link, it was posted previously on /.) why would you want to get this? It seems to me that, aside from the fact that that has got to be THE single most ugly case I've ever seen, it's a waste to get something like that. I mean, think about the power expenditure!
[insert witty comment here]
Too bad. It looked just like what I'd been looking for for months. A silent cooling system with no pump. I also checked out the same review before buying.
I got the box within a few days after the email order (the Web order failed). I took apart my very noisy 400-MHz emachine and reassembled it in the box. One small part was missing in the shipment ("the heat connector"), but I built the machine all the same.
The result was impressive. The only audible sound was the very tolerable hard disk whiz. I somehow managed to destroy my PS/2 port in the process but I was using the emachine as a proof of concept anyway. I kept running the machine remotely with a flashy screen server client. I remarked it crashed about once a day probably because of overheating.
Close enough. I was ready to build the real machine with a 950-MHz AMD CPU. I emailed the vendor about the missing heat connector, but got no reply. After a few days I telephoned them, and the person on the phone promised to send it the same day. I got the part within a week.
Now this heat connector is supposed to lead the heat from the chipset to the CPU cooling element. It comes with two screws you are supposed to use to attach it to the chipset heat sink. The screws that came with the part didn't fit between the folds of the heat sink on my motherboard. What was worse, the heat connector is quite a rigid, unadjustable component, and the chipset and the CPU were half an inch off the right distance for the heat connector.
With some ingenuity and violence I managed to attach the heat connector and the CPU heat sink. I started the machine expecting to see the BIOS greetings. Nothing. Then after 30 seconds or so, I smelled something burning. Turn off the machine.
I had observed in my first installation that the coolant moved rapidly in the plastic pipes even if I just pressed the cooling element with my fingers. It still was true regarding two of the three elements, but the CPU element had a stagnant bubble in the pipes.
The manual indicated (in enigmatic English) that sometimes the coolant wouldn't start moving properly and that should be considered normal. Please try again in an hour. I did, but to no avail. This time the bubble in the CPU pipes had noticeably grown.
The following morning the bubble in the pipes had replaced the coolant, which I guess had evaporated since I couldn't feel any moisture. Apparently my forceful installation had fractured one of the pipes.
I sent a lengthy email to the vendor in the (slim) hopes that they might be able to repair the problem. After six weeks they haven't replied and I haven't bothered to call them up.
However, I noticed in my last bank statement that they had silently refunded the whole purchase amount on my check card.
My conclusion is that this company is a sincere business with a sensitive product that suffers from the varying dimensions of the different mother boards (one LED cable couldn't reach the connector on the mother board -- not to mention the heat connector issue). They don't seem to be comfortable at all with English so don't expect any support in that language.
Marko
Early glimpses of the plan suggested a system in which water is replaced by a fluid that evaporates over the hot parts of the pc, is then moved by convection to a radiator where it cools, condenses and is returned by gravity to the start of the cycle. Sadly the idea remained vaporware for a long time.
Sounds like it still is?
Looks like you made a pun too: cuz that's how a still works!
Mmm, moonshine.
Can't they just put an enormous heat sink on the CPU and then put vents in the top of the machine? Like a Mac, or even a TV, or stereo?
Even if it still needs a fan why not point the damn thing up??
It seems to me the equivalant of trying to make toilets flush to the right instead of down.
I would assume that you could create an air-tight PC and have this system cool the innards without air exchange?
Are there applications that could use this kind of feature? Maybe in a polluted/hazardous environment where the air or particles in the air could harm the computer internals?
I don't need no centralised fault tolerant robust state of the art cooling system. The nuclear reacters might need it, but not me. the fans that come with my Dell PC work just fine. I 've got two of them. oh yeah! And I have got an AC duct right over my Monitor and no I don't live and work in the desert.
Noise!! what about the noise from the fans and the Harddisk and the CDROM
Well never heard them. I have got GNR and Metallica singing for me at full throttle on my sound blasters. I don't even hear the door bell or the car horn or the cow's moo, leave alone the odd guy shouting "The house is on fire". Ah! silence at last
try being smarter and i'll be nicer!
Too bad the supplied case is extremely ugly
You think the case is ugly?? Did you see the bright tangerine background on the review page? Now THAT'S UGLY!
-
- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
They overlooked something that might be life saving, and that's the installation of a GFCI outlet. It's very easy to do, I built one for my watercooled machine on a extension cord. Without one, a (rare) but possible failure of the pump could mean that current decides to return to ground through you. Ouch.
For what it's worth, I run a custom watercooled setup that I managed to get squeezed completely inside a standard PC case. It works great, no problems. I still need intake/exhaust fans, though, and until I put an intelligent controller in it isn't that much quiter than a normal setup in a good case. It works a lot better though :).
..don't panic
But it's just SCREAMING for case modding... I can see some groovy blue graphical LCD/LED displays in the top dome spelling out heat, power consumption, cooling efficiency, etc... Carve some holes in the side for a black light, then color the coolant with any flourescent dyes (or antifreeze if that can flouresce), then mod the top to look like some kind of a head with the display as a visor, and, and...
Jeeze, this is like the Denis Leary joke about smoking pot to avoid going into carpentry...
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
They must have changed it then, the original ones didn't have a fan. THat was one of their big selling points.
T Money
World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
Check out Koolance for a similar product that's been out for over a year now, they're up to the 2nd revision that's much safer and elegant than the original POS.
-Billco, Fnarg.com