I came across a water dispenser / heater / cooler the other day (being thrown out). It was pretty dirty and missing the stand but I figured it had some good cooling parts in it. From the plastic shell and lack of stand I assumed a peltier but when I picked it up I was pleased to find a condencer behind it.
This is NOT my pic but my cooler looked exactly like this plus some scratches and looking beat up:
http://www.obenaufauctions.com/Dec1,...rDispenser.JPG
I took the unit home, fired it up and IT WORKS
So I proceeded to taking it apart. I think I figured out why it was in the trash, one of the hoses slipped off something and made a nasty wet mess in the bottom of the unit causing it to get a bit moldy. Eventually I was left with a piston compressor, evaporator coil and a mini fridge like condencer. I mounted the cooler to a board and bought a container to fit the evaporator inside, I think the one I found was a perfect fit for it.
Now filled with water and antifreeze with a towel around it its getting pretty chilly in there and even some ice on the outside of the bucket. Some ice on the coil from before when I added the antifreeze. For those wondering why I did not just keep the existing water chilling container it is because the coil only went around it. By putting the coil in the water I make full contact between the coolant and the cooler so I should have some better results
Pics after the mod:
Also the thing is silent. Not louder than a mini fridge and not warmer than the top of a computer. (the condenser and compressor) For those wondering, I have no specs on this. The rear label was very dirty and the compressor label only told me it was charged with R134a. Also please make note that I'm not going to be cooling a quad core with this. Probably just a low wattage CPU or GPU.
UPDATE at 9 PM:
A shot of the insulation: (lol)
Some nice frost here...
Even on the lid some ice
Lets look inside...
Damn!
Oh crap... guess I need more antifreeze? hehe...
Some good results in my opinion, more to come soon!