refridgerator case?

[Xoritor]

Hello everyone,

First off let me say thank you for all of the great information over the years. I have read the site/forums for many years and have done some exprimenting on my own. I am not a big poster on any topics/boards/lists but I do alot of reading!

I saw some posts (in the late 90s) of researching the idea of using a refridgerator as a case, and ever since then that idea has plagued me. Has anyone tried this?

Basically my idea stems from using the freezer for cooling coolant to very low levels and then using the standard water cooling loop to cool the highest temp components ( CPU and GPU ). At the same time lowering the ambient temp for the entire computing environment.

Does anyone see any problems with this idea?

Has anyone done it? Was it successful? What difficulties did you have or do you forsee?

I am probably going to start this project around May or June and would like to do research between now and then to get all of my points straight. I want to build a large coolant tank so I can add in systems later if it works well.

How do you guys think this would stand on the efficiency scale vs. other methods of cooling ( including Peltier methods )?

Sorry I probably put this in the wrong place... I realize this is not really phase-change, but I am not sure where else to put this.

[bigben2k]

Welcome!

I don't remember reading about it being done quite that way, but smaller refrigerators have been used to either hold a PC, or cool the coolant. Never seen both though.

Seems like a good idea to suppress noise.

The smaller fridges only have one cooling element (last I checked) so to have both, you'd need a large fridge. (Hum... contemplating the big 18 ft^3 standing next to me... muhaha!).

If I was you, I'd concentrate on the #Rotor dehumidifier mod (look up the member name, and go to his site).

[Xoritor]

bigben2k,

Thanks for the warm welcome, or should I say "cool welcome"?!?

Sorry for the bad pun... I couldn't help it.

You are correct, this is not what is typical when most people out there are looking to use a refridgerator. I am looking to dampen noise and want the "liquid cooling" to do most of the work, while lowering the ambient temps for the residuals that may happen to be lying around. I have seen the posts here ( and elsewhere ) reguarding using the refridgerator to remove all of the heat and agree that it will kill the fridge quickly while not achieving the effects I want.

Supercooling liquid is a bit costly, but the freezer of of a full sized fridge should do nicely to cool it to wher water would freeze. A fridge would allow the ambient to drop some while not admiting too much humidity, or at least it can be controled better since that is what it is designed to do. I will definately check into that dehumidifier mod from #Rotor though, thanks for the tip!

I still am not sure if the phase-change unit on a fridge would be adaquate for this type of setup. I intend to use a full size fridge/freezer but not just a freezer due to my percieved possibility of condensation in a "freezer only" unit. I am not looking to go too extreme for the ambient temps of the board, but more concentrating on the very cold liquid cooling with lower ambient temps to help out.

Thanks again!

[redleader]

Fridges lack large enough radiators to cool themselves. If you put an active heat source in them you'll burn it out unless the fridge is very powerful and meant for it (and has the cooling to handle it!).

[killernoodle]

Unless you can snag an old open air freezer (the small kinds you seen in the grocery stores). We had one at work and it broke so they threw it away before I offered to buy it

I think it was a 1/3 or a 1/2 hp unit, and it ran all the time due to the fact that it was open to the air on top. Woulda been nice to put a pc in somehow.