Dry Ice (Not the same old questions)

[Gamez]

I have seen all the other liquid filled, and other extreme dry ice cooling, but I have a few ideas to get feedback on.

I am looking at building a normal watercooled system.
But I want to create a smoked, or mist effect inside my PC.

Would dry cause condensation on normal components?
(Dry ice, with mist being slowly blown into the PC case)

Would the mist help cool passive components?

My other idea was to mount a radiator at the top of my PC, then place dry ice above the radiator.

Would the fall of cold gas be enough to cool a radiator without any fans?

Will dry ice on a radiator cool the water to sub-ambient?

I know that Dry Ice would be a temporary solution, but that is all I want it for.
Basicly I want to get a little extra boost when benchmarking, or showing off the PC at LANs.
The rest of the time it would run as a normal watercooled PC.

/Edit:

A few more questions:
Is there any other ways to prevent condensation besides heavy insulation?
Are there any chemicals or materials that can help prevent condensation?
(For example how does a anti-fog mirror work?)

[Joe]

Since the "mist" is water vapor condensing out of the air as it crosses the frozen CO2 surface. There can be a considerable amount of water condensed from a block of dry ice if its humit enough. you may get water dripping off the radiator blades down into your case.

[fhorst]

Dry ice is not the solution.
I guess you can go the your "local disco shop" where they sell the lights and stroboscopes e.g. The also have something called a mist machine. it won't help your temps, but it will look cool!

[iroc409]

lol.. the fog machines usually won't fit in your computer case tho

be neat for your office tho . need to add a disco ball and a laser machine.

[TerraMex]

not entirely true.

[iroc409]

lol. i stand corrected .

ok, the ones _i've_ been around are a little big. at least for a mid tower.

[Gamez]

Originally posted by Joe
Since the "mist" is water vapor condensing out of the air as it crosses the frozen CO2 surface. There can be a considerable amount of water condensed from a block of dry ice if its humit enough. you may get water dripping off the radiator blades down into your case.

I am not sure it is water vapor, I have been told that it is pure CO2, just in a thick gas form.
I did anticipate water collecting on the radiator, and would have a resivor below it to collect the water.
(Like a de-humidifier would)

Hmm, would this have a dual action?
Would a chilled radiator both allow dry ice gas to flow into the PC, and also de-humidify the air inside?

Originally posted by fhorst
The also have something called a mist machine. it won't help your temps, but it will look cool!

I looked into those, they use a chemical and heater to generate the mist. As this case will have a plexi window I would think that the chemical would create a hazy film on the window and parts over time, where as simple CO2 gas won't harm anything.

TerraMex that is simply cool....But the machine is the red box to the right, it's not inside the case.

[WAJ_UK]

I think it was on these forums but someone was talking about using a mist gadget for cooling their water in their evaporation setup. This 'mist machine' used a metal plate close to the surface of the water which vibrated very quickly and excited the water molecules enough to make them evaporate from the surface. Just in case your interested

[bigben2k]

I think the idea has potential.

As for the mist, I do believe that it is condensation, but not in the usual form: where we would expect humidity to collect on a cold plate, the dry ice would actually create a flow of very cold air.


I was just going over the topic of condensation, while looking up insulation materials, for my house. This neat book (old but interesting) titled "The Superinsulated Home Book" by J. D. Ned Nisson & Gautam Dutt, explains condensation this way:

...a cubic foot of air at 70 deg F can hold about 0.00118 pounds of moisture at saturation. Relative Humidity (RH) is a term used to describe the degree of saturation of an air/water vapor mixture at a certain temperature. If air at 70 deg F has a relative humidity of 40 percent, then it is holding 40 percent of the saturated amount of water vapor (i.e. 0.40 * 0.00118, or 0.00047 pounds of moisture per cubic foot of air in this case).

As air cools, it gradually loses some of its ability to hold water vapor. When 70 deg F air with 40 percent relative humidity is cooled to 50 deg F, the relative humidity goes up to 80 percent. (The amount of water vapor in the air does not change; the relative humidity is higher because the amount of water vapor that air at 50 deg F can hold is less than the amount of water vapor that 70 deg F air can hold). If it is further cooled to 43 deg F, the relative humidity reaches 100 percent, or saturation. Below that temperature, the air will not be able to hold all its moisture and the water vapor will begin to condense into liquid water. The temperature at which condensation begins to occur is called the dew point temperature.

So for dry ice, it cools some ambient air, which drops down into the case, because it's denser, and fogs up, because it can't hold the humidity that's in the room, at that temp.

But that air will warm up fairly quickly, and should take back the humidity. If it doesn't, then you'll have an "in case" rainfall.

I don't have any advice as for chemicals or "anti-fog" products. Someone else?


As for the added cooling, the dry ice would need to contact the core, which is easiest to do around the edge of it, but you may be looking at clogging issues, as the coolant freezes. You'll have to try it and see, and gradually add thin insulation to the contact area, to prevent freezing.

[Gamez]

Originally posted by WAJ_UK
I think it was on these forums but someone was talking about using a mist gadget for cooling their water in their evaporation setup. This 'mist machine' used a metal plate close to the surface of the water which vibrated very quickly and excited the water molecules enough to make them evaporate from the surface. Just in case your interested

That was my backup plan, they are made for fountains and cost about $50.

But they DO push water right into the air, which inside a PC is bad. I wonder if there are some other chemicals that could be used?

It would have to be non-fogging, non conductive, and non-toxic too.

[superart]

does price matter to you?

If not, flourinert is a good substance, but you would need to devise some sort of recovery mechanism to capture all the mist and recycle it.

[Gamez]

I am aware of flourinert, but ya, money is a factor.

I will try getting a watercooling kit with a large radiator, then experimenting with Dry Ice without a PC connected.