Above Freezing Water Chiller?

[NightrainSrt4]

That makes it sound easy but...

you can only seal off the cold side then. Because you cant effectively seal off the hot side as well or you won't have a way to cool the hot side of the tec.



And what I am saying is also about the tubes with the water. If the water running through the water cooling tubes is colder than the ambient temperatures, water will condensate on the tubes themselves as well. Unless I am just not picturing a way to completely seal off the tubes as well. That may work, but not sure how you would seal off EVERYTHING that is below ambient temps.


This is becoming hard to theorize things with out pics so...




Throw some ideas on paper so we can more adequately understand what you are trying to do. If you could that would be great.

[Spawn-Inc]

i did a quick sketchup, i haven't used it for a while so i didn't do much, and here is what i am talking about.

Note: the yellow is where you would put the silicone to seal it. i would also cut the outside fins off and silicone that too. by that i mean if you see this heat sink it has 24 fins/prongs. i would cut the ones around the edge to leave 8 fins/prongs left. where i cut i would silicone like crazy.

i would use a fish tank type silicone since its made to be in water 24/7.

like NightrainSrt4 said, you will need to insulate alot of stuff. i wouldn't want the water much below ambient temps. i would test out the system first and see if you build up any condensation first and go from there if you build it. if you don't want to go to alot of trouble and don't care how it looks then i would grab a medium to large coffee tin and strap the tec to the bottem of the can. then you don't have to cut anything.

[NightrainSrt4]

Spawn, ya thats the way I pictured it. That I would think would work. You would just have to isolate the entire tubing in the water loop. Because, if I am thinking right, thats where the condensation is going to form other than by the tec. The tubes.

If you can find a way to get something around the tubes that will stop the condensation then you should be good.

Might be an interesting project. Just get one of those 10$ ebay tec's or something just for fun. Use an old pentium 1 heatsink or something, like you suggested with the fins cut so you can silicone it.

Worth trying I suppose. I would just try it on an old system and not a nice one just incase it isn't isolated properly.

[Spawn-Inc]

you can get foam tape that would wrap nicely around the tubing or even HVAC type insulation for the copper tubing. i would try this just on its own at first though if i was to try it.

[J-Roc]

Thanks for the input guys, you've givven me some good points of view. However, im a classy guy and like things to look neat & clean. While i was at work today, i started to think of way's i can accomplish this goal. Well, from where i sit it seems almost to easy. I figure i can do this by making an adapter plate for a fan hole, 90mm - 80mm out of aluminum.

Here's what im thinking....
I'll buy one of thies ThermalTake Res'. I'll remove the plexi window from the backside and attach a solid plate of aluminum thats a bit bigger so i can mount it in a 90mm fan hole. Thats essentially the hard part for fabrication.

last night while fking around with a bag of old heatsinc's i came to realize that the mounting holes on a stock pentium heatsinc are exactly the same as an 80mm fan. Bing Bing! WE HAVE A WINNER!

I'll sandwhich the TEC between the backplate of the res and the intel heatsinc and fan. I should be able to stick it all together with some longer bolts or screws. So with this approach, the reservoir will be inside the case, the intel heatsinc, fan, and TEC will be outside the case.

I guess i still have to worry about condensation but im hoping i'll be able to adjust the current going to the TEC with some sort of volume control nob or somthing along thoes lines. Can you vary the heat of TEC's?

[Spawn-Inc]

sounds good, makes bit simple but then you gotta fork out the cash for that. since its a flat sheet of metal then it will be a bit harder to take the heat out but then you might not get condensation.

Can you vary the heat of TEC's?

yes by changing the voltages, i think it will tell you in the specs.

[J-Roc]

Intresting point...
I do have a grocery bag full of various sized heatsinc's. I could stick a small one inside the reservoir. Do you think i thermal sticky pad would hold it to the aluminum backplate while underwater, or should i look for a marine grade epoxy?

[Spawn-Inc]

what i would do is get a copper sheet/plate (i'm thinking 1/8" or so) instead of aluminum and then get the P4 heat sink for the TEC side like what you said then find a heat sink of the same dimensions for the other side but will still fit in the res then get 4 long bolts to go through everything. put AS5 on the internal heat sink, copper plate and TEC, TEC and p4 heat sink. i would then get fish tank grade silicone and put a bead around the edge of the internal heat sink and bolts (put in on the bolt before tightening it down) and let it dry for a day or how ever long it takes.


if you really want it to look nice go to a machine shop and bring the old plexi cover and ask them how much to copy the shape into copper.

[NightrainSrt4]

As long as you keep the water temperature above ambient temperatures it sounds like you will be ok. Just have to watch out if it reaches or goes below ambient temps.

You are going to be using quite a bit of energy to cool just a few degrees though. TEC's work best when a load is being put on them (aka a hot cpu). The TEC in your case is going to be on something that really isn't going to be that hot. Therefore its not going to be as efficient. If poor efficiency doesn't matter to ya than go for it. Does sound cool though. I also like that res, it looks cool.


EDIT:::

Which ever metal you choose to use for the back of the res, make sure it is the same thing as your water blocks (i.e. copper blocks, copper res back... aluminum blocks, aluminum res back) MIXING metals that contact the water in a loop = BIG NONO!!! This also means, if you put an additional block on the inside of the res as spawn mentioned, you need to make sure it is the same metal once again.

[Spawn-Inc]

As long as you keep the water temperature above ambient temperatures it sounds like you will be ok. Just have to watch out if it reaches or goes below ambient temps.

You are going to be using quite a bit of energy to cool just a few degrees though. TEC's work best when a load is being put on them (aka a hot cpu). The TEC in your case is going to be on something that really isn't going to be that hot. Therefore its not going to be as efficient. If poor efficiency doesn't matter to ya than go for it. Does sound cool though. I also like that res, it looks cool.


EDIT:::

Which ever metal you choose to use for the back of the res, make sure it is the same thing as your water blocks (i.e. copper blocks, copper res back... aluminum blocks, aluminum res back) MIXING metals that contact the water in a loop = BIG NONO!!! This also means, if you put an additional block on the inside of the res as spawn mentioned, you need to make sure it is the same metal once again.

oh ya the tec need to be under load for the best performance. i think i would go rad less and or a small res, it will put more heat in the water and more load, should also be quieter.

yes i wasn't sure what the res is made of but most blocks (good anyway) are copper.