The New Water Cooling Project
The Old Cooling Project
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For all of you cooling needs, check out 2Cool at www.2cooltek.com
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since March 12, 1999
Email Dark Nebula
10:30pm EST Thanks to 2Cool, I should have the heatsink I need coming later this week. If you ever need a good cooling solution, check out his store at www.2cooltek.com! My father is working on designing the control circuitry for the TECs at the moment. The intention is to regulate the core temp of the processor at 0C, this circuit will control the TECs in order to keep this temperature stable. Figured I'd let him do it since he's the engineer! I'm hoping to have the processor heat exchanger complete by the end of next week. I'll post pictures of it's construction as I work on it.
2:30pm EST I've bought a pump yesterday. Should work out great, and it's cheap and easily available. Don't know how long it will last, but for $8, it's cheap to replace. It happens to be a windshield washer fluid pump from Wal-Mart. I found it, quite by accident, in the automotive area. Also bought a bag of tubing to go with it, figured it should work well, and shouldn't require any extra insulation to prevent frost.
6:45pm EST After doing some searching, and realizing that I had the wrong specs for the TEC I had listed I changed my mind as to the source and model of my TEC. I've switched vendors to Melcor, as their prices are better, but I am still waiting on a price quote on a couple more modules before I decide which model to use. I will correct the parts list when I recieve the price list.
4:00pm EST I have a little more detail about how I'm planning on implementing this project. The design plans up to now start by replacing the water with anti-freeze. This is for several reasons which I will explain later.
To remove the heat from the processor, I will use a modified heatsink. Every second (and possibly third, depends on the fin spacing) will be cut off. Then I'll wrap copper tubing back and forth thru the gaps and fill it all in with thermal apoxy. This is the simplest and most efficient way to pick up the heat.
The coolant will then flow from this assemly to another assembly that will be used to cool the coolant. This assembly will consist of a large heatsink with copper pipes wound thru it and attached with thermally conductive apoxy. This heatsink will be attached to the cold side of a pair of the afformentioned peltier units. The hot side of these peltiers will then be attached to another large heatsink with a case fan or two attached to dissipate the heat. The coolant leaving this assembly (which will be below 0C) will then be pumped back thru the first to cool the processor.
This is the reason why I'm switching from water to anti-freeze. Since I'm cooling the coolant rather than the processor, the coolant needs to be below the temp that I want to get the processor to. Since I want to keep the processor at 0C, the coolant needs to be below this temperature, which rules out using water. Another advantage to the antifreeze is that it won't cause as much wear on the pump and pipes.
This is what appears to be the most efficient way I can come up with to build this project, and should also be the least costly, as most of the parts can be bought from any local surplus shop for a reasonable price. I'm still having trouble finding a suitable pump, but I'm going to try some of the local aquarium shops and see if I can find a reasonably priced pump. I am going to try to draw some concept pictures when I can find the time, and I will post them here when I do. Don't expect much though, my artistic abilities are a bit lacking. As always, if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please email me!
2:45pm EST Well, I'm just getting started on the design phase of this project. My intention is to cool an AMD K6-2/3 400MHz (haven't decided which one I'm gonna buy yet) processor down to 0C or so and attemp to keep it there. The biggest challenge here is how to prevent condensation, as the humidity in Indiana (where I live) is usually over 95%. My solution to this problem is a little bit of insulating foam. If the cooling assembly is isolated from the surounding air, then condensation shouldn't be a problem. Also, some foam on the botton side of the mobo may be necessary to prevent condensation there as well. I've decided on a pair of TEC units from HiTech most likely. The TEC is a 30x30x3.2mm, DT=65C, Qmax=33.5W, 15.4Vmax, 3.9A device, which should (if my thermodynamics calcs aren't too far off) be sufficient to cool the processor to 0C. If I'm wrong on this, please, let me know!! That's about as far as I've gotten so far in the design phase. If anyone knows of a good, very compact pump, please let me know. I want to make this as small as possible, self contained maybe, so the smaller the better.
| Description | Part Number | Manufacturer | Purchase Location | Quantity | Price | Shipping |
| Thermo-electric Cooler |
PT4-12-40 | Melcor | www.melcor.com | 2 | $15.50 ea. | ? |
| Windshield Washer Fluid Pump |
5105 | Washer Mate | Wal-Mart | 1 | $8.28 | N/A |
| Tubing Kit | 6101 | Washer Mate | Wal-Mart | 1 | $1.94 | N/A |
| SS7 Heatsink | Sample Part |
? | 2CoolTek | 1 | Thanks 2Cool |
N/A |
| PPro? Heatsink | Sample Part |
? | 2CoolTek | 1 | Thanks 2Cool |
N/A |