Computer in a vacuum chamber

[Mr Moopsy]

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A different Idea then. What about a cooled liquid system. That is in a chamber of not oxygen or common air, but dry nitrogen gas?

There is no moisture in the nitrogen gas so condesnsation I dont think would be an issue within the system. This would allow a resevoir to be cooled below room temp, no?

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Original stuff below


I have been curious recently, if it might be benificial to build a vacuum chamber for my computer!

Im thinking maybe not, at least on air because there would be no air to transfer heat to. (very hot!)

But then,I think, if I used liquid cooling...maybe it would work very nicely. no heat lost inside the chamber, bring all the heat outside.

If I did this, either my computer would run super cool.
It would run super hot.
or
Nothing would change.

What are your thoughts?

[Air]

I don't see how it's possible to pull off within reason, as it would be near impossible to actually maintain the vacuum and actually be able to use the computer at the same time.
For that kind of thing, radiators would have to be separated. However, the lack of air pressure around the tubing could negatively affect the flow of liquid.
Also, there are some parts on the motherboard that need basic air cooling most of the time. The PCBs(motherboard and graphics card) also conduct a bit of heat.

Honestly, I can't see this as a resonable thing to do in any way. It seems like it would cost a lot and would have basically no benefit.

[Mr Moopsy]

Originally posted by Air:

I don't see how it's possible to pull off within reason, as it would be near impossible to actually maintain the vacuum and actually be able to use the computer at the same time.
For that kind of thing, radiators would have to be separated. However, the lack of air pressure around the tubing could negatively affect the flow of liquid.
Also, there are some parts on the motherboard that need basic air cooling most of the time. The PCBs(motherboard and graphics card) also conduct a bit of heat.

Honestly, I can't see this as a resonable thing to do in any way. It seems like it would cost a lot and would have basically no benefit.

I love that your name is air. seems to fit this topic beautifully haha.

You are right though, I didnt consider the motherboard. I wonder if there are any liquid cooled motherboards. I think there might be. At least it seems do-able.

As far as the water, It would be hardpiped and sealed seperate forming its own atmosphere inside the vacuum. I dont think it would have been an issue.

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A different Idea then. What about a cooled liquid system. That is in a chamber of not oxygen or common air, but dry nitrogen?

There is no moisture in the nitrogen gas so condesnsation I dont think would be an issue within the system. This would allow a resevoir to be cooled below room temp, no?

[100% Recycled Awesome]

This doesn't make sense. A vacuum reduces the transfer of energy both ways. A computer cooling system wants to remove heat from the system as fast as possible. How would something designed to eliminate such a transfer be beneficial?

If you want diehard cooling, go with liquid nitrogen.

[Rove]

Terrible idea unless it is also heavily refrigerated like space.

Liquid cooling won't cover everything. SO something will get hot and fry even if it's not CPU or GPU or RAM.

Dry nitrogen would work specially if you had a Gas condenser and a heat exchanger on that to get the heat away from the case. Then essentially you would have a dry refrigerator.

[Mr Moopsy]

What about my above idea of nitrogen as a replacement gas to our normal air content.

[Rove]

Sure but you still need some way to vent the heat. Like I said above: "Then essentially you would have a dry refrigerator".

Usually the heat is vented by air circulation. A refrigerator works though with a heat exchange unit to keep a relatively sealed compartment cold. Refrigeration also works with normal air.

The benefit to a sealed "dry" gas chamber for refrigeration would be no condensation, no water damage, probably would last a lot longer.

[Clan Wolf]

If your talking about creating a 100% homemade vacuum to the size of a laptop or desktop machine.

It would just get hot really quick as soon as its on. Basically you would fry everything.

Plus, if you have any fans, they will burn up, because they would have no air to keep their motors cool. Though, they should hit a pretty high speed due to no resistance to slow it down!

I'm not sure how it would affect a HDD. ( assuming one found a way to cool the HDD so it doesn't burn up ). Since the discs in the HDD spin...makes you wonder how it would react.

But yeah...your CPU, Northbridge ( if you still have one ), south bridge, EVERY Mosfet...hell with it...everything that generates heat WILL fry. Though, the CPU would be the 1st to burn up.

But look at the bright side of things...It couldn't catch fire, since there would be no oxygen to let it ignite! So while the PC fry's, at least your house wouldn't catch fire!


If your talking about a space vacuum, nasa or some scienctist has probably already answered that question and it most likely has something to do with the grade and rating of the components and would need assistance for it to operate in space.

As consumer grade computers and servers are no where near as high of a grade as military/nasa type components that cost millions.

[Mr Moopsy]

My thought here at this point:

Essentially a box. Glass/plexiglass sealed container filled with dry nitrogen (other gases removed as much as possible). Closed loop liquid cooled computer. hard piped to an external radiator. with an external water resevoir that is cooled below room temp.

The sealed computer/case would be filled with dry nitrogen.

No condensation. and easy heat exchange on the outside. with very low temps.

The seal would not be perfect. But the purpose only needs to keep most air in, and most air out.

As for sealing power cords and usb's a tight rubber gasket or material should do the trick.

No condesnsation plus very low temps could make for some very very nice overclocks and system temperatures.

[Clan Wolf]

If it was worth the effort, someone else would of done it already. Speak to them. Overclockers from Corsiar i believe have specilised teams who work with nitrogen for GPU n CPU cooling, doubt they would ever try something this mad.

This is a extremly difficult thing to do right so everything works and to maintain. Time spent and Resources aside, good luck to you Sir.

[Rove]

You know what some people HAVE done? Fishtank full of light mineral oil and put the whole PC inside it, motherboard face up. Must be really hard on the fans or require passive cooling to work properly. Mineral oil is just like "dry" gases except it's self contained. That way you don't have to pay any special attention to containing the gases which would otherwise escape.

Must be a real pain to open up and upgrade your PC but it would be even worse with gases since they would escape. Mineral oil would just need to be cleaned off & done somewhere outside or in a garage or workshop or something.

Here is a example of a mineral oil PC:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFyBC33U47M

[Clan Wolf]

Have to be careful though not to get mineral oil type that can cook your PCB components, you have to get a white mineral oil but which one is difficult as country to country we label them differently.

Best way is if your America or Canada. Puget Systems. Checked with them in the past, they dont ship internationally. Seattle based company if i recall.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtufuXLvOok

This dude was very cool, made a dairy log build of his custom tank he made to house his PC.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGcW7Ii_BKo

Uploaded his design build and guide. Really Cool. He had professional help. Links in the description.

[76561198001357399]

Vacuum= very VERY bad idea. A, you'd need to make a sealed container capable of withstanding the outside air pressure out of thick steel or something. B, you'd have to have valves and a noisy pump to evacuate the air. C, your components would fry in a second (no medium for the thermal energy to dissopate to).


;D

[_I_]

not only that, but air is needed to transfer heat from the pc to the outside
all components that generate heat will need some kind of cooling

from vrms to chipsets and ram ect..

to prevent dust from getting in the pc, you could build a air exchange system for it
then no outside air can enter the case

works like this
http://hyperline.com/img/sharedimg/cabinets/conditioner-1.jpg
air in the case stays in the case, outside air cools it

[Mr Moopsy]

Mineral oil is too messy >.<

Dry nitrogen is also fairly cheap. buy it compressed, fairly largge cylinder is about 100$ or so.

I think I might give it a try, wait for some waterblocks to come out for the 980's and start planning the build.

Im thinking to avoid a traditional computer case all together, this allows a smaller size container to be built. Plexiglass, rubber, some metal/bolts And probably some fun lighting.

I think it might actually allow a cooled system to work very well.

I dont change parts hardly ever unless doing a new build, so I think it is something that would be worth trying.

I'm at least not seeing any flaws in the dry nitrogen idea yet.
I might need to find a way to passivly cool the case itself though.

[Magron]

all you really need is a good case that takes 120mm fans and a decent self contained liquid cooler for the CPU and heatsinked RAM. I run O/C in room temps of up to 90f with that configuration.
the cpu radiator and fans keep THAT heat out of the case almost entirely.