Water Chillers

[imported_Iceman]

The thermodynamic limit for air cooled water systems is the ambient air temperature. Lower cooling temperatures with water could be obtained by substituting a water chiller unit (show below) for the standard radiator and fan(s) combination. Water chillers such as this one are used in reef aquarium systems to compensate for the heat transferred from the intense lighting.

The cost of the 1/10 HP Arctica Titanium chiller is about $375 US. Add to this a pump, hoses, etc. and the total cost is around $500, or midway between the cost of standard water and vapor phase change cooling systems.

Cheers,

Iceman

 

[M8tRiX]

http://www.swiftnets.com/

Swiftech MCW-CHILL 452™ Thermoelectric liquid chiller is about the right size for me and fits in with most watercooloing setups.

A review can be found here :

http://www.procooling.com/index.php?func=articles&disp=84&pg=1

 

[maverik-sg1]

The thermodynamic limit for air cooled water systems is the ambient air temperature. Lower cooling temperatures with water could be obtained by substituting a water chiller unit (show below) for the standard radiator and fan(s) combination. Water chillers such as this one are used in reef aquarium systems to compensate for the heat transferred from the intense lighting.

The cost of the 1/10 HP Arctica Titanium chiller is about $375 US. Add to this a pump, hoses, etc. and the total cost is around $500, or midway between the cost of standard water and vapor phase change cooling systems.

Cheers,

Iceman

Do we know of anyone usin these - how big are they, any 3rd party references, installation pics?

Although I like the concept of a waterchiller - unless you can control the water temp to 3-4 degress below ambient - the risk of condensation is high.

Noise levels on aquarium chillers are typically high, because they are built for outdoors and the perception of quite for outdoor use is a lot higher than for indoor use.

For overclockers it presents a process change - usually requiring the chiller to be run up for 4mins on its own to cool the water so that you can star your machine up in an overclocked state, or in fact you start the machine up at stock and then overclock when teh chiller has reached it's optimum temps.

Also - I would have to question if a 1/10hp compressor is man enough to to remove over 400w of heat and at what temperature the water would be at.

 

[sacha35]

Dont think it would be man enough, lloks like a chiller for water systems so you dont have to use fans so it will be nice and quite, take my beer chiller gets to -14 arfter about and hour but this only lasts about 20-30 mins before the temps are back up to 10c this is with being overclocked though, so i dont think this unit will be any good for overclockers, like i said just used to make things nice and quite.

 

[imported_Iceman]

Interesting design, and surprisingly high wattage for a thermoelectric unit.

I enjoyed reading the MCW-CHILL product review - well written. I've also book marked the procooling.com site for future late night reading.

Thanks,

Iceman

 

[imported_Iceman]

Bigger is better

See http://www.jbjlighting.com/endorsements_chiller.html for Arctica Chiller testimonials from those using it in reef aquarium systems. A common remark is its very low noise levels. These units are to be used exclusively in indoor environments, and this particular model is somewhat smaller than a Mach II. Larger 1/4 HP units are available (1HP = 12,000 BTU/HR).

Condensation is a concern, and would have to be properly addressed. In the review of the Swifttech MCW-CHILL referenced previously, the condensate shown on the CPU block was most disturbing to see, and was a consideration obviously neglected.

All methods of low temperature cooling would require a CPU startup delay if the applied overclocking was not stable at ambient temperatures.

Thanks,

Iceman