Planning Air conditioned water loop (phase in res)

ok so what about Methyl Hydrate, and would a pure alcohol coolant be corrosive at all? enough to require an anti corrosive? will it eat the tubing?

algae etc. cant grow in Methyl Hydrate correct?

looking at the MSDS it has no PH level, which would mean it doesn't ionize right? it also doesnt say anything about dissolving plastics.

basically does it matter what tubing i use? i was thinking of using tubing thats good for -40c, i heard tygon was okay.

 

Er, you do know what happens to any alcohol when it gets hot, right...?

*shakes images of mushroom clouds out of head*

 

You do know that Alcohol has an auto-ignition point of 365° Celsius right? If your computer is running that hot... *shakes head*

Sure alcohol can burn at 13° Celsius or higher, but only if you say... put a match to it.

 

Wow, thought it was a lot more temperamental than that... sorry 'bout that, I'm no chemist (quite the opposite...)

 

13c would be the flash point. im not worried about alcohol at -20c or less exploding. corrosion and pipe dissolving are what im worried about.

other then the flash point though, nothing is getting above 10c anytime soon.

and same question stands, what will the methanol do to my res, tubing and rad.

 

Well Tygon is laboratory grade tubing, and is designed to be almost completely chemically inert. You should have no issue with it.

As for you res, well acrylic has very little chemical resistance to Methanol and Ethanol. Your best bet is to have a look here for something you can make a res out of. On this note, I would also suggest solid copper blocks.

If you are using a phase change system you shouldn't be using a rad full stop, so I wouldn't be overly worried about that.

 

what i ment by rad was the evap lol, as i would be submerged.

thanks for the link btw.

and to be clear, will methanol damage plexiglass?

 

Doesn't look good for plexiglass (link)

Evap should be fine, but watch for galvanic corrosion caused by putting the aluminium evap into a loop with copper. Adding a corrosion inhibitor would probably be a good plan, but nickel plating the evap fins would also work very well. Methanol will not react with the metals.

I am actually really excited to see you try to pull this off. Can you tell I have thought about this as well?

 

haha, well it is a cost effective solution. my ideal water setup would cost me $500, whereas this would cost me $480-500 with much more performance.

ive chosen the EK HF copper block for cpu, and EK also has a nickel block for the MB. i take it there nothing wrong with a nickel block, if you suggested coating the AL in nickel.

im looking at this for tubing - link
i figure the neoprene in the tubing will make it a little easier to insulate, and if i need to insulate it anyways i wont be needing clear tube.

im still not sure on the requirments of the pump though. all the calculators ask me for variables i dont have, the Eheim 1048 Pump is 150GPH, what would be typical of this setup?
still gathering data...

ive looked into plating the aluminum fins, but it seems a bit difficult. if i could find a staight forward guide i might do it. i would need to zincate the AL right? do you know what that would do to the CU? or would i even need to zincate in the first place?

i probably wont coat it, but either way im going to need to clean the rad. i was gonna blast it with a pressure wash then soak it in alcohol.

once i get my AC in order il make a trip to home depot to get supplies for my res and il look for some chemical cleaner. then il just find some corrosion inhibitor and mix it in when im setting the whole thing up.

i still need to order the pump and blocks after that, but at least il have a 12000 btu AC in the next couple days.

 

this guy took it to the extreme
carefully read this mad machine

 

Sub-ambient brings new problems like condensation. I may get someone to build my nitrogen-charged and sealed with internal radiator-thingy yet.

 

im not worried about condensation, it brings more dynamic!

heh, but there's lots of info on insulating. il just fill the crap with dielectric grease and neoprene. then il get the back plate with liquid electrical tape or whatever.

 

Really all you'd need to seal is the mobo compartment. Removable media and power supply can sit in their own part of the case. Seal up the mobo part and put a largeish desiccant container in there with it. That should keep any condensation problems to a minimum.

 

what like to absorb ambient moisture? i havnt heard of that as a solution. even if i used a desiccant i would still need to water proof the board. i figure if no moisture can get to the cold parts of the board there's no condensation.

 

Yea, but that's harder than it sounds. Unless you plan to never add or remove components. Waterproofing has a funny habit of also electrically insulating connectors. You can pick up desiccant from gun supply places. They have reusable bags of the stuff for gun safes. To reactivate it you put it in the oven for a while. Really it wouldn't be that hard to section off a chunk of the case where the mobo sits. You'd need to use a bit of silicone to seal the ports where the power and sata cables go. After that you could make it go as cold as you want. It might condense on the outside of the case, but the dry air in the mobo compartment won't have enough water in the air to worry about.

 

you know im cooling the CPU and MB with a water loop right? im not forcing freezing air through my case. i dont see any way that moisture could build in or near the SATA ports, or anything not in direct contact with the CPU, NB, VR or SB. unless you think im sealing my case so air cannot flow through it, then it would be effective to use a desiccant, and once all the moisture is absorbed there would be little to condense.

but if my case fans are still going how could you expect a desiccant to absorb ambient moisture faster then it could condense in my case?

if i use a dielectric grease around all the areas directly chilled by the loop, then insulate it with neoprene or something it the surface wont get cold enough to condense anything.

am i on the right track with this?

 

I was more thinking about sealing the box the mobo was in, like I was saying separate from the drives and power supply. My thinking was it would need to be pretty much air tight, or moisture would be drawn in through the cracks. Even if you're using a water loop; with an ac unit cooling the water, it's going to be cooler than ambient, which will cool the air around the loops.

 

I'm relatively sure that they sell insulated tubing for sub-ambiant cooling.

If you get the coolant to below the air temperature, it is possible (and likely) that you will get condensation on your tubing, and on any exposed metal/acrylic, just because those surfaces are colder than the surrounding air. Think about turning on your cold water faucet when it is warm out. That would be my major worry about cooling like this, thinking about it, I would probably prefer to have freezing air going through the case, so long as the whole room is the same temp.