Sub-ambient cooling for beginners. https://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2017/03/17/alphacool-eiszeit/1
Interesting, unlike previous pre-built compressor coolers this appears to use a refrigerant loop, rather than direct-contact for the evaporator. Means a bit of loss in minimum temperature capability (due to the loop acting as a radiator) and you have to be careful with tubing routing to avoid condensation dripping on things, but it also means you can potentially cool multiple components with one unit.
Cool! Just the other day I thought about what happened to the Vapochill and phase change in general. A bit costly though...
Not for daily use they haven't, unless you fancy standing next to your PC refilling a tube with liquid nitrogen every few minutes then suffocating to death... Isn't a PC radiator just a shrunken version of the ones you get in cars? (Hell, I remember when you couldn't buy specially-made radiators and if you wanted to water-cool your PC you went to the scrappies and picked up the radiator from a knackered Mini...)
There have been other companies that tried the same before: https://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cooling/2010/07/20/hailea-hc-500a-water-chiller-review/1 With each previous attempt the benefits didn't come close to outweighing the drawbacks in price, noise and power consumption and since the laws of physics and thermodynamics haven't changed in the last couple years I doubt this attempt by Alphacool will turn out any different.
I actually have one of these, I wouldn't put it next to a computer but I suppose that's why alphacool have such a powerful pump built in.
That's different to re-badged though. If it is a re-badged fish pool chiller essentially same thing could be available already (and potentially cheaper) without the bleeding edge tech premium attached to it. I actually think it might make more sense to look at things a different way and create an air-conditioning unit with a hook up for a water cooling loop. Or maybe a mini-fridge so you can keep your beers and your PC cool
Can a fish pond chiller handle continuous hundred-watt-plus thermal loads? Similar argument between direct-contact phase change coolers and hacking fridge/freezer chill systems. Yes, a fridge/freezer compressor does do the same job, but is designed to only continuously deal with the leakage from an incredibly well insulated chamber (a few watts), not a 100W+ CPU. If you're doing a handful of occasional OC bench runs that works fine, but not for continuous use.
Fridge freezers may be designed to deal with a small leakage from a well insulated chamber but they do not do this by running continuously at a low level. They "kick in" (as one can hear) when they need to and run at a relatively high wattage for a short period of time and then cut off until needed again. It's actually pretty tricky to find figures for peak power consumption but over 100 Watts (maybe well over) seems likely. Presumably modern designs are fairly efficient so I don't think cooling capacity for a computer cooling system would be much of an issue under continuous or near continuous running of the refrigerator.
Hence why a fridge/freezer system will work for a few short runs, but is liable to crap out if you want to run it continuously. Which is what you would expect, because exactly the same thing happens if you leave a fridge/freezer door open.
What he said^ For 24/7 overclocks even air cooling can get you 90% of what water will, and water will get you 90% of what sub-ambient can. I don't suppose we ever will, but it'd be interesting to find out how many of these Alphacool actually built, and how many they sell - I just don't see the market for it anymore.
