I modified my refrigerator to cool my PC!!!

ABAQUS888 · Post by **ABAQUS888** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 1:00 pm

You wont believe this, I modified my refrigerator to provide cold water to cool my PC.

In the beginning I am thinking to bury a cooling tank in my back yard, but I found it is too hot in summer even if you have the tank buried under 10 feet, man, so this is what I have done, I punched a hole on my refrigerator, then I put the water reservior in the bottom chamber (not the top freezing one), as the pipe runs through the warm room, the water get warm up a little bit, as the water arrives to my PC, aha, the temp is just right, it is around 5C to 10C, is it cute? now my PC is dead silent, because I don't use any radiator (b4 I used two truck radiators, and those radiator make my PC looks like a main battle tank!), so no fans! zero fans!

The only draw back is my dog does not like the reservior in the refrigerator, he drank all the water in the reservior when I was not in home once, which almost caused a fire! my PC is smoking!

now I have a lock on my reservior, hehe, what can u do now?

How do you guys think? huh?

Joe DeFuria · Post by **Joe DeFuria** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 1:14 pm

I'm thinking of backing away.....slowly.....

Inexplicable · Post by **Inexplicable** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 1:24 pm

ABAQUS888 wrote:How do you guys think? huh?

How loud is your fridge?

ABAQUS888 · Post by **ABAQUS888** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 1:30 pm

ABAQUS888 wrote:
How do you guys think? huh?

How loud is your fridge?

I put my fridge in my kitchen, and my PC in my study room. everyone has their fridge in their kitchen, right? you won't put a fridge in your study room or bed room, will you?

Inexplicable · Post by **Inexplicable** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 1:38 pm

ABAQUS888 wrote:I put my fridge in my kitchen, and my PC in my study room. everyone has their fridge in their kitchen, right? you won't put a fridge in your study room or bed room, will you?

Hah, that's cheating. I bet your fridge is now the loudest component of your system. Doesn't matter if it's in the other room.

ABAQUS888 · Post by **ABAQUS888** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 1:43 pm

no, it's not cheating, you have to use a fridge anyway, I just take advantage of it, my PC is still in my study room, and my water resevoir plus the submerged pump is in the bottom chamber of the fridger, so everything is in order, and my PC is absolutely fanless, and dead silent, there is nothing can be heard what so ever.

This is the most silenced PC I can see in this forum! BTW, I keep the water temp around 5-10 C, this will avoid any condensation too! cheers!!

Inexplicable · Post by **Inexplicable** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 1:51 pm

Nonononono.... Your fridge has to work a little harder because it now has to cool your PC in addition to your groceries, so the compressor is growling more often.

We have rules here, you know...

ABAQUS888 · Post by **ABAQUS888** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 1:57 pm

I have done a test before I modify my fridger, its temp is exactly same as before I modified it, the wattage of a fridger is just too much larger than the wattage used to cool a PC, therefore I even did not change the temp setting of my fridger! cheers!! woohoooo!!

silvervarg · Post by **silvervarg** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 2:02 pm

Well, pumping in warm water in your fridge will not be great for the food in the fridge. And the fridge will be working quite a bit more to do the extra cooling. So you are actually adding noise in the kitchen and use more energy for running the fridge.
I agree that it is a very odd and perhaps unique way of cooling the computer, but it is not fundamentally different from watercooling with a radiator with fan if you put the radiator in another room.

If I just put watercooling with a radiator out the window I would get the same effect without the drawbacks. It might not work daytime in the middle of summer, and I might need to put anti-freeze in the water during winter.

ABAQUS888 · Post by **ABAQUS888** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 2:13 pm

The beauty of this method is that you can get cold water its temp is much lower than a radiator can provide, radiator can only provide room temp water at the most, and every home has a fridger, so you don't need buy any extra equiment, it is even cheaper than buy a radiator. this way also save a lot energy bills compare with the TEC, my fidger only need work a little bit harder to cool my PC, I even do not have to change my firdger temp settings. those TEC system will cost your a lot of energy bills! TEC will also cause condensation problem, I control my cooling temp around 5c to 10c, therefore I only put my water reservor at the bottom chamber of my fridger. further more, this set up is very stable, much easier to control compare with TEC and air cooling. the water resevior I used is basically a bottle it's size is no bigger than a 1 L coke bottle, it is well sealed, I also wrapped it up by several layers of plastic vacummed bag, so it is extremely safe to say, no harzard to anything, plus I only use distilled water, so everthing is clean and cool! woo hhahaha!!! cheers!!

Winston · Post by **Winston** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 2:17 pm

If this actually works as well as ABAQUS888 says, I would say it's a much better idea than what silvervarg said:

If I just put watercooling with a radiator out the window I would get the same effect without the drawbacks. It might not work daytime in the middle of summer, and I might need to put anti-freeze in the water during winter.

and even if it is "cheating" or doesn't fit SPCR's "rules", it is still a very quiet computer system. The added noise in the kitchen wont be constant, and probably wont be noticeable either. If you can then keep the water for the PC-cooling in a closed tank inside the fridge, you have no problems at all, except maybe distance to the kitchen!

Inexplicable · Post by **Inexplicable** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 2:31 pm

Winston wrote:you have no problems at all, except maybe distance to the kitchen!

That's a huge drawback! You have to get up in order to get another beer!

ez2remember · Post by **ez2remember** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 5:53 pm

ABAQUS, well done! Smart cookie!

You've done a great job and no you're not cheating. There are really no rules that govern how you go about quieting a system. Generally speaking we don't want to go over ~30dBA @ 1 meter (that is the only rule). Anything above this threshold is not classed as quiet by SPCR. We obviously want to go way below this borderline, <25dBA is easily achieved by most SPCR modders.

We have talked about sticking your PC somewhere else in the past and using long cables to connect to it. So your method is perfectly legit. At the end of the day what matters it's working for you and your system is now v.quiet/silent to work, play and sleep with not in the literal sense!

Just one question, how do you cool your PSU without a fan?

lenny · Post by **lenny** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 6:12 pm

Inexplicable wrote:Hah, that's cheating. I bet your fridge is now the loudest component of your system. Doesn't matter if it's in the other room.

How loud is the power station supplying electricity to your computer?

prodeous · Post by **prodeous** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 6:55 pm

What about posting some cpu temps and stuff of that nature. But to me it doesn't seem cheating.

Gorsnak · Post by **Gorsnak** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 7:33 pm

Well, my kitchen/dining/living room is all one area, with just a divider wall full of holes between me and the fridge. The fridge is louder than my pc, so I can't see that I'd be gaining anything by making the fridge run a higher % of the time. That's just me, though. If I had a liquid cool system, I'd do better hanging the rad out the window. It's -14C out there right now.

Elliot · Post by **Elliot** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 8:55 pm

ABAQUS888 wrote:The only draw back is my dog does not like the reservior in the refrigerator, he drank all the water in the reservior when I was not in home once, which almost caused a fire!

Your dog can open refrigerator?? Does he close it every time? How about doing some cooking for you? Grocery shopping?

Inexplicable · Post by **Inexplicable** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 8:59 pm

lenny wrote:How loud is the power station supplying electricity to your computer?

Well, funny you should ask. As it happens, it is completely water cooled. Can you imagine that some people actually prefer a grid of these monsters?

lenny · Post by **lenny** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 9:21 pm

Inexplicable wrote:
lenny wrote:How loud is the power station supplying electricity to your computer?
Well, funny you should ask. As it happens, it is completely water cooled. Can you imagine that some people actually prefer a grid of these monsters?

Ah, yes, but shielding it behind a few thousand tons of concrete is cheating

OK I'll stop. I get your point, and if I had a point I'm sure you got it too

Back on topic, I'd be worried about condensation from cold water on the tubes and cooling block. I think moving the fan and radiator out of the room is a much safer idea.

Inexplicable · Post by **Inexplicable** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 9:44 pm

lenny wrote:OK I'll stop. I get your point, and if I had a point I'm sure you got it too

Heh, actually I was just teasing Abacusbbb. I have to admit his exuberant approach to silencing has a certain coolness factor to it. I'm just a little bit jealous.

lenny wrote: Back on topic, I'd be worried about condensation from cold water on the tubes and cooling block. I think moving the fan and radiator out of the room is a much safer idea.

Yeah, good point. And I wouldn't want to see what happens if the fridge thermostat glitches somehow.

Trip · Post by **Trip** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 2:28 am

digitX wrote:This might be a little off... which brand of fridge is the quietest. My old kenmore is about to give. Hence...

Btw, if I accidentally place a SilenX power supply inside my freezer overnight, do you think the unit can still function safely ... ?

Does it still work???

As long as it's not wet (from ice or condensation) it should be alright i think

wait a few days for everything to dry out.

pangit · Post by **pangit** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 3:48 am

Well I think it's a great story. Especially the bit about the dog!!!

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 6:53 am

I have a near-new refridgerator that's 3 rooms away from the room where my computers ara and I can clearly hear it's compressor over the sound of my quiet computers. Unless you have some sort of super-quiet fridge I don't see how your setup could be that quiet.

ABAQUS888 · Post by **ABAQUS888** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 8:21 am

If you have a loud fridge, then you have it, my setup won't effect much of the operation of an ordinary fridge. Since the wattage of a PC needs is much less than a fridge needs. My target is to cool and silent my PC effectively; this has nothing to do with the location of your fridge or the quietness of your fridge. In general, people do not put their fridge near their bed or study room, but it is very often that they put their PC in their study room or even bedroom. The point is this: if you have fridge very close to your PC, my suggestion will be that you simply do not need silent your pc, because the noise of your fridge is much louder than a pc, your first priority is too silent your fridge or move it somewhere you can not hear it. But anyway this is not what we should discuss here.

My setup has a lot of advantages over air cooling, water cooling (I call my way as fridge cooling to differentiate it from ordinary water cooling) as well as TEC.

1. Cost. The first advantage is the cost saving. You do not need a radiator and the radiator fans. You will not need a separate PSU to power a TEC. You will not pay a big energy bills like the TEC will.
2. High efficiency. My system has a much higher efficiency compare with all other methods. The point is as simple as this: whenever you have a fan in your system, you are lowing your system efficiency. All fan system inherits low efficiency naturally by the definition of physics. Air cooling uses fans, water cooling uses fans (for radiator). Even you use a passive radiator (huge size, expensive and again low efficiency), you still stuck to room temperature.
3. Performance. My system performances is much better than air cooling and water cooling, all air cooling and water cooling stuck to room temp, therefore they are constrained to room temp. Fridge cooling provide around 10 c degree temp all the year with very low cost (you won’t notice much of the energy bill increases).
4. Flexibility and stability. I set my temp around 10 c ( I tried 5 c too), this can be changed easily by adjust the water flow rate, the bottom line for me is to avoid the condensation problems. If you like you can set actually any temp you like. You only need a very small amount of water if the water temp is stable. Therefore, you can have a small pump too, again this saves cost.
5. my setup also does not increase the size of your pc since there is no radiator, and the pump plus resevour is in fridge.

Conclusion:

My fridge cooling system gives flexibility and stability for all uses and different room conditions, the concept of it is to find the best balance point among air cooling, water cooling, TEC, cost, performance as well as different user requirements.

Fridge cooling idea seems strange, but keep in mind, all new inventions or innovations all look strange in their first appearances, the history has proved that. I am working in automotive industry, we got a lot of crazy ideas here, you don’t see it yet.

FYI, in the beginning, I did my test with a small fridge I bought years ago from Wal Mart, it only cost me $29, I think it is still around, it is just cheapest fridge I can find, I use it to store my beer and beverage.

then I did test with it, it works!! I will strongly suggest you find a $30 fridge try my idea, woohooo!!! silence pc plus cold beers from a $30 fridger and no energy bill increases what so ever!!! BTW, you only need drilll a very small hole on the fridge so you can make the hose fitting and sealing easily. this small fridge also serves as my mobil lan party power house, I am the only guy in the lan party got cold beer and very drunk there!! wooo hoooo!!!

One last thing, you'd better get approval from yuor mom and dad before you actually modify your fridge, I do not live with my parents, so it's OK for me. and also, study your fridge carefully before you drill on it, its design varies from case to case.

Attention!!! don't blame me if you make a huge hole on your fridge then get kicked ass by your dear mom and dad!!

Cheers!

silvervarg · Post by **silvervarg** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 8:21 am

This is more and more becoming a question about how to measure noise and what noise count and what don't.
Abaqus build does turn on the refrigirator more often, or actually it might just run for longer periods of time while it is on.
The setting on the refrigirator is normally a temp setting, so you will not need to adjust it when you put in something that generates heat.

So to the point. The fridge noise level is still the same, but more frequent or for longer period of time. What really annoys me is when noise level change, so if the fridge just runs for longer periods of time it might not even quality as more annoying.

Zyzzyx · Post by **Zyzzyx** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 9:50 am

Yet I believe most refrigerators weren't designed to run for 'longer' periods of time. There are certain duty cycles for the compressor. Slightly extended running would likely be fine, but I would expect that if it ends up running the fridge nearly all the time you'll fry the compressor and have a dead fridge. And then a dead computer.

ABAQUS888 · Post by **ABAQUS888** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 10:37 am

Na, The fridge compressor will NOT run for a long time, because the power used to cool PC to 10C and maintain that requires much less energy than the energy loses as you open the door of the fridge when you put things in and out. do yourself a favor before you buy an expensive yet low efficiency radiator try a $30 fridge and you will see what will happen.

Cheers!!!

ABAQUS888 · Post by **ABAQUS888** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 10:55 am

Also, keep in mind as I repeatedly stressed I only have the water cool to 10C, and all fridges are designed to cool below sub zero, so I have not noticed any long period compressor running since I cool my pc using the fridge. this also served well to prevent consendation, however, you do need find a best temp to suit into ur application though.

Inexplicable · Post by **Inexplicable** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 11:14 am

ABAQUS888 wrote:Fridge cooling idea seems strange, but keep in mind, all new inventions or innovations all look strange in their first appearances, the history has proved that.

It's actually not a very new idea, though. Here's a couple examples from overclockers.com, with pictures:

http://www.overclockers.com/tips798/
http://www.overclockers.com/tips1030/

How about posting some in the gallery section for comparison?

I modified my refrigerator to cool my PC!!!

I modified my refrigerator to cool my PC!!!

Re: I modified my refrigerator to cool my PC!!!

Re: I modified my refrigerator to cool my PC!!!