Cooling a PC with Liquid Nitrogen?

MicroMarx

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Dec 17, 2014
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OK this may seem a bit unusual but let me explain. My dad works in a chemistry lab and we were talking about the gaming PC I was going to get soon (he's a bit of a nerd, he chose most of my components) I wanted to use water cooling but he said we could try cooling using liquid nitrogen. Now here you see where my worries start.

Is it safe?
Is it even possible?
Has anyone done it before?

Keep in mind this rig will cost about 5000-6000$ I've been saving up for 1.5 years working 2 jobs for this and I don't want it all destroyed after so much work.

I really want to try it because I've never heard of anyone doing this before but I'm also scared because, obviously I have never heard of anyone doing this before.

All help and opinions are welcome.

Thank you in advance
 
Solution
The only way you could feasibly use Ln2 for sustained cooling is by having a big loop, heavily insulated and with a expansion chamber and compressor, seriously crazy but doable, about as practical as 3d printing the moon, as mentioned a good custom loop will be plenty but Id love to see a Ln2 loop built, its not the use of it that kills the Cpu btw,s its the massive voltages required to achieve big clocks that fries them :)
Moto

Xyos

Distinguished
Overclockers do it in competitions. It's a hands-on experience, with the nitrogen being poured in manually on the fly to try and get overclocking world records. It's not viable as an everyday cooling method. It also destroys the CPU. Many overclockers in these competitions have dropped out because the CPU was killed in the process.

Liquid cooling is all you need.

If you watch this video you will see why its not viable for everyday use:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF8S3Nn7mTQ
 

kanewolf

Titan
Moderator
Is it possible. Yes for short periods of time.
Is it safe. If you are used to handling cryogenic liquids, yes.
Ever done it. No.

Is it wise. NO.

Liquid Nitrogen is good for benchmark records, but it is just an oddity. Fun to watch, but not practical.
 

Xavier Bouttier

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Sep 10, 2013
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Aside from the post above me, cooling your cpu (and interior of your case) to lower than ambient temperatures would cause condensation and water droplets would form inside your case = oops short circuits everywhere byebye expensive rig :D

You cant have liquid nitrogen on a LOOP, check some videos out on youtube on how they cool their cpus with liquid nitrogen.
 
Liquid Nitrogen is only designed for breaking benchmarks on overclock cpus for a short period of time, this is because you have to manually put the nitrogen in. So unless you have a robot do it, it's not great for homebuilt systems and overkill for any small overclock (you'll get like -70C all the time).

Plus it can be a bit messy. Just go with a full custom loop liquid cooler and that will be way nicer and way cooler. ;)
 

Icaraeus

Honorable
Maybe possible in the future as a continuous loop but right now water is as far as you'll get. As everyone else has said, liquid nitrogen is manually transferred in small amounts to your computer and can easily cause problems with the circuiting due to condensation.
 
The only way you could feasibly use Ln2 for sustained cooling is by having a big loop, heavily insulated and with a expansion chamber and compressor, seriously crazy but doable, about as practical as 3d printing the moon, as mentioned a good custom loop will be plenty but Id love to see a Ln2 loop built, its not the use of it that kills the Cpu btw,s its the massive voltages required to achieve big clocks that fries them :)
Moto
 
Solution
These guys may be willing to talk to you about it a little, try and speak to an engineer or fitter who actually works with them and they'll most likely be able to give you some detailed info on how it works, and obviously the practicality of scaling it down to your needs :)
http://www.airliquideadvancedbusiness.com/en/notre-offre/blueeze-le-froid-cryogenique-pour-un-transport-propre-et-silencieux.html
and remember,
If you are working on a project like this and you look around to see you are alone, Its because you are a frontrunner, and the crowd is behind you :)
Moto