In Pictures: 20 Clever Liquid-Cooled PC Setups

[gm0n3y]

Meh, most of those are decent, but not really spectacular. The steampunk one really stands out though. That one is amazing.

 

[stone-69]

All this modding/cooling stuff has made me wonder :
Wouldn't it be much easier to put all the components of a PC without a cabinet (aka. breadboarding) inside a standard household kitchen freezer with a small hole drilled for the wires ?
Would that idea work ?

 

[Nakal]

[citation][nom]stone-69[/nom]All this modding/cooling stuff has made me wonder :Wouldn't it be much easier to put all the components of a PC without a cabinet (aka. breadboarding) inside a standard household kitchen freezer with a small hole drilled for the wires ?Would that idea work ?[/citation]

To answer your question, in a word:

Condensation

 

[robochump]

Foam is funny but worst possible cooling system since it acts like insulation more than anything else...lol. I guess it is fine for old components but I dare someone to try it with i7 w/GTX480...hehe.

 

[iamtheking123]

[citation][nom]stone-69[/nom]All this modding/cooling stuff has made me wonder :Wouldn't it be much easier to put all the components of a PC without a cabinet (aka. breadboarding) inside a standard household kitchen freezer with a small hole drilled for the wires ?Would that idea work ?[/citation]
Condensation is one problem but not the biggest. The compressor would blow up since it's not meant to run 24/7 and it's not meant to cool something that produces heat.

 

[gm0n3y]

[citation][nom]iamtheking123[/nom]Condensation is one problem but not the biggest. The compressor would blow up since it's not meant to run 24/7 and it's not meant to cool something that produces heat.[/citation]
Its true. If the heat is enough to make the refrigeration unit work constantly, it will die pretty quickly. If the fridge/freezer was large enough, relative to the pc, then its possible though barring condensation issues. Just keeping the radiator in a fridge is probably a low enough load that the compressor would only have to kick in every once in a while.

 

[Guest]

Whoa boys, the modern refigeration or air conditioner compressor is a sealed steel can. A lot of airconditioners run continously for years. In a new York taxi, they run all summer. In fact if sized small enough they are best when the balance of returning refigerant (vapor) from the "cold coil", ie. the evaporator, is continous and used to chill down the high pressure (liquid) side so as to help keep it below the boiling point. When we mess about with a refigerator /freezer unit often a temp senser at the exit of the evaporator unit controls a valve on the intake side of the evaporator coil. This is meant to slow down the intake flow when it is sensed that the exit temp from the evaporator is so low that liquid freon is leaving the evaporator. Best is when the heat load causees all the freon to boil to vapor, and the compressor runs constantly.

 

[blackjellognomes]

Most of these are flashy and overdone imo. The foam PC is the only one I'd consider "clever."

 

[JeanLuc]

I have to say I don't most of those PC's. The only ones that I liked were the steam punk mod (page 3) and the desk mod (very sexy).

 

[jedimind06]

All this modding/cooling stuff has made me wonder :
Wouldn't it be much easier to put all the components of a PC without a cabinet (aka. breadboarding) inside a standard household kitchen freezer with a small hole drilled for the wires ?
Would that idea work ?

http://www.aquatuning.de/product_info.php/info/p2693_waterchiller-Hailea-Ultra-Titan-1500--HC500-790Watt-cooling-capacity-.html

 

[doniphan]

Most of these pictures look just ok, searching on Google you can find better and more original ideas. I see many standard components and some of them are old, so should not be in the news at this moment. After watching these pics I feel more confortable and proud of my own setup which I built almost three years ago and still rocks. Where should I submit my pics to see mine in the next year selection Tomshardware?

 

[HolyCrusader]

The first Steampunk mod was pretty good, and I liked both Desk PC's. The foam PC at the end is pretty unique too. Certainly not suitable to try and do this to a modern PC as the author says, but still I give it props for being a bit more original than the other 15 cases.

 

[stormkroe]

[citation][nom]NoseNuthin[/nom]These "articles" in which the only page navigation is 'next' and 'previous' for 20 pages really annoy me !!![/citation]
Yeah, if only there were little grey boxes at the top you could click on or something.

 

[ortoklaz]

Except #3,8,13,16 they all look like tubing disaster

 

[bobisgod]

Out of all the mods on mdpc, XS, BT, and others, you pick these 20?

 

[iamtheking123]

[citation][nom]geekish[/nom]Whoa boys, the modern refigeration or air conditioner compressor is a sealed steel can. A lot of airconditioners run continously for years. In a new York taxi, they run all summer. In fact if sized small enough they are best when the balance of returning refigerant (vapor) from the "cold coil", ie. the evaporator, is continous and used to chill down the high pressure (liquid) side so as to help keep it below the boiling point. When we mess about with a refigerator /freezer unit often a temp senser at the exit of the evaporator unit controls a valve on the intake side of the evaporator coil. This is meant to slow down the intake flow when it is sensed that the exit temp from the evaporator is so low that liquid freon is leaving the evaporator. Best is when the heat load causees all the freon to boil to vapor, and the compressor runs constantly.[/citation]
I'm not saying there aren't (relatively common) refrigeration systems that can run 24/7...a window air conditioner would be a good example of something that can easily run for hours on end. The point of my comment was that a lot of people think they can just take a normal dorm fridge (or even a cheap full size fridge) and throw their computer in it; and that's a wrong assumption. This is of course still ignoring the problem that condensation will form on anything in a fridge (in most parts of the country) whenever the door is opened. Other solutions like using an air conditioner and blowing the cool air into the case have been thought of...except it's far more efficient (and quiet) to simply use metal-metal contact water cooling with room temperature radiators.

 

[dreammachine2010]

It's like some kind of computer out of star trek

 

[bilbat]

What I don't get about most water-cooleds is that they dump the heat and the noise right back into their immediate environment! Lots of water-cooling gurus told me this: http://www.bilbat.co.cc/Comp_Main.html was impossible; pump can't make that much head, too much tubing, etc., etc... Obviously knew nothing about hydraulics or hydrodynamics. The fluid 'falling down' in a closed loop exactly equals that being 'pumped up' - net effect of gravity is zero! And the heat and noise go into an empty, cool, basement...

 

[mike8472]

Is there really such thing as an 8mm fan?? That must be next to useless!

 

[flyordie]

All this PC's look like a big mess of tubing, no esthetics... Check this page for some really nice systems: www.million-dollar-pc.com

 

[Glorian]

yeah MDPC has way more attractive and innovative water cooled pc's. I can't stand external radiators, or tubing that looked like a psychedelic octopus exploded in a case. We've come along way with sleeving and cooling so cases don't have to look like most of those monstrosities.

 

[pwnagehobo]

[citation][nom]Snipergod87[/nom]so for number 6 where he sais everything that makes heat is water cooled. What about the radiator? Woudlnt he need a seperate water cooling system to cool that.[/citation]
Technically, the radiator doesn't actually produce any heat. Components like the CPU 'produce' heat by transforming electrical potential energy into kinetic energy, and hence, heat. Whereas there is no energy transformation in the radiator, the energy is heat from the components, heat when it's transferred to the water, heat when it's transferred to the radiator, and it remains in the form of heat when it is transferred to the air. So you see, the radiator doesn't produce heat, it just moves it from one place to another.

Normally I'd correct your spelling and grammar too, but I can't be bothered.
😛

 

[gondo]

This stuff is so yesterday. Case modding is a thing of the past and was popular 6 years ago. I remember building my first liquid cooled rig over 12 years ago when you couldn't just buy an all-in-one kit.

Most of these cases are just a mess of tubing. No big deal about dropping $70 on a Sunbeam acrylic case. It's a shabby case anyways. Better off spending your money on a nice Antec or Lian-Li.

As far as I'm concerned the only nice setup here is the computer built into the desk. It's a nice custom built desk. Not too portable though.

 

[defes]

What is the point of The Caseless PC polyurethane just trap the heat inside it is going to fry the component ...

 

[defes]

What is the point of The Caseless PC polyurethane just trap the heat inside it is going to fry the component ...