Using a minifridge (yeah, I know, it's been suggested before)

[Robanada]

Hey guys, I'm doing a mineral oil submersion to cool my PC, and I was going to pump the oil through a radiator to keep it cool, but I'm a) trying to work out a way to get fish involved, so I need temps to be like.. 30oC MAX, and b) trying to keep the noise down because my roommate is a very light sleeper, and i like to keep my computer on overnight.
So I was thinking that I'm really pleased with the noise level of my minifridge- couldn't i get another one? And then I read some articles about how the fridge would give out under a constant heat load unless I change the condenser. Well, if I can change the condenser for <200 bucks, so that it would last longer, couldn't I just dip the refrigerator coil into the oil? (I say <200 because the fridge will set me back 50, and 250 is how much my alternative cooling method will cost.)

Or could I just abandon the fridge idea entirely and go for a phase change cooling method (I really don't know anything about phase change cooling except what wikipedia says =\)? Run the capillaries (evaporator?) that are normally in contact with the CPU through the oil tank?
What would be the difference between the condenser and a radiator? Could I use a radiator as a condenser?

I'm not interested in sub-zero temperatures here, just 10-30oCs.

Thanks for all the help guys, I'm really excited for this project =)

Edit: condenser is not the same as an evaporator xD

 

[ouch1]

Hmm I dunno if that would work out for you. Your best bet would be to either go with a Peltier, and a water cooling loop, or get a vapochill cooler. Either way would be easier to do and run much cooler.

-ouch1

 

[Conumdrum]

A mini fridge does not have the capability to remove the heat. It's a tiny compressor. Been tried, fail, even 3 years ago with less wattage heat producers.

All of your ideas have been hashed for years, and it's usually a bad result.

High end air cooling, with the resultant noise, or high end watercooling at X4$ the expense is the proven ways. But you can be different, maybe you'll come up with a new idea. Best of luck.

Your stuff.

 

[Robanada]

Ok, well, in order to do the phase change cooling, all I need is
a) compressor
b) radiator (and fans)
c) capillaries/evaporation chamber
and tubing to connect it all, right?

Are there any compressors powerful enough that produce something under 40-50 db? I want my roommate to be able to sleep =p
(I picked the minifridge cus he's cool with that level of noise so far)

 

[4745454b]

Do fish swim in oil? I could see adding fish to a water loop, I've seen that done before. Its a bit of a pain because some of the fish stuff will cause issues with your cooling loop. (one site used a fan to keep the fish from getting sucked into the water intake, but the fan threw off the PH causing them to die anyways.) I say scrape the oil idea and stick with the fish and water idea. Use tetras, everyone loves tetras.

 

[hundredislandsboy]

I like the idea of tetras. Instead of LED lights on the CPU cooler you can feed the neon tetras there and they'll look like LED lights.

 

[Robanada]

I'm putting the fish in a peripheral tank that's like 4 inches wide around hte front and sides of the oil tank. This way they won't screw up ANYTHING with the computer, and they'll give me an incentive to keep the temperatures reasonable =p

What do you guys think of using TECs to cool a reservoir of water that I pump through capillaries in the oil?
These guys say they're 400W, does that mean that I NEED 400W to power them?
http://www.virtualvillage.com/400w-12v-thermoelectric-cooler-peltier-plate/sku001540-017
Cus if I do, then that's like another power supply... (and puts me at 1200W, if i get 2- as much as my PA that i use when I DJ mobile gigs XD)

 

[Helloworld_98]

400w is the max heat that it can dissipate.

 

[kingnoobe]

Um Conumdrum oil does work, and works great. So unless you just ment the rest of his ideas.. You're wrong on that one. Oils is one of the easiest things to do. You just have to worry about if something does go wrong, oil isn't easy to get off of things.