Cooling systems - from radiator to liquid nitrogen! Part 2
Continuation of the article on cooling systems. Part 1 .
Lots of text traffic .
The third type of cooling system in my review is perhaps one of the most interesting, spectacular and effective.
')
As I said, you can not argue with the laws of physics. The increase in clock speeds and performance of a modern computer is inevitably accompanied by an increase in the energy consumption of its elements, the result is an increase in heat generation. In turn, this forces manufacturers to create all-new and increasingly efficient cooling systems.
I first met this system late - at the end of 2006 at the Home Interactive Technologies (HIT) exhibition in St. Petersburg. Then I participated in a modding contest and next to my mod was a mod guy who made the coolest mod with water cooling applications.
A liquid cooling system is such a cooling system, in which any liquid acts as a coolant.
Pure water is rarely used as a coolant (due to electrical conductivity and corrosiveness of water), most often it is distilled water (with various anti-corrosion additives), sometimes oil, other special liquids.
The main difference in the use of air and liquid cooling lies in the fact that in the second case, instead of non-heat-intensive air, heat is used to transfer heat, which has a much greater heat capacity than air.
The principle of operation of the liquid cooling system remotely resembles the cooling system in a car's engines — through the radiator instead of air, fluid is pumped through, which provides a much better heat sink. In the radiators of a cooled object, water is heated, after which water from this place circulates to a colder one, i.e. removes heat.
A typical system consists of a water block in which heat is transferred from the processor to the coolant, a pump that pumps water through the closed loop of the system, a radiator where heat is transferred from the coolant to air, a tank (used to fill the system with water and other service needs) and connecting hoses.
The contact surface of the waterblock with the processor is usually polished to a mirror image, for reasons already sounded by me. Through the familiar thermal interface, the waterblock is attached to the object to be cooled. Usually it is attached with special brackets, which excludes its ability to move. There are also water blocks for video cards, but there are no obvious differences from the principle of action of processor water blocks - all differences in the mount and shape of the radiator.
One of the common problems of owners of liquid cooling systems is the overheating of the near-socket-socket elements of the motherboard, which can warm up no worse than their older brother. This is due to the fact that usually in such systems there is no circulation of cold air. How to avoid it? Perhaps there is one piece of advice - choose systems (combine) with an additional cooler that will cool the other basing power elements.
The water block is connected through a special tube to the radiator, which can be mounted both inside the system unit and outside (for example, from the back of the system unit). The second option is perhaps preferable. Judge for yourself: more free space inside the system unit, a lower ambient temperature has a positive effect on the radiator. Plus it is additionally blown by the case fan.
The tank for liquid, or otherwise, the expansion tank, can also be located outside the system unit. Its volume in standard systems varies from 200ml to liter.
Manufacturers of cooling systems are trying to take care of their users and are well aware that for a good cooling system there is a place inside not every system unit. Moreover, it is necessary to take into account that each manufacturer somehow wants to stand out against the background of others. Therefore, there is a huge choice of external liquid cooling systems (of course, that without connecting pipes with a radiator at the end is not to be neglected). They are not ashamed to parade; usually everything is hidden inside such systems - the pump, the tank, the radiator blown by the fans. But they are usually defiantly expensive.
Why use liquid cooling systems? After all, if we judge strictly, then regular regular coolers are always enough, under normal PC operating conditions (if it were not so, they would not be installed, but liquid cooling systems would be installed). Therefore, most often such a system should be considered from the standpoint of overclocking - when the capabilities of the air cooling system are not enough.
Another advantage of the liquid cooling system is the ability to install it in a limited space of the case. Unlike air, tubes with liquid can be set to almost any direction.
Well, another plus of such a system is its soundlessness. Most often, pumps cause the flow of water through the system to circulate, without creating noise more than 25 dB.
Minus, as I have already noted, is often the high cost of installation.
Among non-standard cooling systems, one very effective system can be noted - based on Peltier elements. Jean Charles Atanaz is a French physicist who discovered and studied the phenomenon of heat release or absorption during the passage of electric current through the contact of two dissimilar conductors. Devices whose principle of operation uses this effect are called Peltier elements.
The operation of such elements is based on the contact of two conductors with different levels of electron energy in the conduction band. When current flows through the contact of these materials, the electron needs to acquire energy so that it can go into the zone with a higher conductive energy of the other semiconductor. The cooling of the contact point of semiconductors occurs when this energy is absorbed. Heating of the contact site occurs when current flows in the opposite direction.
In practice, only contact between two semiconductors is used, since at the contact of metals, the effect is so small that it is invisible against the background of the phenomenon of thermal conductivity and ohmic heating.
The Peltier element contains one or several pairs of small (no more than 60x60 mm) semiconductor parallelepipeds — one n-type and one p-type in a pair [usually bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) and silicon germanide (SiGe)]. They are pairwise connected by metal bridges that serve as thermal contacts and are insulated with a non-conductive film or ceramic plate. The pairs of parallelepipeds are connected in such a way that a series connection of many pairs of semiconductors with different types of conductivity is formed - the flowing electric current flows sequentially through the entire circuit. Depending on the direction in which the electric current flows, the upper contacts are cooled, and the lower ones heat up - or vice versa. Thus, heat is transferred from one side of the Peltier element to the opposite side and a temperature difference is created.
When cooling the heating side of the Peltier element (radiator or fan), the temperature of the cold side becomes even lower.
The advantages of such a cooling system include the small size and the absence of any moving parts, as well as gases and liquids.
Spoon tar is a very low efficiency, which leads to high power consumption to achieve a noticeable temperature difference. If you turn on the thermoelectric plate without load (the processor will not warm up), then you risk becoming a witness to an interesting picture - on the Peltier element, when cooled to the dew point, hoarfrost appears, which does not feed with bread - let the contacts short out.
Also, if the Peltier element fails, there will be another spectacle - due to the lack of contact between the radiator (or cooler) and the processor, the latter will instantly heat up and may fail.
Peltier elements are still sure to find widespread use, since without any additional devices they easily allow to get temperatures below 0 ° C.
Feel like reading a text is getting colder and colder? Still - slowly but surely we descend into the low temperature range.
Now we will consider a not very common, but very effective class of cooling systems - a system in which freons act as a refrigerant. From here and the name - freon ustanvoki. But it would be more correct to call such systems phase transition systems. Practically all modern household refrigerators work on the principle of operation of such systems.
But let's go in order. One of the options to cool the body is to boil the liquid on it. To transform a liquid into vapor, it is necessary to expend energy (the energy of a phase transition) —that is, when boiling, the liquid takes thermal energy from its surrounding objects. But mentally returning to the walls of the school classroom of physics, we recall that with the current pressure we will not be able to heat the liquid above its boiling point. Which of us showed such a trick to friends - pouring juice into a plastic cup and holding a flame under the bottom of a glass? You can try - no cataclysms will happen until all the juice boils away;)
The well-known Wikipedia treats the word “Freons” as halogen-alkanes, fluorine-containing derivatives of saturated hydrocarbons (mainly methane and ethane), used as refrigerants. In addition to fluorine atoms, molecules of freon usually contain chlorine atoms, less often bromine. More than 40 different freons are known; most of them are manufactured by industry. Freons - colorless gases or liquids, odorless.
If we take such a liquid that will boil, say, at -40 ° C, then the vessel in which this liquid freely boils (such a vessel is called an evaporator) will be very difficult to heat. Its temperature will tend to -40 ° C. And putting such a vessel on the cooling object we need (for example, a processor), we can achieve what we wanted - to cool the system.
But it is clear that no one will climb with a certain interval under the table and pour liquid into the evaporator - you need to get the liquid from the liquid vapor again, which will be fed into the evaporator again. Here you have food for self-reflection.
OK OK. As a result of reflection, you should come to the following scheme: a powerful compressor after the evaporator pumps gas and delivers it under high pressure to the condenser. There, the gas condenses into a liquid and releases heat. Condenser, made in the form of a radiator, dissipates heat into the atmosphere - this stage we have already thoroughly considered in previous systems. Next, the liquid freon goes to the evaporator, where boiling out, takes heat away - that’s the whole closed cycle. The cycle of “phase transitions” is therefore called this - freon alternately changes its state of aggregation.
Phase transition systems, the evaporators (refrigerators) of which are installed directly on the cooled elements, are called “Direct Die” systems. Only the evaporator itself and the suction tube are cold in such a system, the rest of the elements may be at or above room temperature. Cold elements must be carefully insulated to prevent condensation.
The minus of freonok is the relative bulkiness of the evaporator and the suction tube, so only the processor and the video card are selected as the cooling object.
There is one more kind of cooling systems, which I have not mentioned yet - chillers. This class of systems consists mainly of liquid cooling systems, the difference is the presence of the second part (coolant cooler), which works instead of the radiator - often this part is the same phase transition system. The advantage of such a system is that it can cool all the elements of the system unit, and not just the video card and the processor (as opposed to the “direct die” systems). The phase transition system of the chiller is cooled only by the coolant of the liquid cooling system, that is, a very cold liquid flows in a closed circuit. Hence, the minus of systems of this type is the need to isolate the ALL system (water blocks, tubes, pumps, etc.). If you do not want to isolate, then you can use a low-power freon installation for the chiller, but then you can forget about extreme overclocking. Here you choose, you checkered or go.
The brilliant side of the medal includes the possibility of achieving very low temperatures, the possibility of continuous work (as opposed to the system, which is discussed later). High system efficiency (losses are minimal). Of the permanent cooling systems, the freon is the most powerful. At the same time they allow you to make heat from the body, which has a positive effect on the temperatures inside it.
The side of the coin, smeared with tar, includes such features of the system as the complexity of manufacturing such a system [there are not so many commercially available systems, prices are comparable to the cost of launching a shuttle;)]. Small weight and small dimensions - all this is fully absent in installations of this type.
Conventional stationarity of the system. In almost all cases (except those cases when you do not plan to engage in extreme overclocking), the entire system will need thermal insulation. Well, perhaps the most negative point is more than noticeable noise from work (50-60 dB).
Another disadvantage of freon is that you need a license to buy freon. Who does not have it, the choice is not great: in the free market there is only one - R134a (the boiling point of which is -25 ° C).
There is another refrigerant - R290 (propane), but now it is not used in refrigeration systems (inflammability). It has very good properties: boiling point -41 ° C, compatible with any compressor oil and, most importantly, cheap.
Wear mittens, "elephants" and hats with a fur coat - we got to the coldest moment in this article.
Well, in the final chapter of my article today there will be systems that use liquid nitrogen as a refrigerant.
Liquid nitrogen is a clear liquid, without color and smell, the boiling point (at normal atmospheric pressure) is equal to no less than -195.8 degrees Celsius! For storage of liquid nitrogen used special tanks - Dewar vessels with a volume of from 6 to 40 liters. Here Word suggests that 40 liters is also 70.39 English pints, 84.52 US, 10.56 gallons or 42.46 quarts;)
Installations of this type are intended only for extreme cooling, under extreme conditions. In short, when overclocking.
Liquid nitrogen systems do not contain any pumps (temperature, you know, does not have;) or other moving parts. It is a high metal (copper or aluminum) glass with a bottom, which is tightly connected to the central processor. It's not so easy to get such a thing (although what can't we buy nowadays?) - so craftsmen often make it themselves.
The main problem in the design of the glass is to provide the processor at full load with a minimum temperature. After all, the heat-conducting properties of liquid nitrogen are very different from the same water. He takes only the fact that "freezes" the walls of the glass, allowing the processor to cool to a temperature below 100 degrees. And since the heat dissipation of a pebble in idle and at full load differs quite significantly (and jumps occur instantaneously) - the glass is often not able to efficiently remove heat in time. For a modern processor, the optimal temperature is -110-130 degrees. Yes, not any thermal interface will do. DeDaL advises AS ceramique.
After making the glass, it (and the motherboard) must be carefully insulated so that the condensate, which inevitably forms from this temperature difference, does not close any contacts on the motherboard. Typically, various porous and foamy materials are used, for example, foamed rubber — neoprene. In several layers wrapped with a cut piece, then secured with the same tape.
With the isolation of the motherboard is somewhat more complicated. Most often they do this - by sealing the connectors, they all “fill in” with a dielectric varnish. Moreover, on the reverse side of the motherboard, such a procedure also needs to be done - in the area of ​​the processor socket. Such a lacquering does not interfere with the operation of the board at all (although you automatically lose the guarantee - just in case, if you have not yet lost it) - but then you almost guaranteed exclude the possibility of suffering from the flow of liquid nitrogen.
Then everything is simple. After you have carefully assembled all the components, you can proceed. Using some kind of intermediate tank (for example, a thermos or some other thermally insulated glass) pour nitrogen into the glass on the motherboard, after which you can torture your system, for example, by conducting a foreign synthetic test;)
Speaking of tests, here is a list of those benchmarks that are officially accepted:
- 3Dmark 2001
- 3Dmark 2003
- 3Dmark 2005
- 3Dmark 2006
- Aquamark 3.0
- Super Pi as the most fundamental
- Pifast
For an hour of computer work, 4-5 liters of nitrogen is enough. It is necessary to fill in a glass approximately to a half, and constantly supporting this level.
To get nitrogen in our time is not an unsolvable task. At some factory you will let him go for the price of 30 rubles per liter. You can try to buy it in various medical institutions. Naturally, you need to call up everyone in advance and find out everything!
What happens if nitrogen gets to any part of the body? Looking at what. If in the eyes - write-gone. If a little spill on the hand - nothing terrible will happen. The fact is that the nitrogen on the surface of the skin immediately boils, thanks to which an air gap forms between the hand and the nitrogen. But everything in this world is not forever ... therefore, I highly advise you not to swim and even wash. An awesome type of heat-insulating gloves on the hands of those who work with nitrogen is most often just the required safety precautions, for which non-compliance is painfully cursed.
What is the disadvantage of such a cooling system? It seems to me that everything is obvious. It is unlikely that someone will calmly surf the Internet or model something, albeit resource-intensive. The system with nitrogen cannot be assembled into a small sistemka under the table and so that it stands there by itself. In other words, such cooling is not suitable for solving everyday tasks - constant and responsible control is needed, everything should be done carefully and without errors.
But how elegant and defiant it is from the side ...;)
So, it's time to take stock. We learned that the most important heater in a computer is the central processor, which is also a stone. After the stone, one after another comes a video card, a motherboard chipset, a hard disk, system memory and various expansion cards.Almost always and on all components of the computer that require cooling, it (cooling) is already installed and for normal operation it is quite enough. If you are not going to overclock the computer, then it makes no sense to modify the cooling system.
The main thing to remember is that the ventilation inside the case is necessary, because the cold air coming from the environment will be much more useful for the same video card than installing or replacing the bundled cooler with a more expensive one.
If your plans include overclocking, you should always remember 4 simple rules, once voiced by someone:
1. There is always the likelihood that some participants in the event will disappear from the distance, for various reasons - from the wrong actions of the accelerator and ending with the wrong actions of the manufacturer who did not predict that this particular piece of hardware will go to RUSSIA and there it will definitely be used on various non-standard ones modes.
2. Guarantees (and the opportunity to sell this equipment as in good condition) in this case, you are likely to lose, and you will only have to blame yourself.
3. Chinese noname devices are recommended to be excluded from your car.
4. Three whales, on which the acceleration rests - a head on the shoulders, hands with the correct sharpening, good cooling. In the absence of at least one of them, you can relax and forget about overclocking.
Perhaps in some moments I was wrong - I repent. Perhaps you all knew this a long time ago - then you need to look for the reason for the “infusion of the evil spirit” into the computer yourself and in another place. I consider my mission to tell about the main cooling systems, I consider it fulfilled;) Ask questions, comment.
PS The chapter on nitrogen cooling has been tested and approved by the world record holder for extreme cooling, DeDal . Thank you for your help! ;)
PPS If anyone liked the picture with the boomer (he did it himself), then here’s full-length) Click .
Frosty freshness to you! Successes .
Lots of text traffic .
Liquid cooling system
The third type of cooling system in my review is perhaps one of the most interesting, spectacular and effective.
')
As I said, you can not argue with the laws of physics. The increase in clock speeds and performance of a modern computer is inevitably accompanied by an increase in the energy consumption of its elements, the result is an increase in heat generation. In turn, this forces manufacturers to create all-new and increasingly efficient cooling systems.
I first met this system late - at the end of 2006 at the Home Interactive Technologies (HIT) exhibition in St. Petersburg. Then I participated in a modding contest and next to my mod was a mod guy who made the coolest mod with water cooling applications.
A liquid cooling system is such a cooling system, in which any liquid acts as a coolant.
Pure water is rarely used as a coolant (due to electrical conductivity and corrosiveness of water), most often it is distilled water (with various anti-corrosion additives), sometimes oil, other special liquids.
The main difference in the use of air and liquid cooling lies in the fact that in the second case, instead of non-heat-intensive air, heat is used to transfer heat, which has a much greater heat capacity than air.
The principle of operation of the liquid cooling system remotely resembles the cooling system in a car's engines — through the radiator instead of air, fluid is pumped through, which provides a much better heat sink. In the radiators of a cooled object, water is heated, after which water from this place circulates to a colder one, i.e. removes heat.
Hurting stream
A typical system consists of a water block in which heat is transferred from the processor to the coolant, a pump that pumps water through the closed loop of the system, a radiator where heat is transferred from the coolant to air, a tank (used to fill the system with water and other service needs) and connecting hoses.
The contact surface of the waterblock with the processor is usually polished to a mirror image, for reasons already sounded by me. Through the familiar thermal interface, the waterblock is attached to the object to be cooled. Usually it is attached with special brackets, which excludes its ability to move. There are also water blocks for video cards, but there are no obvious differences from the principle of action of processor water blocks - all differences in the mount and shape of the radiator.
One of the common problems of owners of liquid cooling systems is the overheating of the near-socket-socket elements of the motherboard, which can warm up no worse than their older brother. This is due to the fact that usually in such systems there is no circulation of cold air. How to avoid it? Perhaps there is one piece of advice - choose systems (combine) with an additional cooler that will cool the other basing power elements.
The water block is connected through a special tube to the radiator, which can be mounted both inside the system unit and outside (for example, from the back of the system unit). The second option is perhaps preferable. Judge for yourself: more free space inside the system unit, a lower ambient temperature has a positive effect on the radiator. Plus it is additionally blown by the case fan.
The tank for liquid, or otherwise, the expansion tank, can also be located outside the system unit. Its volume in standard systems varies from 200ml to liter.
Manufacturers of cooling systems are trying to take care of their users and are well aware that for a good cooling system there is a place inside not every system unit. Moreover, it is necessary to take into account that each manufacturer somehow wants to stand out against the background of others. Therefore, there is a huge choice of external liquid cooling systems (of course, that without connecting pipes with a radiator at the end is not to be neglected). They are not ashamed to parade; usually everything is hidden inside such systems - the pump, the tank, the radiator blown by the fans. But they are usually defiantly expensive.
Total for water cooling systems
Why use liquid cooling systems? After all, if we judge strictly, then regular regular coolers are always enough, under normal PC operating conditions (if it were not so, they would not be installed, but liquid cooling systems would be installed). Therefore, most often such a system should be considered from the standpoint of overclocking - when the capabilities of the air cooling system are not enough.
Another advantage of the liquid cooling system is the ability to install it in a limited space of the case. Unlike air, tubes with liquid can be set to almost any direction.
Well, another plus of such a system is its soundlessness. Most often, pumps cause the flow of water through the system to circulate, without creating noise more than 25 dB.
Minus, as I have already noted, is often the high cost of installation.
Peltier cooling system
Among non-standard cooling systems, one very effective system can be noted - based on Peltier elements. Jean Charles Atanaz is a French physicist who discovered and studied the phenomenon of heat release or absorption during the passage of electric current through the contact of two dissimilar conductors. Devices whose principle of operation uses this effect are called Peltier elements.
The operation of such elements is based on the contact of two conductors with different levels of electron energy in the conduction band. When current flows through the contact of these materials, the electron needs to acquire energy so that it can go into the zone with a higher conductive energy of the other semiconductor. The cooling of the contact point of semiconductors occurs when this energy is absorbed. Heating of the contact site occurs when current flows in the opposite direction.
In practice, only contact between two semiconductors is used, since at the contact of metals, the effect is so small that it is invisible against the background of the phenomenon of thermal conductivity and ohmic heating.
The Peltier element contains one or several pairs of small (no more than 60x60 mm) semiconductor parallelepipeds — one n-type and one p-type in a pair [usually bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) and silicon germanide (SiGe)]. They are pairwise connected by metal bridges that serve as thermal contacts and are insulated with a non-conductive film or ceramic plate. The pairs of parallelepipeds are connected in such a way that a series connection of many pairs of semiconductors with different types of conductivity is formed - the flowing electric current flows sequentially through the entire circuit. Depending on the direction in which the electric current flows, the upper contacts are cooled, and the lower ones heat up - or vice versa. Thus, heat is transferred from one side of the Peltier element to the opposite side and a temperature difference is created.
When cooling the heating side of the Peltier element (radiator or fan), the temperature of the cold side becomes even lower.
Total for Peltier Elements
The advantages of such a cooling system include the small size and the absence of any moving parts, as well as gases and liquids.
Spoon tar is a very low efficiency, which leads to high power consumption to achieve a noticeable temperature difference. If you turn on the thermoelectric plate without load (the processor will not warm up), then you risk becoming a witness to an interesting picture - on the Peltier element, when cooled to the dew point, hoarfrost appears, which does not feed with bread - let the contacts short out.
Also, if the Peltier element fails, there will be another spectacle - due to the lack of contact between the radiator (or cooler) and the processor, the latter will instantly heat up and may fail.
Peltier elements are still sure to find widespread use, since without any additional devices they easily allow to get temperatures below 0 ° C.
Phase transition systems (freon installations)
Feel like reading a text is getting colder and colder? Still - slowly but surely we descend into the low temperature range.
Now we will consider a not very common, but very effective class of cooling systems - a system in which freons act as a refrigerant. From here and the name - freon ustanvoki. But it would be more correct to call such systems phase transition systems. Practically all modern household refrigerators work on the principle of operation of such systems.
But let's go in order. One of the options to cool the body is to boil the liquid on it. To transform a liquid into vapor, it is necessary to expend energy (the energy of a phase transition) —that is, when boiling, the liquid takes thermal energy from its surrounding objects. But mentally returning to the walls of the school classroom of physics, we recall that with the current pressure we will not be able to heat the liquid above its boiling point. Which of us showed such a trick to friends - pouring juice into a plastic cup and holding a flame under the bottom of a glass? You can try - no cataclysms will happen until all the juice boils away;)
The well-known Wikipedia treats the word “Freons” as halogen-alkanes, fluorine-containing derivatives of saturated hydrocarbons (mainly methane and ethane), used as refrigerants. In addition to fluorine atoms, molecules of freon usually contain chlorine atoms, less often bromine. More than 40 different freons are known; most of them are manufactured by industry. Freons - colorless gases or liquids, odorless.
If we take such a liquid that will boil, say, at -40 ° C, then the vessel in which this liquid freely boils (such a vessel is called an evaporator) will be very difficult to heat. Its temperature will tend to -40 ° C. And putting such a vessel on the cooling object we need (for example, a processor), we can achieve what we wanted - to cool the system.
But it is clear that no one will climb with a certain interval under the table and pour liquid into the evaporator - you need to get the liquid from the liquid vapor again, which will be fed into the evaporator again. Here you have food for self-reflection.
OK OK. As a result of reflection, you should come to the following scheme: a powerful compressor after the evaporator pumps gas and delivers it under high pressure to the condenser. There, the gas condenses into a liquid and releases heat. Condenser, made in the form of a radiator, dissipates heat into the atmosphere - this stage we have already thoroughly considered in previous systems. Next, the liquid freon goes to the evaporator, where boiling out, takes heat away - that’s the whole closed cycle. The cycle of “phase transitions” is therefore called this - freon alternately changes its state of aggregation.
Phase transition systems, the evaporators (refrigerators) of which are installed directly on the cooled elements, are called “Direct Die” systems. Only the evaporator itself and the suction tube are cold in such a system, the rest of the elements may be at or above room temperature. Cold elements must be carefully insulated to prevent condensation.
The minus of freonok is the relative bulkiness of the evaporator and the suction tube, so only the processor and the video card are selected as the cooling object.
There is one more kind of cooling systems, which I have not mentioned yet - chillers. This class of systems consists mainly of liquid cooling systems, the difference is the presence of the second part (coolant cooler), which works instead of the radiator - often this part is the same phase transition system. The advantage of such a system is that it can cool all the elements of the system unit, and not just the video card and the processor (as opposed to the “direct die” systems). The phase transition system of the chiller is cooled only by the coolant of the liquid cooling system, that is, a very cold liquid flows in a closed circuit. Hence, the minus of systems of this type is the need to isolate the ALL system (water blocks, tubes, pumps, etc.). If you do not want to isolate, then you can use a low-power freon installation for the chiller, but then you can forget about extreme overclocking. Here you choose, you checkered or go.
Total Freon
The brilliant side of the medal includes the possibility of achieving very low temperatures, the possibility of continuous work (as opposed to the system, which is discussed later). High system efficiency (losses are minimal). Of the permanent cooling systems, the freon is the most powerful. At the same time they allow you to make heat from the body, which has a positive effect on the temperatures inside it.
The side of the coin, smeared with tar, includes such features of the system as the complexity of manufacturing such a system [there are not so many commercially available systems, prices are comparable to the cost of launching a shuttle;)]. Small weight and small dimensions - all this is fully absent in installations of this type.
Conventional stationarity of the system. In almost all cases (except those cases when you do not plan to engage in extreme overclocking), the entire system will need thermal insulation. Well, perhaps the most negative point is more than noticeable noise from work (50-60 dB).
Another disadvantage of freon is that you need a license to buy freon. Who does not have it, the choice is not great: in the free market there is only one - R134a (the boiling point of which is -25 ° C).
There is another refrigerant - R290 (propane), but now it is not used in refrigeration systems (inflammability). It has very good properties: boiling point -41 ° C, compatible with any compressor oil and, most importantly, cheap.
Wear mittens, "elephants" and hats with a fur coat - we got to the coldest moment in this article.
Extreme Cooling System
Well, in the final chapter of my article today there will be systems that use liquid nitrogen as a refrigerant.
Liquid nitrogen is a clear liquid, without color and smell, the boiling point (at normal atmospheric pressure) is equal to no less than -195.8 degrees Celsius! For storage of liquid nitrogen used special tanks - Dewar vessels with a volume of from 6 to 40 liters. Here Word suggests that 40 liters is also 70.39 English pints, 84.52 US, 10.56 gallons or 42.46 quarts;)
Installations of this type are intended only for extreme cooling, under extreme conditions. In short, when overclocking.
All a glass
Liquid nitrogen systems do not contain any pumps (temperature, you know, does not have;) or other moving parts. It is a high metal (copper or aluminum) glass with a bottom, which is tightly connected to the central processor. It's not so easy to get such a thing (although what can't we buy nowadays?) - so craftsmen often make it themselves.
The main problem in the design of the glass is to provide the processor at full load with a minimum temperature. After all, the heat-conducting properties of liquid nitrogen are very different from the same water. He takes only the fact that "freezes" the walls of the glass, allowing the processor to cool to a temperature below 100 degrees. And since the heat dissipation of a pebble in idle and at full load differs quite significantly (and jumps occur instantaneously) - the glass is often not able to efficiently remove heat in time. For a modern processor, the optimal temperature is -110-130 degrees. Yes, not any thermal interface will do. DeDaL advises AS ceramique.
After making the glass, it (and the motherboard) must be carefully insulated so that the condensate, which inevitably forms from this temperature difference, does not close any contacts on the motherboard. Typically, various porous and foamy materials are used, for example, foamed rubber — neoprene. In several layers wrapped with a cut piece, then secured with the same tape.
With the isolation of the motherboard is somewhat more complicated. Most often they do this - by sealing the connectors, they all “fill in” with a dielectric varnish. Moreover, on the reverse side of the motherboard, such a procedure also needs to be done - in the area of ​​the processor socket. Such a lacquering does not interfere with the operation of the board at all (although you automatically lose the guarantee - just in case, if you have not yet lost it) - but then you almost guaranteed exclude the possibility of suffering from the flow of liquid nitrogen.
Mahmud, set fire!
Then everything is simple. After you have carefully assembled all the components, you can proceed. Using some kind of intermediate tank (for example, a thermos or some other thermally insulated glass) pour nitrogen into the glass on the motherboard, after which you can torture your system, for example, by conducting a foreign synthetic test;)
Speaking of tests, here is a list of those benchmarks that are officially accepted:
- 3Dmark 2001
- 3Dmark 2003
- 3Dmark 2005
- 3Dmark 2006
- Aquamark 3.0
- Super Pi as the most fundamental
- Pifast
For an hour of computer work, 4-5 liters of nitrogen is enough. It is necessary to fill in a glass approximately to a half, and constantly supporting this level.
To get nitrogen in our time is not an unsolvable task. At some factory you will let him go for the price of 30 rubles per liter. You can try to buy it in various medical institutions. Naturally, you need to call up everyone in advance and find out everything!
What happens if nitrogen gets to any part of the body? Looking at what. If in the eyes - write-gone. If a little spill on the hand - nothing terrible will happen. The fact is that the nitrogen on the surface of the skin immediately boils, thanks to which an air gap forms between the hand and the nitrogen. But everything in this world is not forever ... therefore, I highly advise you not to swim and even wash. An awesome type of heat-insulating gloves on the hands of those who work with nitrogen is most often just the required safety precautions, for which non-compliance is painfully cursed.
What is the disadvantage of such a cooling system? It seems to me that everything is obvious. It is unlikely that someone will calmly surf the Internet or model something, albeit resource-intensive. The system with nitrogen cannot be assembled into a small sistemka under the table and so that it stands there by itself. In other words, such cooling is not suitable for solving everyday tasks - constant and responsible control is needed, everything should be done carefully and without errors.
But how elegant and defiant it is from the side ...;)
Frosty freshness
So, it's time to take stock. We learned that the most important heater in a computer is the central processor, which is also a stone. After the stone, one after another comes a video card, a motherboard chipset, a hard disk, system memory and various expansion cards.Almost always and on all components of the computer that require cooling, it (cooling) is already installed and for normal operation it is quite enough. If you are not going to overclock the computer, then it makes no sense to modify the cooling system.
The main thing to remember is that the ventilation inside the case is necessary, because the cold air coming from the environment will be much more useful for the same video card than installing or replacing the bundled cooler with a more expensive one.
If your plans include overclocking, you should always remember 4 simple rules, once voiced by someone:
1. There is always the likelihood that some participants in the event will disappear from the distance, for various reasons - from the wrong actions of the accelerator and ending with the wrong actions of the manufacturer who did not predict that this particular piece of hardware will go to RUSSIA and there it will definitely be used on various non-standard ones modes.
2. Guarantees (and the opportunity to sell this equipment as in good condition) in this case, you are likely to lose, and you will only have to blame yourself.
3. Chinese noname devices are recommended to be excluded from your car.
4. Three whales, on which the acceleration rests - a head on the shoulders, hands with the correct sharpening, good cooling. In the absence of at least one of them, you can relax and forget about overclocking.
Captions
Perhaps in some moments I was wrong - I repent. Perhaps you all knew this a long time ago - then you need to look for the reason for the “infusion of the evil spirit” into the computer yourself and in another place. I consider my mission to tell about the main cooling systems, I consider it fulfilled;) Ask questions, comment.
PS The chapter on nitrogen cooling has been tested and approved by the world record holder for extreme cooling, DeDal . Thank you for your help! ;)
PPS If anyone liked the picture with the boomer (he did it himself), then here’s full-length) Click .
Frosty freshness to you! Successes .
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/64166/
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