Vacuum Cooling possible?

psychas

psychas

psychas

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I was sleeping this night and the thought came in to mine head how heat handles in empty space? first you would need kick ass strong case that it would not calapse from pressure, siealed tight that air cannot get in, suck all air out. I think it possible but then would you need anything to cool your cpu maybe water cooling sealed in side it as well. what you thing would it work :eek:
 
psychas said:
I was sleeping this night and the thought came in to mine head how heat handles in empty space? first you would need kick ass strong case that it would not calapse from pressure, siealed tight that air cannot get in, suck all air out. I think it possible but then would you need anything to cool your cpu maybe water cooling sealed in side it as well. what you thing would it work :eek:
Click to expand...

How does heat act in an empty space?

Surely if there is no flow of air (or water) at a lower temp than the CPU/GPU flowing over the heatsinks, the heat doesn't go anywhere, and the component burns out?
 
without any transfer of heat to a removeable medium, air, there is simply NO cooling at all and everything in the case dies.

stop smoking weed and having your best idea's as you drop off to sleep ;)
 
Yeah it may burn up, but what if its like space, that is a vaccuum but everything in space is very very cold beacuse of the vaccuum it is in! but if you could get it working in a vaccuum then i guess it would hot up.
 
YE to much dope sucks well, but you know people use some masive pipes to cool cpu for 3dmark records how it is called? it usually comes before nitrogen
 
In a Vaccuum the only way to diserpate energy (in this case heat) is as radiation. - heat travels thru vaccuums in the form of light of varying frequencies, prodominently infra red. however stick a modern gfx / quad core in that situation it will glow white hot instead (a little joke)

- the vaccuum of space is only cold if there is no light from the sun (or other sources) shining on you. the ambient temperature is as near as makes no diference for this discussion absolute zero. If, hwoever, the sun is shining on you, thent he side facing will be as hot as you like, i dotn ahve the numbers but >400c is a safe bet. the side facing away, as logn as its not being warmed by CONDUCTION thru the material/you or by your own body ehat, will be tending towards -270c....

the low temperatures rely on there being no heat input. The vaccuum of space is "cold" because there is nothing there to be hot. stick something painted matt black there it will get very hot very fast. - in deep space this effect is greatly reduced due to the reduced intensity of light, but should still be noticeable.
 
Amonlym said:
The vaccuum of space is "cold" because there is nothing there to be hot.
Click to expand...

What he said! Without air or water to cool your chip, it can only radiate energy. This is NOT an efficient form of cooling. Putting your chip in a vacuum, be it in your case or in space will result in it burning up in seconds!

Does nobody listen in Physics lessons?
 
I've been trying figure out how cool a darn PC, so how about an air conditioning unit piped up to blow cool air inside the PC tower or radiator?
The air-con unit could be mounted outside so you can't hear the fan too.
 
the air con into case thing works well, so long as you seal it up so that the only air going into the case is from AC and make sure there is a good airflow path provided by outlets to cool everything. however, you can get the inside of case cold to the point that condensation forms on the outside of the case, if this drips inside the psu, all bets are off.

if you blow through a rad, you can massively drop the resultant water temp (given a longish runtime) by ducting the air out of the rad back into the intake for the ac, so that airflow is AC>rad>ac>rad>ac etc.
you quicly hit the thermal cutout temp doing this however. you also want to make sure its as airtight as you can get it, then stick a bunch of silica granuals in to remove all the moisture from cycling air (else you will end up freezing the rad/evaporator into a solid block of ice)

*edit* my typing........ argh
**edit**

Putting thigns inside freezers/friges will usualy result in one of the following:

pc overheats and dies because there isnt enough heat pumping capacity to get heat out of the insulated box you jusst put it in

the compressor overheats and dies because it wasnt ment to run constantly, 5 mins on, 30 mins off would be a harsh life even! (afetr this fails, the pc follows very soon after)

the refrigerant escapes due to failing seals due to them not being designed for constant load, this kills compressor then the pc.
 
Last edited:
Amonlym said:
the air con into case thing works well, so long as you seal it up so that the only air going into the case is from AC and make sure there is a good airflow path provided by outlets to cool everything. however, you can get the inside of case cold to the point that condensation forms on the outside of the case, if this drips inside the psu, all bets are off.

if you blow through a rad, you can massively drop the resultant water temp (given a longish runtime) by ducting the air out of the rad back into the intake for the ac, so that airflow is AC>rad>ac>rad>ac etc.
you quicly hit the thermal cutout temp doing this however. you also want to make sure its as airtight as you can get it, then stick a bunch of silica granuals in to remove all the moisture from cycling air (else you will end up freezing the rad/evaporator into a solid block of ice)

*edit* my typing........ argh
**edit**

Putting thigns inside freezers/friges will usualy result in one of the following:

pc overheats and dies because there isnt enough heat pumping capacity to get heat out of the insulated box you jusst put it in

the compressor overheats and dies because it wasnt ment to run constantly, 5 mins on, 30 mins off would be a harsh life even! (afetr this fails, the pc follows very soon after)

the refrigerant escapes due to failing seals due to them not being designed for constant load, this kills compressor then the pc.
Click to expand...

Harsh life for the compressor, most compressors are designed to run 24/7 all year, stop / starting a compressor will do more harm as you will be exerting stress on the motor windings and mechanical components inside the compressor.

Belongs you have a reasonable superheat there should be no problem.

It can take upto several hrs for a refrigerant system to settle down, if you can run the system at design, most compressors are hermetic so there arnt really any seals to brake, only problem can happen is excess stress or vibration on the copper pipe work can couse this to fracture.

Rob
 
A thermos works boths ways though, keeps hot liquid hot and cold liquid cold,
but yes the contents arn't generating any more energy so the temp would stay at a constant due to having nothing to conduct with. Unlike the contents of you PC case which is constantly generating heat.
 
It will work amazingly as a cooling solution, I whole heartidly agree with the idea and want the OP to do it and post pics :) it should work brilliantly to cool *** components
 
either way I don't think you would be able to create a true vacuum.

by virtue of the fact that summer hasn't happened we've avoided the annual silly season of mini fridges and air conditioning units.. got to say though although it might be one of the sillier ideas at least I've not heard this one before!

Connect your pc up to a dyson ;)
 
Im afraid not. As you say, a thermos keeps cold things cold, and hot things hot. A processor etc. is hot. So it stays hot. Its creating heat, and drinks dont, they are either hot or cold. A processor starts out cold, then gets hot. So it keeps it hot. Im afraid i wouldnt like to try this, as its just an expensive way to break electronics.
 
you could use a cleaner as an alternative to a fan however, it should work fine, and with very high resistance sinks (the old all copper SK series for example) you could get some terrific temps.

these things tend to generate a whole lot of static tho, so take care if you try it. one could also do significant damage to things just with the suction...
 
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