Vapor Phase Change Cooling

This is something I just learned about from a friend (who is using it for some reason...), and after a little research, is absolutely ingenious.

For those of you that do not know what it is, the basic explanation is this:
A fluid that is a gas at ambient temperature is compressed to around 200 PSI at 70 degrees Celsius. The fluid is then fed into a condenser (a radiator for gases). This drops the temperature back to ambient, and condenses some of the gas to liquid (but not much). The gas is then fed into extremely thin tubes of a set length, around .7 millimeters thick. This helps condense the gas into liquid, with a few bubbles, at a very cold temperature. The liquid flows through the tube, into the evaporator over the processor (or whatever you are cooling). The evaporator has a larger chamber, so the liquid expands back into a gas. This is an Endothermic reaction, sucking the head from the processor and into the gas. Then, it travels back to the compressor, still very cold. This cold gas is helps to cool the compressor, which then repeats the cycle.

This can keep temperatures of the processor in the 10 degree Celsius range, which is just ridiculous.
It also looks a little tough to build the setup, but would be worth it for a high powered computer with a highly overclocked processor.

Any thoughts on this?

~Lordbob

It's a good system of cooling, but for the price and the size of some of the evaporators, I personally wouldn't go for it. I suppose if you do live in a hot climate and overclock a lot you could benefit quite a lot from it where air and water cooling fails.

Everlong18 said:

It's a good system of cooling, but for the price and the size of some of the evaporators, I personally wouldn't go for it. I suppose if you do live in a hot climate and overclock a lot you could benefit quite a lot from it where air and water cooling fails.

Like my climate (120F outside in the summer).

I don't know what the cost of all the components would be, nor how difficult it would be to set up. But I found the idea interesting.

This might work really well if adapted slightly to use in a small server or something.

~Lordbob

In other words, you just put a refrigerator on your CPU.

Zen00 said:

In other words, you just put a refrigerator on your CPU.

That is exactly what it is. Though I wonder if there is an easy way to seal your case, and use the whole case as the evaporator....

~Lordbob

seekermeister said:

I have not looked into this, beyond what you have already said, but there are already PC air conditioners available. I'm not sure how good that they are, but they aren't terribly expensive.

EDIT: The thing to consider is condensation. If it were much colder than ambient temperature, condensation would form, and possibly ice, neither of which would do a PC any good.

I had to go back and check this out. Normally, you would be correct. However, you do not use condensed air, you use a dry gas, such as Propane.
The reason for this is that you are taking water out, there should be none in the system to begin with.

You also need to extensively tune the system, requiring a few days work, and creating a vacuum within the chamber, filling it only with air.

~Lordbob

VapoChill a little over the top for me but very "cool" none-the-less (pun intended)

That's a bit old.

I kinda got sucked into this, and spent a while researching it, just looking at stuff on the net.

With a little help, a couple hundred bucks, and all the tools I need, I could probably build a functioning one.
I also really want to try as well.

I saw the pricing on prebuilt units, and they are just not worth it. I would much rather just buy a small refrigerator and scrap it for the parts. (200 or so vs almost 1000)
I would have to go buy a cheap computer to test it as well though.

I wonder.... Would it be possible to use the whole CASE as the evaporator? Get a nice looking case (or build your own) and completely seal it. Then plug the evaporator into one end and the condenser into the other, and turn it on...
That seems like the ultimate cooling system to me.
Might be tough with a CD/DVD drive, and the PSU, but you could create a sealed opening to run power through and external drives.

The great part is that there is no water, so you do not need to worry about insulating anything (just don't smoke next to it if there is a leak!!!!).

~Lordbob