I'm on the verge of getting myself a new cruncher. I thought about a big core2 quad, the fastest RAM I can get, a SSD harddisk and a little bit of OCing.

Recently a friend told me about the VapoChill and kind of like the idea...

Now then, does it pay out?
Better solutions?

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mic.

I'm on the verge of getting myself a new cruncher. I thought about a big core2 quad, the fastest RAM I can get, a SSD harddisk and a little bit of OCing.

Recently a friend told me about the VapoChill and kind of like the idea...

Now then, does it pay out?
Better solutions?

Ah, there's my MicroVax friend :)

I looked at that cooler, it it's rather impressive but I'm afraid to ask how much it goes for, probably scary $$$

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Just my opinion, not having used that kind of cooling:
From a "cool-ness" factor (pun intended) - definitely worth it
From a money-for equipment standpoint - not worth it
From an energy usage standpoint - not worth it

Review

If you're into extreme gaming and really need that extra edge, then go for it, but if you just want to get as much as you can crunching-wise, you could put together your quad core system with good air cooling, plus a second E6600 system with good air cooling, and OC them both for around the same money (hardware-wise). And you would save some cash in electricity, I think, based on what I've heard. And get more credits/hour with the two systems...

-Dave

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Not that scary - as I make my boss pay for it (in exchange for the work on sundays). It's around 1000 euros.


@Philadelphia
...it's still not up and running. can't get my vt420 connected to it. *sigh*

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mic.

Well, I can tell you a few things from my personal experience.

1. The stock Vapochill has not shown in most cases enough capacity to properly cool a heavily OCd quad. I burned one up in about 6 weeks in my first phase cooling attempt. Luckily I was able to RMA it and bought a custom made job with a much larger compressor and consensor that the Vapo had. That's what I am running now.
2. Phase cooling is expensive to buy, expensive to operate, and I only gained about 10% over my best heavy-duty air cooled OC. If I knew then what I know now, I would have built another quad rig instead, and it would cost a lot less for the electricity to run it. You see some nice benchies from OCd quads on phase, but I have yet to see one of them crunching a DC project of any type on all four cores for any length of time at those speeds.
3. Phase cooling requires a certain amount of mobo preparation if you are going to try to run it for any length of time, you have to deal with condensation issues killing the mobo.
4. If condensation doesn't kill the mobo, you may kill it with the increased voltage and current demands you place on it's components as you push vcore and fsb higher and higher.
5. If all this doesn't deter you, and you still wanna play with phase cooling your quad for the sport of it, spend some time in the phase cooling forums in the OCing sites, and find a custom builder you can trust. Tell him what you want to do, and get a custom chiller calibrated to the load you intend to operate it at. You will end up with far better results and more capacity than the stock Vapo, although the Vapo can be modded as well. Just don't expect an easy plug-and-play adventure. It's a bit more complicated than just strapping a larger air cooled heatsink on your quad.

Happy crunching!

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

Thanks for that info Msattler. I have been considering phase change for one of my rigs as well. Sounds like it's really not worth my time, which is very limited.

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Thanks for that info Msattler. I have been considering phase change for one of my rigs as well. Sounds like it's really not worth my time, which is very limited.

You're quite welcome. Always happy to share my experience with my fellow Setizens.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

Thanks form my side too!

Added to the potential problems you mentioned, the software for the VapoChill only runs on Windows and I didn't plan to use that on the new machine...

I think I'll go for a air-cooled quad and another one when the penryns arrived (and are affordable).

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mic.

I'm on the verge of getting myself a new cruncher. I thought about a big core2 quad, the fastest RAM I can get, a SSD harddisk and a little bit of OCing.

Recently a friend told me about the VapoChill and kind of like the idea...

Now then, does it pay out?
Better solutions?

I am considering doing the following.
1 large thermos filled with Alcohol and dry ice with base of large cooling fins immersed in the solution. This will be placed in front of a air intake scoop in the case that feeds air to my Thermatake Big Typhoon air cooler. If it works as hoped, then I should be able to drop the CPU temps by about 20C or more.
I will not be able to attempt this for several weeks or longer. I was doing my semi annual 1 lap of America when I had to go to NC to tend to my mother who suffered a stroke.
If anyone else decides to experiment with this before I do remember 2 things.
Dry Ice produces CO2 when it evaporates, so use a well ventilated room.
Prepare for spill control. If you get the solution on you by accident you could wind up loosing digits or some other serious injury. Frost bite or Freeze burn. Beware!!!!

It should be giggles though and in a dry climate like Phoenix should not produce any moisture build up inside the case.

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When we finally figure it all out, all the rules will change and we can start all over again.

I am considering doing the following.
1 large thermos filled with Alcohol and dry ice with base of large cooling fins immersed in the solution. This will be placed in front of a air intake scoop in the case that feeds air to my Thermatake Big Typhoon air cooler. If it works as hoped, then I should be able to drop the CPU temps by about 20C or more.
I will not be able to attempt this for several weeks or longer. I was doing my semi annual 1 lap of America when I had to go to NC to tend to my mother who suffered a stroke.
If anyone else decides to experiment with this before I do remember 2 things.
Dry Ice produces CO2 when it evaporates, so use a well ventilated room.
Prepare for spill control. If you get the solution on you by accident you could wind up loosing digits or some other serious injury. Frost bite or Freeze burn. Beware!!!!

Why not just apply the dry ice directly to the fins of the cpu cooler?
No issues with spilling liquids that way.
;)

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I am considering doing the following.
1 large thermos filled with Alcohol and dry ice with base of large cooling fins immersed in the solution. This will be placed in front of a air intake scoop in the case that feeds air to my Thermatake Big Typhoon air cooler. If it works as hoped, then I should be able to drop the CPU temps by about 20C or more.
I will not be able to attempt this for several weeks or longer. I was doing my semi annual 1 lap of America when I had to go to NC to tend to my mother who suffered a stroke.
If anyone else decides to experiment with this before I do remember 2 things.
Dry Ice produces CO2 when it evaporates, so use a well ventilated room.
Prepare for spill control. If you get the solution on you by accident you could wind up loosing digits or some other serious injury. Frost bite or Freeze burn. Beware!!!!

Why not just apply the dry ice directly to the fins of the cpu cooler?
No issues with spilling liquids that way.
;)

it will last much longer in the liquid and will make more effecient transfer of the cold to the cooling fins. Copper base of cooler imersed in very cold medium transfering to the fins in reverse manner heat is transfered to cooling fins of heat sink.

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When we finally figure it all out, all the rules will change and we can start all over again.

I am considering doing the following.
1 large thermos filled with Alcohol and dry ice with base of large cooling fins immersed in the solution. This will be placed in front of a air intake scoop in the case that feeds air to my Thermatake Big Typhoon air cooler. If it works as hoped, then I should be able to drop the CPU temps by about 20C or more.
I will not be able to attempt this for several weeks or longer. I was doing my semi annual 1 lap of America when I had to go to NC to tend to my mother who suffered a stroke.
If anyone else decides to experiment with this before I do remember 2 things.
Dry Ice produces CO2 when it evaporates, so use a well ventilated room.
Prepare for spill control. If you get the solution on you by accident you could wind up loosing digits or some other serious injury. Frost bite or Freeze burn. Beware!!!!

Why not just apply the dry ice directly to the fins of the cpu cooler?
No issues with spilling liquids that way.
;)

it will last much longer in the liquid and will make more effecient transfer of the cold to the cooling fins. Copper base of cooler imersed in very cold medium transfering to the fins in reverse manner heat is transfered to cooling fins of heat sink.

This is not a low maintaince operation... Just for fun experiment. One would have to renew the Dry Ice about every 2 or 3 days, and occasionally add more alcohol every now an again.

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When we finally figure it all out, all the rules will change and we can start all over again.

This is not a low maintaince operation... Just for fun experiment. One would have to renew the Dry Ice about every 2 or 3 days, and occasionally add more alcohol every now an again.

read about that before, but rather high maintainance, so nothing for me beeing away for some days now and then.

I think I better add the alcohol to myself - in the form of some scotch or malt...(with normal ice!)

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mic.

If that's any decent sort of malt, then ice is heresy!!!

the ice was just to make the joke sound better...
didn't work out... :(

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mic.

I'm on the verge of getting myself a new cruncher. I thought about a big core2 quad, the fastest RAM I can get, a SSD harddisk and a little bit of OCing.

Recently a friend told me about the VapoChill and kind of like the idea...

Now then, does it pay out?
Better solutions?

I am considering doing the following.
1 large thermos filled with Alcohol and dry ice with base of large cooling fins immersed in the solution. This will be placed in front of a air intake scoop in the case that feeds air to my Thermatake Big Typhoon air cooler. If it works as hoped, then I should be able to drop the CPU temps by about 20C or more.
I will not be able to attempt this for several weeks or longer. I was doing my semi annual 1 lap of America when I had to go to NC to tend to my mother who suffered a stroke.
If anyone else decides to experiment with this before I do remember 2 things.
Dry Ice produces CO2 when it evaporates, so use a well ventilated room.
Prepare for spill control. If you get the solution on you by accident you could wind up loosing digits or some other serious injury. Frost bite or Freeze burn. Beware!!!!

It should be giggles though and in a dry climate like Phoenix should not produce any moisture build up inside the case.

Might be a fun experiment, but I doubt that you will get the temperature drop you are hoping for. You are still limited by the amount of heat the TTBT can transfer, and you are going Dry Ice to heatsink to air to heatsink to cpu. But hey, it's all in sport, eh? If you do it, let us know what happens.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

Never tried alternative cooling myself since I'm using currently only a laptop. But what about water cooling? should be better than air, but also low maintenance. As long as you pay attention to chemical corrosion by making sure only one metal is inside the water/cooling medium at all ends, also leaking should not be a problem. Only when the hoses become old. Just my thoughts.

Happy crunching, Christoph

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Christoph

Never tried alternative cooling myself since I'm using currently only a laptop. But what about water cooling? should be better than air, but also low maintenance. As long as you pay attention to chemical corrosion by making sure only one metal is inside the water/cooling medium at all ends, also leaking should not be a problem. Only when the hoses become old. Just my thoughts.

Happy crunching, Christoph

Liquid cooling is usually expensive and is not maintaince free.

What I am thinking of is utelizing basic household items plus a couple of junkyard parts to super cool the air flowing over the air cooled heat sink already in place. Current ambient air temprature is about 74F and dry ice is about -109F. Using the method that I described earlier would not provide 183F lower tempratures but it would allow greatly lowered tempratures while extending the life of a supply of the dry ice to perhaps 4 or 5 days.

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When we finally figure it all out, all the rules will change and we can start all over again.

What I am thinking of is utelizing basic household items plus a couple of junkyard parts to super cool the air flowing over the air cooled heat sink already in place. Current ambient air temprature is about 74F and dry ice is about -109F. Using the method that I described earlier would not provide 183F lower tempratures but it would allow greatly lowered tempratures while extending the life of a supply of the dry ice to perhaps 4 or 5 days.

I live in the Phoenix area too :)

I don't want your A/C bill though if your ambient temp is 74 degrees though, lol.

I run mine ~80 - 82 and I don't like my bill.

Does it ever shut off ;-D

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What I am thinking of is utelizing basic household items plus a couple of junkyard parts to super cool the air flowing over the air cooled heat sink already in place. Current ambient air temprature is about 74F and dry ice is about -109F. Using the method that I described earlier would not provide 183F lower tempratures but it would allow greatly lowered tempratures while extending the life of a supply of the dry ice to perhaps 4 or 5 days.

I live in the Phoenix area too :)

I don't want your A/C bill though if your ambient temp is 74 degrees though, lol.

I run mine ~80 - 82 and I don't like my bill.

Does it ever shut off ;-D

I run something called a minisplit unit for the computer area in my home. It has a SEAR rating of 19, and is quite effecient. The rest of the house is at about 76-78 and my bill for 2400sf is around $175 per month year round.
I planted a lot of trees in my yard when we built this house about 10 years ago, and it is starting to really pay off now. My water bill can be ugly though;)

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When we finally figure it all out, all the rules will change and we can start all over again.