Well I got my system evacuated but did not do much else to it. I sanded my evap to far so the end cap was to thin so I am replacing the endcap  I did find a solution to mount my evap to cpu. I got a 2" pvc plug. A 1" hole will be drilled in the center of it so the evap base can fit through. I will then silicone the hole and fill the plug with low expansion spray foam. Put a piece of plexiglass over top of the plug with holes to mount it to the mobo. Seal it on with some silicone type adhesive. I found that PVC is very weak at cold temperatures it is also a decent insulator so it should work fine with the foam.

Well I put on my last schrader and put my evap on my suction line(I don't actually have a true suction line, just a copper tube:P) Then it got to dark to continue work. My vacuum pump came today, my manifold will be here tomorrow so then I can leak test at least. Still need to figure out how to get propane from said can to system

Yes, condensation is a big issue. it is combated by housing the evap in a extra insulated, air tight housing, coating the motherboard socket area in dielectric grease, and lots of sheet and pipe insulation. (Ill get pics of all that later.)

So today,going behind schedule as usual anyway as I did get the evap and cap tupe put on my suction line, modded a propane torch to fit my system. All I need to do is install the suction/cap tube to the unit and we are set to pull a vacuum. I can not do that untill my manifold guage gets here, they say it will be here today but its getting late and still not here so I am loosing faith

Here are some pics of what I have done so far:

This is the vacuum pump. It is louse, noisy, and slow but it should get the job done:


This is the unit partialy assembled, as you see it is missing the low side and the fan:


This is my modded propane torch. The torch pipe had a 7/16" ID tube and my schrader had a 1/4' od so I used copper epoxy to bond them because it could fill the gap really easy and fast:


Last one, my evaporater and capilary tube. The refrigerant is pushed through the small cap tube in a managable stream where it boils off in the low pressure environment and gets sucked back to the compressor. This evap is very primitive and I will soon try and make a proper evap.


More to come!

Hehe, yeah I have thought about the ignition risk, thats why I will be testing it outdoors  I am not to worried about a leak catching on fire though, as even if it all were to pool under my desk there is only about 2 oz of propane used. Although 2 oz could cause a decent size fireball the possibility of all 2oz staying in a pool under my desk is quite slim especially with the airflow in here. Also if gas were to leak I would see a dramatic temp change after just a small amount of gas is lost.  Ignition within the system is impossible because of the absense of o2.

Anyway I still have not gotten my mani guages yet, FedEx fked up big time and picked em up from the seller 2 days late so it's Monday or Tuesday. Other than that everythings ready to go. The world record for an Opteron 175 is about 3460 Mhz, I have a Opteron 180, lets see if I can get anywhere near that heh. Anything after 2.8Ghz on these chips required a large Vcore increase to get them to scale higher. With this SS I should be able to go higher volts and and better clock per volt ratio

Groundbound1 wrote on Jul 1^st, 2007 at 4:36pm:


As long as he has evacuated all the air first....... there will be no oxygen to support any combustion wiithin the system.  No O.....no possible chemical reaction. 

Not sure what the gas permeability to O of Cu pipe is though  .

best,

..................john

GunnerMan wrote on Jul 1^st, 2007 at 10:55pm:


Most likely the tire was not evacuated of all the air in it before the propane was pumped in.  Enough to allow the gas to start to combust, which likely raised the pressure in the tire enough to rupture it ... allowing more oxygen to enter the picture and there you have it.

best,

...................john

I didn't pay much attention to pressure or anything. Frankly, I didn't want that much involvement. But however they did it, it worked! Ah the simple pleasures of youth!

 I'm really the last person that would try to curb someones' enthusiasm or creativity, but this seems like an awful lot of work AND risk for a few extra mhz. I sincerely hope things work out well for ya!

Can't wait!

GunnerMan wrote on Jul 3^rd, 2007 at 11:02pm:


I just thought of something else. Now I used to (a very VERRY long time ago) work for a refrigeration company, reclaiming the old refrigerant from discarded fridges and air conditioners, tell me, what kind of compressor oil will you be using? If memory serves, the oil itself, depending on the type of system it was, actually "held" some of the gas (like carbonated water). This may affect your compressor's efficiency, couldn't it? Also, what type of oil should you be using with propane as the primary gas? At any rate, in order to achive you 200 psi rating, you may need to look into an old high pressure machine, like from a surplus thermal shock chamber or such. But then your talking about some bucks! Maybe you could find an old chest style freezer to use. Don't give up!

You going to change your username to "Frosty_The_Snowman"?   

Congrats on the first test.

best,

.......................john

Beautiful! One 6GHZ machine coming up!

Can you stick that thing on a DeLorean and time travel? 

One word, overkill, I love it

your nuts sonny jim!

good project though test to see how cold it is with a cat

Ok, here is my post on insulation for those that wonder how you get a -40C evap on a computer without killing it or in my case -10C

Anyways materials used(keep in mind this is Project Redneck)
Di-Electric Grease bought at PepBoys, used as a last line of defence agains moisture, provides some insulation and ensures airtight seal. Vasolene will work if you really want to be cheap.

1/2" and 3/4" copper pipe insulation bought at local hardware store, I used it to insulate the suction line and pieces for my doughnut.

Pieces of 3mm hobby foam from Hobby Lobby, used as an insulation on the back of the motherboard and to insulate to cpu level.

Some 15 PSI Styrofoam from local lumber store. 1" thick, very dense. used as a block to forma a seal around my socket insulation and the evap.

Plexiglass sheets, bought at Lowes, used as a screw base on the back of motherboard and as a mounting block to screw the evap ontoo.

Some 4" machine screws and nuts, self explanatory.

So what I did is I put a  whole lotta grease on the back of the motherboard where the cpu would be. Made sure every cirucut and metal piece was covered in it. Then I took a peice of 4x4" pleaxi and 4mm foam and cut the holes in them for the bolts. Stuck the bolts through them and through the motherboard and put the motherboard down.
Then I took more grease and mashed as much as I could in the socket itslef untill it was spewing out of the sides, I also gave the surrounding area a very liberal coating of it. I cut a piece of 4mm to fit as much area as I could fit in and made a hole for the socket. I placed it on the motherboard and coated it in grease.


Then I installed the CPU and cut another piece of 4mm the same size as the first but with a smaller hole just big enough for the top of the cpu's ihs to be exposed. It looked like this when done: (sorry for the horrid quality, 8 MP cameras and SimV don't mix well)


Then I took my styrofoam and cut out another block. Drilled a hole in it to let my evap and it's encasement fit snugly inside it. I put a light coat of grease on the bottom of it.


Now here I have installed my doughnut, a peice of foam that goes around the extra space of the evap to have some give put when screwed down tight on the cpu it squishes and pushed all of the foam insulation down tight to hold the seal. Here I have just finished wrapping it in electrical tape to make sure it is tight.


Now its ready to go. I wrapped a little bit of tape arount the top there to seal a small crack I accedentaly made. When I install it for actual use I will tape the whole thing up just as a outer seal. It is not tight down on the cpu yet but it is close. As you see I have sealed the gap where the plexi met the evap with some rubber cement and pushed my pipe insulation into it. They key to it is having an airtight seal. Having a little air in there is going to happen but the goal is to minimize it and stop any airflow. Because on these units condensation dosen't form as you have seen it is frost, as long as your unit is on it will stay frost, 99% of damage to a computer from a phase change is when a user turns their computer off, some frost that has formed melts and leaks onto a component. Most phase users try and minimize their power cycling of their computer to help aleviate this risk.


So I tested it on my computer and it works, I know motherboards are very poor at reading negative temps, some boards with units at -70c only read -20 or so. So my -10 could have been -30 I wont know untill I pick up a temp probe thats not so cheap. The most contact I made with it is half of the block though.
So what needs to be done before i can turn this into my permanent cooling solution is a suction line, a way to stabilize my mounting config a bit more it is kind of wobbly but I know the culprit, and since I need to take my whole evap insulation off anyway I will resand it to ensure flatness and insert some copper wool in there to try and slow the refrigerant down a bit. I would buy a real block but they are about 80 bucks, thats something im not prepared to spend, if I can find two copper plates about 1/4-1/2" thick between now and then I will make my own block but untill then it is my evap in a can method.  So maybe by next weekend we see some progress after that I think I am going to San Antone for 2.5 weeks so I will continue when I get back from that. Right now I am kicking myself for beein a cheap ass and not buying a flex line. Oh well

Good Lord man, I don't think NASA uses anything that complex...

Ok I got the suction line installed with a slight mod to my evap and cap tube. So we should be in business if it dosent leak. I am going to vacuum it out tonight and leave it in a vacuum untill tomorrow afternoon I think. Given I get back home early tomorrow I will go ahead and charge it and maybe give it another go on the computer. Not likely though because I am going to KABQ tomorrow to pack some parachutes so prolly wont be home untill later that evening. Pics to come.