How to Cool Your PC with Dry Ice

Ant writes "This Madshrimps article is a complete guide to working with dry ice so you can reach sub-zero temperatures with your CPU and graphics card. Details on building containers, where to buy dry ice and important tips and tricks. (Seen on Blue's News.)"

Buy Dry Ice? Can't I make it?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't want to buy dry ice. Isn't there a good way to make it at home?

What's next?

[c0ldfusi0n]

After liquid metal [slashdot.org] and liquid nitrogen [tomshardware.com], here comes dry ice! What's next?

Re:Cat Problems

[daikokatana]

Kick a dog, and kick a cat. The dog will come back for more; the cat will rip your curtains to shreds, then leave, never to return. Now tell me, which is the superior animal?

According to some dude mentioned in some bestseller (the bible I believe it was called), the dog would be the superior animal, because it turns the other cheek.

What about liquid nitrogen?

[Vo0k]

Sure, more dangerous. But probably more handy to build and could last longer. Valve set to slow dripping, pipe outlets (possibly with some spraying tips) over the radiators, possibly even electric valve with some temperature feedback loop - temperature rising, pour more, temperature dropping too much, cut off. 1 liter is something like 6 cents in bulk, so it should last quite long. Sure pouring a bucket of liquid nitrogen over a PC won't do much good, but you should be able to release it as slowly as you only desire, so...?

cheaper and easier

[CdXiminez]

I have been puzzled by x86 users' preoccupation with heat for quite some time.

Wouldn't it be a lot cheaper and easier to just use a processor that doesn't get so friggin' hot? Like a PowerPC or Crusoe...

Re:Buy Dry Ice? Can't I make it?

[pla]

I don't want to buy dry ice. Isn't there a good way to make it at home?

Yup, really amazingly simple.

Just take your anhydrous CO2 tank, connect it to a dry ice mold (almost like a rigid fine-meshed cheesecloth box, you could probably hack one together if you don't already have one), and let 'er rip until the mold fills.

You can even still use the waste CO2 (a lot) for something else, with a careful setup - Just make sure the pressure drop occurs in the mold rather than at some point down-stream.

Re:What's next?

[psmurf]

I wonder if people realize that chips are actually spec'ed with a lower thermal limit as well as an upper??? I can just imagine these chips starting to crack in half with this kind of obsessiveness...

Re:Refrigerated PC Cases...the answer

[Anonymous Coward]

actually my buddy tried this, the computer put out so much heat that the fridges compresser could not keep up an the mobo + cpu fried because the overworked fridge turned into an oven from the computer.