Water Cooled PC and Condensation

[Jobistober]

Hello all,

I have a water cooled PC and am about to install a thermoelectric cooling device which can easily cool the water to near freezing temperatures. The cooling blocks are manufactured from copper and acrylic, and the hose is just a generic plastic hose. here's my question: how cold can the water make the blocks before condensation starts? I know that water will condense onto surfaces way before freezing. If anyone knows a definite answer or a way to find it, please drop a line. Thanks.

 

[russ_watters]

Well, it depends on the humidity of the air in the room where the computer is located. The simple answer is that a correctly sized air conditioner makes for a dew point of around 40F, so water below 40F will cause condensation on the tubes if they are not well insulated and sealed. But if the air conditioner is not well sized or not on all the time, the humidity can vary widely. Use a psychrometric chart and a humidistat to find the dew point. Better yet - insulate and seal anything that may get cold.

 

[Pengwuino]

It depends on what the dew point is which is dependant on the humidity. What most people do when they are worried about condensation occurring is to insulate the CPU block.

http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20031230/5ghz-07.html

One guy used LN to cool his CPU and he used this little thing to pour the CPU in and it was wrapped in an insulating material. Although that's nothing like what you would do, the material is probably something you'd be looking into to insulate the CPU.