Good System For Cheap Extreme Overclocking?

[mclovits]

Hello, I have a quick question, me and a couple friends want to use this pc: http://portland.craigslist.org/wsc/sys/3108358011.html

to do some high overclocking. We don't have a huge budget, and we'll be using dry ice and isopropyl alchohol for the cooling solution. I was wondering, will all of these components work? I read that the Mobo supports 3.2ghz+ and we hope to reach somewhere in the 4-5+ ghz range, as well as a gpu overclock.

Any issues? This isn't a system where we intend to do crazy gaming or intense multitasking, just a fun experiment that we might build off of in the future. Thanks! -Justin

Also, any reasonable suggestions would be greatly apprecieated (testing/overclocking programs, games, etc.)

 

[vmem]

Hi, I actually have little experience with cheap overclocking of this sort and am very interested in how your experiments turn out.

However, as a chemist, I must point out that isopropanol's freezing point is very close to the temperature of dry ice, and it will pour like tar if you guys let the mixture actuall cool to around -70C. pure ethanol would be much better. additionally, generic isopropanol and ethanol that you buy contain impurities, and much like tap water, is very conductive

 

[eXistenZ]

Hi, I actually have little experience with cheap overclocking of this sort and am very interested in how your experiments turn out.

However, as a chemist, . . .

Don't you guys actually use acetone ? How about acetone ?

 

[vmem]

Don't you guys actually use acetone ? How about acetone ?

pure acetone?

it's extremely flammable and a powerful organic solvent. aside from simply melting through the plastics and paints on your case, acetone vapor is harmful to the human body...

I would really recommend against using it as a cooling agent. it can catch fire from any sparks, and you'd have to be working with it with some chemical gloves, a face mask, or find a place with very good ventilation (I mean a chemical hood, not household ventilation)

but yes, in a laboratory setting with the correct equipment and precautions, acetone is actually a great cooling agent. I use it to freeze all sorts of things at -80C oh and it will melt off the printing on the cover of your CPU

 

[mclovits]

Best answer selected by mclovits.

 

[mclovits]

Thanks for the replies, It looks like this experiment wont occur until late August, but I appreciate the help!

 

[vmem]

Thanks for the replies, It looks like this experiment wont occur until late August, but I appreciate the help!

if you can somehow avoid using plastic completely, go for it with acetone. just know that acetone eats up plastics like crazy, even in vapor form... keep plastics AWAY!