5 GHz Project: CPU Cooling With Liquid Nitrogen

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Cooling Head And Pipe: Purpose-built Copper Production, Continued

The CPU heat sink forms a thin-walled copper pipe with a solid copperplate fixed to its base. This sheet is perfectly suited to the task and comes from a Xeon heat sink from Cooler Master that we dismantled. We considered a number of alternatives, none of which proved viable.

The basis of the CPU cooling head: a Cooler Master Xeon heat sink (with solid copperplate)

Solid copperplate of the Xeon heat sink from Cooler Master. Later, the fine copper elements were removed

Copper pipe for the liquid nitrogen

Here the thin wall is plainly visible since a thicker wall would result in high losses
Frank Völkel
6 Comments Comment from the forums
  • jayh619
    So would u have to cool it constantly? or.. wat?
    Reply
  • If they stopped cooling it the processor would die.
    Reply
  • Now, with that big of a heatsink how do you plan to close the tower? How do you plan to renew the liquid nitrogen without blowing up your PC
    Reply
  • you will notice that this was done outside... so not very safe I bet. Also you would never be able to keep switching the system on and off as the ice would damage the pc
    Reply
  • NEOhm
    I couldn't help but think that there was a lot more they could have done to insulate the rest of the system from the CPU's immediate area .... I'm sure this system must have gone onto a crashing spree once all that ice built up and started short-circuiting all those electronics around the CPU's base .... for one example, they could have gone as far as to coating that area with silicone, i would think; or in the vary least, covering that area more to protect from the super cooled 'steam' flowing over the top of the copper tube and down onto the motherboard.

    Secondly, the over-use of thermal pastes ... from my understanding, application of thermal paste between a chip and a heatsink is supposed to be EXTREMELY THIN and evenly spread; any excess paste REDUCES thermal performance and just splotching it on can easily introduce air bubbles which would cause 'hot-spots' wherever a bubble lies.

    If your going to draw attention to yourself by breaking some world records, it would be probably a good idea to do everything you can to make everything as perfect as can be ... for example, cleaning up the copper soldiering residues to 'good enough' levels isn't Good Enough!, go all the way and use scouring pads, polish and some attention to detail and people will respect you the more for your efforts and clean presentation. A key to success in life = Strive for excellence in whatever you do! Don't settle for second-best.
    Reply
  • Zorg
    I know it's late, but you guys are clowns.

    They did it and then took it apart and threw it in a box. Sorry it won't fit in a case and it wasn't shiny enough for you nitpickers.

    Let me know how cool yours is when you get done.

    If you're going to post garbage then don't post at all.
    Reply