Frozen Sponge on Radiator for Better Cooling?

[TheFalseHuman]

So, just curious if anyone tried this or this is just utterly stupid:

 

I read that a frozen sponge wouldn't drip, or at least on its own or just put it in a plastic bag, when warmed. So condensation, or at least enough condensation to damage the components, shouldn't be too much of a concern.

 

If so, can't one just get a frozen sponge in a plastic bag and put it directly on a top mounted radiator that has the fans in an intake configuration?

 

Yes, the sponge/bag would block airflow a bit, but the fans would be pulling in sub-ambient temperature air, or at least in places that isn't like Alaska and other freezing cold places. Though this seems like the advantage of colder air would be negated by less overall airflow. dunno lol

 

Just curious if anyone have actually tried this or has a physics/chemistry degree or something that could give an input on this

[Jaybird]

dont do it. it can cause unwanted moisture in the area and if something does drip, your are SOL

[vlkn´]

why not put the radiator in the frigde? XDD 

[TheFalseHuman]

dont do it. it can cause unwanted moisture in the area and if something does drip, your are SOL

But...but it's in a plastic bag, so condensation/dripping shouldn't be too much of a concern once it equalizes with the surrounding temperature, right?

 

why not put the radiator in the frigde? XDD 

I read that refrigerators aren't made to cool an active heat source.

[vlkn´]

who cares what they are made for  

[TheKDub]

But...but it's in a plastic bag, so condensation/dripping shouldn't be too much of a concern once it equalizes with the surrounding temperature, right?

 

Condensation can still gather on the outside of the bag...

[Ghost]

You could put dry ice on the radiator if you wanted exotic cooling (this inherently gets rid of any dripping problems), but if you went to that effort, why wouldn't you put dry ice on the CPU directly using a ln2 pot. If you do cool down you coolant under room temperature, you will start having condensation issues as soon as you reach the dew point of your current atmosphere. To be able to do anything past that point, you need to insulate your board with foam and petroleum jelly. You also have to watch out for fluid density increases when it gets below 4C and you may need anti-freeze in the coolant.

[TheFalseHuman]

Condensation can still gather on the outside of the bag...

Yeah, but it should be less since the sponge would soak up most of the water molecule when it starts warming up, right?

[TheFalseHuman]

You could put dry ice on the radiator if you wanted exotic cooling, but if you went to that effort, why wouldn't you put dry ice on the CPU directly. If you do cool down you coolant under room temperature, you will start having condensation issues as soon as you reach the dew point of your current atmosphere. To be able to do anything past that point, you need to insulate your board with foam and petroleum jelly.

Uhh, I wouldn't really classify a frozen sponge as exotic cooling, lol

But, no, I wasn't trying to go for exotic cooling with this thread, just about a frozen sponge lol

[Ghost]

Uhh, I wouldn't really classify a frozen sponge as exotic cooling, lol

But, no, I wasn't trying to go for exotic cooling with this thread, just about a frozen sponge lol

You want to achieve the same thing and will face the same problems doing it.

 

(Technically even liquid cooling is exotic, in the above case I am referring to sub-room temperature cooling as "exotic" cooling)

[TheKDub]

Yeah, but it should be less since the sponge would soak up most of the water molecule when it starts warming up, right?

*Facepalm*

 

Condensation is when moisture in the air cools down enough that it becomes water droplets on whatever object is cooling the air around it down, meaning the sponge being in a bag would not prevent condensation from happening on the outside of the bag.

[vlkn´]

not if the room is as cold as the sponge

Gameface: ON

 

But it´ll heat up and need a custom solution to fix this problem

[FreezeFlyte]

If you are honestly thinking of putting a frozen sponge on top of a radiator in a liquid cooled computer then why don't you just add another radiator? And if that doens't help then turn down your cpu/gpu clock......

 

A frozen sponge will cause much much much more problems than solutions.

[Hatsune Miku 「 」]

*Facepalm*

 

Condensation is when moisture in the air cools down enough that it becomes water droplets on whatever object is cooling the air around it down, meaning the sponge being in a bag would not prevent condensation from happening on the outside of the bag.

agreed. Unless OP wants to get a phase changer which is utterly a waste of money..

[TheFalseHuman]

*Facepalm*

 

Condensation is when moisture in the air cools down enough that it becomes water droplets on whatever object is cooling the air around it down, meaning the sponge being in a bag would not prevent condensation from happening on the outside of the bag.

Depending on the amount of water/fluid the sponge can hold, a small amount of condensation shouldn't really matter to the PC, especially if the sponge/bag is placed outside the case, ontop of a radiator, where it isn't that close to the CPU/GPU/drives and other various components, right? <-- (And, I guess depending on the particular case and the layout of it)

 

agreed. Unless OP wants to get a phase changer which is utterly a waste of money..

This is just a hypothetical situation, I guess? I even called out this idea being possibly stupid in the very first line of my first post in this thread when wanting you guys' inputs

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

I've seen someone dunk his whole rad in a bucket of ice. How to cool your 2500k at 5GHz he says...

[SurvivorNVL]

agreed. Unless OP wants to get a phase changer which is utterly a waste of money..

I actually hope that Captherm sytems actually delivers a tangible and reasonably priced phase-change cooler at some point(They talked about their MP1120 January of last year at CES).  They were apparently working on one that competed with most aio's and air-coolers on the market, but silent since then.