All right
ok
We're locked out of our own video
But this video is going to be great. We are going to be building a computer inside a mini-fridge
We are going to answer the question once and for all.
Is it a good [idea] to build a computer inside a mini-fridge
Like the video if you think that's a good question to answer I didn't have any other teasers ready [ok] I need a key
corsair delivers real [McAro] here
I have one huh real nectar nothing with their new strafe mechanical keyboard featuring genuine German made Cherry Mx
Key switches click on muh chin to learn more. I'm going to move my chin now. It's the three for loop
This may not look like a computer case to you
Nor does it look like a computer case to me because it's not a computer case. This is
A fully functional that is to say working, but not plugged in
Mini-fridge, and if you're like me
and you've truly a forum you've either witnessed or come up with the idea on your own of
Building a computer inside a mini-fridge where well hey it's cold in there
Must be great for overclocking right let's put it to the [test]
Do you even lift bro? Yeah? I lift all [right] [urgh]
Okay
Now before you go full-bore on any kind of project you want to at least validate the concept so we'll be taking the zotac
Zbox [pico]
[Pi3] 20 and we will be experimenting to find out if this compact and power
Efficient passively cooled PC. Can actually
experience an improvement in thermals and/or performance
Inside the mini-fridge right but of course first we have to establish a baseline reading in our ambient
temperature test here
So we're booting up the z box and then we're going to run a stress test to find out just how she runs before
Putting her inside the fridge
[alright], so we've got our baseline numbers
We're looking at anywhere from about 46 to 49 degrees Celsius on our course which puts us at about
22 to 25 degrees above our ambient temperature which is about 27 degrees
Now let's go ahead and fire up a stress test
What is that?
That's [pig]
It's my backpack here. Oh, shut up. You got louder ah
Maybe that's the low battery alert that is a pretty aggressive. Low battery alert and yet
Apparently, that's what it was
Okay, so with that crummy experience out of the way. It looks like our cPU temperatures have settled into
59 to 63 degrees [and] our ambient temperatures actually touch higher at
[27.5]
Okay, so what we'll find out. Now is whether our fridge [is] even ready for us to put our system inside it
I'm supposed to be like four degrees. That's a touch hot
Oh, well, then it is going down very fast okay, so let's go ahead and put this puppy on the shelf [and] let's start it
Boom okay?
so no real surprises here our idle temperature test gives us anywhere from 25 to 27 degrees our
ambient temperature around the pico is around [five] degrees and
that
stands to reason because we're looking at about a 20 degree Delta between ambient and
CpU temperature so that means that at idle the mini-fridge
works it cools the pico
So this is the part where the video gets really interesting [our] fridges compressor is running all the time
but it is maintaining a
Frosty internal temperature as low as two to two and a half degrees Celsius and
Our cPU has settled in at around
38 to 40 degrees Celsius under load the Mini-fridge concept is a
massive success
achieving a
C wow
greater than
20 degree
Improvement in Load CpU temperatures now we're going to take things up a notch
[I'm] going to steal Luke's test bed and find out if the type of rig that you would actually
Benefit from cooling down for better overclock ability will actually work in our mini-fridge setup
so this is a titan x
This is a 59 30 k or 59 60 x not sure which 16 gigs of DDr 4 memory
Let's go, you'll never miss it
Actually, he'll come looking for me
So now [it's] baseline time with Luke's rig here in the garage so our ambient temperatures are a little cooler than yesterday
but that's ok we can correct for that the most important thing is the difference between ambient temperature and
cpU
Temperature when you're measuring this sort of thing and our cPU [temperature] we're going to simplify things a [little] bit instead of looking at all
the Cores
We're just going to take the cPU reading and we're looking at it's fluctuating between 29 and 30
Degrees so now let's start the stress test and see where we [end] up outside of the cooling box
We have our numbers so the room cooled down a little bit
Thanks to some breeziness at about 22 and [a] half degrees and our cPU settled in just under
45 degrees on the hottest of it's [6] cores it is a 59 30 k I have now confirmed that so now it's
time
Let's do it. Go ahead and start by removing some shelves I do not recommend
cooling down hard drives
especially while they are operating, so we're not going to be putting our hard drive in there and
Another thing this pico now that it's cold
And it's below ambient temperature should not be powered on until it reaches ambient temperature on its own because otherwise
Condensation can be a factor and any moisture with powered on electronics is a terrible idea
Okay, I think we've actually got enough clearance on our fans here that they should be able to cool the cPU just fine
That's a bit of a problem here. I have a solution
Yeah
There we go
problem solved
so we're getting ambient temperature readings the compressor is running and
We can see our idle CPU temperatures here
So let's find out
Where she settles in at Idle bear in mind guys that [we] are talking a very different level of heat load here
I think the pico has a power supply
That's something like 10 watts total
Whereas even at idle this computer is going to consume somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 to 90 watts?
Now I was really hoping I was [rooting] [for] it. I
Was hoping that the iDle scenario would give us sub ambient
Temperatures, but in fact it has settled in around twenty three point three degrees almost
Exactly the ambient temperature of the room which means we are basically
Achieving nothing other than consuming electricity by putting the computer inside the fridge
But I promised you guys a load scenario, and that is what I am going to deliver
It should be noted that I observed that to the touch the side of the fridge
which is where this particular unit seems to dissipate heat from the hot side of the
HvAc unit is hotter than I have experienced before you can see we actually just crept up another fraction of a degree so our
23.4 right now
Let's go ahead and kick it into high Gear kids, okay
So you can see they've already jumped to about what we observed in our
outside control test
But what this doesn't account for is that the ambient [temperature] in here is going to increase?
now that the compressor and
refrigeration system inside here is
overwhelmed
So let's watch it happen Shall we
All right, so this is taking longer [than] I thought - completely reach unreasonable temperatures and here. We are
[Twelve] minutes later the system is still running, but we know enough to know that it doesn't work
This is [not] even an overclocked rig and our ambient temperatures inside the fridge are steadily
Climbing [I] took a reading about 30 seconds ago. [it] was 26 and a half now
It's peaking at 27 depending on how I diggle the probe
[so] all that's really left is the explanation for why?
This doesn't work. Well. There's no air flow. This is a closed system. So this system relies on
Itself to move any heat that's generated
inside out
so that's going to be done through the sides of the unit or in many cases on fridges a
coil at the back a heat sink effectively
So unless you're using a unit with enough capacity to handle not only keeping the insides cold
but also removing a constant heat load it isn't going to work, [so]
We can't just introduce [airflow] by like you know punching fans in the side so a closed system
Depends on the capacity [of] the system for cooling now with that said you guys might go okay?
Well hold on a second linus you showed off that the low powered PC could work and even the idle PC was not failing at
The rate that the load PC. Is well. That's only sort of true because fridges are designed for
occasional use
Some heat from the outside will transfer inside through the insulated barrier
And it'll have to you know maintain that also the user will
Open it up from time to time to remove a drink so the compressor
Fires up and it gets things back down to a nice cool temperature. They're not designed with components that are rated for
24-hour
Seven-Day-A-Week
Operation that type [of] Workload rating is only going to be found in a more industrial unit something like an air conditioner
and I guess that's where we get into the
practical sort of side of phase change cooling for computers if you have a large high
capacity air conditioner say for example designed for [a] room that can handle that kind [of] a heat load or
Something where an entire building is [air-conditioned] then you will get the benefit of the lower ambient temperature not only for yourself
But also for your computer also if you checked out [our] phase change [BC] build guide
Which you can check out in the little [eye] in the corner
Well if you apply the phase change cooling directly to the heat load, and you're controlling the scope of what you're cooling
We haven't even fired up the graphics card in here, and we're overwhelming it then it can be useful as well
But again, we're talking [high-end] components not a you know couple hundred Dollar Mini-fridge
and we're talking custom-designed stuff in that case from LD cooling, so
Yeah, I mean most of you probably knew how this was going to turn out some of you might not have because it's all about
How you think about it if you think about your computer in terms of that it runs at 30 or 40?
Degrees and so you know it should be able to be kept cool
Then I get where [you're] coming from but it's more to do with the total thermal energy not the actual
temperature which are two completely different
Things [and] if you think about it this way a computer that consumes you know 300
400 watts at Load is going to be kicking off basically equivalent amounts of heat
That's about the same as a as a modest space heater
And you wouldn't think putting a space heater inside a fridge would keep that cool either would you so there you go guys?
the answer
Has finally been provided on linus tech tips not that anyone else hasn't ever proved this before you can see in the time
I've even been talking here
We've gone up almost an entire additional degree, so I'm going to go ahead and put the system out of its misery now
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I'm going to pull up my calendar and find out what I've done recently [ah]
Yes, luke. Should have just uploaded the doom baba machine where we built the ultimate?
Possible machine out of all the components in our office and ran it through the gauntlet for you, so check [that] out
[I'll] see you guys again next time