Beyond water cooling. (Was Re: Peltier devices for cooling)

[Batz Goodfortune]

Y-ellow Paul and y'all.
	
At 10:09 AM 02/09/00 +1100, Paul Perry wrote:
>If you put a radio in a bar fridge, you might find it isn't much of an
>insulator, soundwise, owing to being full of styrofoam that conducts
>sound perfectly well(unlike the old days when fridges weighed a ton and were
>using glass wool).

I thought Polystyrene Foam was a good sound insulator? The thing that
worries me about putting your computer in a printer hood (Or any other
effective sound insulation device other than a fridge) is that you either
(A) cut off the air flow and create a virtual cupboard which can get hot.
or (B) put a fan on the back to extract the hot air in which case you're
back to  square one. Either way you stand a good chance you're gonna cook
your machine.

Certainly here this is the case.

OK case study time: I run a fairly overclocked celery at the moment. Soon
to be a fairly overclocked PIII with any luck. (overclocking issues aside)
I don't have too much trouble in this weather with the processor. What I do
have trouble with is the G'damn CD burner. A yamaha. Now even in moderate
weather it can get pretty hot in hear with all the computers on and the
g'damn burner just won't burn a CD. Can't even tell if there's a damn CD in
the drive half the time. However, turn the airconditioner on for 5 minutes
before doing a burn and everything's just fine.

Now we're talkin' bout a room roughly 5 X 4 metres. Serviced by a 2.5 horse
power Air cond. We're talking "icebox" in here. And this does the trick. So
all I was thinking was that if you created that environment on a localized
scale (IE: inside a bar fridge) then you'd be in business. And for the
record, I was only thinking of doing some serious over-clocking on the
cheap like. What I'm thinking is that you could buy a secondhand bar fridge
much cheaper than you could a ready made cryo.

>In fact if you put your ear up close to a bar fridge you can hear cans of 
>Fosters saying 'Drink Me! Drink Me!'

This is the only thing that pisses me off about this. If I can't access the
fridge, how 'n' hell Am I gonna get my bear?

[bobbit]

>Before anyone goes too far, I'd suggest recording something while turning
>the computer 
>on and off, just to see whether the computer mechanical noise DOES impact on 
>what you are  doing. It might only be annoying YOU!

In fact I've been doing this for years and it's not been that much of a
problem. If I'm  recording vocals and only have the 3 studio machines on,
noise  gates tend to  take care of the worst of it. The noise isn't all
that noticeable. I take a certain amount of precautions though. That is
that I can draw a fairly heavy curtain across the vocal area. Forming
something of a vocal booth. The computers are over the other side of the
room and there are a few things between it and the microphone to act as
diffusers. 2 of the 3 machines are on  very long umbilicals through an
automatic switch box that allows up to 6 computers to share the one
terminal. So the rack with the computers in it can be shifted anywhere in
the room.

The interesting thing will come when I add the 4th computer to the
equation. This will have to be bolted to the top of the rack because
there's no where else to put it. This could be a problem but I'll cross
that bridge.

The worst noise in here isn't from the computers. Ironically it's generated
by the fleuro lights. This produces a kind of high pitched sound that the
microphones just love. The computers on the other hand tend to be mainly
low level fan noise. Air flow and of no particular pitch. Except for one
particular fujitsu hard drive which is a little annoying. Not to worry
though, That drive is going into my admin machine when I put the new 28gig
drive in the server.

Of course, who's to say that the 28gig drive, spinning @ 7200 RPM  will not
be worse?

But the bottom line is. A secondhand bar fridge isn't overly expensive to
buy. It's going to be quieter than a bunch of fans. Probably offer enough
acoustic insulation to dampen out the sound of a hard drive or several.
And! If you really wanted to, you could pack it out with more insulation as
required. And offer a nice little environment to go overclocking in. As
long as it could be kept frost free.

Something else I should make mention of. In Australia we have these things
we call Eskies. Err how could we describe them Like a portable ice chest
you use to take your beer to the beach and keep it cool. They come in all
kinds of constructions from big aluminium ones to simple moulded sytrofoam
boxes with a lid. We generically call them Eskies which was (I think) the
original brand Eskie = Eskimo. You get the idea.

Now a few years ago, I saw one of these things with a heat sink kind of
arrangement on the side. Apart from a small fan, these things were totally
silent. IE: we're talking peltier device. These things couldn't get cold
enough to freeze anything but they were apparently enough to keep your beer
cold. (and your car battery flat.) I haven't seen any for years now but it
might be another idea.

But the bottom line is. If you want to keep your machine in an acoustically
isolated environment, and in the same room, then you have to keep it cool
somehow. And well, as far as I know, that's what fridges do best.

be absolutely Icebox.

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