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mamamia88
November 6th, 2009, 06:06 PM
how plausible is it to build a super powerful pc using liquid nitrogen? was watching mythbusters the other day and it gave me the idea

koleoptero
November 6th, 2009, 06:07 PM
Highly unlikely and dengerous (and unnecessary unless we're talking about clusters of supercomputers).

cascade9
November 6th, 2009, 06:15 PM
The overclocking crowd found liquid N2 a few years back. Dangerous, not really worth it except for 'how far can we push', but fun stuff.

http://www.bit-tech.net/custompc/features/604773/video-6ghz-plus-overclocking-the-e8600-with-liquid-nitrogen.html

It should be possible to build a 'supercomputer' with LN2 cooling, but its not really viable. Which is why companies like Cray use fluorinet when they go to exotic cooling solutions.

weezilla
May 20th, 2011, 04:32 PM
LN2 isn't as dangerous as many people think. Of course, you can't touch it for longer than a quarter second, but as long as you don't crack your board or improperly seal the LN2 line (creating a pressure explosion), it's relatively safe (thanks to the Leidenfrost effect).

We are building a computer for physics calculations and have a ready supply of liquid nitrogen. After I get it built, I might see if I can make a LN2 reservoir that will supply the LN2 we need for days at a time.

Smilax
May 20th, 2011, 04:59 PM
i made ice cream with liguid nitrogen, it was yum,

all to do with how fast the ice crystals form, fast means small and yum,

slow means large and unyum,

which is why when your icecream melts you can't just stick it in the freezer to make it new.

i used cream and strawberrys,

and a wooden spoon.

yumyum

3Miro
May 20th, 2011, 05:11 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6Hf6d404QY

Enjoy!

toupeiro
May 21st, 2011, 01:54 AM
a company called Cryotech was doing this in the late 90's. Was able to get an AMD K6-2 500 Mhz chip reportedly computing at 1ghz with factory clocking and stepping.

Ctrl-Alt-F1
May 21st, 2011, 01:56 AM
i made ice cream with liguid nitrogen, it was yum,

all to do with how fast the ice crystals form, fast means small and yum,

slow means large and unyum,

which is why when your icecream melts you can't just stick it in the freezer to make it new.

i used cream and strawberrys,

and a wooden spoon.

yumyum
This post is my favorite. :popcorn:

miasmablk
May 21st, 2011, 02:25 AM
two of the major problems with LN2 cooling as a practical cooling solution is.

1. the massive amount of condensation produced by this cooling method WILL damage/break your system 2. the life span of the LN2 it's self is finite and VERY short lived.

"extremely ill advised under all but the most extreme cases temperatures of -100 / -240 degrees C can be achieved the results are short lived and are only useful in over-clocking in anticipation of setting a record." - Synex Comp TIA A+ Study Guide

3Miro
May 21st, 2011, 02:33 AM
two of the major problems with LN2 cooling as a practical cooling solution is.

1. the massive amount of condensation produced by this cooling method WILL damage/break your system 2. the life span of the LN2 it's self is finite and VERY short lived.

"extremely ill advised under all but the most extreme cases temperatures of -100 / -240 degrees C can be achieved the results are short lived and are only useful in over-clocking in anticipation of setting a record." - Synex Comp TIA A+ Study Guide

People have done this. Check the video link.

It is not practical for real world use, but it can set benchmarks.

If you want something more practical, you can try submerging the entire machine in vegetable oil. It is cheap, it conducts heat much better than air or water and it is not an electric conductor. The only problem is that it is very thick, so you need more powerful fans to spin it around.

Bandit
May 21st, 2011, 02:37 AM
Many good points already pointed out why it isnt practical for everyday use. They have excellent water coolers these days that are 99.9% safe when installed correctly.

Dustin2128
May 21st, 2011, 02:55 AM
Well considering sandy bridge chips can run at 4.9Ghz overclocks with air cooling, I shudder to think at how high you could get it with liquid nitrogen. 7, 8Ghz?

Legendary_Bibo
May 21st, 2011, 02:56 AM
Pfft...you guys and your liquid Nitrogen and L2. I have my own PC on Pluto with a 24 core processor each over clocked to 12GHz. Too bad I get lag when trying to play games on it, but I'm sure it's running at 1,000 FPS right there on the machine.

tgalati4
May 21st, 2011, 03:06 AM
Nitrogen gas is dangerous. If you don't have proper venting:

YOU CAN DIE!

Dustin2128
May 21st, 2011, 03:11 AM
Pfft...you guys and your liquid Nitrogen and L2. I have my own PC on Pluto with a 24 core processor each over clocked to 12GHz. Too bad I get lag when trying to play games on it, but I'm sure it's running at 1,000 FPS right there on the machine.
How do you deal with heat removal in a vacuum? Seems like you'd melt fairly quickly. And pfft noob. I run 8 pysical 8 core processors with hyperthreading for a combined 128 cores with Quad SLI 3GB GTX 590s (over 1500 processor cores each if memory serves) on each board. All boards have 24GB DDR3 (6x4Gb) RAM for a combined 192GB. All of this cooled with liquid helium, I've stably overclocked my processor at 24GHz, and similar clocks on the 590's and RAM. But since the only OS capable of running with such a hardware configuration is linux, the only game I can play is open arena. But hey, my puny old geforce 9600 could only run it at 300fps, now I'm running at 2.4x10^31. I don't care that both are well above my monitor's refresh rate- I *swear* I can tell.

Bandit
May 21st, 2011, 03:16 AM
How do you deal with heat removal in a vacuum? ..............
Thats a very good question..

Only thing I can come up with is a large Heat Pipe / Radiator assy to radiate the heat off.

Dustin2128
May 21st, 2011, 03:22 AM
Thats a very good question..

Only thing I can come up with is a large Heat Pipe / Radiator assy to radiate the heat off.
I say liquid helium or nitrogen would be a better solution in a vacuum- you wouldn't have as much loss from off-gassing since it wouldn't recieve much heat from the environment- only from EM radiation.

Bandit
May 21st, 2011, 03:28 AM
I say liquid helium or nitrogen would be a better solution in a vacuum- you wouldn't have as much loss from off-gassing since it wouldn't recieve much heat from the environment- only from EM radiation.

Actually in a vacuum the LN2 would burst into a gas at a dangerous speed. Almost explosive like. Of course even water will.
That and space is cold and hot varying to plus ~450f to neg ~450f depending if the sun is shining on your craft or your in a shaded spot. Thats just around earths orbit.

Dustin2128
May 21st, 2011, 03:30 AM
Actually in a vacuum the LN2 would burst into a gas at a dangerous speed. Almost explosive like. Of course even water will.
That and space is cold and hot varying to plus ~450f to neg ~450f depending if the sun is shining on your craft or your in a shaded spot. Thats just around earths orbit.
I know, but if you could maintain pressure in a pipe (conventional cooling system) you'd absorb little background heat (especially since bibo was talking about on pluto).

Bandit
May 21st, 2011, 03:35 AM
I know, but if you could maintain pressure in a pipe (conventional cooling system) you'd absorb little background heat (especially since bibo was talking about on pluto).

I been trying to look up best method for this on the internet. Sadly I havent found anything yet, but if you puch in the wrong word porn will pop up.. ./sigh :(

Dustin2128
May 21st, 2011, 03:43 AM
I been trying to look up best method for this on the internet. Sadly I havent found anything yet, but if you puch in the wrong word porn will pop up.. ./sigh :(
Basically since in a vacuum, you have no means to rid yourself of heat normally, or gain heat via conduction or convection (though radiation is possible- electromagnetic that is), if you have a medium through which to cool your processors (liquid helium for example) and a good place to "deposit" the heat (e.g. a heatsink like the convinent planet pluto underneath), you can have a pretty nice cooling setup. Since pluto is far enough from the sun that heat absorption is a near non-issue, it would be ideal.

I apologize for the possible incoherence and/or possible misspellings in this post. Spellcheck stopped working and allergy meds.

Ji Ruo
May 21st, 2011, 03:56 AM
Pfft...you guys and your liquid Nitrogen and L2. I have my own PC on Pluto with a 24 core processor each over clocked to 12GHz. Too bad I get lag when trying to play games on it, but I'm sure it's running at 1,000 FPS right there on the machine.

Speed of light latency is a b@#%h.

Legendary_Bibo
May 21st, 2011, 04:18 AM
How do you deal with heat removal in a vacuum? Seems like you'd melt fairly quickly. And pfft noob. I run 8 pysical 8 core processors with hyperthreading for a combined 128 cores with Quad SLI 3GB GTX 590s (over 1500 processor cores each if memory serves) on each board. All boards have 24GB DDR3 (6x4Gb) RAM for a combined 192GB. All of this cooled with liquid helium, I've stably overclocked my processor at 24GHz, and similar clocks on the 590's and RAM. But since the only OS capable of running with such a hardware configuration is linux, the only game I can play is open arena. But hey, my puny old geforce 9600 could only run it at 300fps, now I'm running at 2.4x10^31. I don't care that both are well above my monitor's refresh rate- I *swear* I can tell.

Fun fact. The human eye takes in visual info at 75-120fps so anything beyond that is pointless.

Dustin2128
May 21st, 2011, 04:31 AM
Fun fact. The human eye takes in visual info at 75-120fps so anything beyond that is pointless.
That's the joke.