Heatsink mod cools computer, chills wine

Have you ever been sipping a 1787 glass of Château Yquem Sauternes, looked down at your little wine chiller and thought, "hey, that would make a great heatsink"? Well Gordon Johnson did, and while it doesn't stack up to the sheer weirdness of this cooling mod, the result (constructed out of copper tubing, four pennies, and the small electric cooler) is pretty ingenious anyway. For the truly dedicated, watch the video after the break.

[Via hackaday]

[noisia @ Jun 23rd 2007 8:31AM]

waste of time

[humpty @ Jun 23rd 2007 8:59AM]

Oh GOD.. my ears!

[bill @ Jun 23rd 2007 10:11AM]

what is the name of that song anyway

[Cam @ Jun 23rd 2007 10:18AM]

The song is called Resurrection by PPK

[hemmy @ Jun 23rd 2007 3:05PM]

A wine chiller! That could give one an air of sophistication whilst chatting up the ladies online, sipping on a nice glass of Cabernet Sauvignon.

[bumbarass @ Jun 23rd 2007 6:26PM]

This is so lame. For starters, how is he going to move it about? Why didn't he just water-cool his whole rig and then add the wine chiller (mini-fridge, seriously) in series to the water circuit? Why did he use copper pipe instead of a more insulating plastic pipe? The lack of design here is simply astounding. What a waste of materials. And... ^^ drinking on your own in front of a computer and/or flirting by proxy is far from sophisticated. Weak.

[hemmy @ Jun 23rd 2007 9:32PM]

Sarcasm is lost on you.

[Flalex @ Jun 23rd 2007 9:37PM]

I want to see you go and do something better, bumbarass. At least this guy tried doing something cool, rather than posting how you think he did a bad job.

[Jesse S @ Jun 24th 2007 2:54PM]

This fridge will die. Fridges are not meant to constantly cool, like they would have to for a computer. Plus, this won't cool well.

Phase change systems have been around for a long time now, and they are made for this.

HE DID DO A BAD JOB. As I stated above, this thing will be horrible at cooling and probably die within a week.

Get a phase change system if you want cooling like this.

[gordon @ Jun 23rd 2007 9:42PM]

Maybe if the bashers had read the given article, it would have enlightened a few about the rationale of the creator.

[JP @ Jun 23rd 2007 9:47PM]

So cool, and yet, not. Seriously , he should stick to the ideas and leave the design and implementation to someone els.

Using the copper tube as a heat sink to the cooler is a novel idea, but why through the side when the back would have been much more convenient post build?
Is the copper tubing welded to the coils of the cooler, or is it just sitting there using air as the cooling medium anyway? If it is just air cooling the copper, then the sealed case would make sense, but only if the air was being pumped into the case, which seems impossible given the way the heat sink is made. This seems to be several ideas combined into one poorly.

This is a great beginning, but he needs to spend more time in the design phase.

When the inevitable revision comes out, get some shots of the PC health page so that we can see what temperature of the CPU is, and not just that of the heat sink or ambient temperature.

[gordon @ Jun 23rd 2007 10:08PM]

It would be great if anyone actually read the article before posting, thanks...

http://www.leetupload.com/tutorials/copper_heatsinkon_the_rocks/

[bumbarass @ Jun 24th 2007 5:16AM]

My bad Hemmy ;P fyi i did read the article and I repeat, weak. I am currently drilling holes in my own 'wine cooler' to do a better job. Anyone know where to buy quick release hose attachments?

[gordon @ Jun 24th 2007 9:48AM]

I hope you realize that plastic does not transfer heat... "Why did he use copper pipe instead of a more insulating plastic pipe?"

I mean, that just sounds, well, ignorant. Maybe you wish to explain yourself a bit more here. Were you trying to say that using plastic to insulate the copper, the best heat conductor known? Because plastic will melt and will not transfer heat at all, (if it were, obviously not very well).

[bumbarass @ Jun 24th 2007 5:20PM]

Of course the waterblock needs to be copper, but does the rest of it? You wouldnt want the ambient temperature of the room heating up your water would you? Surely you would want all the cooling on the CPU, no? Maybe I'm just being ignant. (Edit) OMG, I was an ignorant idiot. I thought there was a COOLANT in there but no, just a heatpipe. I gave this project less credit than it was due. Best heatpipe ever.

[gordon @ Jun 24th 2007 5:30PM]

Thanks, I think. :P

Some people have mentioned that the fridge will not last. I will try and keep all of you posted in terms of how it is holding up (parts and all). Its still 2 degrees lower than the outside temp. of the case (90 degrees).