Kegerator-based cooling system gives your PC a buzz

Okay, so Jared Bouck's kegerator-cooled PC doesn't really sip on Hennessy, Bud Light or even Milwaukee's Best, but it sure does a good job of pretending to be 21. Essentially, this here mod is more for show than anything, but when all's said and done, you do have a liquid-cooled gaming rig and a nearby locale to stock your favorite beverages. After all, it's common knowledge that you can't stray too far to replenish your fluids during an all-night WoW raid, right? With $180, a bit of patience and some good old fashion work, you too can replace that vanilla cooling setup with one the boys are sure to swoon over.

[Thanks, Tom]

[hypereric @ Apr 15th 2008 8:46AM]

Veeeeery nice! Now just use beer as the coolant, mount a tap on the front of the box, and drink it warm like our ancestors did.

[OneLove @ Apr 15th 2008 11:31AM]

too bad his grammar and spelling sucks.

[computer.dude.28 @ Apr 15th 2008 6:23PM]

His spelling and grammar doesn't look too bad. At least he uses capitals where appropriate.

[JediFonger @ Apr 15th 2008 8:51AM]

y not build the PC rig INTO the fridge? now THAT would be a mod.

[Mark @ Apr 15th 2008 9:00AM]

ben heck's next project.

[emailtabs @ Apr 15th 2008 9:00AM]

Tried it, killed motherboard and harddrive.
turns out that fridges chill water out of normal air. not good for electronics.

If you do give it a go, make sure its dried out, sealed up and never opened.

[JohnSearle @ Apr 15th 2008 9:12AM]

@emailtabs

You have a interesting point there...

If you apply that to this machine as well, the tubes used to transport the cool liquid would also condense the water in the air. Running something like that for long periods may end up trickling water into your machine. That can't be too good for your electronics either.

- John

[Lattyware @ Apr 15th 2008 9:32AM]

A fridge's compressor is not designed to run all of the time. It is designed to keep things cool, not cool them down. Once a fridge brings a drink down to a set temperature, it has to do little work, a PC pumps out heat constantly.

Not only that, but condensation would form and kill everything.

These setups do exist, it's called phase change cooling, but you cannot use the compressor from a fridge - it'll burn out.

[hamster3000 @ Apr 15th 2008 9:49AM]

@Lattyware
He is completely right. I would like to see him stress that thing overnight and see what dies first.

[EllsworthToohey @ Apr 15th 2008 11:41AM]

@emailtabs

Not true actually.

If you built the components into the fridge case itself it would not build up condensation. The only time that would happen is if you had a cold computer out in the ambient environment.

If what you were saying is true then everything in your fridge would be soaked 24/7 in the summer. It only gets that way when you bring it OUT of the fridge and the water in the air condenses on the cold surfaces.

Even when you open the fridge, the only surface that collects condensate is really the evap coil

[emailtabs @ Apr 15th 2008 12:12PM]

@ Ellesworth,

Umm wrong, everytime you open the door, a little more air gets into the fridge. you have to have all the components sealed up. i did'nt seal them and assumed they'd be ok (stupid idea)

The only way round i can think of is to install everything, heat the fridge to get rid of all moisture and then seal that badboy up and let her cool down overnight.

Never open a working fridgepooter.

[Mark @ Apr 15th 2008 8:59AM]

kegs.

[JohnSearle @ Apr 15th 2008 9:05AM]

One question springs to mind: who needs a refrigerated liquid cooled PC to power a WoW client? And more over, what WoW player has time to put something like this together?

And you know that WoW is like heroin; either your machine is a dedicated WoW client, or it's WoW free.

- John

[Evan @ Apr 15th 2008 9:11AM]

I'm sure there are other containers that could have been put in the fridge that would have left more space for food and drinks.

[Cory @ Apr 15th 2008 9:38AM]

That's not a kegerator, it's a minifridge. A kegerator needs to have a keg tap in it.

And if this is enough to qualify as a story, then I'm going to go duct tape my rig to a window air conditioner for the ultimate in liquid cooled, forced air thermal regulation.

[Brent @ Apr 15th 2008 3:22PM]

I don't care if there is a keg inside, it's still not a kegerator unless there's a tap. Have the tubing running to the computer hooked up to the tap, close up the side panel and run the lines in through the back, waterproof the circuitry and in general clean up the whole mess and I'll be reasonably impressed. Until then it's just another janky attempt to cool a computer off a refrigerator. It's been done over and over again by people that don't know any better. The people with real skills know it doesn't really work all that well and focus their energy on TECs, phase change, and submersion cooling. (Submersion in oil by far the coolest way to, well, cool.)

[Phil @ Apr 25th 2008 7:46PM]

I agree. No tap, no kegerator.
This is a kegerator:
http://www.squidoo.com/kegerator

No PC necessary.

[Cory @ Apr 15th 2008 9:43AM]

My mistake, I missed the "keg" used for the coolant... (still don't personally consider it a kegerator)

Seriously though, who gets a keg that small? It'd last like a day and a half were it actually full of beer.

[benjesuit @ Apr 15th 2008 9:44AM]

Another, just because you can doesn't mean you should idea.

[sepirioth @ Apr 15th 2008 9:48AM]

is it just me or are there towels or something on the floor ? you know, for moisture etc of course... no thanks.

[Jason @ Apr 15th 2008 10:47AM]

I've made a kegerator or two and I know it's not a good idea to warm the beer up while it's in the line. If the beer warms up in the line a lot of the CO2 that was dissolved in the beer will escape and cause massive amounts of foam - beer's worst enemy.

[Richard @ Apr 15th 2008 11:11AM]

Condensation > this project
This guy needs to look at the insulation required in phase cooling..

[S @ Apr 16th 2008 11:26PM]

Let the idiot blow his motherboard from condensation and then come back to us crying.....oh wait, he won't come back because he is too embarrassed at his failed experiment.

-Sage

[anonymouspimp @ Apr 15th 2008 11:46AM]

Hmmm... I'm not sure you guys know what Hennessy is... lol

I'd be pretty shocked to see a keg of it...

[rv @ Apr 15th 2008 1:23PM]

Hellz yea. All the gangstaz be rollin wit kegs of hennesy in tha hood, g.

[billmao @ Apr 15th 2008 1:25PM]

Go troll your political opinion somewhere else.

[billmao @ Apr 15th 2008 3:25PM]

Ugh, apparently engadget pulled the comment by the duche i was replying to, leaving me hanging looking stupid D:

[emailtabs @ Apr 16th 2008 4:12PM]

Oooh intrigued, you've caught my attention, what did he say?

[Greg @ Apr 15th 2008 4:20PM]

so no beer?

[ian @ Apr 16th 2008 7:06PM]

well anyone who knows what they are doing around a watercooling loop pretty much knows that this thing is epic fail at cooling, especially for a chilled loop. Its a cool idea, but more research should have been put into how much chilling power you actually need to run a chiller loop.

[you_silly_mortals @ Apr 17th 2008 9:32AM]

I really don't think that something like this should be even be posted on this site. At least not without an editors note saying that this kind of thing will cause major problems for the person who did this, and any other people who try to cool their PCs like this.

[DiscoCat5 @ Apr 19th 2008 1:27AM]

i seriously had this idea ages ago, but never the resources, money, space or good enough computer, to warrant doing it.