Hey guys
i had one of those stupid ideas like i ussually have , and i am wondering has any one done or is it possible to make a case out of a mini fridge for the PC, but the fridge still has to be working. this then would sort out all the heat problems . or would it just create condensation?
cos then you could also store your beer inside you pc, now wouldnt that be great

A fridge is good at cooling things inside it, that's true. But a PC actually generates heat, unlike, say a can of beer which just sits there and losses the heat it accumulated being outside of the fridge. Because there's no ventilation in a fridge, they have a weak vacuum seal, heat wont be conducted away and expelled as well as a standard case.

Good idea, but unfortunaly wont work this time

If you are interested inj explorign the idea of heat exchange (as a fridge does with gas tubes) you might want to look into TECs or thermo-electric-coolers, which are usually small ceramic plates that are extremely good at shifting heat from one side to the other, creating a very cool side and a very hot one. The down side is they are quite inefficient, in that they generate heat themselves, and are very power thirsty, but they're fun to have a play with if you're interested in that stuff. I've seen the odd article on fitting one between your CPU and heatsink/waterblock

oh well it was a good idea at the time, and no i dont really fansy playing with power hungry things hehe, i nvr modded in my life i was just wondering. i am thinking of modding my old crappy case at the mo to see how hard it is to mod, then if i am succesful i will mod a Coolermaster Centurion Case , i will post my pics as soon as i get time to do some modding
thnx for the reply though matt

cool, why not make a project log?

The idea seems great to me

1. The fridge's seal will cut out the noise of the PC cooling fans
2. some bar and wine fridges have lovely cases and clear glass doors
3. the air-tight seal will keep crappy dust and **** from building up on the PC fans etc
4. beer and pepsi fit in it :-)

A loaded-up PC is going to suck around 350 watts - pretty much all of that has to exit the PC in the form of heat.

I think that 1 watt raises one ml of water by 1 degree celcius; or something like that.

So - the PC is going to *generate* 350 watts of heat constantly.

The sexy-looking black wine-fridge I saw in the shops today (with a lovely glass door) was rated at 110 watts - that's how much juice it uses up *moving* heat from the inside out to the cooling fins at the rear.

It takes a lot less energy to move heat around than it does to generate it (that's why reverse-cycle air-conditioners are cheaper to run than heaters).

All we've got to do is work out the math - perhaps someone out there already has a PC and a small fridge, and they'd be willing to do us an experiment? Shove the PC and a thermometer into the fridge, and see if it heats up past room temp, or of the fridge can get the heat outta there faster than the PC can make it?

condesation WILL ruin your components, so DONT try it LOL

Read many a review on this scenario.

hehe - yeah; except that...

A) I don't plan on opening it (it's a server I wanna put in mine)
B) server currently lives in my garage, so it's sucking dust, car exhaust, and moist salty sea air through its guts 24/7
C) I doubt the fridge is gunna manage to keep the PC much (if anything) below room temp, so nothing should condense even if I do need to open the door occasionally.

I'm thinking of messing with some tubs of hot water and a thermometer to see how many "watts" of heat the fridge can get rid of (hmm? maybe a toaster in it - I wonder how much juice those things use)

I think we need to build this case from scratch, or at least get very technical about this, we have some pros and cons about using a frige, and sadly they all must become pros.

Pros- Slient, Air tight,very clean, no thought cooling(if it works).
Cons- large size, uses a lot of electric, possible damage to all pc components(condensation)

So far, everything about the actaul Frige box is a pro, the only trouble we are having right now is turning it on, we face the trouble of condensation and don't even know if the frige is capable of cooling the pc. I seriously doubt a mini fridge could keep my system cool for very long, as per my post "PC or Space Heater".

Frige case box is awsome idea, air tight and noise proof, but could we use the fridge box case and some outside cooling source. Know any one in the Air Conditioning industry that could help. But for right now I have something you can test. How much space do you have in your pc??? You could try to place in a block of Dry Ice. Dry ice is very very cold and does not melt, just disperses into two NON Flamable gases. But we still run the slight risk of condensation. The PC components generate heat, so the air around the pc components is constantly being warmed. Now we introduce cold air to cool our warm components. Before our cool air can reach the components it must past the warm air. Inevitably mixing and now we get moisture. Mini Friges has been around for a long time, and computers have been around for a while. Would we still be using fans if it was going to be simple???

how about dividing the fridge into cold and room temp sections, the pc in the normal side with a small vent for the PSU heat,then a water cooling resevoir and radiator in the cold half. it would keep the pc quiet in the normal side and the cold side could keep the water cooling extra cold

I saw a pic of a fully working case made out of lego and another one of a case made out of a suitcase / briefcase thing.

they both looked so good!