Heated motherboard in refrigerator or freezer

Motherboard of my computer often overheats. The temperature rises up to 80 degree Celsius. When I try to cool it using table fan, it takes long time. I also think that the air coming out of fan might disturb the circuits from its position. My friend suggested me to place it in refrigerator for better cooling. So next time I am working on my motherboard and it overheats, should I place it in refrigerator or freezer. The motherboard is not attached in my CPU cabinet. I think that even my graphic card needs such a cooling. So it takes a couple of minutes to remove all the parts and peripherals. Is it preferable to do it?

A refrigerator doesn’t remove heat from the motherboard and graphic card permanently. It will act as a temporary solution. Also if you are saying that motherboard and the graphic card is overheating, it means that the temperature is rising above 50 to 60 degree Celsius. Such high temperature will put a good amount of load on refrigerator itself and may lead to bad performance of refrigerator. When refrigerator finds high temperature inside it, the compressor in it will start exerting itself to release a good amount of coolant inside. If you put your motherboard and graphic card in freezer, the hottest parts of it will start attracting more ice and moisture than needed. Ice won’t cause any problem till it gets converted into water when taken out of freezer. If this water touches the capacitor, then both, your motherboard and graphic card will be damaged. If you want to put them in refrigerator, then you will need to provide a proper insulation to them first. You can also coat the bottom part and the capacitor of your motherboard and graphic card with Vaseline. As said before that the refrigerator you use will exert the full force of compressor. This will lead to consumption of large amount of electricity which will generate a large amount of electricity bill. Also at this rate the refrigerator will be highly unstable. A small spike in electricity and you refrigerator might go bad. So I suggest you to avoid keeping your motherboard and graphic card in refrigerator.

Whatever you are thinking is not possible in regular refrigerator we use at home. To provide cooling to heated motherboard and graphic card, you will need an industrial refrigerator. It used mostly to cool down food items which are made hot but need to be served cold. But these refrigerators provide extremely low temperatures like -15 degree Celsius. Such low temperature might cer4ytainly damage the motherboard and graphic card. If you motherboard is overheating, use more powerful cooling fans, heatsinks or liquid cooling systems available for CPU.

I think that you need to change your CPU cabinet as it seems that it must not be providing a good airflow and trapping the hot air within itself. You can try using Thermaltake Xpressar RCS100 as it provides excellent airflow and has great inbuilt cooling system. As you want to achieve refrigerator like cooling, this CPU cabinet will provide it using its liquid cooling system. It is the world’s first DC-inverter-type micro-refrigeration cooling system that can be used in a PC. Themaltake has combined Xaser VI computer case with a small refrigeration system. I use an overclocked Intel Core 2 Duo processor of frequency 4.05 GHz. The normal temperature of my system is 35 degree Celsius when playing high end game like Battlefield 3 on full graphic settings. This temperature is normal when using computer for basic purposes like web browsing or text editing. It provides around 15 to 20 degree Celsius less temperature than normal liquid cooling system. It comes with an inbuilt 120mm cooling fan which provides speed of 1600 RPM. To add to this, the sound generated overall is 20 dB, which can be heard only when ears are taken near it.

Also the power requirement of this system is less as compared to other such high end systems available in market from different manufacturers. It supports almost every type of motherboard available in market and also manages the power supply for its peripheral. Just taking an example, my processor needs just 50 W for full functioning; while in other systems need to provide around 100 W of electricity. This cabinet is built with intention of supporting upcoming Intel’s Bloomfield processor. The only problem I have seen is with MSI motherboard’s fitting in this CPU cabinet. Due to large size of MSI motherboard, it becomes hard to properly fit it in the cabinet. But a little tweaking can also solve this problem.With MSI motherboard in Thermaltake Xpressar RCS100, it leaves enough space for only one graphic card.

Thermaltake Xpressar RCS100 provides same level of cooling similar to a refrigerator or an air conditioner. This possible only because of micro vapor-compression refrigeration system that is used in this cabinet by Thermaltake. The whole process of cooling includes the release of refrigerant cooling liquid in the flow of this system, which turns into cooling gas. This cooling gas absorbs the heat around motherboard and graphic card giving a good cooling to the system. The condenser used in this system then brings back the gas back into liquid state. This ensures a continuous flow and proper advanced cooling. Gases and cooling agents used in this system are eco-friendly and do not condense in any place outside its flow system. The main drawback of this system is that it needs regular cleaning. You will need to clean it at least once a week and that too you will need to dedicate at least two hours for its cleaning. It accumulates too much dust as compared to other liquid based cooling systems. The humid ambience it creates sticks the dust to internal parts. If not taken care, the dust can create trouble for the internal parts.

A phase change system like Thermaltake Xpressar RCS100 uses gases like Freon to provide such a good cooling. Another major drawback of this system is that you will need to use the DVD drive approved and custom made only for this system. The default DVD drive that comes with it is completely sealed from its backside. If you use a normal DVD drive then every time you open it, some air along with moisture will enter the system. This might lead to condensation on the pipes and icing. When the system will be shut down, this condensation or ice will starting dropping in form of water on the internal parts leading to its damage. To avoid this, you will need to use extra buffers that will absorb the moisture in the ambience of CPU. A normal brick can also act as an buffer.

I think that rather than having such an high end but expensive cooling system that uses refrigerant, one should use liquid cooling system. You need to provide a good airflow, to your internal system of your computer. Maybe the internal hot air is not escaping properly. You can add cooling fans and heatsinks if need arises. Also when this system becomes old, probably after one or one and half year later, the cooling agent inside will need to be changed. This whole process again won’t be easy and will cost a large amount of money. It will have to be then used with filters to keep it free of impurities. Also Thermaltake Xpressar RCS100 doesn’t provide option to change the direction of the flow pipes if need arises. You will need to adjust the other hardware to keep it at a safe distance from flow pipes. In usual liquid cooling system, the pipes can be bent and modified as per the user’s hardware’s size and shape. Again the cooling agent used, if not flown for many days, will start solidifying. To avoid this, one will need to keep adding watersoftener. Filtering out hard deposits will again be a mammoth task. To avoid all this hectic work, ionizing filters are available. But again they are extremely costly and are not easily available as it is an industrial product.