The Rebirthed Cascade

[Gomeler]

This was originally a cascade that I built in the fall of 2007 to be used on B3 revision 65nm processors. However after a brief period of being used it was placed into storage where it sat for about a year. Due to a new project requiring lots of funding and my lack of a Core i7 965, I decided to bring this cascade out of storage, refurbish it, and then put it on the market.

Stage 1:
Compressor: Panasonic 2P16C3R126A 15.6cc/rev 10,750 BTU/hr rotary compressor
Condensers: DetroitAC Condensers x 2
Metering device: 2x 8' of 0.031" capillary tubing
HX: Steel brazed 10-plate
Fans: 2x 120mmx120mmx38mm Sunon 25w fans

Stage 2:
Compressor: Panasonic 2P14S3R126B 13.2cc/rev 9,165 BTU/hr rotary compressor
Condenser: Chilly1 Litte Blue
Metering Device: 8.5' of 0.031" capillary tubing
Oil Separator: Temprite 340A unfloated oil separator
Solenoid: Sporlan Normally Closed solenoid with 110vac coil
Suction line: 4' of 3/8" flexible steel hose with braided sleeving.
Evaporator: Chilly1 spiral with scoured internals

To kick things off I had to disassemble the original cascade. I left the 1st stage relatively untouched and simply dropped in a larger condenser and a condenser shroud.

Cascade-Clothing.jpg (154.77 KiB) Viewed 2806 times

First I removed all the insulation.

Cascade-in-Shambles.jpg (155.08 KiB) Viewed 2801 times

Which left me with this, my "raw" components.

Cascade-1.jpg (133.37 KiB) Viewed 2805 times

Cascade-2.jpg (153.72 KiB) Viewed 2803 times

Cascade-3.jpg (195.25 KiB) Viewed 2806 times

I then brazed in the new condenser and tested the first stage with straight R290(propane). Looks like everything works to me

evap.jpg (122.53 KiB) Viewed 2804 times

Last night(11 days from start date) I finished up the brazing on the second stage, vacuumed it down, and charged it with a test charge of straight R290. Once again a successful test with no flaws that I could detect. Evap temp was around -30 Celsius as there was barely enough propane in the system to absorb the heat from the un-insulated suction line.

Tonight I plan on insulating the first stage, charging the second stage with a rough charge of R1150, and then tuning the first stage with this rough load from the 2nd stage. Maybe tonight I'll pull the evap down to -90 Celsius or so with the rough charge, more pictures to come.

[martini161]

thats some pretty hardcore stuff

[DMB2000uk]

I'm not knocking you down, because you have mad skills , but whoever thought of all this for CPU cooling and did it first was a genius.

Once tweaked, what sort of evap temp are you hoping to get from it?

Dan

[Gomeler]

Thanks guys. I'm aiming at -90C evaporator temperatures while under heavy load. I want this thing to be able to hold a Core i7 past 4.8GHz, so it'll be tuned to 300w capacity or greater. It's a budget build so there were compromises made, but it should be sufficient.

[Skippman]

Jebus! Ok, at some point you just go "Dang, that's TO much". Well, at least I do.

But you have some serious tallent to put all that together. Mad props to ya!