forthis,asit doesa beautifuljob
ofreflectingallthecolours.The
shroudwasbenttoshapeusing
thecurvededgeofmykitchen
worksurfaceanda heatgun.Welovethewaythepower
cablesjustseemtoslotinto
thecase– youcanbarelysee
anycable-routingholes.How
didyouachievethiseffect?
Matt:TheSamaArkisalready
a greatcaseforcablerouting
anyway,buttomakeit perfectI
removeda lotofthemetalwork
insidethecase.Allthecables
comethrougha holeunderthe
motherboard,wheretheythen
meetthehiddenCorsairPSU.Tellusallabouttheexternal
refrigerationunit!Howisit
connected,howdoesit workand
howdoesit coolthecoolant?
Howmuchnoisedoesit make?
Matt:It’sactuallyanoldlaboratory
circulator.I strippedit down,and
removedtheheatingelement
andoldcontrolsystem.I fittedThere’snoradiator,pumporreservoir
inside this water-cooled PC. Refrigeration
engineer Matt Marshall had another
idea – chilling the coolant inside an
external refrigeration unit instead
/MEET THY MAKER
Name Matt Marshall
Age 37
Occupation Director at
Scientific Refrigeration UK
Location Devon
Main uses for PC
Games and movies
Likes Family time,
game time, movie time,
techno music, Chinese
food, building PCs,
refrigeration experiments,
high-end audio, Wilson
audio Specialties
Dislikes Bad audio quality!Minimal Techno
Readers’ Drives
MODDING / READERS’ DRIVES
Let’sstart
withtheinitial
inspiration.What
madeyouwant
tobuilda PC
withanexternal
refrigerationsystem?
Matt:A mixtureofmy
refrigerationcareer
andanobsessionwith
buildingcomputers.The interior
looks amazingly
clean. Did you
make that PSU
shroud and interior
cover yourself?
Matt: Yep, it’s all made
from 3mm gloss white
Perspex, and involved
lots of measuring and
making templates. PC
cases are always full
of mesh and holes,
but I want a clean,
flush look, so I had
to hide it all. Gloss
Perspex was perfectan Eliwell controller and probe
to control the temperature, and
then resprayed the whole thing
in BBQ black and fitted an RGB
LED strip led to finish it off!
The refrigeration unit basically
cools a bath, and an internal pump
circulates the fluid from the bath
through the PC. It’s connected
using thick car hose and 14mm
push-fit fittings. A Y-splitter on
the inlet ensures that the CPU
and GPU both receive coolant at
the same temperature, and then
another Y-splitter is used to run a
single pipe back to the chiller. It’s
very quiet when it’s running – it’s
just like a normal fridge really.
There’s no radiator, reservoir or
pump in the case; it’s all handled
by the external chiller. This setup
also helps to keep down the
ambient temperature in the case.
For my next build, I’m going to
use a slightly bigger case and fit
the refrigeration equipment in
the bottom of it in a thermally
isolated compartment, making
a one-box refrigerated PC.