The idea might seem strange, but it worked in practice. A YouTuber managed to convert a home ice machine into a cooling system for an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card, achieving results that surpassed traditional cooling systems in reducing temperatures.
The YouTuber, TrashBench, based his work on a previous experiment by Mr. Yeester, who used a similar machine to cool the CPU, before adapting the concept for the graphics card.
Before the modification, the card registered around 60 degrees Celsius while running Cyberpunk 2077, with the hotspot reaching approximately 75 degrees. However, simply running the ice machine normally wasn’t sufficient, as it operated intermittently with breaks and water refills.
To overcome this limitation, TrashBench added an external thermostat to keep the compressor running continuously and modified the internal evaporator to ensure the water within the cooling circuit remained consistently cool.
The experiment resulted in a noticeable decrease in the card’s temperature, but it also revealed practical challenges, most notably the condensation of water vapor around the electronic components due to the coolant’s temperature, which could potentially damage the computer.
While the experiment successfully demonstrated the feasibility of using an ice-making machine to cool the graphics card, it remains more of an experimental concept than a practical solution due to its complexity, energy consumption, and the risks associated with humidity. This makes commercially available liquid cooling systems the safest and most stable option for users.
