I’ve always wanted to flash freeze a strawberry. For those of you who reside in Johannesburg, you may get to fulfil your flash freezing fetish if you play your (graphics) cards right. If you’ve ever wanted to do other things with Liquid Nitrogen, say, cool a CPU as close to Kelvin as possible, then Rebeltech has something cool to show you.
Rebeltech will be hosting an open Overclocking Workshop that will be catering for all levels of skill. From novice to experienced, Rebeltech are offering PC enthusiasts the ability to master their craft, or simply learn the basics of overclocking. From air and water cooling all the way to dabbling in the dark insulated arts of LN2 overclocking.
I got hold of the person doing the workshop Oj0 (Jonathan) to get a few more details about what potential Workshoppers can expect. First off, people wont be thrown into the Liquid Nitrogen deep end. The workshops will progress from demoing air-cooled overclocking, reaching those limits, and then seeing what difference adding a bit of LN2 can do for pushing hardware further. LN2 overclocking is not simply pouring freezing liquid onto silicon, but involves special techniques and tricks to manage the by-product of trying to reach Kelvin—condensation. So, the art of insulating your components will also be taught, something not many locals have much experience with, so it’s a great opportunity to learn.
For those wondering about the hardware on hand, Oj0 confirmed that a Gigabyte Z170 board will be used, as well as high-end Corsair memory—so people will be using some of the best hardware they might never have the sweet pleasure of using before. As for GPU, that is still to be decided as of yet.
For people interested, the event will be hosted every 2nd Wednesday of the month at 6:00PM in Fourways, with only five spots per session—so get booking now at sales@rebeltech.co.za. If you’re curious about it at all you can see what’s in store for you at rAge 2016 since Rebeltech will be doing some demo OC Workshops at rAge—these is the sort of machine you can expect to see at their stand.
EDIT 04/10/2016: An earlier version of this article specified that an LN2 Gigabyte Z170 SOC-Force LN2 motherboard and special Corsair memory would be used. I’ve been informed that due to unforeseen circumstances, another Gigabyte Z170 board will be used as well as regular Corsair memory.
Last Updated: September 23, 2016
Original Heretic
September 23, 2016 at 15:41
Wow, my inner science geek is raging and at the same time very unimpressed. .
All the computer stuff aside, saying that they’re after Kelvin cooling is just about the same as saying they Fahrenheit cooling. Kelvin is merely another scale of measuring temperature. Scientifically speaking, it’s the base unit that physicists and chemists use to measure temperature, it’s the SI unit.
0 degrees celsius = 273.15 Kelvin.
Saying that they were after Absolute Zero levels of cooling would have been impressive, that being 0 Kelvin. That’s as cold as we know as humans. That’s why the Kelvin scale doesn’t come in negatives.
Though I have read somewhere that some okes in a lab somewhere somehow managed to cool a gas to negative Kelvin, something was only attained in a laboratory a few years back (quick Google search confirms it was 2013).
If they’re using liquid nitrogen, that ranges in temperature between 63K (Kelvin) and about 77K.
Marco
September 23, 2016 at 16:59
Kelvin levels of cooling has a bit of a better ring than Fahrenheit levels of cooling. From my physics days I do recall using Kelvin as a unit of measurement for absolute zero, i.e, negative Celsius–i.e, below zero degrees Celsius i.e, it’s a joke using an alliterative sounding phrase to tie into the idea about sub-zero cooling 😛
If you are interested in close to absolute zero levels of cooling, might I interest you in Liquid Helium benchmarking. Around 4 K according to my google-fu
Original Heretic
September 26, 2016 at 08:16
Yeah, the lighter the element, the colder you have to get for the liquid form thereof.
Jeez, using liquid Helium must cost a bit. The equipment required to produce it doesn’t come cheap.
And yeah, Kelvin cooling does sound better than Fahrenheit cooling. My gripe with these guys is that it’s just a cool sounding term, it doesn’t actually make a difference to the product at all.
Marketing used to pull the wool over the eyes of the less informed.
Marco
September 26, 2016 at 10:37
I was the one who coined the phrase, not the people who are hosting the workshop. Also, there is no product being advertised: it’s a free (for now) workshop.
chimera_85
September 23, 2016 at 16:04
Hahaha damn I thought it would be something simple like fans or general like knowing that you have the right PSU, GPU and CPU for the job, frakking liquid nitrogen O_o
Marco
September 23, 2016 at 17:04
Yeah, i am pretty bummed I live so far away 🙁