Author Topic: I've been toying with the idea of... (Read 605 times)

Brenjen · « **on:** May 13, 2006, 12:57:39 PM »

...building my own water-cooler setup for my P/C.

I am posting this because I have a 360gallon (U.S.) fresh water aquarium in the same room as my P/C & I was looking at aquarium heaters & P/C water coolers when the thought hit me "I should use one of the pumps I have laying around to build my own CPU & GPU cooler."

I wouldn't think I would need a radiator, it takes along time for 360 gallons of water to heat up, I'm thinking all I would need is the water blocks & the tubing to & from them to the pump.

What do you guys think?

By the way I have zero P/C water cooling experience, only what I've read.

Furball · « **Reply #1 on:** May 13, 2006, 12:59:27 PM »

sounds like too much work to me.

Brenjen · « **Reply #2 on:** May 13, 2006, 01:00:23 PM »

Here's a picture of my tank also, since I know the AH crowd is a bunch of "see it to believe it" folks like I am.

rpm · « **Reply #3 on:** May 13, 2006, 01:07:41 PM »

It doesn't sound that hard to build one, but you better have water tight integrity. Just one drop of leakage or condensation could fry the whole thing.

Brenjen · « **Reply #4 on:** May 13, 2006, 01:14:03 PM »

Yeah I'm thinking I could just buy the water blocks, not try my hand at fabricating one.

I think condensation would only be a problem if the water block was a lot cooler than the ambient temps. but I do live in a state where the humidity gets near or to 100% often so it might be a hurdle to overcome.

I suppose I could put a piece of neoprene & coat the surface that's not in contact with or cunducting through T.I.M. with dialectric grease like one would do for a peltier set-up.

Wolfala · « **Reply #5 on:** May 13, 2006, 01:49:29 PM »

Gotta ask these questions at the HardOCP fourms chief.

http://www.hardocp.com

Personally, I think it will work.

Brenjen · « **Reply #6 on:** May 13, 2006, 01:52:01 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Wolfala
Gotta ask these questions at the HardOCP fourms chief.

http://www.hardocp.com

Personally, I think it will work.

Why? You people have opinions too. There are some techie's that play AHII & the O'club is for off topic general blabbering.

Edit: I know about hardocp, I have read all over the net about water cooling a P/C, I even saw one where the entire tower WAS a fish tank lol I just wondered what some of you thought.

Roscoroo · « **Reply #7 on:** May 13, 2006, 04:14:32 PM »

ive build my own (4 total so far)

yes , some aquarium pumps are the same as the pc pumps and ussually 10-20% cheaper .. as for using fish tank water id say no ..(but you could put the radiator in the fish tank and eliminate its fan i bet )

i use a oil cooler or small heater core /motorcycle radiator .
set up a 1/2 gallon resevoir tank . and machine my own heat sinks .. i use only distilled water and a pint of water wetter .. but its not really worth the hassle to build them anymore as for you can get a good h2o set up for under 120.00 .

Remember you still need airflow thru your case to keep other stuff cool though
( AE MB buss , caps, hd's, video card , cd burner ect )

condensation was a small problem here .. but ive learned to leave the heat (65 F )on in my pc room at work and havent had any problems for 2+ yrs .
the best trick is to route the cpu hoses away and down then out the lowest corner of the case and down again that lets any condensation run down the hose and away from the criticals ... my cpu block never condensates but my hoses have befor especially when ive got the res in the Ice chest and going for the crazy extreame Over clocks .

Brenjen · « **Reply #8 on:** May 13, 2006, 06:45:42 PM »

Temps in my house rarely get below 74F & are usually around 80F or higher. As far as the $120 price tag for a pre-built system...lol, I was thinking I could build one myself for the price of a couple water blocks & some tubing.

I have good case air flow, two 120mm exhaust fans (not counting the 2 on the P/S) & an 80mm vantec tornado intake - ducted & blowing on the CPU & a modified little hard drive cooler set up with two tiny fans blowing in on my PCI slots.

This is what Everest Home reports my Temps are at this moment with my A/C off in my house, ambient temps in my room are 87F & my case fans on 50%:

Motherboard 40 °C (104 °F)
CPU 39 °C (102 °F)
GPU 45 °C (113 °F)
Hard Drive 37 °C (99 °F)

So I really don't need it, it's more of a putt around & tinker with some junk I have laying around:aok

Edit: By the way; thanks for the information Roscoroo That water wetter sounds interesting

Gunslinger · « **Reply #9 on:** May 13, 2006, 06:54:52 PM »

I saw an interesting setup where the PC case was like a sealed polycarbonate and the entire case was filled with a nonconductive oil. Pretty slick setup (no pun intended) I bet it'd be hell to clean up if it ever leaked.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/01/09/strip_out_the_fans/

Brenjen · « **Reply #10 on:** May 13, 2006, 08:38:51 PM »

Yeah, I've seen the oil submerged systems before...I'm not too sure about dunking a couple thousands dollars worth of PC into oil.

Call me paranoid, but I'd rather take my chances with bacterial & algae growth from fish tank water.

I'm sure the oil submersion works, but I wondered about the need to circulate the oil. It seems as though the thicker liquid not moving, would serve to insulate the components after the critical ammount of heat built up.

I think I'll just pick up some parts here & there & throw a liquid cooled system together; I have a good radiator & pumps, all I would need to buy is the tubing & water blocks. It's too bad there is no permafrost in Arkansas....

Gunslinger · « **Reply #11 on:** May 13, 2006, 09:20:31 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Brenjen
Yeah, I've seen the oil submerged systems before...I'm not too sure about dunking a couple thousands dollars worth of PC into oil. Call me paranoid, but I'd rather take my chances with bacterial & algae growth from fish tank water.

I'm sure the oil submersion works, but I wondered about the need to circulate the oil. It seems as though the thicker liquid not moving, would serve to insulate the components after the critical ammount of heat built up.

I think I'll just pick up some parts here & there & throw a liquid cooled system together; I have a good radiator & pumps, all I would need to buy is the tubing & water blocks. It's too bad there is no permafrost in Arkansas....

The ASR-8 Airport Survailance Radar used by alot of ATC has an oil tank coold klystron in it's transmitter. That klystron generates a 500,000 Watt pulse from a 28,000 volt powersupply. Those things operate 24/7 so I think a P/C would do fine in oil.......as long as it's none conductive.

Brenjen · « **Reply #12 on:** May 13, 2006, 09:35:52 PM »

I don't know how a 500,000 watt, 28,000 volt "what-cha-madoodle" equates to a P/C. Do they share common components? If you had said "the old Dodge power ram" instead of the Zyklon-B thing you would have been on my level -lol. I have no idea what you are refering too...I know what radar is, after that you lost me

Gunslinger · « **Reply #13 on:** May 14, 2006, 08:57:36 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Brenjen
I don't know how a 500,000 watt, 28,000 volt "what-cha-madoodle" equates to a P/C. Do they share common components? If you had said "the old Dodge power ram" instead of the Zyklon-B thing you would have been on my level -lol. I have no idea what you are refering too...I know what radar is, after that you lost me

It was more or less in relation to you saying you wouldn't trust your components under oil. In not so many words I was saying that it's very common and efficient.

icemaw · « **Reply #14 on:** May 14, 2006, 11:18:51 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Brenjen
Here's a picture of my tank also, since I know the AH crowd is a bunch of "see it to believe it" folks like I am.

he truly sleeps with the fishes