Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: 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.
-
sounds like too much work to me.
-
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.
(http://www.worldcichlids.com/gallerys/gallery2/pics/tank_pics_003.jpg)
-
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.
-
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.
-
Gotta ask these questions at the HardOCP fourms chief.
http://www.hardocp.com
Personally, I think it will work.
-
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.
-
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 .
-
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
-
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/
-
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.:D 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....:rofl
-
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.:D 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....:rofl
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.
-
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 :D
-
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 :D
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. :aok
-
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.
(http://www.worldcichlids.com/gallerys/gallery2/pics/tank_pics_003.jpg)
he truly sleeps with the fishes
-
Why not just duct your air conditioning unit to the case and bundle up in the wintertime? LOL
-
Originally posted by DREDIOCK
Why not just duct your air conditioning unit to the case and bundle up in the wintertime? LOL
the winter is not a problem, we do bundle up...I prefer the cold to sauna like heat, unfortunately it's coming into summer & Arkansas summers are nothing nice.
I did think about running a duct to the intake on my PC from the A/C. We have central air & the vents are in the ceiling so it would be a chore & the condensation would be a nightmare. I just want to keep the CPU & GPU as close to room temperature as possible...not lower than room temperature & do it on the cheap while getting to build something out of parts to boot. I'd get a peltier if I wanted to *chill* them.
I...like most men, like to tinker with stuff I used to take mowers & bicycles apart like most boys when I was younger & I never grew out of it :D
-
What about those litle portable units. And place it very near, but not connected directly to. your PC.
Or since you lie to tinker.
Design an ultra mini AC
which reminds me.
in asmuch as I have 3 cats and two dogs that shed an absurd amount of hair and dander and because of this I am regularly havintg to take the PC apart, blow/vacume it out
Ive been toying with the idea of making and placing miniature air filters in front of my PC case fans.
that way I can just change the filers every so often as opposed to always having to vacume out the fans and open up the case to clean inside.
Anyone ever consider/try this?
-
What about filtration ?? Fish tank water isn't exactly clean and small bore tubing in the cooling block would easily block with fish crap. ??
-
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.
(http://www.worldcichlids.com/gallerys/gallery2/pics/tank_pics_003.jpg)
A oscar and a chiclid. Anything else?
-
I use 3M scotch-brite as filters Dred because I also have long haired shedding animals in the house.
A oscar and a chiclid. Anything else?
That's an old picture, I had an Oscar, a Green Terror, a Jack Dempsey, two large Pacu (left side in back behind & below the Oscar), a large Plecostamus & an African Cichlid someone gave me (took it as a rescue).
I had an experiment going with an external filter idea & I had a hose burst on me draining the tank while I was gone to work & killed all but the two pacu, the Oscar & the Pleco.
The Pacu subsequently went on a tear one day & ate the glass thermometer off the side of the tank & the foot long Pleco. So now all I have in there are the two Pacu & the Oscar. The Pacu are both about 21" long & the Oscar is around 13"
What about filtration ?? Fish tank water isn't exactly clean and small bore tubing in the cooling block would easily block with fish crap. ??
Nah; I could remove the water post filtration instead of pre-filtration, I would only have to worry about bacteria & algae build-up & that would take quite some time if I exposed the water to a U.V. light source. Still not a real good idea as the bacteria would eventually build up to a point where it would need cleaned out. The other downside is the water would be much more conductive than distilled water would be & if I sprung a leak it could ruin PC parts.
Roscoroo had some good points, putting the radiator in the large tank & using distilled water & water wetter inparticular. As long as I didn't form a leak & poison my fish it'd be cool.
-
Originally posted by Brenjen
That's an old picture, I had an Oscar, a Green Terror, a Jack Dempsey, two large Pacu (left side in back behind & below the Oscar), a large Plecostamus & an African Cichlid someone gave me (took it as a rescue).
I had an experiment going with an external filter idea & I had a hose burst on me draining the tank while I was gone to work & killed all but the two pacu, the Oscar & the Pleco.
The Pacu subsequently went on a tear one day & ate the glass thermometer off the side of the tank & the foot long Pleco. So now all I have in there are the two Pacu & the Oscar. The Pacu are both about 21" long & the Oscar is around 13"
Nah; I could remove the water post filtration instead of pre-filtration, I would only have to worry about bacteria & algae build-up & that would take quite some time if I exposed the water to a U.V. light source. Still not a real good idea as the bacteria would eventually build up to a point where it would need cleaned out. The other downside is the water would be much more conductive than distilled water would be & if I sprung a leak it could ruin PC parts.
Roscoroo had some good points, putting the radiator in the large tank & using distilled water & water wetter inparticular. As long as I didn't form a leak & poison my fish it'd be cool.
Very nice. We just started up our 45 gallon again with freshwater. We took a few year break after the old stand it was on in our past house let go. Putting a large hole in the wall 45 gallons of salt-water on the rug and alot of nie fish and oother goodies. Right now we have soem very large angelfish, a small eel about the size of a large earthworm, a large leaf-fish, some small catfist, and a farowella. Next purchase may be a small knife-fish.