Finally watercooled

Holst · #1 (**permalink**) 10th May, 2002, 06:54 PM

Yes thats right after months of planning mistakes and delays im finally watercooled.

For the buildup read this
Watercooling Adventure.

My current setup is

Eheim 1250 pump
Dangerden maze2 waterblock
Homemade radiator
Huge resevoire with wheels

Previously I was using thick hydrolic tubing but it wasnt flexible enough and I was worried about getting a good core contact so ive swiched to clear PVC stuff. Its still not all that great so ill soon be getting some silicone tubing.

Ive mounted the waterblock in a odd way as the standard mounting was awquard.
Ive fixed the nylon threaded to the waterblock then pushed it through the motherboard and fitted the springs to the bck of the board. This makes it much simpler to fit the block, although I had to hack a hole in my case to run it like this.

Temperatures so far seem on the high side but this 8k3a+ seems to read a bit high, plus my water was pre-warmed to avoid condenstation, i think i warmed it a bit too much.

Im running 170x10 at 1.9v and load temperature is 47*c

I did run 170x10.5 but it crashed during 3dmark (might have been the graphics overclock)

I havent dared to use very high voltages yet. This board will give me 2.2v but I dont want to rush in and damage something.

Ill post a few pics of the finished system, maybee you guys can suggest some improovements.

(I cant take any pics cause the camera is flat, will do i an hour)

Holst · #2 (**permalink**) 10th May, 2002, 09:08 PM

Heres a pic of the whole system.

The radiator sits on top of the case airflow is provided by two 120mm fans on the top of the case blowing air through the rad.
Im not sure if this is sufficent or not. Ill have to buy a thermomiter to measure water temperature. If its too far over ambient I may have to redesign my rad.

Holst · #3 (**permalink**) 10th May, 2002, 09:13 PM

Heres one from the side. You can see that the resevoire is pretty huge and the pump is submerged inside. Although submerging the pump will add some heat to the water, flow rate is increased as there is less inlet restriction and there is also no need to prime the pump.
Even with the pipes full of air the system self bleeds within a few seconds, with the force of the pump forcing any air from the pipes.
The res also has wheels, handy from moving it around when full of a ton of water, plus i think they look cool.

Holst · #4 (**permalink**) 10th May, 2002, 09:16 PM

Heres a picture of the waterblock from inside the case.
You can see that I have bolted the threaded nylon to the waterblock then pushed the rods through the motherboard putting the springs on that side.
This makes fitting the waterblock much easyer, and keeps the inside of the PC neater.

Holst · #5 (**permalink**) 10th May, 2002, 09:20 PM

This final pic shows the back of the motherboard with the nylon rods pertruding with the springs over them.
You can see that I had to hack a bit out of my case to make room.
One disadvantage is that I can no longer fit either side pannel, because of this my case temps have gone up from 22 to 27*c, mainly because there is less airflow through the case. And partly due to the chipset that gets very hot without a fan on it.

Thats quite enough from me for now, ill do an update some time to let you know If I have any problems or make any improovements.

The Spyder · #6 (**permalink**) 11th May, 2002, 12:24 AM

Nice job! Im trying to throw one together- infact i put together an old one i had

:-D :-D - its an aluminum block - punp w/ resivor and rad like urs- works great :-D
Spyder
Nice Job!

UpAllNight · #7 (**permalink**) 11th May, 2002, 10:43 AM

nice job Holst...whay dont u put your threaded rod (holding the maze 2 on ) in the other direction so your back panel will fit..
i know the pipes coming out of the maze 2 are close to one of the mounts but i have seen it done

as for hoses instead of silicon try Tygon(seems to be the rage)its clear and bends like silicon...u can get it at usplastics or mcmastercarr...the 1/2 x 3/4 has a 1 1/2 bend rad.

nice job though love the big tank of water

Holst · #8 (**permalink**) 11th May, 2002, 10:53 AM

I would like to use Tygon but in the UK it costs £10 per meter.
Too much to spend on tubing.

The reason I fitted the block that way was because the tubing got in the way of the windnuts and made it hard to fit the block. This way fitting an removing is much faster.

Ive added a 80mm fan ovr the chipset/memory thats sorted out the chipset overheating problem.

Its a hot day today and my case temperature is a whopping 31*c even with the fan over the chipset.

UpAllNight · #9 (**permalink**) 11th May, 2002, 10:58 AM

at hight voltages do u have a problem of the mosfets on your motherboard getting hot...on my on my 8kha+ it gets hot as hell between 2.0v and 2.1v

Holst · #10 (**permalink**) 11th May, 2002, 01:52 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by UpAllNight
at hight voltages do u have a problem of the mosfets on your motherboard getting hot...on my on my 8kha+ it gets hot as hell between 2.0v and 2.1v

I hadnt though of that.

They do look to be identical to the 8kha+

I think ill go to maplins tomorrow and buy a temperature probe, then I can measure the temperatures of everything and stick heatsinks on anything thats getting hot.

Holst · #11 (**permalink**) 4th June, 2002, 11:33 AM

Ive done a little more messing around today.

Im not running 171x10.5 1800mhz at 2.2v vcore

Temperature is a warm 48*c.

It was reaching 60*c before although i re-seated the block with a slightly changed mounting method today and it seems much better. leaving the nylon bolts loose in the block rather than tight seems to be giving me a better core contact.

Still no leaks and folding 24/7

Water temperature is a bit high (around 30*c) so i want to get a propper heatercore to repace my homemade rad, hopefully that will drop my temperatures further.

chazz469 · #12 (**permalink**) 4th June, 2002, 03:13 PM

Nice job!! Would it be possible to get better pics of the RAD? That thing looks pretty gnarly!!

Holst · #13 (**permalink**) 4th June, 2002, 05:02 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by chazz469
Nice job!! Would it be possible to get better pics of the RAD? That thing looks pretty gnarly!!

You could do but it dosent realy work very well.

Once i get some time im going to hunt out some copper heatercores to replace it.

chazz469 · #14 (**permalink**) 4th June, 2002, 05:10 PM

OK...I understand that it doesn't work the way you want it, but I curious to see what you did and would like some close-ups if that's OK?

The Spyder · #15 (**permalink**) 4th June, 2002, 06:34 PM

Theres a thread about that like 1 page back in this section- they work just ok- keeping romm temp-
Spyder

Holst · #16 (**permalink**) 4th June, 2002, 06:50 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by chazz469
OK...I understand that it doesn't work the way you want it, but I curious to see what you did and would like some close-ups if that's OK?

Sure.

Its made from 1/2" copper tubing ans soldered together with YORK solder 90* bends.
Its about 12cm wide and 35cm long and its made from about 3m of tube.
The wire wrapped around is copper earthing wire.
It was cheap to make, no less than £10, proabobly closer to £5.

It gets quite dusty but its not hard to clean.
The YORK solder fittings made soldering very easy, just plug them together with some flux and heat it.

Pics.

Holst · #17 (**permalink**) 4th June, 2002, 06:50 PM

And one more.

chazz469 · #18 (**permalink**) 4th June, 2002, 10:35 PM

Thanks. Interesting idea. I can see why it doesn't work that well, but I guess it must've taken you a while to make. It actually gives me an idea, for making one. Any idea if galvanized aluminum would make a difference in heat dissipation? (As opposed to non-galvanized)

Holst · #19 (**permalink**) 5th June, 2002, 07:07 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by chazz469
Thanks. Interesting idea. I can see why it doesn't work that well, but I guess it must've taken you a while to make. It actually gives me an idea, for making one. Any idea if galvanized aluminum would make a difference in heat dissipation? (As opposed to non-galvanized)

It only took me an afternoon to make.

The real problem with it is that its not got enough surface area.

If you look at commercial rads and heatercores they have large fins on them that increase the surface area allot, my wound wire is a poor substitute.

Id recomend those YORK fittings though, if you are making this sort of thing they are very easy to use.

Kaitain · #20 (**permalink**) 5th June, 2002, 07:25 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by chazz469
Thanks. Interesting idea. I can see why it doesn't work that well, but I guess it must've taken you a while to make. It actually gives me an idea, for making one. Any idea if galvanized aluminum would make a difference in heat dissipation? (As opposed to non-galvanized)

Not really. The zinc is in "perfect" contact (both electrically and thermally) with the aluminium, and the properties of the metal don't make anything like as much difference to the rate of heat flux as the temperature and velocity of the air.