DIY Water Cooling Rig

[JALOOS]

Am setting up my own water cooling seup and am taking some ideas from your posts. They have been quite informative and I thank you for the input. I am going a little further with my project as I work in a metal fab shop and materials are really not a problem to get. My resevior ia a 20 inch long piece of 8 inch aluminum pipe with a wall thickness of quarter inch. The pipe is welded to a quarter inch piece of aluminum plate which will serve as the bottom of the resevior and the base for the pump and rad. I have made it just tall enough to fit under my desk. I will keep you posted with pics and the results as I get them. Here is a few picks of the start.

 

[JALOOS]

Well all finished. Managed to get a water block for the CPU still waiting on one for the VPU. The thing works excellent. I added a temp sensor in the tank and with the controls I can run any part of it with or without the comp running. I ended up cutting the tank down another 3 inches to acomodate the wheels I put on so I can pull it out from under the desk .The total volume of the system is now 4 gallons. My temps under full load now only hit my idle temps from before. Gotta love it. Here are some pics of the finished unit:

LETS ME KNOW WHAT YA THINK !!!!

 

[JALOOS]

Afetr runnin this rig for a week or so I have some results. Compared to my XP-90 HS that was on my CPU this unit is far more efficient. My Idle temps run from 28 to 31 C compared to 33 to 41 C. The max load temps are sitting at around 36 to 40 C compared to 40 to 55 C. I have noticed that the ambient air temps are not nearly as influential as they were with the air cooling and that the recovery to idle temps is almost instnt and very little lag time in idle temp recovery. The large res tank keeps these temps for the day and it does take alot of running full out to raise the CPU temp by even a couple of degrees at idle. I havn't yet gotten a block for my GPU and I am sure the addition of this will change this somewhat and I will let you know.
The galvanic reaction that I was worried about seems to have been taken care of with a 50/50 mix of distilled water and antifreeze as I drained the tank and found no signs as I did with the test runs with just plain water. I used a couple of tablespoons of liquid dish soap as a "water wetter" and within minutes of adding it the little bubbles that collect inside the lines just disapeared. I have noticed no smell so bacteria hasn't become a problem yet but in the event that it does I will be testing a few tablespoons of bleach in the mix as well (or PINESOL LOL).

 

[JALOOS]

Well goter (no thanks to the suplier) LOL
Some Picks Below :

 

[JALOOS]

Well doesn't look like my soldered bolts held out. Guess one decided to let go last night. Good thing my comp wasn't on all night. LOL Found out the next morning and yes boys and girls these cards can get 113c. Cards ok though major fast shut down. Managed to find some of the elusive 4-40 rod (made of pure unobtainium LOL) so all is better.

 

[wazzledoozle]

Very nice
Great overclock for the 6600GT also

 

[wtf8269]

Holy shit dude that thing is crazy! You could cool a frickin' motorcycle with that thing!

 

[spectre440]

try more along the lines of a main battle tank... lol


very nice though.
very very nice.

 

[Deleted member 3]

It's huge indeed. How much power does that monster waste? How noisy is it?

 

[JALOOS]

Actually the only difference in power between this and any other watercooling setup is the fan> As this one is a 120 volt fan vs a 12 volt fan I am assuming it will draw more power. I think the fan and pump together run in the range of 40 watts or less. As far as noise, if I can still hear my casee fans then it's not too noisy for me. The fan doesn't have to be run all the time either as this volume of water and the fact that the res is made from aluminum don't require the fan to run untill the water gets warm enough. Without the fan this this is dead quiet, not a peep.

 

[zAAm]

Does it cool better when you run the fan like that to suck air through the radiator? And excellent job! Not even requiring to use a fan, that's way cool...

 

[JALOOS]

Actually when I made the rad box I never thought of sucking the air through the rad, it is still pushing the air through rad. Maybe one day here I wil turn the fan blade over and see if it will work better sucking the air through.

 

[djbbenn]

Very nice. Its like a...reactor cooler.

-Dan

 

[zAAm]

For a moment there I figured the fan would spin anti-clockwise given the blade's form but guess I was mistaken...

 

[intel igent]

man jaloos these pics are starting to pop up all over the place

once again excellent job

shout out to all the canadians/biggie forum members in the house

 

[DR.Death]

nice case i dont like the pipes runing evey wear but what can u do so good job keep it up

 

[JALOOS]

Hey paid good money for the glowing cables LOL. Not going to try and hide em if they look good.

 

[DR.Death]

i get your point but it is not my stile

 

[djbbenn]

I would hate to have to drag that to a lan party. But imagine what people would say when you showed up with that lol.

-Dan

 

[W1zzard]

wow that looks impressive

 

[mikechinym]

that's cool!