watercooling

Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 1:29 am

Just curious does anyone here watercool their PC? Or liquidN2 or anything? Would be interesting to see yer mods. It's something I've been considering on and off. Expensive, but effective both cooling wise and silent wise.

I also had an idea once of using propane or another gas for the "liquid" along with a compressor instead of a pump, but that would require some welding so it would be more work and require equipment that not everyone has.

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Death · Post by **Death** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 10:41 pm

Ya, I've heard of that kind of cooling in your pc. I've seen pictures of it before, I think it's a tube filled with water

. Ya, I agree that it would cool your system because water always ends up cooling off. The only thing though, too much pressure inside the case or if something goes wrong. I hope that the casing is strong enough or you'll spill water onto an active motherboard AND THAT WOULD SUCK

. I wouldn't try the design out until it's been updated. I don't know of anybody who would know how to install these things. Most people are into the fans and the heat sinks.

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 10:43 pm

Problem is that we can't get this stuff here, so only way to go is find a welding shop to make the heatsink block, then get some tubing at canadian tire and a pump, and use a tuperware for the water tank. (I'd use one of those huge ones and put fish in it

)

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Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Tue Jan 11, 2005 1:43 am

EEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKK Squirrel, don't put fish in the tank ROFL. You need to put additives in the distilled water to keep algae and bacteria from growing in the system and messing up the pump.

The systems I have seen here in the USA are quite simple and safe. Just be sure to water test and run the system for a couple of days before turning on the system. You can jump the power supply so you don't have to power up the mother board. Most systems run either 3/8 or 1/2" tubing, I don't know what that is in mm . Quite a few people use automobile hearer cores for radiators. Coolant should run from the pump to the radiator first because the pump adds a little heat, then to the CPU and on down the loop to the sump and back to the pump.

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rip_phreaker · Post by **rip_phreaker** » Thu May 05, 2005 10:48 pm

i personall am currently gathering materials to build my own pc cooling system i will list some basic steps and ideas on making one as cheap as possible:

tubing:i have some automotive pressure line tubing
radiator: automotive transmission fluid rad (mounted infront of large rad)
reservoir: windshield washer fluid tank w/ pump(pump is noisy and will buirn itself out)
pump: will be buying a fish tank submersible pump
block: u are gonna have to make this urself or i would suggest going online and buying (a lot safer) if u do make urself one be sure to make fins inside to slow water flow and induce more heat exchange, use copper for this it has the best conductivity
fluid:automotive coolant

make all this test before putting in computer for water tightedness
attach block to cpu using cotton thread and heatsink greese(go to any comp store i am sure they will have some they can sell ya)
connect it all upinside and there ya go a homemade water system saving ya a few hundred

$'s just does not come with controllers or anything

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Thu May 05, 2005 11:01 pm

Yeah something I should do. Don't really need it, but it would look cool in my case. Biggest issue is the block, I don't have the sophisticated equipment to make that. But I could always design it in autocad then give the design to someone who has a CAM machine and produce it. Or I can just get pure water and shove the whole case in it.

(pure water does not conduct electricity) But that would be very hard to find, if there's any left on this planet. Mineral oil would work too, but water would look cooler given my case is transparant. Hmm, I can seal the case, put the water IN it and just have it pump through a radiator and possibly a A/C compressor. Ohhhhh the posibilities ...of disaster.

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rip_phreaker · Post by **rip_phreaker** » Thu May 05, 2005 11:09 pm

omg, lol, you would still blow the processor out, any kind of debris would destroy it, plus the liquid would short out your wiring and u suddenly have a computer full of liquide being elctrified at either 5 or 12 volts

so it weould for sure blow ur comp up

try getting some copper sheathing (copper sheet metal) and building a box with a hammer, soldering iron, and some jbweld/locktite,or silicoln i would suggest numbers 1 or 2 tho then build the box to ur processor, solder in some fins to slow the flow of water, then seel it up, drill 2 holes in top and insert and solder piping to connect hosing to it

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Thu May 05, 2005 11:16 pm

Actually the problem with pure water is that it's an acid, very low acidity, but still would slowly eat up components, but I heard it's possible, but any slight contamination and you're screwed.

I don't think it's ever been done, only theorized. If it's been tried it probably did not go well.

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rip_phreaker · Post by **rip_phreaker** » Thu May 05, 2005 11:18 pm

u would also be needing a water-tight power supply and power cabling or else ZAP!!!!! lol, i cam up with a great idea of building a comp into a fishtank, with an lcd screen and all, do not have the

$ tho to do it but it would be amazing

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Thu May 05, 2005 11:21 pm

yeah would be cool. Having the screen right in the water too, in a certain angle you could see total internal reflection of the screen. Would be wicked. now that I think of it, there must be some liquids out there that look like water but don't conduct electricity. Glass maybe? Mold the whole thing into a block of glass. The components would not do well in the casting part though.

Would make a nice art peice, that's about it.

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rip_phreaker · Post by **rip_phreaker** » Thu May 05, 2005 11:25 pm

lol, i was thinking of recessing the side of glass to implant the screen and all components would be watertighted, it would be a working computer with LIVE fish inside, i like fishies they swim

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Streety · Post by **Streety** » Fri May 06, 2005 12:08 pm

You're all insane!

Computers filled with water or pumping explosive gas around your PC. The mind boggles!

Seriously though, if you're going subzero cooling I think you might be better using the freons you get in fridges and freezers rather than butane and propane. You would need to be careful about condensation on your pipes and cooling blocks though.

Pure water and acid? If my recollection of my chemistry modules is correct then pure water is almost by definition pH 7, sure it contains hydrogen ions / protons but it contains an exactly equal number of hydroxide ions as well.

The fish in the reservoir however sounds good, they would need to be tropical fish to be comfortable in the elevated temperatures and the reservoir would need to be fairly large so that the current isn't flowing too quickly but I don't see why it can't work. The fish would probably eat the algae and if not then I would assume that algae will be a problem for fish tanks as well and suitable algaecides will be available. It would be a nightmare moving your computer though.

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Fri May 06, 2005 12:23 pm

Yeah imagine bringing that to a lan party.

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Tom_it · Post by **Tom_it** » Fri May 06, 2005 10:04 pm

you can get water coling supplys at a lot of online stores in canada.. One of the better ones although not that cheap is bigfoot computers in toronto ... watercooling is a rahter simple thing to do but takes some planning and leak testing before you actually fully power up your computer..

Oh yes and I use a little more extereme cooling in my computer a prometia unit for cooling.. i can get a little more than 4.1 ghz 24/7 use for folding at a cpu load temperature of -26C heres a picture

Here's a picture of the unit when I got it and was testing it for no load temperature.. the front pannel displayed -55C

Oh and it didn't come with the lights or clear sides I added those to match the rest of the computer..

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rip_phreaker · Post by **rip_phreaker** » Fri May 06, 2005 10:09 pm

4.1 Ghz out of what? i am pulling 2.2 out of an amd sempron 2600+ (regular 1.8459 ghz) with just air cooling....till i can get my cooling system full funcyional...mind u i am running 3 blue lightning 80 mm's but besides that....

oh ya and the whole fishtank idea would be an actual fishtank with a water tight mobo placed inside with drive bays being cut into the tank and the monitor ressesed into the side...a lot of silicoln and lock tite:P oh ya and ziplock baggies....

and i did have one great site for any computer part...great section on computer parts... i think it was tigerdirect.ca....check it out they have everything for copper coil over heatsinks to socket a cooling blocks(so hard to find....)

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Tom_it · Post by **Tom_it** » Fri May 06, 2005 10:15 pm

The 4.1 ghz was out of a 3.0C I,ve since upgraded this computer to a 3.4C and put the 3.0C into another computer running Linux and it,s now overclocked to 3.6 ghz running Xandros 3 a linux os.. I,ve recently gone back to aircooling with the 3.4 because overclocked to 4.2 ghz with the prometeia all the time was just too hard on the mobos and i burned the power mosfets out of a couple so my prommie sits on the floor for now ... But maybe not for long.. I,ve got plans for it.. I overclock just about everthing so the 3.4 sits all day at 3.6 ghz also.. Both systems run 24/7 folding at home.. So I need 100% reliability..

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Fri May 06, 2005 10:16 pm

Nice! Is that compressor setup custom or is that something you can actually buy? I thought of setting up something similar but I'd have to get my cert or whatever to handle freon gas and other coolents. (there's another non polluting one widely used, I forget what it's called)

Hmm I got my first credit card not too long ago, so I can shop at tigerdirect and other places like that. They're actually cheaper then my wholesale suppliers. There's other suppliers too that require a credit card I'd have to check them out now that I got it. Gota love having a PST licence.

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Tom_it · Post by **Tom_it** » Fri May 06, 2005 10:20 pm

Yep thats a compressor set up and yes you can buy them the only real affordable ones you can get now are from Vapochill because the company that used to build the Mach series Nventi ( formerly chip-con ) is out of business.. That was a sad day for extreme cooling because they built some powerful compressor units that could remove 200 watts of heat and still remain below 0 C... There might still be some machs at Kit Tronics in Montreal thats were I got mine but beware of the Mach 1 it has isssues with motherboards that don't like being kept in reset for 2 minutes like newer asus boards..

The unit I have is a Mach II and has no such issues but it was expensive I paid close to $1,300 cdn with taxes and I think shipping was free.

Ryan if you want links to some forums I belong to that have large water cooling section pm me and i,ll send you a link..

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Fri May 06, 2005 10:27 pm

Cool [pun intended], something to consider when I feel like spending a nice amount of money.

Or I can get an old fridge and Do It Myself but might face problems in obtaining coolent. Probably safer and easier to buy a unit though.

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