Hooray for water cooling!

[speedracer95v6]

After two days of fabrication, case reinforcement, etc. (we weren't in a hurry), I built the water cooling system for my computer that my friend designed. We used an innovatek water block (solid copper core with aluminum outer) and adapted it to 3/8ths clear tubing. Then we ran that to a small water pump, from there to a PVC reservoir, then passed the water into an old heater core, then back into the waterblock on the processor.

Today I added about a cup of prestone quick fill 50/50 antifreeze mix and I hope that will help keep algae from growing in the system. All the fittings are tightened with hose clamps and there are no leaks. Hopefully there will be none.

As for cooling performance, I went from a usual 55-65 degree celsius processor core temperature to a much nicer 30-34 degree celsius processor core temperature. The computer hasn't had any freezing at all since this was implemented, and it runs so much better than before.

My original heatsink/fan combo that came with the board and processor was apparently too small, so I had to so something, thus here we are! (I repainted my case, painted the heater core, and painted the reservoir to match..it's kind of a dark beige/almond color.)

The system, radiator side.
The water block.
The pump.
Fan side view of radiator.
Reservoir side view.

[andrew.brandon]

WTF are you running on that thing that needs a liquid cooling systen? A stolen pentium 7 or something?


[img]graemlins/rofl.gif[/img] j/k

[hawgs]

at first I thought you were talking about a new cooling system for your car and I thought you were really cool... then I opened the pictures and saw a computer and realized youre just a computer guy.

[MustangEater8251]

Cool setup...

but to warn you...

The antifreeze will not stop algae growth.

Bigger projectors at my work have a water cooling system for the lightbulb. We use a mixture of antifreeze and distilled water. only reasn we use antifreeze makes it more obvious if the pump is working or not since the lines are not constantly full, they will drain if the pump isn't on.

2 weeks ago during a proector maintenance day we had to dump out and clean the algae out of the hoses and resovoirs...h

Just add a teenie bit of bleach with clorine(like 2-6 ozs) and you shoudl be fine.

[MustangEater8251]

BTW I do want to point out, that you coudl ahve painted your computer all kinds of cool colors yet you repainted it the ugly nasty normal computer color.

[andrew.brandon]

lol

[speedracer95v6]

Originally posted by MustangEater8251:
BTW I do want to point out, that you coudl ahve painted your computer all kinds of cool colors yet you repainted it the ugly nasty normal computer color.

Yeah I thought about that after the paint was already drying. The friend that designed the setup was telling me the exact same thing..lol.

I might paint it blue or something, but it is likely I'll just leave it as is...cause I'm lazy.

The bleach won't hurt my lines/o rings/pump will it?

EDIT: I also run distilled water/antifreeze.

[MustangEater8251]

I am 75.4% sure it won't do anything...

reason why I say that... because I don't think it will and I woudl do it but I don't wanna give you wrong advice and srping a leak onto your motherboard. Espeicially since I have no clue waht you are using to do this. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[speedracer95v6]

Yeah I would rather not spring a leak on my system either..lol. I sent a message to prestone asking about their antifreeze properties.

My system is a an ahtlon xp 2600+ (333mhz bus), 512MB heat shimmed pc2700 ram, 120gb hard drive, geforce4 mx420(i'm into number crunching and it plays my games just fine), blah blah blah.

I would be sad to lose it (at least before next spring when I build yet another one...).

[98Camaro3.8]

Wow, that was running really hot before! My 3000+ idles at 40°C with a cheap OCZ Gladiator fan. My old 2000+ with a Volcano 7 never went over 40, even under load.

[bobrules]

[img]graemlins/rock.gif[/img] Very cool, way better to DIY than pay 200+$ for some poorly engineered premade kit.

[Everglades W68]

That's way too much into home computer-dom for my tastes. If my computer ever starts running too hot, I'll just blast it with a can of compressed air. If that does not work, a cold beer should do the trick.

[chas]

you should consider dexcool. nothing will grow in it.

[Justin Kirkham]

You could also find something with sulfur in it, such as an anti-fungal spray at a gardening store, and put some of that in the lines. Living creatures and sulfur don't mix too well..

-Justin

P.S. This includes humans, but don't worry.

[kamarozrule]

Originally posted by chas:
you should consider dexcool. nothing will grow in it.

:rolleyes: [img]graemlins/rofl.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/rofl.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/rofl.gif[/img]