Water Colling system - How much?

To go along with "YD" comments, a little extra information can be found on
my small web site at # . You will find
some thermal facts and conversion formulae there, as well as a worked
example for calculating heat transport by forced water convection and for
calculating heat transport by forced air conduction.

If you are the do-it-yourself-or-die type, then these suggestions may help.

#1. The only the water block area that contacts the thermal transfer
surface of the CPU must be a good conductor of heat. In fact, it is better
if the rest of the water block is an insulator. The contact surface should
be as thin as possible; just thick enough to be rigid and remain flat to
give good contact. Though this metal surface is so small that even silver
would cost very little, the gain would be too small to be worth even a few
extra dollars (unless you know a friendly silversmith that could cut a 1/16"
square or rectangle of the correct size; the silver content would be worth
less than $5 US. Copper might even be better since it is more rigid, and
could be made thinner, thus having a lower thermal resistance than a very
slightly thicker slice of silver. I'm not familiar with the AMD thermal
transfer surfaces, so I don't know how big they are (if you know a location
for this information in the AMD web site, please let know.) I do know that
a US silver dime (pre 1966 or so, when all the silver coins were replaced
with combinations of base metal) would be large enough for an Intel
"coppermine" FC-PGA type CPU; a little work with a flat file, then lap 'til
you get a mirror finish. [ In fact, I think I'll drop by a coin shop
tomorrow. I'll post the cheapest price I find for dimes and quarters; for
our purposes, Very Poor Condition is best - lest work with the file. ] I've
made a few water blocks with Plexiglas?? (Lucite?? and acrylic are the same
thing), milling out and shaping the cavity, then drilling and tapping for
the barbed fittings for the water tubes. If you don't have a milling
machine, gluing up a block with 1/4" Plexiglas?? should work well (use a
double thickness for the side that you will drill and tap for the water tube
fittings.) The glue used is a solvent for acrylic, and actually welds the
pieces together (the mating edges must be flat, smooth, an parallel.) The
joints are very strong, but if you want an extra measure of safety, you
could jump up to 5/16" or 3/8" acrylic, use Marine Goop as the sealant, and
drill and tap holes for 6-32 machine screws. The entire water block need be
no thicker than 1", and the volume containing water need be no larger than
necessary for good circulation and easy installation of the tube fittings.
A partition forcing the water issuing from one tube to pass over the heat
transfer surface before exiting from the other tube is necessary, but you
can try all sorts of ideas to accomplish this task. You can see a lot of
over-complicated schemes at web sites that sell water blocks, as well as
some simple, effective designs. Most, at least the last time I looked three
months ago, show little understanding of heat transport by forced fluid
convection. The retaining clips can be salvaged from your current heatsink
(this kind of water block is considerably lighter than any heatsink.)

#2. The most commonly used pump is a magnetic impeller aquarium pump with
only one moving part. Price, $15 to $75 US, but there is really nothing to
go wrong with such a simple pump. All the seals are O-rings, and there is
no friction effecting any seals; actually, there is really no friction
affecting ANYTHING in the pump. Just get one with sufficient pumping
capacity and forget the brand name. They are likely all made by one factory
in inland China and shipped to Hong Kong for labeling, boxing, and
transshipment. After all, in aquariums, expensive fish DIE if the pump
fails. In a CPU cooling arrangement, if you use a monitoring application
like MotherBoard Monitor, you get an alarm and the system shuts down. Any
price over $30 US means you did not look long enough, someone sold you a
pump that could have extinguished the London Fire, or you are a belt AND
suspenders man (or, well, I can't think of an equivalent phrase for women;
raincoat AND umbrella? ...mace and hat-pin?) The magnetic impeller will
not develop much pressure, but you can find one to move whatever volume of
water you require. The pumps are usually rated at maximum head; that is,
the maximum height to which they can pump water (and that would be a zero
volume.) Head is not a problem for a closed system because at no point is
it open to atmospheric pressure. Your radiator could be ten feet above your
water block, and your pump could be five feet below the water block, and
have a rating of a maximum head of 2 feet. If the system is closed, and the
tubes and fittings allow free circulation, the height differences will have
no effect. If, on the other hand, you have an open reservoir, this system
will not work, and all the water in the system that is higher than the
reservoir will immediately drain into the reservoir. Keeping everything
near the same level at the beginning will make it much easier to completely
fill the system with water; a Tee with a valve, connected to a container
higher than the rest of the system will fill it. The pump should be at the
lowest point, so that it is always primed. Even though this will be an open
system as you fill it, the fact that the container (open to atmospheric
pressure) is at the highest point ensures that the pump will not be working
against any head caused by height differences. Just keep adding water until
you see no air bubbles in the transparent tubing (with the pump operating.)

#3. After you have cooled the CPU, the water will be slightly warmer that
when it entered the water block (only a degree or so C.) You will have to
cool it back down. Using a radiator, the best you can do is to return the
water to ambient room temperature (or if you live in a cold climate, you can
hang the radiator out the window B^) - unfortunately that does not help much
in South Florida - right now it is 10:45 PM and the temperature is 82 F (28
degrees C.)

For a radiator, you can buy from a water cooling web site and get a neat,
small radiator that can be cooled with two 6" fans. Fans and radiator,
maybe $75 to $100 US

Or you can buy a automobile heater core or auxiliary transmission cooler new
from a parts store for $50 US and use a $5 US, 10" AC powered box fan to
move air (and these fans usually have two speeds.)

Or you can go to a automobile junkyard and get an engine radiator for $5 to
$25 dollars. You can use a radiator that is worthless for rebuilding for
automotive usage because your system will be operating at a pressure of one
or two PSI, while for automotive use, the radiator must handle 25 to 35 psi.
You just need something that a few dozen spots of Marine Goop will fix.
Bargain hard. Crumpled fins and dented tanks are ok. This radiator is
major overkill; figure that half the power generated by a gasoline internal
combustion engine leaves by way of the radiator - that's perhaps 60 HP for a
Ford V-8 at 80 mph; 60 HP = 45,000 watts of heat. While it is true that the
80 mph air flow helps, and the 140 F ( 78 degrees C) temperature
differential helps, you've still got a lot of extra capacity. In fact, you
may be able to use passive convective air cooling, and eliminate fans
completely. Or you could buy a 20" box fan (AC) for under $20 US (and these
fans usually have three speeds.)

Let's see; that's water block, pump, radiator, and perhaps a fan. What else
do we need?

Aha! Tubing and fittings. Flexible vinyl plastic, clear tubing is good
between - 20 F ( - 30 degrees C) and 160 F ( 71 degrees C ). A small inside
diameter tube is more flexible, but offers more resistance to the flow of
water. In addition, the fittings are inserted inside the tubing, so that is
a further restriction. I've used 1/2" O.D., 3/8" I.D. tubing; nice flow,
but a little bulky. I've used 3/8" O.D., 1/4" I.D. tubing; if it were not
for the inserted fittings, this might be ideal, but you might need higher
pressure than a magnetic impeller pump can deliver. Now I've REALLY, REALLY
tried to use 1/4" O.D. tubing. It is very flexible, and there is a whole
universe of fittings; Luher fittings, the same series of fittings used for
IV drips, syringes, and other biochemical purposes. They are dirt cheap,
easy to install and remove, and a variety of valves are available. You just
can not get enough water through the fittings. A few cc's of antibiotic may
save a life, but they won't cool your CPU. I keep hoping; I may try a high
pressure system. In the meantime, do you want any Luher fittings? I've got
hundreds, and can make you a real deal B^)

So, best bet for the do-it-yourselfer, and others who tend toward
self-surgery:

1/2 " O.D., 3/8" I.D. vinyl tubing; too much is better than too little, 20'
at about $6 US.

3/8" barbed fittings plastic or brass, straight or right angle; go for the
plastic, cheaper and does not corrode. Right angle or straight, depending on
the orientation of your CPU and other internal parts, under $2 US each for
the brass fittings, under $1 US each for the plastic fittings.

A few additional fittings and some moldable, waterproof epoxy clay to adapt
the pump and radiator inlets and outlets to the 1/2" O.D. tubing ($5 US for
the fittings, $4 US for the epoxy.)

A Tee barbed fitting for filling the system with water and an in-line valve
if you want to be neat; under $2 US for a plastic barbed Tee, and somewhere
around $5 US for an in-line valve, depending on what you can find.

The butcher's bill for the do-it-yourselfer will depend on how handy you
are, what you have on hand, and how hard you work. If you make your own
water block, get a reasonably priced pump, and repair a really junky
automotive radiator that does not require a ...
read more »

...

Kewl, I'll give it a go then!

--
BaBs, webmaster of BaBs-World.com

ICQ: 43742227
b@babs-world.com


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I've got an 1133 T-Bird AVIA(old stepping) that ran really hot(60c) with an all
copper heatsink and screaming loud Delta when it's overclocked to 1400 then
crashes.
I don't know exactly what temp it runs at now because taking temps with a
water cooler in the usual way is even more inaccurate the wth an air cooler.
But It doesn't freeze up anymore and afterafter playing a heavy 3D game MBM
shows 44C.
And the best part is,it's pretty quiet!! Even with 2 120mm JMC stealth fans on
the radiator,a 90mm intake and an 80mm exhaust.Plus the kit will work on my
next upgrade too.There are better kits available and you could probably do
better piece by piece but the kit's are easy.Dawg

right, I've had a look, it seems pretty cool. What's yor set-up? What sort
of temp difference did you get?

If you buy a kit,probably around $130.00-$175.00. Mine was $135 from
waterchill.com for a basic setup.
You might find the parts cheaper if you do some research and assemble it
yourself. For example, Some people have used transmission coolers from a
junkyard as radiators, or made their own reservoir/pump with tupperware and a
fishtank pump. Depends how hany you are.Dawg