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"Almost watercooled"

Well ive been gathering bits and bobs for the past few months to fit together for watercooling. Ive finally gathered all the bits i need, and taken a picture.

[URL]http://img12.photobucket.com/albums/v31/morgoth/everything.jpg[/URL]

Ive got one black pipe, 2 bits of square perspex, a heater matrix from a vauxhall nova, 2 meteres of 1/2" tubing, a fluval 4 plus water filter/pump, a Dtek white water water block and one 10ml bottle of UV reactive green dye.

I also got 6 litres of de-ionised water and 6 jubilee clips.

[URL]http://img12.photobucket.com/albums/v31/morgoth/waterandclips.jpg[/URL]

So i got to work on building the reservoir, which consisted of the black pipe, the 2 bits of perspex and some silicone bathroom sealant. I was originally going to build a rectangular one with custom cut perspex, but then i was quoted £30 for the materials. So when i was looking around B&Q i found that pipe which is meant to be used to build a duct between the outside and inside of your house. After sealing it up and leaving to cure i then had a reservoir which i estimate will take pretty much all of my de-ionised water to fill to the appropriate level.

[URL]http://img12.photobucket.com/albums/v31/morgoth/res.jpg[/URL]

I cleaned the rust and stuff off of the radiator and it cleaned up rather nicely.

[URL]http://img12.photobucket.com/albums/v31/morgoth/cleanedrad.jpg[/URL]

I leak tested the reservoir and ran the pump to clean out the radiator which in this case i have put in front of the waterblock in my circuit, this was due largely to lazyness.

Now all i need to do is pull out my motherboard, fit the block, and flick the switch. Which i may do tomorrow depending on time constraints. But i will update with more pics when i finally have it running. :)

Oh, i suppose i will tell you how much its cost me so far.

Pump £28.40 from ebay
Tubing £3 from B&Q
Black Pipe £11.98 from B&Q
Waterblock £43.99 from coolercases
UV dye £3.49 from coolercases
Perspex was cut from a bit sitting in my garden
Deionised water was £1 a bottle from B&Q
Jubilee clips were £98p a pair again from B&Q

So in total thats £99.86, cheaper than one of those shoddy pre-made kits :)

Ok, here is a pic of the final assembly inside the case, you can see the tubes on the left hand side, growing faintly, i could do with chucking in a bit more UV dye i think.

[URL]http://img12.photobucket.com/albums/v31/morgoth/DSC00001.jpg[/URL]

And here is a pic which shows the reservoir, which only holds 5 litres, not the 6 that i had previously estimated, and the heater matrix.

[URL]http://img12.photobucket.com/albums/v31/morgoth/DSC00002.jpg[/URL]

Im overclocking a 2500+ Barton, its at 11*200 at the moment, but i think i should be able to get at least 220 with good temps once i stick a few 120mm fans on the heater matrix.

Ha nice one cookie, what are you trying to overclock?

I saw an amazing watercooled system in hardcore pc something or another, UV reactive dye and UV lights in the case.

It was amazing :)

As long as you do it all correctly and take your time then water cooling is a good idea, i have built a few watercooling rigs for my various setups and found the cooling to be much better than any Heatsink and fan assembly i have used, also it is virtually silent as long as you have no bubbles in the system and keep the pump off of any parts of the case that vibrate, i am probably going to water cool my Athlon64 setup soon and overclock it to the max.

Colin

Well ive got it all set up now, still got to fit a fan or two to the radiator, so im not really looking at cooling performance yet, but im idling around 32. However the installation did not go smoothly, i cut a hole in my case that i didnt actually need, and then during the first test my graphics card got a little wet and the screen corrupted. Thankfully however a little bit of hairdryer action got it running again.

The leak was due to a bit too much pressure in the inlet pipe, so after turning the pump's power down a bit and leaving it to run for 15 hours i was fairly sure it was safe to use.

Pictures of the final set-up will follow when i get a chance. :)

taka-Q wrote:
> GasMask wrote:
> Yeah, t'is impressive.
>
> Im always amazing by people who watercool their systems, one little
> mistake and pow, flooded everything.
>
> Which is why you use deionised (distilled or pure) water, which does
> not conduct electricity. Thus, if it leaks it isn't a problem.

Not true, deionised and distilled water will still conduct electricty.

taka-Q wrote:

>
> Which is why you use deionised (distilled or pure) water, which does
> not conduct electricity. Thus, if it leaks it isn't a problem.

Oooh.. cool:)

Heh. The only thing you need to worry about are the joints where the tubes end; and if you have jubilee clips and high quality tubes, it's highly unlikely that you'll spring a leak. Mind you, it's always safe to have a towel handy, and watch out for the radiator ends, which are the most susceptible to leaks.

Oh, and be sure to filter out the pesky bubbles now and again by tipping the rad diagonally. You'll know when you hear all the bubbles rushing up to the air release area (usually the reservoir).

You have got waterproof RAM haven't you?

Just in case anything goes wrong...

Captain Scarlet wrote:

> it would still leave a watery mess

Just leave it out in the sun or use a hair drier, tis not a problem.

taka-Q wrote:
> GasMask wrote:
> Yeah, t'is impressive.
>
> Im always amazing by people who watercool their systems, one little
> mistake and pow, flooded everything.
>
> Which is why you use deionised (distilled or pure) water, which does
> not conduct electricity. Thus, if it leaks it isn't a problem.
it would still leave a watery mess