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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 :)

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:)

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.

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. :)

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

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 :)

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.