Waterblock/Watersink and Questions

[Arkaine23]

Ok, so I've got a Swifty MCX462 coming courtesy of the good people on Team 32.

I've built a pretty good H20 system... well I think it's good.

Two 6' copper coils to serve as a radiator, submerged in buckets of water inside a mini-fridge.

7 1/2 gallon fishtank on my desk as a reservoir and also to keep the temp of the water closer to ambient by acting as a buffer. I'd hate to fry parts on my first attempt at H2O cooling because of condensation after all. I also opted for this external setup because there isn't much room in my case and because I have UV dye and an 18" blacklight that will light up my fishtank and hoses nicely.

Mini-fridge, 1/2" tubing, 270gph Rio 1100 pump.

So I'm going to try to keep the system level... no more than 6-8" climb in any of my tubing. But I think I'll wind up with low flow by most people's standards. The only part I'm missing is a waterblock.

My roommate is willing to transform the Swifty into a watersink, but I need to know some things. Is it copper or aluminum (it's in the mail right now)? And what does that matter anyway, aside from thermal transfer properties? Should I shorten the pins in the center and remove others to make channels towards the outlets. I was thinking the inlet should be in the center with 2 or 4 smaller diameter outlets at the base on the sides. My water should be pretty cool hitting the refridgerated rads right before it hits the WB. So maybe a lot of flow won't be needed?

This is all in just a theoretical stage, but I do have everything in the setup except a waterblock. I'd hate to ruin a nice Swifty heatsink if a real WB will do better. So maybe I'll just sell or trade the Swifty or my Glaciator 2 for a Gemini block. Would a second pump pulling water from the outlet side of the block help... I could maybe get a Maxijet of comparable gph because they're really cheap. I'm sort of all spent out right now, so I can't spend much money on my computer for the next year.

What do you think?

[ajrettke]

It sounds promising, the idea with the fishtank is sorta a doube edged sword, you might find that after an hour there's no condenssation yet..so you leave or stop watching for itm but give it another hour and it will be below ambient and start to condense! not that it could happen but it might. Another plus though if your mini fridge breaks down you'll have tons of time to shut down your computer since you'll have a large mass of water to dump energy into.

For lift and rise that doesn't matter in a closed loop system, if you had a pump and loop that went up to the top of the empire state building and back down and it was completely sealed and full of water it would pump just as if the loop were on the ground. Lift only matters when the system is open ended.

The al and cu will cause what's called a battery effect. I could try and explain this but there have been many other posts that you can search for that will do it 10x better. run a search for "battery effect" or "copper + aluminum" something to that effect.

Your "watersink" won';t be the absolute best but it will definetly get the job done right....and you get mad style points :D

[roscal]

For battery effect look my first (old :D ) waterbloc made in alu. In about 8 months it was destroyed (eaten) by my copper radiator, there's a lack of 2-3mm of aluminium on a initial thickness of 4mm for the top lid. Now, all is copper and no problem :cool:. Be careful about materials...

http://membres.lycos.fr/roscool/fotos/Bloc_alu/images/Vue_ensemble_demonte_2.jpg
http://membres.lycos.fr/roscool/fotos/Bloc_alu/images/Corrosion_4.jpg

Enjoy :beer:

[Arkaine23]

Ah, should've known... CU and AL would get corrosive. Been here 9 months and still learning new things all the time!

It's not a closed loop. I'd need a big adapter to fit the pump's intake with a hose. So the pump would be mounted on the side of the fishtank on my desk(1/2way submergered), pushing water into the coils in the fridge(on the other side of the comp case), then to the waterblock, then back into the tank on my desk. Will take 5-7 feet of hose I think.

I do like the Swifty watersink idea, but I may just sell my Glac 2 in order to afford a spiral style waterblock as they're better for lower flow systems.

Still, thanks for the input guys and keep the opinions and useful info coming-

Especially design ideas for a swifty watersink... Not sure if the sides and top will be copper or bronze. And I still need to look up what the Swifty is made of. I was thinking 1/2" inlet in the center top, chopped down center pins, a few rows of pins removed to make easier channels, and maybe two 3/8" outlets on the sides by the base at opposite corners. Could do 4 outlets I suppose if it'll help prevent circulation dead spots... All outlets would be reconnected with Y adapters.

Still would be good to know if a 2nd pump would help in this open loop system.

I'll post a picture of my plans as soon as I can draw one up and scan it.

Contemplating ditching the fishtank and closing the loop if the submerged copper coils don't make the water too cold....

[JFettig]

oook heres what i say, chop off the outer 2 pins all the way around or around those mounting holes make sure you have those, then cut the pins down to about an inch so they are only an inch long, then encase it in copper all soldered together, to reduce chance of leakage or acrylic or polycarboinate if you want, and make the inlet well.... ill draw up what you should do for the inlet and outlet, if you stick them in the center and the corner you mite get a deadspot as the pump will want to suck away if you set it up like that

as for cooling the water, id say drop the fridge completely for now... just use the fishtank, just pump the water from the fishtank thru the block and back, stick a low 30 or so cfm fan in the corner of the tank to blow across the waters surface for cooling then go pure fridge if you want.....

maby stay away from the gemini because of the top if your going to go supercooled...

[JFettig]

ok heres how it should be done because of orentation of the socket if you do it center with the holes on the center instead of the corners the orentation would mess it all up if you got a diff board... you see the mounting holes and all there...

pretty basic setup of everything but it should work, another thing, take out the pins under the inlet and oulte so the water hits the base better

[JFettig]

grrr forgot the pic
ooh yea, use water wetter