View Full Version : 24-7 and Bong Coolers?
How many of you that have "bong" or cooling towers have enough capacity to run 24-7? When overclocking and testing for stability, this is an essential requirement. Enquiring minds want to know.
I have been giving some thought on a way to do this. So far I am thinking along the lines of using a valve that is opened and closed by a solinoid, these are used in lawn irrigation systems. At a hardware store get a replacement switch for a sump pump. This switch consists of a wire with a rubber float on the end and inside is a metal ball and 2 contacts. This would fit in a 5 gal bucket and make a good resivour.
JaY_III
06-05-01, 07:59 AM
I was ( i suck) in the procces of setting up my water cooling rig with a tower... however since my plans for a waterblock changed... i just odered one from danger den yesterday...... have to wait for a while.
I was thinking to catch the fog stuff that comes out, and let the watre from it collect in another container.... this contnier would reach the same temp as the air around it after time.... now this container, when it gets too full will drain into my resovoir.... Yes i know i will lose some of the effect with a tower(as it cools water below abiant), so i may only be 2 or 3 degrees under ambiant temps and not 4 or 5 degrees C.
This should let me run 24/7, i hope.
surlyjoe
06-05-01, 11:12 AM
ever see a toilet valve? its the same as the ones they use in swamp coolers ..they also come in a float-ring configuration that does away with the arm and ball so it would fit in a 3-4" PVC pipe
I took the brute force solution. Found a six gallon Igloo cooler at Costco yesterday. It's fine for straight water cooling but the dual pelt setup I have been playing with uses a quart every 45 minutes.
Photopoint cropped the pic but you can get the idea:
[img="http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=1551335&a=11768501&p=49871580"]
WOW...some of the things people come up with. Very interesting and ingenious setup. Whats the very first component on top of the cooler(the black thing) a fan or blower? Btw, I know very little about water cooling but find it very fascinating, so excuse me for being so naive. :P
Two 86 CFM 120mm Panaflow fans.
[img="http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=1551335&a=11768501&p=49887653"]
Cool...what are you oc'ed at to warrant such a brute cooling system or is it just something you enjoy experimenting at?
Also...Im assuming those are independent switches or possibly rheostats on the front of your case for various fans on/in your case? If so, do you suggest an alternate power supply for the fans to run off of or is the motherboard not bothered with say 5 or so fans running off of it? Or lets say you have a 400 watt power supply, when will there come a point when you need to think about using an alternative power source for a vast array of fans running directly off of your system?
Like I said before, Im fairly new at this stuff so forgive me for all the questions.
You can check out the fan bus here: http://forums.overclockers.ws/forums/UltraBoard.cgi?action=Read&BID=20&TID=789&SID=90650
A good 400 watt PSU should have no problems with the fans. I use the 530 watt Enermax 651. Never hurts to have some power reserve.
Muso (Jun 06, 2001 12:02 a.m.):
Cool...what are you oc'ed at to warrant such a brute cooling system or is it just something you enjoy experimenting at?
Sorry I must have missed this. The cooling tower is for a dual 172 watt pelt experiment. I was using a 700 Duron at a bit over a gig for this. The experiment is on hold while I wait for new pelts. Look back about a week and you will find a thread on this. My current 1333 Bird seems to be dying. It did 1575 mHz when I got it a month ago. I had to drop another 10 mHz yesterday to 1450. I suppose I will pick up a fresh Bird in a coupl of weeks at the computer show.
Besides having a fast and quiet machine, there is a huge fun factor in building cooling systems.
Nice set up. I have been thinking about building a water cooling system. I also wondered if anyone actually ran the cooling towers 24/7. How much did all this total out to be after you were done.
JaY_III
06-06-01, 05:23 PM
that tower is VERY tall...
so what kind of pump are you using that will let you pump water that high?
I got a 400 GPH pump to get me a 4 foot tall tower, what you have looks like its
over 8 feet tall
I have about $80 in the tower and another $20 in valves and couplers to aid in making the cooling tower practical .
I use the same Danner 700 that I have used with the Cooling Cube.
Here's a shot of the valves and couplers:
[img="http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=1551335&a=11768501&p=49952567"]
You don't have to worry about head for pumps if the pump is at or above the top of the cooling tower. In some cases that might not be possible, but not in all. In theory, if the tower was tall enough, the water would condense on the sides(if it was made of aluminum dryer duct, or something else metal). Was the water vapor rose through the air it would give off energy, and hopefully be able to condense out onto the sides of the tube. One thing I would suggest, if you have a very high pressure pump, is having the showerhead portion at the bottom of the tube, and shooting the water up. This allows the water to ravel through the air twice, once up, and once down.
A centrifugal pump works best at the lowest water level. Placing one at the top would be a bear to keep it primed. Head does matter. I have had my tower so tall that the pump could not handle the height. To tune the system for maximum performance, you need to balance the tower height with optimum flow for the best cooling. Start tall and then get out the saw and keep cutting until your temps go up. By then you should have found the sweet spot. You may need another section of pipe.
As for a high pressure pump and the showerhead at the bottom of the tube, some waterblocks may not like the pressure. Perhaps this would work with a Swiftech but my experiments with an 1800 GPH pump and the Maze 2.2 lead me to believe this would be a problem. I my tests, the idle temp was the same as with a700 GPH pump but the load temps were 15C higher. Microscopic bubbles in the waterblock from the high pressure was the only explanation we could come up with. A diesel mechanic and computer wiz clued me into the bubble problem.
high pressure doesn't necessarily mean high flow rate. You can get reasonable flow-rate pumps that are capable of high pressures. Basically it means that the pump will MAINTAIN it's flow-rate even if it has to push the water through very small spaces(the tiny holes on a showerhead, for example). I know spraying up from the bottom is the way industrial cooling towers work, so I'm sure it would work better if your pump can handle the pressure.
I suspect a pump like this http://www.petwarehouse.com/webstore/webstore.nsf/fbd771ea8d7ff4fa852567da006d3cd2/d646e37256f11dc887256721008213fe?OpenDocument is what would be required for a showerhead pointed up.
something along those lines, yeah. Although, I wouldn't be willing to spend that much on my pump ;) hehe
We mustn’t put spending limits on our obsessions! :d
William
06-08-01, 01:06 AM
i still like the idea of a toilet valve to just add water. or you could just have another tank with water that has your mixture of water and biocide together that was connected to the toiled valve. Put a level reader on the dispenser and just fill when it gets low.
The classic float valve in a swamp cooler makes the most sense. Only the water evaporates, the biocide levels should be fairly stable.
William
06-08-01, 01:49 AM
Colin (Jun 08, 2001 01:21 a.m.):
The classic float valve in a swamp cooler makes the most sense. Only the water evaporates, the biocide levels should be fairly stable.
thats what makes the most sense. The cooler/resevoir idea sounds nice because you don't have to have a water line near yourr computer.
if cost was NO issue, I'd suggest just running a hose from the piping in your house, and then having the water that leaves the waterblock pass into the drains. I mean, that way you'd have icy cold water all the time, and you wouldn't need a pump, radiator/cooling tower OR resevoir...that's if cost was NO issue :)
Spewn (Jun 08, 2001 08:09 a.m.):
if cost was NO issue, I'd suggest just running a hose from the piping in your house, and then having the water that leaves the waterblock pass into the drains. I mean, that way you'd have icy cold water all the time, and you wouldn't need a pump, radiator/cooling tower OR resevoir...that's if cost was NO issue :)
I thought about this a while back. There is a difference between cost and practical. :)
It may just be practical if the output of the system could replace your hot water heater :) hon I need to take a shower can you turn the computer on! hehehe
lol, only a cyrix cpu could accomplish that ;) But seriously, it's perfectly practical to do what I suggested, your water bills would just go through the roof. I really don't know what kind of flow-rate you'd get, or how much water costs...but I'm sure it wouldn't be cost effective.
I know in some areas the water utilities just charge a flat rate, and don't actually mesure how much water you use. That's why you can these sort of pirate generators that generate electricity from your water flow, giving in effect free energy. Been hearing about these cause I live in California. (rolling blackouts)
We have a water shortage out here in Kalifornia. Our water here is metered, we pay for it and it's processed in a septic tank. This is what I meant by not practical.
A bump for the new folks and the new improved hybrid photo. There is a 1/2" foam pad that floats inside the Igloo cooler.
[img="http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=1551335&a=11768501&p=50044077"]
coldmop
06-12-01, 09:24 PM
I tried this petwarehouse pump HERE (http://www.petwarehouse.com/webstore/webstore.nsf/(id)/4E96?OpenDocument). (it dosen't look much like the picture) this thing is just scary. Kind of loud but a nice loud. Anyways it moves alot of water, ALOT and is kind of the el cheapo version of what Colin pointed out. But it does remind me of a powertool when it is running. Kind of like a mini circular saw without the blade. If it was in a cabinet it would be perfectly fine as far as noise goes but it is bigger than you would expect and definately gives the impression that it has alot of .....momentum? 1.6A motor so not that huge a draw. Full specs are Here (http://www.lgpc.com) if you dig. Pay attention to model suffix.
schmidty
06-13-01, 09:48 PM
Here's a thought for anyone with a large open backyard...
On the idea that most of the time the soil in your back yard is about 40º F (or if not that, then alot lower than summer time air temps). Why not dig up your backyard, and install some pvc maze, then re-cover it with the soil. I've pondered this a few times... but alas, i'm just renting this house...
The same thing works on a much larger scale for homes that are geothermally heated (and cooled). In summer it assumes that the soil is cooler than the air, and a heat pump extracts the heat from the home, and pushes it down into the earth.
The main issue (that i have forseen) would be finding a pump that can pump enough into the pvc system (copper would react in the soil, making it a bad choice) while not shifting that high flow rate into high pressures once it reaches the water block. Tubing laying around the room would just add for story telling.
Cheers!
dozier768
06-13-01, 10:55 PM
ever consitered getting one of those mini office iceboxes cutting a hole in the side and running a radiant cooler in there? wouldnt cost much on the electricity and you wouldnt have to worry about evap
you can get copper pipe that's coated to prevent it from reacting. If you used PVC that wouldn't work at all, as PVC is very bad at transferring heat. Yes, that would work quite well. If you were able to dig down about 6 feet, you'd find that(if the area was closed off) it would be ~4'C, quite cold, so if you had a maze of copper pipe 6 feet under ground, it should get cooled by the earth.
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