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Can a bucket be the reservoir?

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mmcshmi11

Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2002
I am about to get a watercooling setup for my computer :

>TC-4 Poly Topped Block
>Eheim 1250 pump
>some car heatercore

::You could let me know if these are good or if i could do better:::D

I was wondering if it was possible to have the tubes that go to and from the pump to just be placed in say a bucket or bowl of water. Would that cause a problem with not being enough pressure or something like that?

Also, Would it work to add just say ice cubes or an icepack into the water to lower the temps?
 
Yes you could use a bucket as a res, and you could if you wanted stick your pump into it. The only thing that seems to bother most people about that idea is that there is a much greater chance of organisms getting into your setup, and multiplying. Other than that, it should work out pretty good

Good Luck
 
I was also thinking that since water has a high specific heat (basically the amount of heat it can absorb) it would be useful to have a larger amount of it so that it could absorb more heat.

Just my thoughts :p
 
The greater the ammount of water in the bucket means it will take longer to reach your system's highest temp. It dosn't mean that that temp would be lower, it just increases the time it takes to get there.

You can place your pump into the bucket, and just let the return line dangle into the water. Then you can add ice packs to drop your temps, but a word of advice...turn off your radiator fan when you do this (danger! don't forget it's off!) because if your water temp is lower than room temp, your radiator will actually warm the water back up faster, and melt your ice faster.
As I said, this is not without it's dangers..don't forget to turn the fan back on. It would take some time for your cpu to have problems, but it would happen eventually, especially if the top were on the bucket.
You can run it with the fan on, but you'll replace your ice faster/more often.
 
Diggrr said:
The greater the ammount of water in the bucket means it will take longer to reach your system's highest temp. It dosn't mean that that temp would be lower, it just increases the time it takes to get there.

The temp will be lower the more water there is in the system... The water in the bucket will give away heat...

Be sure to check the waterlevel now and then... The bucket will act as a bongcooler (not as efficient) and evaporate water into the air...
 
If the water got too cold would it cause condensation in the computer?
 
Caeberos said:
Yes you could use a bucket as a res, and you could if you wanted stick your pump into it. The only thing that seems to bother most people about that idea is that there is a much greater chance of organisms getting into your setup, and multiplying. Other than that, it should work out pretty good

Good Luck

ahhaah that is so cool. i want to have some sea monkeys cooling my cpu!:p
 
Ijust went from a 1 gal cont to a 7 gal bucket, and I can use either 1 gal or 3 ltr with frozem water in them to put into the bucket, whick I have done, had it down 4 *c below amb, but as the ice water melts the temp goes back up, but takes longer, and I only have 3 gal of water in the bucket right now. For the rig in sig.
 
Pelle76 said:
The temp will be lower the more water there is in the system... The water in the bucket will give away heat...

Not necessarily true.
*plastic buckets suck for heat transfer, leaving just the top surface area for heat to escape.
*cylindrical bucket has nearly the same surface area wether it's got 6" or 20" of water. How's that change things?
*no airflow will slow any heatloss from the water to a negligable rate. Heatloss to air would only happen (at a helpfull rate) if fans were added to evaporate the water, but then it would be an evaporative cooler, and not a bucket reservior. ;)

A simple bucket reservior would give off less heat than simply adding a copper tube from your computer to the bucket. You couldn't even measure the ammount of heat the bucket gave off with the tools you (and I) have around the house.
 
why not fill up a 2 liter bottle liek half-way with water, then keep one in the bucket, and one in the freezer, then swap them.
 
That would work fine. Maybe 3 of them if one melted too fast.
I wouldn't bet an overclock on it though. Get your overclock working at room temps because sooner or later you won't add new ice, and that puppy's gonna lock up tight.

You'd also have to keep a watch for condensation because the chances it will occur go up and down with the humidity and temperature.
For instance:
Room temp 20C
Humidity 75% (common)
Condensation forms at 15.4C, so it wouldn't really take much ice.
 
What kind of water do you guys use in ur systems? Would it work if I just used some cold purified water out of my fridge?

Also, wouldn't the heatercore give off more heat if it was outside of the case so that all the hot air could diffuse throughout the room instead of the case.
 
How would you protect against condensation, wouldn't you have to put some felt or something on the mobo similar to how you would if there was peltier cooling? I think i saw something like that somewhere...
 
mmcshmi11 said:
What kind of water do you guys use in ur systems? Would it work if I just used some cold purified water out of my fridge?

Also, wouldn't the heatercore give off more heat if it was outside of the case so that all the hot air could diffuse throughout the room instead of the case.

not if you have good airflow in your case. Also, it would make me nervous that I would kick the tubes out of teh case........
 
Why? all you would have to do is thread them out the back or cut holes in the side
 
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