Building system from scratch (CPU, GPU, HDD)

Well, I went ahead and took the plung ordering a bunch of parts in order to build my first system, completely from scratch as I/friends have the tools and I'm a cheap sob . Anyway, here's a summary of everything I have / am getting and would like some feedback on it.

Pump: Johnson CM30 12V

• Talked about here on this board and here on procooling
• One powerfull mofo (11.5 ft max head, 474 GPH max flow!)
• Yes, I am aware of the possible PSU noise problems, so I'm going to have a few capacitors and a diode for protection.

Reservoir: Not certain yet

• Probably will just be whatever I find lying around
• I'll follow this article as a guid
• Most likely will connect Pump inlet directly into the reservoir to minimize backpressure on pump

Tubing: 10ft 1/2"ID, 3/4"OD Braided Vinyl Tubing

• Fairly thick walled and the braiding seems to stop any kinks I try to make.

Heater Core: Chevy truck, 9 1/2" x 6 1/2" fin area

• Yes, it is massive. I have under an inch of clearence overall at the front of my Antec case with the HD cage removed
• 9 1/2" = 240mm = exactly 2 120mm fans (how convenient!)
• I'm going to build a 1" tall sheet-metal shroud for it. Two trapizoids on the end and two rectangles for the side, then using all-thread to bolt fan > shroud > core > front of case

Fans: 2 x 120mm ?'s

• I want something that is *very* quite. I'm thinking with such a large surface area and having two of them I should easily be able to run them at 7v or even 5v and still get descent performance.
• Should I get something cheap and generic like those listed here and volt mod them, or should I go for some specific one that's quiet?

CPU: 2" x 3 1/4" x 3/8" copper block with 1/8" copper cap plate

• I'm going to try to make a White Water clone using a dremel tool and a drill press.
• For the jet input I got both a 1/2" and a 3/4" copper pipe strait fitting (basically just a short copper tube) that I am going to flatten down to about 1/4" - 1/8" thick, using whichever seems to fit better.
• I'm going to use 5/8" barbs (~1/2" actual ID) on that fitting and for the outputs
• Will be 4-hole mounted

GPU: 2" x 2" x 3/8" copper block with 1/8" copper cap plate

• I'm not exactly sure what design I'm going to use yet, probably a single open chamber
• I'm thinking that the 3/8" block might be too thin as it is obviously impossible to have a 1/2" ID barb on the side and I would like to keep my entire system 1/2" ID. I could have top injection, but then I either take up a couple of PCI slots, or use an evil 90' elbow

Hard Drive: 3" x 6" x 1/4" (x2) copper plate and 3ft bronze 1/2" tubing

• I wanted it only 1/8" thick, but they were out of stock
• I'm going to use this person's design
• I have such a large plate because this is for 3 HDs (240gb )

Prices so far:
Pump: $39 w/ shipping
Heater Core: $10 from Poor Boys used parts (paid in cash into the guys pocket )
Copper: $11 from McMurray Metals (I drove to their local Houston shop)
Barbs / tubing / etc: $20 from Home Depot / Lowes

Ok, now I have some questions.
1) Will using bronze pipe and barbs cause any problem with the copper block. I plan on using Water Wetter anyway, just wondering.
2) How do you suggest I solder together the blocks? I'm pretty sure that my basic electronics solder and gun won't stand up to this. My friend has a plumbers torch and solder I can use, or should I use JB Weld? Also how easy is cheap sheet-metal to solder?
3) What fans should I get?

I'm going to build the CPU block first and get that working, then finalize my design for the GPU and HDD coolers and build them. I have a nice digital camera so I'll post pics of my work as I go. Thanks so far for all your help and the excelent resources!

1) Why not simply use copper or brass pieces? Eliminates any worry you might have about using dissimilar metals.

2) I'm not a soldering expert, but as far as I know there is nothing magic about soldering for a WC system. I don't see why a special soldering iron or flux would be needed.

3) I'd look for 80CFM fans, or less. I like the 38mm version myself. You can 5v/7v these for good performance and very low noise.

Propane torch and plumbers solder and flux.

Well if you want you could always order the Cormair Rotron Major or Patriot fans off of www.mpja.com 172mm. They are huge and loud, but if you 7v or 5v them they are really quiet and you get great airflow out of them. I am going to run mine on a 12-7v voltage switch when my setup is done

At the same time you can get a solid state relay so you can start your pump when you turn on your computer

:edit:

I an talking about the 210 cmf 12v fan in your link. Great fan

FIZZ3 said:

1) Why not simply use copper or brass pieces? Eliminates any worry you might have about using dissimilar metals.

Click to expand...

Well, I can't find any barbs locally that are copper, only bronze. But since bronze is a copper alloy, and I will have Water Wetter, I'm figuring it won't be a big deal.

As far as fans go, I'm currently leaning towards the Low-speed Panaflow 120mm. I did look at the 172mm fans, but with the night being exactly 240mm I just can't see why not to go with 2 x 120mm.

Rufus210 said:

Well, I can't find any barbs locally that are copper, only bronze. But since bronze is a copper alloy, and I will have Water Wetter, I'm figuring it won't be a big deal.

As far as fans go, I'm currently leaning towards the Low-speed Panaflow 120mm. I did look at the 172mm fans, but with the night being exactly 240mm I just can't see why not to go with 2 x 120mm.

Click to expand...

Well there are plenty of Cu/Alu systems in use too, which is probably much worse than bronze/Cu. So I don't think it will be a huge deal, just not perfect.

The Panaflo fans are nice for a regular 12v connection... but they'll never be able to provide big CFM numbers if you feel like it just for kicks.