Rackmount Watercooled

Here is my rig which I finally completed after much reading, thought, and careful construction.
She sports a Athlon XP 2400+ not oc'd at all yet.
Clocking at 2010 Mhz.
This is a music composition system so at this point I'm not really greatly into ocing it. I will test when I have time, but for now it runs beautifully with my audio software.
I'm a little skeptic right now about the cpu temp I'm getting.
17 degrees C at idle. Its a gigabyte GA-7VAX and I'm not sure about how accurate the sensor is. when I get a hold of a thermometer I will check it out.
Sytem temp is 30C.

My CPU block is a thermalright SK-6+ heatsink, with aluminum plate covering up the exterior. used 5/8 copper tubing(1/2" ID) on all fittings, and used 1/2 ID vinyl tubing with wire wraps to prevent kinking. For the inlet I flattened off one end of a copper tube into a nozzle which fit down in between the fins, close over the core. I drilled down a bit and roughened it up over the core. I blocked off the "open" part with a piece of thin plastic "gooped" into place. This forces the water to run only through the fins. A space in the top allows water to collect and then an outlet was placed on the very top. I believe it works very well, and I wonder if anyone else has attempted a similar idea. I used JB weld a plenty for fusing this block together.

A Pondmaster 2 (250GPH) drives this loop. Very quiet and plenty powerful. This loop flows quite fast, despite several 90 degree elbows, the ID is pretty much entirely 1/2" all around except for the pump outlet and inlet. 3/8"ID I believe.

The hard drive cooler is a large 1/8" copper plate with a copper pipe loop soldered to it.


Same with the Graphics card block.

I know this one isn't as efficient as other GPU blocks out there. But the card is a matrox G550 dual head, and is meant for incredible stability, not high frame rates or gaming. On this card just a passive heatsink is enough. But of course I'm watercooling...

The heatexchanger fan is temporarily mounted with a foam shroud, when I get my hands on a larger, quieter fan I will modify the rad tunnel to fit it.



Case and rad fans are both 5v'd.

Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Very nice.

This is a very interresting idea to use an aircooling rad as a maze for your waterblock. First time I ever saw that. I'm really looking forward to know your CPU temp. Remember to tell us your room temp too.
Good work

w0w! gj... like the rad mounting and housing. hdd too, nice and cozy.

let us know temps...

Ok I have done some benchmarking with pcmark2001.
My max load cpu temp is 22 degrees celcius, now idling at 19. My room temperature is also..19 degrees. Does that sound realistic? Doesn't to me.... System 31 degrees. This is at 2173Mhz so far with FSB at 145.

Whats with the wire in the tubes. Does it really help water flow?
Very nice setup man. the resivore looks cool

18ga Wire on the OUTSIDE of the tubes is to stop kinks, which occur quite easily with the vinyl tubing. I know I can just use thicker wall tubing, but at this point its not of great concern. The wire works very effectively too.

I used a stainless steel kitchen cannister I found at canadian tire....mmm gummies...


it origionally fit a pondmaster 1.9 pump inside it perfectly, but the pump proved to be too small and noisy.

I like your ghetto video cooler, i did the same sort of thing on my NB when i first started water cooling, will se if i can find a pic of it later, it was total gheto but it worked great keept the NB temps only 5c over room temp, and thats because it was after the cpu

very nice work! Nice perfect circle reference in ya sig too. from "the noose" yeah? excellent tune.

I'm thinking about getting a micro ATX desktop case, and watercooling it. how big is that pump you're using?


J.

Yeah from " the Noose" on APC's new album. I just saw them live a month ago...absolutely incredible show. ...Sorry off topic.
I used a pondmaster(also called Danner mag drive) 2 with 250 gph and 7' head. If you keep your flow high(use large ID tubing and not too restrictive WB's it should be plenty for a lot of systems I would think.

mmm, water in rack case
imho nozzle should be possibly wide to cover all thermalright, and 2 outlets, just in ww style or....

1in one out, on sides, but inlet would need to pump water to reach bottom of rad t high speed, so first soultion seems to be better

you have decent rad on CPU, and it would be a sin not to use it in possibly maximal part

Ven0m, the nozzle goes down in between the two sets of fins, (through the hole shown in the second pic) to about 1/4" or so above the core, I'm not sure exactly what you mean by

imho nozzle should be possibly wide to cover all thermalright, and 2 outlets, just in ww style or....

1in one out, on sides, but inlet would need to pump water to reach bottom of rad t high speed...

Click to expand...

. Being as the core is really not that big, I would think it would be better to have the nozzle close to it and only as large as it. Side outlet could be a good idea too, but if you look at the way I've routed the water, I think it works more efficiently by forcing the water up equally through both groups of fins (not just up the middle, which is why that plastic piece is there) and out the top. It works great for me, however I have yet to try any other blocks out as this is my first setup of the system, so I don't have much of a basis for comparison. Do you mean to cover up the entire empty slot in the heatsink with the nozzle? I chose not to do that because by the time the water reached the core (the bottom) it would have slowed down quite a lot by the surrounding turbulent water, and because the opening in the nozzle would be much bigger, therefore slower water flow out the nozzle...also stopping the "jet" effect on the core.

Any other thoughts? I find this very intruiging

Your home-made watercooling system is awesome. Very creative. I especially like the cooled and silenced hard drive.