Future Watercooling System

Hello,

I'm a relative new comer to this little over clocking scene and have pretty much read about as much material about the subject that I could get my hands on. I've formulated a plan on how to build/upgrade my computer and get a pretty *******g system out of it. Currently I'm running a mini tower case with about four drive bays. That should hopefully give everyone a good idea of the space I'm working with.

I'm running a Palomino and some no name ram. I'd like to upgrade to some nice fast memory, like PC3100 Cosair. That seems to be rather popular. I'd also like to get +1800 Athlon XP Throughbred. Some questions regarding that: Is there anyway to know which stepping I will get when I buy it and if not are the majority of the steppings decent?

Okay, moving on. Hopefully the new memory will let me pull a little more FSB than 140 (No PCI bus lock out on my board). And the Throughbred's are supposed to hit 2.3 without much problems correct? What does all this have to do with water cooling? I'm getting there.

Watercooling. I sleep in the same room my computer's in and I enjoy silence. For my watercooling system I'd like to go DIY style and buy a Chevette heatercore from NAPA, pick up an Ehiem 1250 (315GPH one), and custom mill my own block.

For block design I'd like to have a cluster of pins in the middle a little larger than the core of the CPU. The water will enter directly in this area and then be collected by two outlets to the left and the right. Now for mounting this waterblock a few questions:

I have a 462 Socket and I can not find the measurements for the motherboard mounting holes anywhere. Is a 462 Socket the same as a Socket A? Do I need to use premade mounting hardware to prevent cracking block? If I just go out and get some springs will they provide enough counter-acting force to prevent the water block from being over tightened? I heard that cpu cores can handle up to 20 ft-lbs of force, so why can't I just get some bolts and use a torque wrench to achieve that and skip the whole spring/clip deal?

Flow rate. 1/2 ID tubing throughout. I really can't use vinyl? It's much cheaper and the stuff at the hardware store seems bendy enough?

I'm going with a T-Line for space reasons. This will all be a little cramped in this case(No name Ebay case).

I'd like to run to 84CFM Panflo's in a push/pull setup on the heatercore space allowing. How much distance should they're be between the heatercore and the fans? Two inches, three inches? This distance will effect my ability on if I can run a push/pull setup. I have about 5.75 inches to work with in width. Both of the Panflos are about 3 inchs combined, the heater core is 2. That's only .75 inchs of shroud space. Will that be sufficent for good airflow and will it elimnate the effect of the dead spot? Thinner fans could also be used if there isn't enough space.

I plan to passive cool the northbridge and mount my old stock AMD HSF on the GPU.

I think that's about it for the water cooling loop except that I plan to run it like this:

Pump -> Rad -> T-Line -> Block -> Pump

As for air flow I already have two 120mm 84CFM Panflos. One is being used as a top exhaust and is seven-volted, running at an estimated 68CFM. About 25% of it is obstructed by the CDROM drive. The other is in the side panel directed in at the CPU, Northbridge chip and Memory. I plan to run another low-speed, quiet 80mm exhaust below the PSU too. Here's my airflow questions.

I'm assuming I'll no longer need a side fan of the Panflo's power with a water cooling setup. Should I just not use a side fan or go with a smaller one and focus it on the Northbrige/GPU since they'll need the extra cooling? Will the water cooling tubes effect the case heat to much? Is this were I'd benfit by using external setup? Should the push/pull fans on the heatercore be intake or exhaust?

That was a long post but I'd had a lot of questions to ask. Thanks for everyones time. If you need clairfication/diagrams/drawings I'd be more than helpful to provide. Thank you.

PC 3200 is what your looking for in R?AM and yes 462 pin is socket A. look to the pic below for the sizes. The new 1800 Tbread are real nice OCers you may also want to look into bridge painting to OC your chip as for your cooling system it sounds good (I know most people like the pump then the block but its still OK)
PS I would love to see some pic of the block when your done as well

Okay thanks, that answers some of my questions pertaining to the CPU and memory. However I still have a whole bunch more about airflow, and mounting the block.

I neglected to mention I plan to run an ethlyene-glycol/water mixture of 10%:90%.

If anyone could answer my questions pertaining to airflow, shroud size and mounting of the waterblock I would be very thankful.

Also, I assume you run the pump before the block to insure good pressure? I figured that the water would be coldest after coming out of the radiator but neglected to consider the pressure drop. Should the loop be running like this?

pump -> block -> radiator -> T-Line?

Thanks for your replies.

As far as tubing, vinyl is ok, the thinner walled stuff you may have problems with kinking.. I solved this problem by wrapping 18g wire around it as seen here in my system: http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=243923
I too used 1/2 ID all around, and in regards to your flowpath question, yes the water will be slightly cooler just coming out of the rad, but especially in a higher flow system like this you will find you have an average temperature throughout, and less of a difference between water temps out of the blocks and out of the heat exchanger. I as you can see run pump/blocks/rad/res. I'm using distilled water and antifreeze in a 80/20% ratio.
My biggest piece of advice would be to take your sweet time and plan everything well. You will be much more pleased with the results. Just keep reading...

Thanks!

I guess the two most critical questions remaining are the ones relating to block mounting and airflow.

Can I just use a torque wrench and measure 20 ft-lbs of force?

and will a shroud of .75 inches on both sides of the heatercore in a push/pull setup be enough? Should this be an intake or exhuast? I'm planning to put the heatercore in the bottom front of my case.

I was wondering about memory. My motherboard normally operates at 133MHZ FSB with PC2100 DDR. Would Cosiar XMS PC3200 be overkill? As far as I can tell it's not really necessary inless I'm planning on running a FSB of 400mhz. I can probably hit 148MHZ before the PCI bus comes into danger, so it seems like PC3200 would be overkill. Your thoughts on this?

Re: Intake or exhaust
Most common is to draw cool air into the front and blow the warmed air out the back.
Re: Can you use a torque wrench to measure 20 ft-lbs of force?
Sure, but even pressure across all 4 bolts is key as you must seat the W/B even or you take a chance at cracking the core when tightening down. Most people use close pressure springs and do it by feel.
As for the memory your typically better off using faster and higher quality memory ~ at worst it will be no worse than regular memory

What exactly is a close pressure spring?

IF you get a xp18000+ with a good board (Abit NF7), pc3200 is a must since it will do 200fsb without any problem. If you don't plan on changing your M/B, it would still allow you to time your memory more aggressively.

As for the shroud, I don't beleive 3/4 inch is enough for 2 shroud... It would still be better then no shroud at all, but I would look in getting some slimmer fan....

howlingyeti said:

What exactly is a close pressure spring?

Click to expand...

A spring(s) that are within an acceptable range you want 5lb springs but you may be able to use 10lb just put on real light (little compression) to hit 5lb each
PS this link my help...or it could just make you more confused
http://www.efunda.com/DesignStandards/springs/spring_calculators.cfm

Could I buy these at the hardware store? I was considering taking the springs out of those pens that you push the top down and the tip 'clicks' out and then when you push the top again the spring pulls the tip back in.

Your best bet is a hardware store like Lowe's or Home Depot but if you need to you can go to an online hardware store like http://www.mcmaster.com/
PS I don't think the springs in pens are heavy enough for water blocks

Well, thanks for everyones advice. Now I have to decided if it's worth the money to upgrade.