botled water machine - pc cooler

[jimbobjones]

i have a an idea

i also have an old bottled water machine (one of the ones that takes a 20 litre bottle)

and the idea involves the water machine using it as a water resivoir and cooler for a water cooled pc (mainly my cpu), i use to work for a bottled water company servicing these machines and i know where to find a replacement thermostat that will alow for the water temprature to be adjusted to below 0 the curent thermostat cools to 6 degrees C appx or i could bypass it completly (not a good idea)

i was wondering if i could use a gravity fed system a little like a syphon (the water resivoir would be appx 45cm(18") above the cpu) or would i need to purchace a pump to circulate the water
***water machine is appx 90cm tall (3')case of pc is a full tower (old,hacked up,modded,scratched,badly beaten but works.well its not that bad....realy!.)

im not to worryed about my block as i have a block of copper some sand paper (ranging to p5000) and the instructions on overclockers.com for a cpu block.if thats not a good idea pleas tell me and i will buy a waterblock

the main board and chip i have spare laying around so if it goes wrong i havnt realy lost anything, its an old athlon 900 with a QDI motherboard and 128 mb of pc133 ram (salvaged)and an old pci tnt 2 32mb grafix card

i have the knowledge to re-plumb the water machine ,
so do u think its a good idea ?
would it work ?(to cool the cpu)(or gravity fed)


if it all works i will put it onto my abit nf7-s v2 and my xp2600 (i cant remember whitch one)with 512 pc2700 (from crucial)msi gforce fx 5200 128mb,NEC dvd-r/rw,LG 16x dvd and 40 gb hdd

[Absolute Zero]

you would most definitely need a pump, after all you need a way to get the water to circulate back into the resevior (i hate french words). that is, unless you're taking about a lot of water, for a lot of pressure, but then that wouldn't cool as efficiently. my eheim does about 375 gph, so if you could get about .1 gallons per second of flow (375 gph / 3600 s, maybe my math's wrong) then you would be good. then again, you have to deal with waterblocks which restrict flow.

btw, i tried making my own block, and it was no where near as good as a manufactured one, and that one was cheaper in the long run. i would buy one. dangerden is about the best band for your buck as far as waterblocks i've seen.

if you add a pump, it's a good idea. i've seen people who use freezers for their watercoolers, but the condensation gets annoying.

[FizzledFiend]

Condensation is going to be the big problem...with zero tempuratures I am not sure block design will make all that much of a difference (could be totally wrong) but for headache sake a cheap waterblock is easier on you than a self made one...that said. DO it make your water block insulate everything from air contact and fire it off...usually what works best is to have the ciller coils cooling your res water..place your pump inside the res water as well (keeps it cool ;)) now once the condensation is elemenated and you have your water chiller running your going to have to deal with sluchies...yup slushies. water freezes you know @ 0 centegrade. adding antifreeze will help, but it turns syrupy @ lower temps. the viscosity of methleeneglycol (sp?) is thicker the colder you go so a heafty pump will be needed...think big big pump (pondmaster big) this will be able to push slushy water about with a nice headpressure to boot. Good luck man!

[Raider84]

you can get $25 dollar spir@l and tc-4 blocks at dtek!

[JFettig]

Those water cooler machines are for small amounts of water, there is no way they could handle the heat of a cpu. Its been discussed here a while back a few times and that is the conclusion most people have come to.


Jon

[johan851]

That's what I was thinking too - I don't think that the refrigeration unit could handle the CPU's heat output. It was designed to cool water with very little heat being added to it.

[jimbobjones]

i think i will give it a try
the resivoir holds ut to 7 litres of water and can cool 7 litres from room temp to 6 degs in appx 20 mins

its only to try i will build it and share my results and if it doesnt work i will let evrybody know that it isnt a good idea

i will probly stay above 0 degs for my water temp and i wil use some antifreez to stop freezing
thanks for the advice

[TheTick]

I dont think it will work in extended periods. Think of how hot your parts are all the time. You cpu when not even OC'ed is wanting to put out 100+ F all the time. It won't work, not to mention if you want to cool anything else

[johan851]

Well...alright. Keep in mind that that cooling power in 20 minutes assumes that the water doesn't have much hindering it from getting colder, and doesn't assume a constant heat source adding to the temp. You risk blowing out the unit's compressor from being constantly worked.

[jimbobjones]

true i might give it a try anyhow on the old mainboard and cpu ill loose nothing major if it all goes belly up

or what abuot using a radiator in the resivoir to draw the heat from that or still would it be the same problems (wouldnt keep cool enough)


as i remember the machine should be ok for an 80% run cycle
(on 80% of the time)

or i might try the mini fridge cooler on overclockers.com

thank you for your help and suggestions

as you may have guessed i have not played with watercooling before i curently use 4 120 mm (2 ducted across cpu fan 1 in and 1 out )fans in my case but fans dont cool my cpu enough and im always willing to try somthing new (even if its an old idea)