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input on my external watercooling setup...

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Shootingblanks

Member
Joined
Dec 11, 2003
Location
Northeast Ohio
thinking of designing an external watercooling setup according to this design. going to mount this on top of my current case modding a new lexan window mod to mount this external case onto it with two holes for the tygon tubing. going to construct the case with 3/4" alluminum angle for the frame, which I will rivet together with a 'blind pop-riviter with 1/8" thick lexan to for the sides. planning on using weather striping between the alluminum and the lexan to make the box air tight. Going to purchase a Swiftech MCP-600 12 volt pump, Danger Den TDX (cpu block), Maze4 Den waterblock for gpu for graphics card, 1/2 fittings, Chevette heatercore, 10 feet tygon tubing, and a Danger Den Dual 5 1/4 bay Res. will paint the alluminum angle black to match my case. Any advice and suggestions would greatly be appreciated.
 

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pic of current blow hole mod

will mod this to mount external case and for tygon lines to exit thru a new window mod.
 

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I think that your drawing shows the fans too far away from the radiator to be effective.
The rad core is quite restrictive and the fans need to be closely mounted and tightly shrouded to force air through it.
 
was planning on having the blow hole on external case bringing in cooler air with a 120mm fan from outside and having a shroud mounted on radiator with 120 mm fan sucking this cool air to flow thru radiator to exit out of rear of case. was planning on having the 120 mm fan in front to help pull in cool air from outside of case to cool of res and pull air towards rear of case to exit out of radiator. that drawing is primitive so no specs are specific due to i am limited using microsoft paint lol but any suggestions on improvement are greatly appreciated.
 
edit

the internal components in this setup will be closer than depicted in picture due to my limitations with paint.
 

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I think you'd have better luck with the fans exausting rather than as intake. Must make box airtight either way though.
Like the box very much, shooting you a pm right now actually :)
 
well with the actual set up dont think ill have a kink in any of the tubes i run, plus since it will be mounted on top of case gravity should assist in water to cpu and gpu block. also would eliminate the trouble with trying to get everything to fit in my case. that diagram does a horrible job in actually dipiciting actual setup and measurments. the fans that ill have equipped on the rad with a shroud will actually be exhausting air with the assistance of two fans bringing cool air into box. theoretically wouldnt cool air being pulled into box and being exhausted thru rad work more efficiently in cooling the water? the weather stripping should make box airtight.
 
ya have the fans sucking air out of the res, so air gets forced through the fins. Blowing from far away wont do much at all.
 
Shootingblanks said:
theoretically wouldnt cool air being pulled into box and being exhausted thru rad work more efficiently in cooling the water? the weather stripping should make box airtight.
if the air gets pulled into the case, your forgetting that the pump is also in there. it generates heat, and the air that gets the pumps heat will be blown into the rad. so sucking fresh air from outside straight through the rad and blown out the blow hole would be the best thing to do.
 
update

well i just purchased all the 3/4" alluminum angle and made all the cuts to construct the frame. will pop rivit all the pieces with a 'blind pop-riviter. went to napa and got a copper 1977 Pontiac Bonneville (with a/c) heatercore today and cut the tube fittings down and painted it black with satin rust-oleum. made sure to spray at an angle on the fins. should i boil water and expand the tygon tubing to fit over the tubes into heatercore or should i attempt to heat them with my sedaline torch or a propane torch to remove them to tap threads for a barb fitting. was planning on filling heater core with water and wrapping it with wet towels so all soder to core doesnt melt. have built many street cars so i have a vast assortment of tools. have never attempted this before and was just considering with just heating the tygon tubing to fit over the current tubes into core. was planning on using tupperware shrouds to equip 2 120mm fans inside case and need ideas to mount heatercore to the lexan side on external case. any ideas or suggestions?
 

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Blanks,
I have tried both methods to stretch tubing and think the boiling water way is best.
Not only does the torch have the potential of just melting the tubing altogether, but the tube doesn't seem to shrink down afterwards as well as the waterheated tube does.
I coil up an oversize piece and boil the whole thing.
Especially if you have any tight radii to make, this will help and the tube will take a set to the installed shape and lessen the torque ( if any) on the fitting.
 
plans....

well due to having 4 120mm fans and a 12v swiftech pump installed in my external case setup I was planning on getting this Enermax 250w MicroATX power supply and installing it somewhere in the rear of this exterior case.
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=17-103-448&depa=0

Know if I solder and heatshrink sheath a wire to pin 14 (green wire)of the p/s connector and run solder it to one of the connections to a push button switch and have solder and sheath another wire from the ground pin (15,16, or 17) in the p/s (black wire) and solder this to the other connection on the push button, will this work to turn on the power supply to operate the pump and fans? Dont want to use my cases Enermax 475W power supply due to its already operating a lot of components and dont want it to effect my overclock. Any helpful ideas would greatly be appreciated.
 

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What you have there looks good. However, let me suggest turning the heater core on its side and putting the 4 120mm's along with shrouds on both sides of the core in a push pull configuration. Make it so that the air inters and exits the heater core only and never enters the box. Connect the fans to a controller so you can turn them up and down when needed.

Keep the other two holes in the sides of the case but make them 80mm's and put a grill on either side with a silent 80'mm fan exhausting air to one side. This should give your heater core great air flow and provide enough ventilation for the rest of the external box.
 
i think that 4 120mm fans is a bit overkill, i have a 1ftx1ftx2ft box that holds my caprice core, a big pvc resivour, and pump with only two 60(or maybe 80) cfm 120mm fans blowing out of the box, and i can hold a 100 watt heatload at 104 degrees farenheit with a maze 4 and a mag 3

just mount your rad on the side of the box with no shroud or fans on it, and you'll be set, the air has to go at least one foot on my box before it exhausts, and it works quite well
 
"Originally Posted by greenman100
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shootingblanks
ordering my wc parts tonight... would appreciate your advice if possible...building external case for following parts: tdx waterblock, maze 4 for 9800 pro, 1/2 tygon tubing, and a res. would you go with a dd 12v pump or the swiftech mcp600 rev. 2 pump. read the review on the dd pump vs the hydor l35 pump and after hearing that dd pump isnt that loud its kind of persuading me to go possibly the dd instead of mcp600. I also read the procooling review. Which would you go for the best overall performance? Thanks for your input.

I would go MCW6002, DD D4 bought from voyeurmods (cheaper) and a t-line, I hate resivoirs, they crack and leak.

tygon is kinda expensive, go with clearflex if you want to save some bux

go to procooling and look at the interactive waterblock comparator


thanks, appreciate all your help. I read the waterblock comparator, thats why I'm going with tdx with nozzle 4 for the performance isnt that much different. As for pump, I read you wanted the dd 12v pump. would this be a better performer that the mcp600 for an external setup. here is a link to my thread if you have the time.http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=308031
thanks again."

tdx should be more expensive, why don't you like the 6002?

DD D4 would be a noticeably better performer in ANY setup
 
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