Anyone ever DIY a W/C system?

Ok guys, got aggervated with the noise and heat from my comp. itsa dually, dual cpu, dual psu, dual monitor, dual...pretty much everything....meaning DUAL NOISE....

I was thinking about watercooling it, but as many others i dont like to buy "kits" ...im a more DIY person too...i know ive seen people just buy a pump and either make the WB, buy em separate, then go to home depot for tubing, then use some radiator off of a car or AC unit or something...

I was thinkin buy a decent pump, thick walled tubbing but 1/2iin diameter, Y adaptor, clamps, etc...i figure on copper WBs and a copper radiator (since we find fridges and ac units garbage picking)

Or, if i get lucky enough to find myself a mini fridge on the tree lawn(and what im gonna shoot for) ....put 2 holes in the top, run em to a gallon jug of distilled water inside the cold fridge....plus keep pop n other late nite snacks us computer geeks love...

At the moment, i only plan on cooling the 2 CPU's, and modding all my fans to 7V to take care of the noise...the heat is terrible...and to get 2 decent heatsinks including shipping its gonna be aound 90$-100$..im also thinking ahead as in what happens when i upgrade my CPUs? or my whole setup to 64bit? (the day will come) i dont wanna hafta fight with heat again...

I dont oc really (altho this mite let me) my graphics card isnt the best, and i dont game much....and its fan isnt that noticeable. if i get decent results and comfortable enough with it, i think ill go extreme ...cool the VGA, psus, HDD's etc...

Few things ive wondered is:

1. How apt to leaking is it? mainly the WB's?
2. If water runs over the CPU, how do the jumpers not short out? i mean to convert a XP to an MP u connect the 2 pins with a conductive paint/metal etc...how does the water not do that?

You can get inert coolant for your system, such as fluidXP. Wont conduct electricity. So long as you are carefull and leak test stuff outside the case first, you should be fine.

There is always a risk of something leaking, which is why we leak test the system first. Once it is proven not to leak, you should use metal worm type hose clamps on all the barbs, this will prevent any tubes from slipping off or leaking. If you get a block like the Swifteck MCW6000/6002, it is a one piece block with nothing to leak, that would remove the WB leak point altogether.

Water does not touch any part of the CPU... it is a block, like an air heatsink, the bottom of the block mates with the top of the cpu just as an HSF. Water runs through the block, tubes, pump and radiator and never (if set up and leak tested) comes into contact with anything else.

You can get inert coolant for your system, such as fluidXP. Wont conduct electricity. So long as you are carefull and leak test stuff outside the case first, you should be fine.

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uhh isnt that stuf REAL expensive?


niksub1, thank you that cleared things up for me and put me at ease! I used to think it literally touched the CPU (dunno why) probbaly because i saw people making their own, and using a mill and such....i assume this is the same for direct die/phase change cooling then?

i am a W/C noob, but im gonna read up pleanty on it b4 i go do something nuts like so. Ive seen people wash thier mobos, so i take it water wont hurt it as long as its not on? and that it COMPLETELY dries.

I think i can answer your second question, Water on its own is not a good conducter of electricity it is the minerals that are disolved in the water that conduct the electricity. So if you use demineralised water you reduce the risk of a short if you have a leak.
I think distilled & demineralised water are the same just a different name but i may be wrong.

1. How apt to leaking is it? mainly the WB's?

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2. If water runs over the CPU, how do the jumpers not short out? i mean to convert a XP to an MP u connect the 2 pins with a conductive paint/metal etc...how does the water not do that?

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1.If your wb leaks. Chances are it will be around the threads of the barbs.
This has happened to me a few times... just leaks on your video card. I never damaged a video card by water leaking on backside of it, and its happened to me atlest 3 times.

I would worry more on tubing and fittings not being secured together.
One time I had my wc running and I pulled out the tube going into the wb by accident... yes it was a very messy situation. Didnt lose any hw though.

2.When a wb leaks, it wont be on the cpu. I have never heard of anyones block leaking at the base of WB and ruining a processor.
Also, water isnt as conductive as whatever you would normally use to bridge L bridges on the Athlon XPs. Water is not conductive unless it is contaminated with other things like minerals (hard-water) or some type of additives.

MadSkillzMan said:

Or, if i get lucky enough to find myself a mini fridge on the tree lawn(and what im gonna shoot for) ....put 2 holes in the top, run em to a gallon jug of distilled water inside the cold fridge....plus keep pop n other late nite snacks us computer geeks love...

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One thing to keep in mind...

If the coolant in your system is much below your ambient temps you *may* run the risk of condensation. Using a standard setup the lowest temp the coolant gets to is the ambient temp which avoids any condensation problems.

Definitely take a look at securing a system from condensation if you follow through with the refrigerator idea.

A mini fridge can't keep up with the heatload of one proc. Needless to say, two is laughable. Don't waste your time on a mini-fridge chiller. If you are seriously concidering chillers, do some research.

Oh, and the heat produced will be the same. You aren't changing the heatload of the procs, just more efficently removing it.

your thread topic alone made me not want to respond to this

greenman100 said:

your thread topic alone made me not want to respond to this

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Ya, please look around atleast a little before asking. You'll notice the vast majority of people here DIY......

ok then.

i was just figuring mini chiller, since i THOUGHT it mite be more affective than a radiator.

the fluid is around 25$ for 32 ounces. If you dont have a res then 1 bottle is more than enough.

oh that isnt bad...not at all...not when ive heard guys mention getting a jug of stuff costing 500$ lol.

you guys say a fridge cant handle 2 CPU's...i can see where thats comming from, but then how do these guys get dual 3.06 xeons running fine on a single radiator and 1 fan?

Im only hoping for temps in 20s-30s C. the lowest temp ive EVER seen on this rig is 40C...and thats only cause i left the window wide open in the middle of december lol

i appareciate ur help..i go on reading bout watercooling, somehow get stuck in reading phase change and tell myself SOME DAY ill be smart enough for that

Mini fridges are NOT designed to have the compressor run 24/7 as it would be overkill for the origional application and crazy on the electrical bill. Honestly, read about this in the extreme cooling section or even better, the chilled liquid section over at xtremesystems.org.

the fluid is around 25$ for 32 ounces. If you dont have a res then 1 bottle is more than enough.

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Zac42: where are you getting it from?

Actually, most minifridges are TEC based, which would have trouble handling a modern northbridge.

Whats TEC?

Thermoelectric cooler, it's an inefficient heatpump.

Whats TEC?

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i think tec means thermal electric cooling or i may be wrong its l8 here working is a little slow

Why can't you just setup a watercooling setup with the reservoir in the fridge? I'm sure a mini-fridge would be able to cool something of such little thermal demand. It's not like the water would be 100 degrees. Once it gets started the water temperature would drop making it even easier to cool. I could understand it not being able to directly cool a processor but not being able to cool water that is cooling the processor just seems exaggerated.