Thinking of switching to water cooling

I've been reading the stickies and some posts for some custom made stuff and was wondering if using a complete radiator would have any drwawbacks other then size? (compared to the chevette heater core setup)

I.m trying to figure out what setup would beat my current air setup by a buttload and for how much.

These temps are ****ing me off!!!

the 7800gt can get close to 75°c with the zalman+pci blower and very good case airflow

The cpu on auto voltage stays in the low 50°c at 270fsb but i cant go any higher then 270fsb without upping the voltage significantly (1.4v cant complete a 32m spi yet at even 262fsb and the temps go near 65 at that voltage)


So im looking at cheap ugly ways to get the most cooling out of a setup
custom water cooling + custom water chiller would probably do a nice job

I'd love 10-20° load temps with an even higher oc but phase/pelt setups are a pain from my pov and from what ive read a good water chiller setup will get some very good results. (and leaves room to add a pelt if it still isnt enough)

"complete radiator" as in a car radiator? Someone is already doing that. Forgot who... But yeah its a great way to get great temps with very little noise. You'll just have to mess with the barbs since its 1"+ fittings and you'll probably want to use 1/2" ID tubing. You can just get some adapters or solder/jbweld some new barbs on there. You can find all copper rads for 97 civics on ebay for cheap, $60 delivered US.

Before you do anything I'd decide whether you want to go normal H2O or the chiller route. Chilled H2O is a whole nother animal. AC units take a lot of power and you have to insulate everything. Just another level of effort in my eyes. Complexity isn't much greater. If you do decide to go chiller water go over to http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=155
Read other people's projects. Getting an AC unit and converting it looks relatively simple and cheap(Ive never done it mind you). Insulating looks like its the hardest part. Dunno how much that stuff is.

If you want normal H2O the cheapest ultra-high performance setup that I can come up with, off the top of my head, is as follows:

92 Civic rad $40 delivered
92 Danner Mag5, probably $40 delivered
Universal WW block. $30 delivered
DD Maze4 Acetal GPU block $45 delivered


This is with priorities in this order:
1. Price
2. Performance
3. Noise
4. Size

noize isnt MUCH of an issue right now my comp sounds like a turbine engine (110+cfm from just one of the 120mm fans so imagine all 4 + gpu and pci blower hehe)
I also have a oil cooler off of a motorcycle lying around any thoughts on that? basicly about the size of a autamic transmission oil cooler for a car but its lyin in the garage doin nothing and im pretty sure i can fit 2x 120mm fans to each side.

darufe said:

noize isnt MUCH of an issue right now my comp sounds like a turbine engine (110+cfm from just one of the 120mm fans so imagine all 4 + gpu and pci blower hehe)
I also have a oil cooler off of a motorcycle lying around any thoughts on that? basicly about the size of a autamic transmission oil cooler for a car but its lyin in the garage doin nothing and im pretty sure i can fit 2x 120mm fans to each side.

Click to expand...

A tranny rad thats 120x240mm finned area? Please take pics =)

Oil rads are usually great for quiet setups because their finned area tends to be wider and thinner(more efficient with slow/weak/quiet fans). But they tend to have very small ID tubing and be multipass so very restrictive and hard on the pump. I've seen a few models out there that look like they'd work well but were always very expensive and on special order so I never actually got one in hand.


I dunno why I didnt think of it his before but probably one of the cheapest ways to get low temps is a bong cooler. If you live in an area that has low humidity its a good option. You have to worry about bacteria though. There are hundreds of threads on it here and procooling and xtremesystems.

bleh just went in the garage looking for it its only 80mm tall wich would mean wayyyy too much noise
i have 2x 80mm deltas im not using cuz theyre just too darn loud even at 5v :\
2x 80cfm 80mm fans = more noise then a leafblower

darufe said:

bleh just went in the garage looking for it its only 80mm tall wich would mean wayyyy too much noise
i have 2x 80mm deltas im not using cuz theyre just too darn loud even at 5v :\
2x 80cfm 80mm fans = more noise then a leafblower

Click to expand...

lol unless you have heard those 80mm x 80mm x 80mm tripple stacked delta's then you have no idea

That car radiator is huge. $40 is a steal. For a closed loop setup you aren't going to get much better than that. Put a 12" normal house fan infront of it and enjoy awesome temps and the quiet fan.

If you want just a little better temps then look into a bong. If you want uber cold temps look at that chiller forum.

ya but im in cnada so i have to look all these up locally customs and shipping will be sick for me

as for the chiller its basicly a add-on. You need the basic wc setup to circulate that water in the first place.
ive seen alot of cool not too complicated setups for chilling your water
its all the insulating thats a pain

on a side note i finally stabilised my [email protected] ram wasnt getting nuff voltage cpu is still taking it easy at 272fsb auto vcore superpi 32m and prime stable
If my ram didnt suck so bad i think i could get away with close to 4.0 on air for that lil bugger! im down to 50°c max load temp on the cpu since its not the one having voltage issues!!

The gpu tho....lord i hit 76 playing bf2 earlier
and now the ram is getting pretty hot to the touch.

Wonder if i could convert my old zx6 engine into the ultimate phase change compressor! 100hp should be nuff to get decent psi! lol

No matter how xtreme of a cooling setup you use, you are going to hit a point without serious modification at which your hardware is not going to go any faster. I am using a car rad and I love it.

i agree theres always a max for your hardware but considering the 520 is ar 1.256vcore @ 273fsb running spi 32m right now (and at 46° on uncured el cheapo thermal paste) lets me believe that with a much cooler temp i could use much higher voltages to keep it stable much higher! hehe

But the ram wont survive the run
Good to know your rad is working nice you using any extra fans?
what pump?
notice any good gains from going car rad instead of heater core similar setups?