Hoot goes H2O

[Hoot]

I've been busy the past week or so, cleaning up my shack and putting together all the components I've procurred for Water Cooling my PC. In cleaning the shack, I managed to find my USB cable for downloading pictures from the camera so i could attach a picture of my new rig.

It is built around an Antec 840 case. The cooling components were obtained from Danger Den and KD Computers. They include:
A) Radiator with homemade shrouds on each side to mount the D) two Panaflo 120mm 86cfm fans (push-pull) to.
B) Eheim 1048 Pump pushing distilled water and Water Wetter.
C) Maze-2 Block
E) Three Panaflo 80mm 24cfm fans, chosen for quiet case ventilation assistance.
F) Big honkin Rheostat for controlling the pair of 120mm fans.
G) Silicon hose with T for burping out air and adding water.

I have been very pleased with the cooling and more so with the quiet nature of the setup. In my shack, with the air at 18.5C, the case runs 20C and the CPU, an older Tbird 1000 at 1500 runs at 29C idle (no halt-on-idle) and 32C running Prime95 Torture. The 120mm fans provides the majority of intake airflow, with the 80mm fans, along with the PSU fan, providing for just a hint of positive pressure. The Northbridge and GPU passive heatsinks stay cool, due to the location of the 120mm fans placing them in the main breeze. Ditto on the RAM. No major innovation or revelations. My perception of the Radiator is that it is not working hard to cool the Tbird and I may try my 156W Peltier when i have some more free time to experiment. Chances are, I'll just get a new XP and be happy without the Peltier. It's a long winter to scheme up ideas.

Hoot

[William]

I can't believe it!

Awesome setup, I will do my water setup someday if school ever lets up. Again awesome looking setup(much cleaner than anything I could ever hope to do!). :beer:


BTW, what type of Rad. do you have?

[Colin]

Congratulations Hoot! It's about time. ;) Great looking rig.

[jbslow]

Man that is awesome!

Modified the case and modified the radiator for fans , I really like the tucked psu wires...very clean setup.

The radiator liooks like one Danger Zen sells.

[Sonny]

By far one of the cleanest looking configuration that I have seen & awesome temps to boot!:beer:

[Silversinksam]

Looks real nice Hoot, when I go to h2o cooling I'll be happy if its half as nice as your setup.


Lets all have a moment of silence now so we can all reflect back on the infamous Hoot Shoot now facing the ill fate of going onto the Overclockers retirement home.


Viva la Hoot shoot :burn:

[Hoot]

Don't weep for the Hoot Chute just yet. I took my so-so KT7A and mounted it in the old EN7237 with the Cohesive Cooling setup. I scrounged up a 3Gb HDD and backup 300W so-so PSU, Old PCI Video card, crusty but trusty Duron600, but no RAM yet. Will use that for testing Air Cooled solutions and general fooling around. Have to resist sucking up to my wife by giving it to her. She's still using a Cyrix 300 system.

Hoot

[Warlord2]

gj hoot and NICE overclock
a 500mhz gain is a awesome overclock
is that at 1.85v or did you have to do a voltage mod?

[Hoot]

Keeping the core in the low 30s enables me to hit that speed with 1.85V. If I let it run warmer, I have to up the voltage to achieve the same speed, which makes it run warmer still.

Hoot

[ColdMiser]

Hoot, I recall seeing your post asking how critical the orientation of that Eheim was. I am prepping to build an in-the-case H2O system with the same pump, and want to know the same thing. Any problems having the pump like that?

[r0ckstarbob]

great setup hoot... very clean and organized. i definately like the lack of vertical climb involved - all nice and flat. am guessing you are getting some pretty decent pump speeds with the alignment layed out the way you have it. your enheim loves you to be sure.

props.

RSB


grrrr - i hate stupid spelling errors

[Thelemac]

That's pretty smooth lookin' there, bud. My water cooling rig looks nothing like that. All cluttered and stuff. :)

See you finally came over to the dark side of water cooling. :D

Did you ever finish modding your Swiftec? That sounded like a really cool project that you were working on.

[BillA]

Hoot, clean setup

when you've a chance,
remove the pulling fan and see if you can notice any difference
let us know, thanks

be cool

[The Overclocker]

damn, i have just done watercooling in my antec and it looks nothing like that. but at least i have a hard disk bay thing left

[jbslow]

Originally posted by the overclocker
damn, i have just done watercooling in my antec and it looks nothing like that. but at least i have a hard disk bay thing left

The hd will fit in the second FDD slot just fine you just wont be able to use more then one HD and on FDD with out some modification though. I know I wount be using more then one FDD and I probably wount use raid either but it would be nice to have the room just in case.

With the pump level with the water block like that and above the radiator you probebly get much better water flow.

I've been thinking about water cooling for a little while now and I have one of the SX800 series antec cases so this setup really impresses me and gives me some good layout ideas.

[Joeteck]

Now this is a good example of how to make your computer overclockable with the case panels on. I'm very impressed. Most everyone else I've seen, you must have everything open to have everything work. which is not useful.

If it all possible you should have a temp reading at the output of the CPU & a output at the return, just to see what the water temps are, its just an idea.


I must say it again, I'm very impressed!

[Thelemac]

Heh...meant to post a pic of mine so you could see just how cluttered it can get. :)

I've made a couple of changes to the system shown, but it still looks about the same. :D

[riprock]

Thelemac... where's the chicken???

Seriously, is your radiator sucking air into the case from the bottom, or is it sucking air out of the case???

[jbslow]

What size of tubing and fittings are you using Hoot and Thelemac? Thelemac are you using the same Eheim pump as Hoot?

[Thelemac]

The radiator is sucking air into the case, as is the fan in the back. I have one blowing out position right above the cpu.

The tubing is 3/8" Inner diameter. My pump is a 1046 (don't remember the difference between that and the 1048 as it was quite some time ago that I was shopping).

[Daovonnaex]

In theory, you should try to change the pressure throughout the cooling system. Water going into the water blocks (or water adapted heat-sinks) should be at higher pressure, and water going into the radiator should be at lower pressure (but still high enough to avoid laminar flow). This maximizes the convection of heat as well as cooling the water and bleeding off the heat in the radiator.

[Neco]

Hey Hoot...

think you could scrounge up a guide on just how you made that shroud ??

Also think it could be "adapted" to work with a 12" x 5" radiator and two 120mm fans ?

I'd be REAL interested... anything has got to be better than this rectangled box of cardbord with a fanhole I call a shroud...

:p

-Neco.

[Crappy]

Great job Hoot. I love where you put the pump up and out of the way. I wish I could have done that with my case. But there is no room left in my PC-60 case.

[Intraveinous]

Beautiful job, Hoot!!! That is quite possibly the cleanest looking watercooled computer I've ever seen. Soo... What's happening to the Hoot Chute? It was part of an Enlight 7237 wasn't it??? I have a 7237 sitting around............ :D
Peace
John

[Hoot]

Thanks for all the positive feedback. It goes to show what you can do if you take your time amassing the materials and ponder your approach before you start. I am fortunate to have also amassed a good compliment of tools and raw materials over the years. The price for that is a 25x25ft workshop full of clutter and boxes full of scroungables. The abundance of good reading on the subject is a big plus also. All the answers are there for the gleaning.

Lots of questions. Here's some answers.

ColdMiser: Orientation of the Eheim 1046 did not seem to be a problem, though I did not use a flow meter to check different positions, since I did not have any other places to mount it as an option.

BillA: The push-pull setup was chosen so I could run the fan(s) at a slower speed. Their functionality is synergistic in that configuration. With the pull fan not running and hence actually impeding the airflow a little, temps went up only 2C, but I had to run the push fan at full speed (read noisier).

the overclocker & Crappy: I really wanted to mount the pump down on the floor of the case, in front of the radiator, but my other interests require me to use a specific model of ISA sound card, so the bottom mobo slot is occupied. I have found that I can get along fine with only 1 HDD right above the floppy. If "push came to shove", I could adapt a second HDD in one of the 5-1/4 bays, beneath the CD-RW drive.

Joetech: I did check the water temp on the return side, at the filler tube and it ran about 1.5C above the room air temp. Given the size of the radiator, I'd estimate that coming out of the radiator it is darn close to room temp, but I have not actually measured it.

Neco: I am fortunate to have picked up a bending brake from a dumpster dive several years ago. I will post a layout of the shroud, but it's basically a cut out cross, with the four sides bent up and their seams soldered. The fan holes were carefully cut out with a moto-tool fitted with a roto-zip bit. I have lots of 24ga. copper sheet laying around, so I use it for many projects. I love the ability to solder to it, as opposed to aluminum. I whish I had slightly thicker sheet than 24ga. as there is a small tympanic effect that allows the fan noise to radiate more than if the sheet metal was thicker. Strategically plced dots of RTV (silicone rubber) help dampen it somewhat.

Intravenous: The Hoot Chute is alive and well in my 7237 box. I will be using it for air cooling experiments as the winter wears on.

That's it for now. My XP1800 may be waiting for me when I get home today, or tomorrow at the latest, so I will report how it performs in a few days.

73, Hoot

[The Overclocker]

Originally posted by Thelemac
Heh...meant to post a pic of mine so you could see just how cluttered it can get. :)

I've made a couple of changes to the system shown, but it still looks about the same. :D

cant blame you for it being clottered, those enermax cables are too long for their own good

[aznrice]

hoot, did you have to cut out a 3.5" drive bay to fit the rad in there like the antec sx1000 series or is there already space in the front? my sx1040 has that drive bay in the way and i think i can only get it out by hacking it off...

[DeltaSierra]

Hoot, nice set-up. I especially like your burp-tube idea. I'm going to steal that for my rig. Thanks!

[ken257]

Very nice job Hoot! I like the freedome of being able to change cards and other misc. hardware without haveing a nightmare trying to gain access to the mobo. So many water cooled systems have all kinds of junk in the way so thay you can't work on the machine. When I set up my last water system about a year ago (it's still running, typing this on it now) I gave a lot of thought into keeping things accessable. Here are a few pics. Not quite finished yet in the pic but you get the idea.

[ken257]

Here you can see the location of some of the fans.

[f155mph]

What kind of hoses are you guys using? I am using some clear hoses from Home Depot and that stuff keep bending, slowing down the flow. What is flexible enough but hard enough that it won't get kink up?

Nice job Hoot!

[The Overclocker]

Originally posted by f155mph
What kind of hoses are you guys using? I am using some clear hoses from Home Depot and that stuff keep bending, slowing down the flow. What is flexible enough but hard enough that it won't get kink up?

Nice job Hoot!

sounds like you arr using vinal, all the green tubes are vinal, but we make sure they dont kink by running them in straight lines and putting 90 degree bends when we need to turn them, if you want to avoid bends and stuff get silicon tubes

[Hoot]

I did not need the lower drive cage, so I removed it to accomodate my pump. The radiator fit just fine without removing the cage. I did nibble out the lower 80mm opening to accomodate my 120mm intake fan. When I ordered my stuff from Danger Den, I got their Silicon tubing. Very flexible like what I call surgical tubing and almost impossible to kink.

Hoot

[aznrice]

what size tubing is that hoot?

[Hoot]

Since my Eheim 1048 had 3/8" ports, I decided there was nothing to gain by having a mixed system of 3/8" and 1/2". So, I ordered the entire setup, including the silicon tubing in 3/8". Works fine.

Hoot

[ButcherUK]

Curious... my Eheim 1048 has 1/2" ports..

[xCarne_Asada]

Originally posted by ken257
Here you can see the location of some of the fans.

what case is that?

[Hoot]

Originally posted by ButcherUK
Curious... my Eheim 1048 has 1/2" ports..

I always assumed the fittings were 3/8" because Danger Den said to use with 3/8 Silicon Tubing. Looking at the specs at the Eheim site, it lists the ports as 13mm and that's 1/2". I'm not sure if that means the outside of the nipples or the inside diameter of the hole. I'm not going to pull apart my setup to check it, since I already have the block and radiator with 3/8" fittings. It's kind of a moot point.

Hoot

[UserName]

Hoot;

Have you thought to put a coheasive blower on this setup.

Should we call it a coheasive blower insted of a hoot?

[ken257]

Originally posted by xCarne_Asada


what case is that?


I am not sure of the model number but it is an Inwin full tower.

[AxE]

What can I use to plug the the burp pipe on the T joint?

[chuckerants]

Top cuz this is a great thread.

Thanks to Hoot.

[Hoot]

Use a 3/8 or 1/2" (depending upon your tubing) hose barb. Then go over to the PVC pipe section and buy a threaded end cap to screw on the other end of the hose barb. I got both at Home Depot.

Hoot

[chuckerants]

How does one move a watercooled PC? How do you swap out a water block if you wanted to try a differnt one? (Aside from very carefully that is)

[JudgeDredd]

Drain the system, probably.

[SYNAPSE00]

First of all, that looks really amzing hoot!!

I was thinking of going for air cooling, but when I saw your setup, I changed my mind. I thought water cooling works only If you have a 10 liter water tank beside your computer. What radiator are you using? And how loud are the pump and the 120mm coolers?
And what specs does the pump have, can't get that make in the stores in my country. Is there a homepage for the pump?

Thanks for the great thread!

[Tecumseh]

Originally posted by Hoot
Since my Eheim 1048 had 3/8" ports, I decided there was nothing to gain by having a mixed system of 3/8" and 1/2". So, I ordered the entire setup, including the silicon tubing in 3/8". Works fine.

Hoot

I hate being pedantic, Hoot, but it drives me nuts to see people
writing or saying "silicon" tubing. Silcon is an element. What the
tubing is made of is SILICONE. Because we all hold you in
such high esteem if you write "silicon" everybody else will
start doing that. We can't have that!:D