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New Idea for Dissipating Heat

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Gigacloud

Member
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Joined
Apr 20, 2007
Guys I am currently considering a watercooling unit and have a budget of 100.

I will need to overclock to get the performance I need.

I was wondering would it be possible to use copper car break lines instead of hoses a it would seem the diameter of the copper break line would fit a watercooled cpu block??
 
Doesn't sound like a good idea to me. A break line is pretty small in diameter, sounds restrictive. You would be better off with 7/16 or 1/2 I.D. tubing and a good radiator. Plus it would be a PIA to hard plumb a water cooling setup.
 
dylskee


I don't mind hard plumbing a water setup.

Do you what know what size are the water intake and outake wholes in a cpu block??
 
Alot of blocks are the G1/4" thread (someone correct me if I am wrong). You can get blocks with 1/2" OD, 3/8" OD, or 1/4" OD barbs. HOWEVER, you can get the masterclear tubing for quite cheap, and save yourself alot of time, frustration, maybe even money (unless you are just getting the brake line for free) (and I assume you meant brake line, since I have never heard of break line)
 
http://www.petrastechshop.com/1id3odmagepu.html

You can get 9 feet for 6.75, which will be more then enough to plumb your system, not to mention it will be much simpler to work with. After you are finished, just add a bit of antifreeze, iodine (or other biocide), and some UV reactive dye for a great custom look. Should keep you on budget.

**edit** i just posted the link to 1/2" ID tubing, a popular size for high performance/high flow systems. Petras has other sizes available. Just match the ID of the tubing to the OD of the barbs on the waterblock you will use in your system.
 
you can get the tubing and fittings for less money than the hardware and plumbing supplies to hard pipe the system.

Especially if you skip McDonalds for just one trip....
 
Guys I was thinkng of using a Thermaltake Volcano 4005 Heat Exchanger with a rad as well what do you think??

I was hoping with the copper pipes this system would be very cool
 
I think The Volcano 4005 is a crutch for crippled watercooling systems. Thermaltake's design makes sense if your watercooling setup doesn't work very well in the first place, which is the case with many of the their kits. But if you've got a good pump and rad, it would be better to use a block designed to transfer heat to the coolant at the lowest possible temperature differential (Fuzion, Apogee GT).

All of the brake lines I've ever worked with were far too narrow for our purposes. You can get 1/2" soft copper tubing at any hardware store, but I think the relative rigidity of this stuff would make it difficult to get a good mount on your CPU block.

Oh, and copper lines have been tried a few times. The people who have done this reported no improvement in temps, probably because the surface area and air flow are nothing compared to the rad.
 
could just make a heatercore or heat exchanger out of copper tubing. would be some work if your up to it.
 
Evilsizer said:
could just make a heatercore or heat exchanger out of copper tubing. would be some work if your up to it.
Click to expand...

Not worth it, you can get a caprice heater core from Advance auto for about $25. This is how I see it, Danger den Water block - $50, Mag drive III Pump - $50, Rad - $25, Tubing - $7.00, 1 gal. Antifreeze(pure, not mixed) - $5.00, 1 gal Distilled water - $1, Windshield washer fluid - $1. Mix liquids - 85% Water, 10% Antifreeze, 5% Washer fluid. Total cost $139.00 not including fittings, hose clamps and assuming you've got a couple 120mm fans laying around.

For $100 you're going to have to get used parts... I wouldn't trust used parts in a water cooling system, it's bad enough if you spring a leak, but a dead pump or a bad o-ring could be a big problem... I just can't see it happening with any reliability for cheaper.

Forget the word copper pipes... bad bad idea.
 
I haven't seen anybody mention it but brake lines are not made out of copper. copper can not handle those types of pressuses. it's stainless steel and is double flared.

If you are really worried about the price watercooling is not for you. Don't laugh but I got almost $100 in fans alone which is no where close to what I have tied up in my cooling system
 
Never used any clamps on my 7/16" ID masterkleer tubing. It was SO TIGHT you would *REALLY* have to tug it off. I bet you would sweat a little if you try to pull it off the barb if you made a mistake placing tubes. Ooh but I'm a weak ***. :) 7/16" ID tubing will work with 1/2" fitted barbs and the 1/2" fitted water pumps (had some trouble sliding in the tubes with the Laing D5 though).

What you do is boil water, put the end about 1 inches deep into the water for 5-10 seconds of the tubing and force it onto the barbs/fittings.

I even made a review on it on the dangerden website lol... but I don't think their staff will post my comment; it hasn't shown up yet.
 
Used parts aren't a bad idea so long as you get it from a reputable place; i.e. the OCForums classies where experienced water cooling users sell their old, well taken care of, parts. My brother's system for example has a used D4 in it.

If you want to save money, you could go for the $25 Via Aqua 1800 and a $25 heatercore for a '71 Bonnyville. You could also probably snag an Apogee (original) in the classifieds after you have 100 good posts.
 
res0r9lm said:
I haven't seen anybody mention it but brake lines are not made out of copper. copper can not handle those types of pressuses. it's stainless steel and is double flared.

If you are really worried about the price watercooling is not for you. Don't laugh but I got almost $100 in fans alone which is no where close to what I have tied up in my cooling system
Click to expand...

Car brake lines from the 60's are copper I believe.
 
Moto7451 said:
Used parts aren't a bad idea so long as you get it from a reputable place; i.e. the OCForums classies where experienced water cooling users sell their old, well taken care of, parts. My brother's system for example has a used D4 in it.

If you want to save money, you could go for the $25 Via Aqua 1800 and a $25 heatercore for a '71 Bonnyville. You could also probably snag an Apogee (original) in the classifieds after you have 100 good posts.
Click to expand...

When you said 71 Bonnyville did you mean with 4 wheels??
 
I saw an article years ago about a plumber who watercooled his PC with copper pipe.

This was back when people were still very unaware of watercooling in the mainstream, everyone thought he was insane :rolleyes:

IMO, for performance this is pointless. You're better off with a decent pump, block and 120.3 rad using 1/2" tubing.
 
I was hoping to use copper pipes on the inside of the case to the cpu and hoped I would be able to get extra cooling though the pipes.

I was going to use plastic tubing to the res and radiators.
 
Gigacloud said:
I was hoping to use copper pipes on the inside of the case to the cpu and hoped I would be able to get extra cooling though the pipes.

I was going to use plastic tubing to the res and radiators.
Click to expand...

If your cooling system is working properly the liquid should be moving fairly quickly through the system, the pumps that are used for watercooling are designed to circulate water through very large aquariums and ponds. The hot water coming from the block doesn't spend much time in the pipe and I just can't see it adding too much cooling capacity to the system if any. It would be better in my opinion to stick with PVC tubing to keep as much heat from dissipating into the case as possible... let as much of the cooling as you can be done by the radiator.
 
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