Bong Water Chiller - Anyone running one?

[Jim Morbid]

Hello all.

I speak of the shower head cooler that is mentioned here:

http://www.overclockers.com/articles389/index05.asp

Does anyone use one of these currently (or in the past) and has the inclination to allow me to harass them over some build questions? I'm dying to try one of these!

Thanks.

JM

[SuperDave1685]

Feel free to ask my friend :D Harass me all you want. The basic principle the bong uses is evaporative cooling. If I remember correctly, by the water falling down the tube/pipe, its losing energy, therefore heat in the process. By adding a fan to blow cool air over the falling water, the fan helps to also traditionally cool the water by blowing on it. But the principle is that evaporative cooling is much more efficient than your regular heatsink/fan combination.

[CGR]

Bong cooling was the rave a few years ago, not so much nowadays. The major problem is, they take up a lot of space and evaporate water quickly.

Also with todays's rads I am not sure you get much benefit from a bong cooler at all, except for maybe cool looking if you dress it up.

[SuperDave1685]

The advantage with bongs is that they can get much closer to ambient temperatures than the conventional radiator. In extreme cases, you *could* get sub-ambient temps, but then you'd have to worry about condensation on the motherboard. That being said, you can expect lower temperatures with a bong- type setup, but like CGR said, they do evaporate water quickly and need to be refilled

[Jim Morbid]

So in your proffesional opinion: Is it worth my while? I have to admit I would like to have one but then I hate having to constantly fight a setup :p

JM

[Neuromancer]

How humid is the area you live in? The evaporation is how the bong cools, so in a humid environ, less evaporation= less cooling power.

[speed bump]

I liked my bong cooler, I got temps about 5°c better than with a PA120.3 when I compared them. However for my main rig I stuck with my radiator becuase the sound of running water wasn't for me when I was trying to get work done.

[4od]

Also with todays's rads I am not sure you get much benefit from a bong cooler at all, except for maybe cool looking if you dress it up.

That's just not true - a decently made bong can deal with a huge quantity of heat - 300+ watts, at sub ambient temperatures. Not sure who told you that, but they were wrong.

But keep in mind, as others said, they are big and use up water fast.

I would suggest it; cools well, its fun to build, not that much work, and dirt cheap (less than 50$)

[Springbok]

The sound of the water dripping also caused me to ditch mine, plus the amount of room it took up was just more than it was worth. My radiator doesn't take up any room outside of the case itself so I find the slight loss in cooling potential to be worth the convenience. Of course I originally built a bong cooler because I couldn't afford a radiator :p

[4od]

If you can't stand the dripping, just toss in 20-30 ping-pong balls

That stops the man-peeing noise, but doesn't hurt performance at all

[Jim Morbid]

Ah thanks for all the replies!

I dig that sound of dripping water - one of the reasons I'm looking at the bong.

I live in JHB South Africa which is on quite high (1753m ASL) so its not humid at all!

4od, could you post some pics of your bong rig (I assume your still running one due to your sig)? And the other thing that bothers me about them is what coolant do you use? Like that article said, you cant use anything that might toxify your room because of the vapour leakage and you cant use water since, well I dont want a micro-aquarium :p

JM

[4od]

Here you go

Closeup of bottom of set-up
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o212/4od/DSCF4311.jpg

Pic of whole bong
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o212/4od/DSCF4313.jpg

Closeup of top - the showerhead is under the cloth, the cloth prevents spriting, and the pliers prevent kinking
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o212/4od/DSCF4314.jpg

Bottom - 2 YS Tech 70mm 50 CFM (http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/yste7049cfmf.html) fans, total of 100CFM. Couldn't find 70mm grills
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o212/4od/DSCF4315.jpg

How the tubes get in the computer
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o212/4od/DSCF4316.jpg

Ping-pong balls for the sound - make sure you clean them off before you put them in, they can be very dirty
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o212/4od/DSCF4317.jpg

Shot of how the PVC pipe is attached to the bucket
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o212/4od/DSCF4321.jpg

[Jim Morbid]

O M G!!!!

That is HUGE! That is one of the most epic cooling solutions that I have ever seen. What are you using as coolant there?

JM

[CGR]

That's just not true - a decently made bong can deal with a huge quantity of heat - 300+ watts, at sub ambient temperatures. Not sure who told you that, but they were wrong.

But keep in mind, as others said, they are big and use up water fast.

I would suggest it; cools well, its fun to build, not that much work, and dirt cheap (less than 50$)

I said I wasnt sure :)

[4od]

O M G!!!!

That is HUGE! That is one of the most epic cooling solutions that I have ever seen. What are you using as coolant there?

JM

Pure distilled water, drop of bleach every ten gallons to keep out creatures.

Unfortunately, this particular bong is going to be retired to my old 478 system in a very short while.

It sounds silly, but if you ever want to you can hook a bong up to 2-3 systems, they can take that much load.

[4od]

http://www.ku74.net/uberbong/

As you can see if one of those pictures, if you do everything right you'll actually get steam pouring out of your bong