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Thoughts on weird water cooling setup

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GreekLes

New Member
Joined
Jun 30, 2014

Hi Guys (& Girls),

Registered as a User several days ago as I couldn't find anything remotely like my situation in the existing threads, but there seems to be some fairly knowledgeable people out there!!!

Bit of a strange one this, but extreme circumstances lead to this possible solution and I need some expert opinion.

Background: I am Brit, living in Greece. Quite nice but has some major drawbacks, main one being the temperature here in summer. Currently 40 and it gets hotter in August. No air con. as it costs a fortune to run here (electricity isn't cheap) so PC runs at around 65 when all 4 cores running 50% usage. But I want to overclock it - AMD2+ m/b, 965(BE) cpu running at stock 3.4gig. I've read that it can be o/c'd to 4.6gig and higher, but I'm not interested in anything too extreme at the moment - probably 4gig to start.

BUT the temperature is the problem. Water cooling seems the answer, but with ambient temperature that high I don't think it'll have much effect. That leads to my idea.

We have an 18,000litre water storage tank under our house. Made from reinforced concrete 25cm thick, it stays at a fairly constant 15 degrees all year round. This tank is immediately below our office.....
My idea is to put a 25metre coil of copper pipe in the tank, feed to the cpu water block also copper, using a central heating circulating pump to move the distilled water around the loop. Small reservoir in the office, probably 10litres. Total cost of around 150euro, but I don't fry my cpu (hopefully).

Does this idea sound solid and has anyone got any suggestions or improvements they could offer?

Many thanks in advance.
 
No reason it wouldn't work that I can think of.

Be careful that everything that goes into the tank is drinking water safe, if that's your drinking water.

In concept it's very similar to the geothermal (or geo-something anyway) cooling loops a couple members have buried in their yards.
4750 gallons of water (for the americans) and foot thick concrete walls should be able to soak up a lot of heat for a long time before getting warm, and be able to get rid of the heat into the ground at a decent rate.

The water in the tank will get warmer though. How much warmer I don't know.
 
Seems pretty sound really... that is a ton of water and will take a lot of time to raise that up any appreciable value so it should keep that CPU nice and cool.

I dont see the point of the res being so huge though... 10L? That's a ton of water for a res. Big ones are 250ML, LOL!
 
a smaller res, yes, if you even need one
try to do without, hvac circulation pumps like having some pressure at the sucktion end. Introducing a reservoir in loop can result in this pressure to not exist, and the pump will have to work a lot harder. There is a reason why hvac central heating systems are closed loop & pressurised at +/- 1 bar :)

You *could* consider putting a radiator in the loop on the intake side of your PC case... it will shave a bit of the temp of the air incoming in the case....
It will raise the loop temp rather quickly thou... maybe even enough to overwhelm the 25 meter "long" copper coil, although i dont think so. And you've got 18 cube to dissipate into. Should work nicely.
 
RnRollie said:
a smaller res, yes, if you even need one
try to do without, hvac circulation pumps like having some pressure at the sucktion end. Introducing a reservoir in loop can result in this pressure to not exist, and the pump will have to work a lot harder. There is a reason why hvac central heating systems are closed loop & pressurised at +/- 1 bar :)

You *could* consider putting a radiator in the loop on the intake side of your PC case... it will shave a bit of the temp of the air incoming in the case....
It will raise the loop temp rather quickly thou... maybe even enough to overwhelm the 25 meter "long" copper coil, although i dont think so. And you've got 18 cube to dissipate into. Should work nicely.
Click to expand...

HVAC systems are pressurized to modify the temperature at which the refrigerant changes phases.

Both sides are pressurized, therefore negating any effect on the pump.
 
This will work nicely
The more coil you can submerge the better
Res is not needed but a small one would be helpful for bleeding
Not big on the rad idea as that will result in raising the temp of your drinking water even further

I would look at stainless pumps as opposed to cast brass or steel
 
GreekLes said:

Hi Guys (& Girls),

Registered as a User several days ago as I couldn't find anything remotely like my situation in the existing threads, but there seems to be some fairly knowledgeable people out there!!!

Bit of a strange one this, but extreme circumstances lead to this possible solution and I need some expert opinion.

Background: I am Brit, living in Greece. Quite nice but has some major drawbacks, main one being the temperature here in summer. Currently 40 and it gets hotter in August. No air con. as it costs a fortune to run here (electricity isn't cheap) so PC runs at around 65 when all 4 cores running 50% usage. But I want to overclock it - AMD2+ m/b, 965(BE) cpu running at stock 3.4gig. I've read that it can be o/c'd to 4.6gig and higher, but I'm not interested in anything too extreme at the moment - probably 4gig to start.

BUT the temperature is the problem. Water cooling seems the answer, but with ambient temperature that high I don't think it'll have much effect. That leads to my idea.

We have an 18,000litre water storage tank under our house. Made from reinforced concrete 25cm thick, it stays at a fairly constant 15 degrees all year round. This tank is immediately below our office.....
My idea is to put a 25metre coil of copper pipe in the tank, feed to the cpu water block also copper, using a central heating circulating pump to move the distilled water around the loop. Small reservoir in the office, probably 10litres. Total cost of around 150euro, but I don't fry my cpu (hopefully).

Does this idea sound solid and has anyone got any suggestions or improvements they could offer?

Many thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

If your water tank is also your drinking water you might want to consider having two isolated loops joined with an appropriately sized heat exchanger wrapped in insulation to minimize condensation and room heat uptake.
Setting it up that way will allow you to keep your tank loop in a fixed position so there is less chance for strain on the tubing to open up an air pocket and let microbes in.
The smaller loop can then be a bit more free to move around if/when needed. Then if you do notice it becomes compromised you'd also have less tubing to drain and clean out.

If you're worried about the temperature of your hard drives and GPU you might be better off just getting blocks for them rather than using a radiator to try and cool the air entering the case.
Either way it sounds like there's enough volume of water that you won't have to worry about the temperature rising very much.

Another alternative could be to find an enclosed rackmount box to put your computer in, and use the water tank loop to cool the air inside a bit. You'd still want to use Water blocks on the main heat sources, but I think it would work better than just having a rad on your case's air intake.
 
that sistern is for the toilets and other things, not drinking, this is a good idea, with a heatsink that size you'll be good.
 
Sounds like a good idea, but even with an Ambient temp of 40, a custom water loop would be able to keep your oc'ed rig at an acceptable temp.

I use to live in Spain, and didn't have aircon in my room. With 2 rigs running. One was water cooled, and overclocked, no issues. But i cannot remember temps, this is 11years ago.
 
WOW!!!!!!

Didn't expect so many replies so quickly.

Thanks for all the feedback, several very interesting thoughts and comments which I'll have more thinking about before proceeding.

To answer several comments, yes the water is our house water but we don't drink it. Only bottled water is drunk here as the 'mains' water is pretty c**p and comes out brown - and you all thought that the Greeks had suntans!!!

The comment about the C/H pump pressure and the reservoir size - I work as a plumber here and can get a plastic tank that size quite cheaply (very much a governing factor in all this). I was thinking of connecting the reservoir into the tubing loop with a 'T', as I know that with the suction side of the pump connected to the reservoir there won't be any problems. Effectively the reservoir will just be a 'header tank'.

Liked the comments about using a rad and fan in the case to keep case temp down - admit I hadn't thought of that one but seems worthy of investigation.

Thought about using an EK Supremacy CPU block as it seems to be 'the best' - any comments or advice on that?
 
I say go for it! Furthermore, you could probably even "AC" a room, if the water is cold enough. Just hook up a radaitor in said room, worth a try. I'd avoid putting any fittings in the tank though, even if you don't drink from it. A glycol shower sounds... sticky :p

AND POST PICS :)
 
I say go for it! Furthermore, you could probably even "AC" a room, if the water is cold enough. Just hook up a radaitor in said room, worth a try. I'd avoid putting any fittings in the tank though, even if you don't drink from it. A glycol shower sounds... sticky :p

AND POST PICS :)
 
glad we could fuel the idea :)

It something similar to what i would doif i would be sitting on top op a rainwatercistern or a well; but a 7th floor penthouse is LONG way from any groundwatersource :)

Anyways, let us know how it goes and...
:pics:
 
I'd say go for it too!
Even being cement walled, it should take a long time for the water to increase in temp with that much in the cistern.
That proposed reservoir size isn't that bad either considering the tubing you'll have to fill and the height it will need to push..at least for the fill/bleed process.

Love this stuff! It's like the old days of pond pumps and car parts..lol
 
Diggrr said:
I'd say go for it too!
Even being cement walled, it should take a long time for the water to increase in temp with that much in the cistern.
That proposed reservoir size isn't that bad either considering the tubing you'll have to fill and the height it will need to push..at least for the fill/bleed process.

Love this stuff! It's like the old days of pond pumps and car parts..lol
Click to expand...

yup.. when real men milled their own waterblocks... by hand :clap:
and dug 4ft deep , 30 ft long geothermal "trenches" with a spade :D

In the OP's case, probably 1" pipe, Grundfos or Wilo circulation pump, a couple of manifolds, ... :)
 
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