[Intrepid]

I am gonna make a w/c system, my firs,t from scrap parts, I know its expensive but it's more fun and most of the stuff, rad and blocks and tubing, i can get for cheep. I am gonna make my own blocks and I have a good idea of what it needs to be from how others have done thiers, I will give due credit!! what should i use, copper or aluminum, for my blocks?

also I will be using a rad pump and 3 block system (1 for cpu 1 for gpu 1 for chipset) maybe one more on a seprate system for my HDD and psu.

Can I use a Y split on the pipe coming from the rad and have it go to the gpu and cpu, and the one oging to the gpu also goes to the chipset than back to the pump along with the cpu thru another Y and into the pump and than right into the rad?

[frostmeister]

A big project you've set yourself there! First, for the block material, I'd definitely use copper. It's harder to machine than aluminium, but the results are worth it in my - and others - opinions. As for splitting flow with a Y for the cpu / gpu, I'd go with series. What I might consider doing is building a two pump system with two smaller pumps, say two eheim 1048's, and have one pump on the cpu / gpu circuit, in series, and the other pump for your chipset, psu and HDD blocks. That way, you should keep the heat loads fairly equal per pump. How you'd plumb all this together is a question I'm not sure on myself, but I'd go with two smaller radiators, and one reservoir. Each rad should take the heat load, while the reservoir is serving as a junction box for your inlets and outlets. Just my opinions though You might find someone who's plumbed a system of that complexity has more tips - I'm only cooling dual cpu's at the moment - moving to northbridge cooling in the near future as well. Then the next step for me is water gpu cooling for my 9700.... Sweet...

[Chaos2358]

I agree, go copper for the blocks, temps will be much nicer. I also agree that they should connect in series, my setup is pump->rad->graphics->processor->pump. Something like that for your system should work nicely. If you're planning on getting this stuff all inside a case I'm not sure how you would manage two systems, it might take some interesting case mods. Keep us posted on how it all goes.

[I.M.O.G.]

definetly use copper for blocks, no doubt about it.

you do not want to split with a Y. actually you dont want to use any elbows or such connectors unless they are absolutely necessary; they kill flow. i would not go with two pumps, imho that is just not necessary. go with one good pump that can push 300Gph or more. i would fan cool the chipset because it doesnt produce that much heat and the waterblock would kill your flow. many people consider watercooling the chipset to either be just for aesthetics or overkill. if you overclock extremely and have really good temps but still have stability issues, then i might consider water cooling the chipset. anyways chipset blocks kill flow and dont give benefits that are worth it imo. i would go with one heatercore large enough to fit atleast 2 fans in a push-pull setup to exchange heat, that should be plenty. since you wont be using any Y's i would run the loop in this order:

pump->heat exchanger->cpu->gpu->pump

if you feel it necessary i would put the hdd block after the gpu and i would forget the psu block... it has heatsinks inside that are best aircooled. water temps vary very little within the loop (on the order of +/- .5C). its not as though a single chunk of water absorbs a lot of heat, its all the water together that makes it efficient - so you dont have to worry about the gpu getting too hot. so the key is in haveing an efficient heat exchanger and having good flow with this setup. it will do a good job of cooling both the cpu and gpu this way.

[Intrepid]

Ok I have located a company in my area that sells the copper in chunks that i can use and I do have the tools to do this. What I am wonmdering now is will the heat produced by the cpu casue the devices after it to take a hit coolni wise, or will the water be flowing fast enough to negate this and cause the efect of the heatercore to be reletivly even throught the system.

My heater core is from a volvo, as my dad described it it's (no bigger than a read box). I will be using 5/8" fittings.

This is more of a long term project and i probably won't ever use it in my case, as I have a more pressing issue with finishing up my air coolnig system, silent and nice as is and my case is great but not for W/Cing.

My case is a Lian-Li PC-61 with some mods but I doubt an internal system is fesible given how crampt it is in there.

One question about the resivour, what sugestions do you guys have for what I can use for this? about how big (preferably in lanment terms) should it be?

And lastly I would like it if someone could compile a picture of the resulting setup.

Thanx for your help all I know this is a big undertaking for a newb like myself but in good hands I think I can pull it off.

[I.M.O.G.]

there will be a negligble difference in temperature throughout the loop (at most it will vary by .5C), so no worry about the other devices. your assumption was exactly right, the effect of the heatercore is relatively continuous throughout the loop. the variable that is most important at this step is the heat exchanger and its ability to transfer the heat outside of the system, with a heatercore it should be no problem. if that is a used heatercore, then i would plan on getting a new one instead.

resevoir... you can purchase one or make your own. i plan to make my own for my water system. i will just use plexiglass because ive worked with it before. i plan to create a waterfall effect and it will serve double duty as a medium sized case window. some people consider plexi a pain to work with, but it would be my suggestion. for size you can look at the dimensions of the popular resevoirs you can purchase from innovatek or wherever else. mine is going to be relatively large. i figure that will require less refilling and it will make refilling and fitting tubing and connections together easy. i plan to build my case around my watercooling setup though so size isnt very important in my setup.

dont have a picture to offer but you might want to look at the thread titled "not too extreme, water chiller". the thread starter included a nice schematic of his system. though its much more complicated, you might be able to work his schematic and change it to the way you picture yours being. im always around for advice. good luck.

[Intrepid]

Ok please explain to me how the resovowar works? I know the general idea is a palce for watter to be stored knidof and so you don;t need to drain he system and it makes it kindof like an open system. the immage bellow seems to be a closed system. that is what my physics and bio guys would say.

[frostmeister]

Well, it is a closed system if you're putting the components in as labelled in your gif file, but if you include a reservoir, then it is open to some extent, depending on how you fil the reservoir and whether the reservoir has a bleed hole to get rid of air. Speaking to a hydraulics engineer, he recommends that a closed system has some sort of vent to the outside, say, a small hole in the top of the reservoir. This is beacuse any closed system will cause air build up due to cavitation in the pump. The pressure differences in the pump cause tiny air bubbles to form out of the water, which build up into bigger bubbles, and so on. So a reservoir gets these out by using it as an air trap. People also use T joints and stuff to do this as well. My system is completely closed, and now has almost a constants stream of small bubbles flowing round the system, probably knocking a bit off my cooling temps :-( I'm building a reservoir to combat this at the moment.

[Intrepid]

hmm... So the resovour hjas how many things flowing in / out of it and where / how does it connect to the rest of the system?

[UnLoadeD]

If I was gonna water cool CPU, GPU & NB I'd use these Y Reducers and set it up like this:

A lot of people advise against cooling the NB with water as it kills the flow, doing more harm than good usually. Also a lot of people ignore this advise and do it anyway. For those people, I suggest something like the pic above. You'd haveta sacifice 1/2" barbs on ya cpu, but I think you would get the best cooling like this. Also a fairly good (300gph+) pump would prolly be helpful.

peace.
unloaded

[RonnieG]

Reservoirs aren't necessary, take up space, and it's another thing for Murphy's Law to work on.

What I use is an expansion tank system. The system fills by interfacing a funnel into the fill port (overlay "A"). The hatch is then screwed shut (overlay "B"). It also takes care of coolant thermal expansion.

Bubbles will collect at the high point of the tube above the expansion tank and can be expelled into the tank by squeezing the tubes.

Should there be a slow leak the tank also serves as a reserve...

[Intrepid]

Well coulsdnt you have the tank (resovuar) on the top above the rest of the system in height. and I will just be cooling te CPU and GPU as they need it. the rest will be taken care of by my panaflow 80mm and 92mm fans on very low voltage to prevent dust and such and to keep nice ambient temps for the mobo HDD and other devices. a very low noise coolnig setup as for that aspecto f case cooling. the WC system will be an add on and likely external. Well about the tank, can't it be on top of the case than, and feed watter in to the system from the bottom of the tank into the system so any bubbles in the system will inevitably go up into the tank and out the toop, I would have release valves on the top and bottom of the tank to releave pressure or refil the system?

[JFettig]

I suggest series paralle, So all the flow goes thru the cpu waterblock and split it after that, one to the gpu and one to the north bridge

[Warlord2]

I would go with copper if you have the money but if you dont make the chipset and the gpu out of aluminum, you shouldnt even notice a difference there. Go with a parrellel design with the chipset/gpu and the cpu block. The chipsets kill your flowrate and that is what you need for the cpu waterblock.

rad - cpu- pump- rad
- gpu-chipset- pump-rad

split them with a Y

[JFettig]

chipset block only kill flow if you let them, A well designed block will not kill flow

[Intrepid]

I've kindof decided not to W.C the chipset, Imight build a bigger heatsink for it ubt I845E dosen't get that hot normaly and I even repalced the default combo of thermal greese AND thermal pad with a single layer of AS3 and I lapped it.

Moneyt should nto be an issue until I have to get the pump, the rad is used, unfortunatly, but I don't want to spend my geforcce fx mony on this really because my cooling system i use now with fans and rheobus is fine. fine is never good enough though so can the resovuar be realyl small, just as long as i can use it to let air out of the system and re fill it when nessesairy? and how bout a drainage system should I need to flood it for cleaning?

[I.M.O.G.]

are you sure on the used rad? if you want to reconsider, you can pick up a very good heat exchanger for under $30 thats new.

[Intrepid]

*sigh* well if it's recomended can I find a small one for this price? Although since I have decided on external I guess it should be big enough for a 120mm fan on each side. or if you can find one, one that has fittings for a 92mm fan than I could literaly have it mounted on my case, there is a 92mm blowhole with a nice chrome grill edging, thotugh the chrome would have to go.

[I.M.O.G.]

im not sure how much the sizes vary between different heatercores but you can look. look around here . find what you want then just go to a local store and order it.

[Intrepid]

Here is my design for the CPU block, the GPU one will prolly be simillar. my uncle is a machinest he can do it in his back yard if i get the materials

sry bout image ulity but restrictions are VERY severe these days on posting images i guess