[Owenator]

I was looking through my old pictures and I thought I’d post my water cooling history up.

This is my first water cooled system from 2001. Back then it was a total roll your own job. This setup used an aluminum heater core, a magdrive 250GPH aquarium pump and a homemade copper water block. The build thread is here: http://overclockers.com/index.php?op...ling&Itemid=34




Later I replaced the radiator with a copper heater core and moved it to the front. Note that the pump is hung off the rad.


A shot with a different cpu block and the pump separate.

[Owenator]

I then evolved to a caseless external system. That write up is here. http://overclockers.com/index.php?op...ng&Itemid=4257


I found the two 120's too loud so I replaced them with six 80's.

[cadman420]

Nice, love looking at the pics from the old days. I didn't get into WC until 05 and I look back at what was offered to me then compared to now, it is kind of funny. Nice job on the custom work.

[Owenator]

Here are some more:

My first 'store bought' type system in a BTX style case. All Swiftech watercooloing parts.


My quad core build was next. I put this in a Thermal Take Armor case. Also I modded my MCP350 with an Alphacool top and I bored over the inlet of the top to increase the flowrate/reduce restriction.


And fianlly, this is my current i7 SLI system.

[BeHappy]

That 1st build looks like a beast. I didn't know what overclocking was in 2001... Let alone watercooling.

[Spawn-Inc]

i love the homemade res and 6x 80mm fans on the heatcore.

[Owenator]

Originally Posted by BeHappy

That 1st build looks like a beast. I didn't know what overclocking was in 2001... Let alone watercooling.

I still have that case. It is a huge server case from SuperCase. I was overclocking back when the socket A AMD Duron first came out. Used the pencil trick on the bridges my first build. CLocked my Duron from 600 to 660 MHz. Alas, I crushed that one. I still have the Abit Kt7-Raid mobo.

Originally Posted by Spawn-Inc

i love the homemade res and 6x 80mm fans on the heatcore.

Thanks! That one was an old plastic pickle jar. I actually 'updated' it later with an square-ish plastic 'jar' left over from Costo chocolate covererd rasins. Having a massive res like that does help with filling the system.

[hitokiri_808]

mmmmm back in the days before GPUs needed heatsinks, much less waterblocks.

I remember reading your first build thread years ago when i wanted to get into it. That must of been around 2002-03.

[cadman420]

A few months back a friend of mine gave me an old Antec server tower cause they said they didn't have any use for it and I could have it. I opened the door to admire the stamping quality the old cases use to have. All steel construction, no edges. nice. I put that case to good use and is now my home server. I used the same pencil trick back in the day when my cousin introduced me to the wonders of OC'ing and I haven't been the same since nor has any computer I have ever owned.

[Albaholic]

Originally Posted by hitokiri_808

mmmmm back in the days before GPUs needed heatsinks, much less waterblocks.

I remember reading your first build thread years ago when i wanted to get into it. That must of been around 2002-03.

And... you still can. I have plenty of spare parts. That's some oldschool stuff in this thread. I remember my first WC rig was a Thunderbird build... I think

[burningcpu]

Nice, thanks for posting this.

[Nebulous]

Wow talk about a blast from the past! Here's My very first wcing setup . With the help of Pinky, I made the front page and won 2nd prize

[cadman420]

Nebulous, that looks cool. I like how nice and neat everything is positioned. Glad you won 2nd prize you deserved it.

[Albaholic]

This thread really shows how far watercooling has come since those days. Pretty neat idea. I wish I had pictures of my older builds.

I don't even remember what the name of my first block was. Though I'm sure someone will come along and refresh my memory. Blocks use a lot less copper now a days

Edit: after a bit of googling, I found out its the little river white water

[cadman420]

From the looks of that block, they have come along way. sure that isn't an antique?

[Albaholic]

Originally Posted by cadman420

From the looks of that block, they have come along way. sure that isn't an antique?

I guess it could be considered a WC antique. It was one of my first purchases off OCF classifieds. I'm kind of tempted to find a way to make a 1366 bracket for it and pit it against the HK 3.0 I have on its way.

Old vs new

[cadman420]

That would make for an interesting thread. I am subscribed already.

[Nebulous]

Originally Posted by cadman420

Nebulous, that looks cool. I like how nice and neat everything is positioned. Glad you won 2nd prize you deserved it.

Thanx. How watercooling has evolved in such a short amount of time eh?

[Owenator]

Originally Posted by hitokiri_808

mmmmm back in the days before GPUs needed heatsinks, much less waterblocks.

I remember reading your first build thread years ago when i wanted to get into it. That must of been around 2002-03.

Yeah it was def the early days. I'm glad the write up helped start you off!

Originally Posted by cadman420

Nice, love looking at the pics from the old days. I didn't get into WC until 05 and I look back at what was offered to me then compared to now, it is kind of funny. Nice job on the custom work.

Thanks for the kind words! Sorry I missed your post earlier.

Originally Posted by Albaholic

And... you still can. I have plenty of spare parts. That's some oldschool stuff in this thread. I remember my first WC rig was a Thunderbird build... I think

I started with socket A Duron because it was cheaper. I spent as little extra money as possible making it faster. But inthe end a faster CPU probably would have been cheaper. Less fun though!

Originally Posted by Albaholic

This thread really shows how far watercooling has come since those days. Pretty neat idea. I wish I had pictures of my older builds.

I don't even remember what the name of my first block was. Though I'm sure someone will come along and refresh my memory. Blocks use a lot less copper now a days

Edit: after a bit of googling, I found out its the little river white water

Cool! Keep it for the smithsonian! Intersting how it looks like it's made from three peices. I'll have to look up that one again myself.

Originally Posted by burningcpu

Nice, thanks for posting this.

Thanks for the kind words!

Originally Posted by Nebulous

Wow talk about a blast from the past! Here's My very first wcing setup . With the help of Pinky, I made the front page and won 2nd prize

I remember that setup. Loose any digits to that exposed AC powered fan?

I won my share of prizes too (I got ~$200-$300). I ended up 're-investing' the money into my watercooling of course!

Thanks for all th interest everybody!

[Owenator]

Here is my complete body of Overclockers.com work. Enjoy!

Tales of a 'Shade Tree' Machinist - My Homemade Water Cooled System - 10/6/01

How to Power Your Water Pump Without Cutting Into Your Power Supply- 11/13/01

'Homemade' Copper Cap Water Block - 11/23/01

Tales of a 'Shade Tree' Machinist Revisited - My Homemade Water Block Mark II - 11/26/01

Running 3-Pin Fans on 7V The Easy Way - 12/24/01

BayFan Is Born - 1/13/02

Trials and Tribulations in Peltier Application - 2/24/02

Multi-Hole Drilled Water Block - Part of the Continuing Saga of the 'Shade Tree' Machinist - 6/2/02

How to Give a Waterblock a Brain (Cap) Transplant - Home Made Waterblock Mark III - 12/11/02

System Mods - No One Can Eat (do) Just One Once you start, can't stop - 12/18/02

Plumbing Tips and Such - How I Do It - 12/30/02

How To Add A Blowhole To Your PC - And A little Extra Backside Video Card Cooling Too - 5/2/03

Owen-made Jet Impingement Cooling: Part One - The Slot - 11/20/03]

OOPS! Good Thing I Had a UPS! - 1/20/2004

Let's Go Case-Less! - 4/29/04

How I Switched Over to the Dark-Side - or Owenator Goes from Water Cooled to Air Cooled - 1/30/06

Once A Watercooler Always A Watercooler - Owenator Returns to Watercooling - 5/12/06