• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

My New Geothermal Cooling Loop!

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.
Status
Not open for further replies.

Diggrr

Underwater Senior Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2001
Go make something, and quit buying ready made versions of someone else's idea of what you need.
You make the 1% sheeple!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Kudos... simply amazing engineering on that...

Even if for some reason that failed, which it DIDNT A+++ for effort...
 
I'd been running it all week gutted on the floor and using an ice cream bucket as a reservoir while I finished the real res, and the temps posted are it!
At start up it's room temp, and drops to 14.5 within a minute. After about 5 hours it gradually "climbs" to 15. I've seen it hit 15.5 once while running Prime, but after an hour water temp went back to 15 and stayed there over night.
The tube that goes through the box from the underground loop to the waterblock has a 4" piece of copper tubing joining the two types of tubing, and on that is my temp probe fastened with furon temp conducting tape--the same tape the probes come wrapped in.
The system is res>pump>underground>CPU>back to res, so that's the temp from the ground.

I'm thinking of picking up a can of flat black BBQ paint to paint the drain fitting, so I can use an IR thermometer for a second opinion though...it's very thermally conductive paint, and the IR's are best on non shiny surfaces.

View attachment 109533

It says CPU, but I don't have a 7' probe to reach the CPU, the Aerogate complains when there's no probe or fan on the CPU channel, so I had to use one. Normally I don't care much about the water temp, but this is a bit of a special case I guess. The RPM is the 355. I plugged in both pumps and the fan to the controller so I get an alarm when something quits.
 
Last edited:
:soda: :popcorn: I mean amazing. If I was you I'd patent this idea as you never know some futuristic homes full of eletronics could use some good cooling. Just saying and I said it so I'd only ask for a single digit percentage once this went global. AMAZING. I kept going back to your old thread looking for updates till I found this new one. Great job. Innovation starts here......:bump:

P.S. - The housing that was laying on the floor without reading originally I thought that was a safebox :rofl: I'am like oh this guys making it fire proof! WHOA! haha
 
Oh I'm not the first to do this, I just tried to do it better though. :D
I used the soft tubing for better heat transfer with the thin walls, and it's coiled so that the water is forced against at least one side for "impingement"-scrubbing off the boundary layer of water molecules that don't move much.

Hopefully this will be enough for my meager video card to be added without too much penalty...it not, I'll be digging again!

**Lolz at the fire safe! It's top back and bottom are 3/4" Pine board, the front and two sides are 1/4" HDF (aka malamine, like a clipboard). I used Rustoleum Hammered brown paint, the flash makes it look lighter than in person. The black lining is a dense neoprene foam with an adhesive peel and stick back--I used to work at the company that makes it, and have a few yards of it.
 
Last edited:
:drool:

I wish I could do something like that, but here in SoFla; I'm afraid that I'd just be warming the water up instead... :chair:

I'm sure that loop would be able to handle waaaay more than what you're throwing at it right now.
 
Yeah, it's only a 65W processor, and the video card is a passively cooled GT520 (with a monster heatsink that I'd like to get rid of). This mobo only allows .15 increase in volts, so that won't be changing as I try to OC higher.
I'll be finding out next week, no one makes a GT520 block, so I'll have to make one of my own I guess. None of the universal's have a 3 bolt pattern.

At least in Flordidia you have sand so the digging is easy! Go down 5 feet! The downside is you have to dig 10' wide to go 5' down!!
 
Last edited:
Thanks!

Let's see...a couple buddies with 12 packs, 2 ladders, a gas-powered post hole digger w/5 extensions. Go vertical!
"Hold my beer and watch me get a Darwin award!!" :rofl:
 
This is easily the coolest thing I've ever seen on here. I imagine your computer would be just about completely silent now. Awesome, I suspect it could handle a pretty decent overclock too ;)
 
Amazing !!!!!!!
thanks for teaching me something new today!!
 
One thing I was meaning to ask... I see you only went with 36" of depth for the trench; are you sure that depth is going to be below your frost depth?
I remember seeing another geothermal loop over at XS and the guy mentioned he had to go 60" down in order to avoid the winter frost from damaging the pipes and/or freezing the water.
 
That was my first thought as well being in MI...

Here in Missouri... The freeze line is 18-24".... I'd think it'd be quite a bit deeper up there.

EDIT...

20110827frostdepth.jpg

Looks like you're good to go @ 36".
 
At least in Flordidia you have sand so the digging is easy! Go down 5 feet! The downside is you have to dig 10' wide to go 5' down!!

Another thing to consider is that ground temperature is a function of the average air temperature in a given region. That's why deep caves in Southern Idaho have temperatures around 0-5C, while deep caves here in the Marianas have temperatures of 27C. Ground loops are well-suited to Northern climes, but provide no benefit in the tropics.
 
Last edited:
Yep, I live across the lake from Chicago, in the 28" zone, although that's a worst case scenario even then.
You can bet I'll be watching temps, maybe adding a bit of AF through the first winter just to be prepared...I didn't forget the drain, so it won't be hard to flush it back out.

Still, adding anti-freeze isn't as huge a penalty as we make it out to be. Maybe 3-5°, which I can easily afford starting this low to begin with.
Plus the frost line is just that, the zone where it begins to freeze. I would only need protection to maybe a few below to be safe, certainly not a 50/50 mix like in a car (-40°F).

**If all else fails, it's only $30 worth of copper. I can retrench it to 48" if I don't like the results.
 
Last edited:
Another thing to consider is that ground temperature is a function of the average air temperature in a given region. That's why deep caves in Southern Idaho have temperatures around 0-5C, while deep caves here in the Marianas have temperatures of 27C. Ground loops are well-suited in Northern climes, but provide no benefit in the tropics.

Bugger..... Looks like there's little chance of running one here in Australia..... Might be ok for those in Tasmania and Victoria still though. :shrug:
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back