Cooling Tower findings/results and thoughts

[JaY_III]

as some of you may know I got a 5 foot 4 inch water tower.....
25 liter reservoir, and my CPU runs under ambient temps...
celeron 633 @ upto 2.1 volts 1066
right now 1017 1.9 volts
had to replace some capacitors on my motherboard as I blew them (1066 was just to much)..
but the newer ones should take the voltage better.
rated for 25 volts old ones for 6.3
room temp is 28.1C right now
cpu temp 20C (33 watts) (winamp , IE is the only load its under right now)
lapping my danger den waterblock (maze 1) helped alot (1500 grit)

Water does evaporate very fast with this setup.
as I got a 80MM fan @ 12 volts....
I think it is blowing water out of the tower as I can feel a slight mist if I put my face over the top of the tower.
I am losing about 2 liters a day like this.
When I have the fan turned of maybe 1 liter a week, if that.

I think I am going to do some test at 3.3V 5V 7V 8.7V
if you know how to get any other volts from a ATX power supply plz tell me ( between 3.3 and 12.
I am running this fan off a second PSU so I got more options than the 4 prong connector that most fans run from.

gona put this system under full load for a few min
tell you the temps I get from that
I use CPU Stability Test 6 Build 154
this is the best to test your system with, if it passes this its stable, if it fails
well I lost 3 capacitors e-mail me if you want it

 

[Kibler]

Have you tried putting a screen or something over the top of the tower to try and keep some of the mist in? Some one in one of the articles was talking about that.

I would like to get a setup like that but I would need a stronger pump and I dont know how I feel about the mist and losing water. Living in North Carolina my house is humid enough lol

Got any pics?!

Patrick

 

[JaY_III]

no pics sorry, need a digital camera, trying to get my hands on one....

I don't want to put a screen on top as that is the warm water. this water is warmer than the air around it so if I use it, their would be no point in using the tower.
An evaporator (water tower) cool using evaporation. so using the evaporated water wouldn't be the most recommended thing to do.

Oh the pump is 400 GPh or 25 liters a miniute, i should mention that.

ok about my temps
after 11 min 11 seconds full load using CPU Stability Test version 6
max temp of 27.5C

C/W = Delta / CPU Watts
Delta = CPU temp - Ambient Temp

CPU temp 27.5 - Ambient temp 24.7 = Delta
Delta = 2.8
Delta 2.8 / CPU Watts 33.3 (used radiate) = C/W
= 0.084

so i dont think i did 2 bad of a job

 

[Colin]

Great post. I think you will find a screen will not hamper the cooling and will prevent the sprites. Here you can see the #40 brass screen I use in my tower.

[img="[URL]http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=1551335&a=11768501&p=50021712[/URL]"]

 

[Quaky]

I am designing my cooling tower right now, but I wonder if the results stand up for the extra hassle. I am a complete newbie to water cooling and I chose to build a cooling tower because it's cheaper than a radiator. But how does it perform? My wild guess is that it's performance is mainly dependent on the airflow. The more air you blow through, the more evaporation, thus the cooler the water is. Backside (I think) is that increasing the airflow will also increase coolant loss. to be safe, what kind of a reservoir should I use? Is it doable to make an adjustable cooling with a variable power supply? Can I use 2 electrical contacts to monitor the water level, or is that a bad idea with the Eheim 1048 pump? I was planning to use the water as a conductor, if the conduction fails, the refill alarm would sound...

Thx in advance.

 

[JaY_III]

I like that, the screen seems to be a great idea.
thanks
----------

water towers cool the water better than radiators and are able to get water temps just under ambiant temps.... but, you do have to water them.

You are corect in the fact that the more air blow through the cooler the water, and more evaporation. I have a 25 Liter reservior, and a 400GPH pump. You have to make sure your pump is strong enough to pump water to the top of your tower... so if you plan on having a larg tower, better cooling, you better have a large pump.

adjustable cooling is something i will be looking into. i will be testing the fan at different volts and find out what is the best. comprimise bettween water temp and water evaporation.

I dont know what the best thing to do with your pump is....
But how many GPh is it rated for and how tall is your water tower going to be?

 

[It_The_Cow]

Here's something for those voltages. Pick a positive and subtract the ground to get the rated voltage

 

[JaY_III]

i know what wires are for what volts...
but thanks for the pic, help alot of others out as well.

think it may be time to get this celeron back upto par
1066 fried my motherboard voltages regulator
got caps rated for 25 volts (6.3 defualt) we will see who win this round celeron

 

[It_The_Cow]

Ohh. Other than those voltages. Maybe I should have read it more. In that case, you'll probably need a rheostat and a voltmeter

 

[maha_x]

Simple and efficient voltage adjusting: buy resistors from some electronics store. They need to be rather small... some 20ohm to go down to 7V. Calc like this. <desired voltage> / <fan Ampers>. Example: 0.24A fan and 6V; 6V / 0.24A = 25ohm resistor. Just plug it in series with the fan (not in parallel). Also you might want to get some 2+W resistor instead of those .25W usual ones.

 

[Colin]

More airflow is usually better. I run the fans on my tower with an external 5 to 15 volt variable PSU. The fans run at 15 volts all the time. Even with the screen, there is strong airflow 18" above the top of my tower.

One thing I would suggest is tuning your tower height. Start tall, cut a section out of the tower, check your temps and take notes. You will find the sweet spot. Remember the sweet spot is only for the waterblock, showerhead, pump and airflow combination you are running at the time.

 

[Quaky]

I was thinking about buying an Eheim 1048 pump, would this pump be strong enough to combine with a tower about 80-100cm high? I don't know how much a gallon is, but the pump is rated 600L/hour. I plan on using 10-13 mm tubing. Should I go for bigger tubing or can it work fine?

 

[JaY_III]

Fountain Directory | Fountain Pumps Tubing Mist Makers

www.graystonecreations.com

this page shoudl help you get an idea if your pump is strong enough to get to the hight you want.

 

[Colin]

The problem with that chart is it's all done with 1/2" fittings and does not take into account any bends or other restrictions the water must pass through. As an example my system has a measured flow rate of 36 GPH with a Maze 2, 69" cooler and a Danner Mag 7. Note that this pump is rated at 700 GPH with no head an 1/2" fittings.

 

[JaY_III]

i use 1/2 inch

and i said, just give you an idea.