Watercooling rework

[Dr. McCoy]

Just showing off a rework project recently completed of my watercooling and what I did to make it happen.
Vid hosted on my Youtube channel:

Things should get interesting when the weather cools down here ........

EDIT:
Test run done in August (Obviously so) with the hottest chip I could find to try it with.

 

[Soulcatcher668]

Very nice. I don't know how understanding my wife would be with me drilling through the side of the house for my computer though.

 

[trents]

Looks like it's sitting on top of a mini fridge. Any functionality to that fridge with regard to the actual cooling of this tower system or is it just a pedestal?

 

[Dr. McCoy]

Pedestal only - The folks that had the fridge killed it trying to defrost the freezer part and was using a screwdriver to chisel out the ice - Guess what happened?
Found that out after I got it home and looked it over...... And of course they didn't know "why it quit working".

Also had to use it for such because I didn't want the tower on the ground and really didn't have anything else to set it on either.

 

[GTXJackBauer]

Very cool. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Nebulous]

Very cool. Thanks for sharing.

I concur! Curious as to why you didn't paint it tho. I'm sure you can rig up something like a dip-stick to check the water level.

 

[Dr. McCoy]

Painting it would cause it to retain more heat overall.
Also since it's plastic no need to worry about anything weathering-effect related hurting it..... Well except maybe the effects of high winds or something like that.

 

[Nebulous]

Ahh, gotcha. So it relies on ambient temps as well as the "wind tunnel" effect because of the blower fan, correct?

 

[trents]

Pedestal only - The folks that had the fridge killed it trying to defrost the freezer part and was using a screwdriver to chisel out the ice - Guess what happened?
Found that out after I got it home and looked it over...... And of course they didn't know "why it quit working".

Also had to use it for such because I didn't want the tower on the ground and really didn't have anything else to set it on either.

So this thing is just a swamp cooler variant seems like. Would work even better in an area where the humidity is low. Would work fantastic in the high desert areas of eastern Washington/Oregon.

 

[Dr. McCoy]

It does function as an evaporative cooler but swamp cooler is probrably the closest thing. It's based on cooling towers I used to work on, the same basics apply and it even has a layer of substrate inside for allowing the water to spread out as the air goes past.
Yes, would probrably work best in drier climates with lower temps - We do get that here sometimes, esp in the winter months so I'm looking foward to those days when they get here.

I'd have to guess if you had it you'd be seeing some really cool temps from it, already seeing some sub-ambient temps here with it but not like you would have.

 

[caddi daddi]

nice nuclear cooling tower.
try installing another layer of of screen substrate, crissy crossy right on top of the first layer to break the droplets even smaller to increase the surface area.
what water block are you using?

 

[Mandrake4565]

Nice work bones, hopefully the weather will cooperate and give you some sub zero temps. A little antifreeze and maybe you'll really get that thing cool.

 

[Dr. McCoy]

Thanks guys!
I did have three layers in it at first but turned out to be too restrictive with the airflow and was causing leaks due to the silicon literally blowing out because the blower was trying to "Inflate" the tower. Removing the extra layers solved this and even allowed the water spray to fan out further creating an even better evaporative effect. I'm certain under the right conditions it will work fine as it is now.

ATM I'm using a block I really don't know much about except it's not restrictive like my Hydroflow is. Had to turn down the pump because water was spraying all the way up to the top and out the back a little but with the Hydroflow it doesn't do that even at the pump's max speed. I'll be messing around with my 3770K and OCF board later to see how it does with it.

 

[Nebulous]

How about a pic of said block? We could help identify it with a few shots

 

[Dr. McCoy]

How about a pic of said block? We could help identify it with a few shots

It's an older one, got it from Mr. Scott years ago and it has been rather good, currently configured for Socket A mounting as is but believe it's not originally a Socket A block.
Mounted onto the OCF with a solution for making it work with the board as is.



Here's an extra little thing for you guys to checkout - I made this little chipset cooler (Actually I made 4 of these) not too long ago and it definitely works - Used it with my NF2, 3 and 4 chipsets with good results. All copper so you don't want to drop it on your foot.
Not perfect but effective and that's what counts.

 

[Nebulous]

Holy cow! Well that cpu block looks to be an old Danger Den Maze, but dunno if it's a 1, 2 or 3. Gotta luv the custom mounting! Those DIY chipset coolers are real antiques!

 

[Dr. McCoy]

I thought it was an old Danger Den block myself, as said the ears have been modified for Socket A and had to cook up something to make it work with the 3770K.
At least it works, can't complain about it at all.

The little cooler I made was from scraps I got from the lift shop at work sometime ago, I only wish I'd kept all the pieces I threw away when I was working on those things for a living back in the day but hindsight is 20/20 you know.
Had these pieces lying around and finally got tired of swapping coolers from board to board so made a few to keep this from happening so often - Ran out of pieces to use or I would have made a few more.

 

[Mandrake4565]

That chipset cooler reminds me of a cartoon character nice work bones.

BTW is that traces of yellow erasure/clay I see, so you can match the coloring of the board while taking it cold?

 

[Dr. McCoy]

That chipset cooler reminds me of a cartoon character nice work bones.

BTW is that traces of yellow erasure/clay I see, so you can match the coloring of the board while taking it cold?

It's plastalina and was used like clay for insulating it. The color was what I would up with long before I got the board itself so that worked out.
This stuff is sticky but isn't hard to work in place, esp when warm and spreads out well - However I woudn't suggest using it unless you don't mind the board having these bits and pieces of it on the board after all is done. Has a really low melting temp (165f) so you can heat it and it literally wipes off when melted. Oil based too so it naturally repells water and since it's sticky it bonds to itself easily for sealing. Biggest pro about the stuff is it's reuseable - Peel it off, wad it up into a ball and put it into a tupperware container with a lid to keep crap out of it.

The little chipset cooler is one out of the four I made for the reasons stated, got tired of robbing coolers when swapping stuff around and having to use up my TIM when I can just set one of these on and forget it more or less. Haven't made all the brackets I need for these but not in a hurry to get them done, have more pressing matters in need of my attention ATM.

 

[Mandrake4565]

Thanks Bones, I was just curious how anal you were.