Logic Cooling Nemesis Waterblock Mod

Turn a cheap block into a Whitewater – Logan Stovall, aka Coolhand

*Disclaimer: I do not take any responsibility for any injuries or damage to equipment that you may cause by doing this mod, nor do I guarantee that this will work for you. As always, do mods at your own risk.*

After seeing the Nemesis waterblock by Logic Cooling, I had an idea. Why not take this cheap block and mod it to give it an “impinging jet” like the Whitewater? Armed with my trusty drill press and enough knowledge to be dangerous, I decided to build a middle plate like the Whitewater has.

But, what material should I use? I had no copper and bare aluminum will corrode, so I decided to make it out of Lexan, which is also much easier to machine in a drill press than metal.

I started by cutting out a 2″x3″ rectangle of Lexan and marking the locations that I was going to mill out. From looking at pictures, I decided to use a 3/16″ center slot to make the jet of water and ¼” slots on the edges to minimize flow resistance.

Here you see the tools used for this mod:

A standard “Sharpie” marker, a 3/16″ endmill and a ¼” endmill. These were old “worn out” endmills that a local machinist was going to throw away, so I got them for free. They still work fine for cutting plastic, though.

The lines marked are ½” from all the edges, and the center line is also marked. Theses would be the lines that I would follow while cutting.

Here is a picture of the block in my drill press:

I have an x-y vise, which allows me to use my drill press to mill straight slots in light materials like plastics. As you can see, the center 3/16″ slot has already been cut.

Here is the middle plate once all the slots have been cut:

I widened the exit slots even more just to make sure there would be minimal flow resistance.

And here’s a picture of the block once the holes had been drilled:

I sealed the entire block with silicone and leak tested it before reinstalling it. Here’s my before and after temperatures, as measured by my 8K5A3+. The CPU is an XP1600+ at 1860 MHz (12×155) at 1.9V.

This was a very cheap and easy mod. Total cost was about $5, and it only took about 1.5 hours to complete.

Logan Stovall – aka Coolhand