water cooling 101

*** CAUTION I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR YOU USING THIS GUIDE TO BUILD A WATER COOLING SYSTEM, AS WE ALL KNOW WATER AND ELECTRICITY DON'T MIX SO IF YOUR NOT SURE DON'T TRY IT***


PART 1

So you want to water cool, good for you. First and foremost remember that water cooling done right can be very efficient and quiet while having lots of fun building the system. Now there are a ton of different ways to water cool a pc, from a a kit you can buy ( they work good depending on how much you pay) to a really cheap kit that is not really made for performance but for noise control.

Now there are a few basic things needed to water cool:

pump

i read a lot about pumps, one of the best ones on the market is the swiftech MPC665 its a great pump but personally i don't agree with the price http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835108082 , what i used on my system was the Eheim 1048 it runs 158gph and is exactly what i need, i got mine form a local pet store for $60 i know its a little bit more expensive than online but they will service the pump if there are any problems, thats a plus in my book. http://www.case-mod.com/eheim-1048-158gph-pump-p-226.html

PRICE: $60-80 from pet supply store or online

tubing

there are tons of different tubing available out there from cheap vinyl to tygon tubing that costs like 5$ per foot. personally i don't want to pay that much. in the end that i do is go to www.mcmaster.com and got clearflex tubing its got a 1/2 inside diameter and there are two wall thicknesses you can get 1/16 thickness 5231K227 part number or 1/8 5231K237 part number they are both under $1 per foot so i find that reasonable and they are much more flexible.

http://www.xp67.co.uk/images/modproj/lianli/tube.jpg

PRICE: $16 for 25 feet with shipping

clamps

i recommend using worm gear clamps at all the joints.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/pics/fullsize/clamps-worm-gear.jpg

PRICE: $10 for 12 from autozone

case

i personally like to mount the pump radiator and reservoir in a separate case that way it will be easier to service and provide a much cleaner install. I used an old e machines 533 case its a mini atx case and it worked perfectly.

http://user-agent.org/stuff/images/emachine_PIII.jpg

PRICE: Free

reservoir

i like to make my own because its cheap and easy to do. what i used was a small one pint container and epoxied two plastic barb fittings in it. a pic will follow laster that will explain how I made it.

PRICE: $2 for bottle and $8 for plastic barbs and epoxy homedepot

radiator

a radiator makes or breaks a system its what will keep the temperature stable over a long period of time. once again I'm cheap so i used a heater core from a 1977 Pontiac Bonneville and modified it to work with my set up. make sure to get the one for the car with AC.

http://www.autozone.com/images/products/gdi/gdi399078003.jpg

PRICE: $25 brand new from auto zone plus $8 for modification.

waterblocks

these in my book are the most important. with the setup i have with a lesser powered pump i like to use a free flowing blocks. There are a few problems in my book when using water block, first try to avoid blocks that have lexon top, they are pretty and all but personally they offer a risk of leaking. The best setup is a completely brazed block, no chance for a leak. The good news is that Thermaltake just came out with a brazed block for the cpu and a brazed block for the northbridge.

northbridge

http://www.xoxide.com/thermaltake-aqua-brazing-northbridge.html

vga

http://www.xoxide.com/thermaltake-aqua-brazing-vga.html

cpu

http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/product/Liquid/Upgrade/cl-w0087/cl-w0087.asp

PRICE: $30-60 each depending on where you buy them.

CONCLUSION

water cooling is a great thing and can be a lot of fun setting up. But remember the most important factor is to take your time and pick the right parts. With the smaller Eheim pump i would only run the cpu and northbridge for cooling, if you want to run the vga I would use the Eheim 1250. part 2 of the guide will be coming up with pictures of my own build just so you can see how everything comes together and what modifications you have to do the parts.

Thanks

languy99

 

EDIT

On the clamps recommendation, after taking my system apart I see that the worm gear bites into the tubing too much so i will change to t-bolt clamps, they don't bit into the tubing so there is less of a chance of leaks. They are called fuel injection clamps if you want to go buy some, they are much better at higher pressures and will not damage the tubing.

http://img.alibaba.com/photo/10970118/Fuel_Injection_Hose_Clamp.summ.jpg

PRICE: you can get 10 clamps for about $11 from mcmaster.com

 

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=72599 =]

Nice read, but we have one. Hehe

 

PART 2

ok I know its been a while but I have been busy with other things. I have for now sorted out my cooling system to where I like it and it fits inside a midtower case.

I did change some things, one was that now its internal mounted its much better for transportation and cooling is the same, I did not notice any difference in cooling capacity even with a smaller radiator.

Now lets go over the final build with pictures to follow

pump

I stuck with the original eheim 1048 and it works perfectly. its so quiet that I can't even have to mount it anything, and I don't get vibrations.

tubing

Same tubing as before, I actually reused the tubing from my first setup while having to add some 3/8 because those is the fittings that the radiator came with.

clamps

I used the t-bolt style clamps and they work great, I also added some zip ties to some parts.

reservoir

I basically used a modified freezer bottle, it fits perfectly in the case and I'm a big advocate of using a reservoir over a t-line.

radiator

I took out the old radiator I had and swapped in a swiftech single 120mm (mcr120-qp) rad, with research and calculations I found out that its rated for 1500 BTU or 440W which is basically overkill for what the system I am using needs, the cpu is about 100-150W depending on overclock and the north bridge at most is about 20-30W. so no problems with that. See research here LINK
and here LINK
one note on the radiator, it comes with 3/8 barbs, my system is all 1/2 inch except this part, I will in the future try a 1/2 barb set to see if it helps anything but apply what i know with cars ( automotive engineer here) if you push coolant too fast through a radiator it does not have the time to transfer its heat to the radiator, so maybe having the 3/8 there help. we will see when I test the new barbs.

water blocks

Used the same ones as before. I know that lapping and the cpu and using the thicker o-ring in the swiftech will help cooling but i don't really see a need right now.

conclusion

First off yeah I know there are other guides out there about water cooling actually there are many, but I wanted to put one out that would be from my prospective and yeah I know that many people might say yeah its the same as others but I used all that I read and my own research to come up with what I think might answer some peoples questions that other write ups might not. And I am always here for questions too. Also for the future I have a Q6600 G0 swap in mind, I do a lot of video editing and dvd rendering so 4 cores might really help that along. Of course that one will be overcloked as well, if I see there is a need for it. Depends on how fast it is stock.

pics

Well here are the pictures of my system with results. Just so you know here are the specs.

gigabyte 965p-ds3

Intel E6300 oc to 3220 (7*460) 1.344V

gskill 2 GB DDR 2 F2-6400PHU2-2GBHZ D9 micron chips 4-4-4-12 2.13V

nvidia 7600gs video card stock timings

seagate barracuda 250 GB sata hard drive

pics

picture of the inside 1

picture of the inside 2

temps idle

temps load