Cooling How mobile is water cooling?

In that respect, watercooling has a karmic aspect to it: do things well, and good things happen to your PC. Do things badly, and bad things happen to your PC.

 

I knew I was coming to the right place to ask that question. Fantastic feedback guys.

First off, I was not acutally concerned that much about weight. It was a lot more of "is everything going to come apart and dump water all inside my system?" So the 3-5 lbs that it might add is not as big of a concern as leakage.

This system is going to be my home gaming computer as well as a LAN machine, but has to be setup and torn down on a nightly basis. (don't worry, when I start my project log I promise to explain everything) Because of the constant setup/takedown Stev I don't think your two part system would work for the specific job I have. Great looking system though.

So Nexxo, you obviously don't think leaks are going to be a problem. But maybe should open this up to everyone and slightly change the question.

If you moved your very first water cooling system around on an almost nightly basis, do you think you would have any leaks or other water problems?

 

No. Metaversa (in my sig) is my first watercooled system, and I don't worry about it. Everything is screwed down solidly. The only problem I could foresee is that heavy waterblocks, particularly one on the GPU card, would not take well to violent bouncing or vibration of the case and tear off the motherboard or cause the GPU to snap out of its connector. This is one of the reasons why I made a GPU retention bracket. If you secure the edge of the GPU card so that the PCB does not flex under the weight of the block, you should be OK.



This picture below was taken when it had its previous motherboard, a K7D Master-L rather than the (dual Opteron 250) K8T Master-2FAR it has currently (which is depicted in the picture above). However I'm showing this older picture here because it shows nicely how the pump and fan/shroud/radiator assembly are designed and built:



I have had my case on its side, upside down, moved it around; no leaks, no problems, nothing, not even the tubing or cables, shift a millimeter inside the case. Everything is bolted down or secured in some way.

Leaks are just never going to happen, provided that you use decent clamps or fittings. I have 3/8" ID tubing over 1/2" OD metal barbs, secured with marine-grade stainless steel wormdrive clamps for instance. You couldn't pull the tubing off by force --you'd tear the tubing before that happens.

If you really, really worry about leaks you could use non-conductive Fluorinert as a coolant. If that spills, it evaporates without a trace and it does not cause any shorts. Again I use it in my setup. Because of its very low viscosity (much lower than water), if there is any leak at all, no matter how small, it will find it. I have been using my system for nearly a year however, and I have not lost a single drop.

A watercooled PC is as moveable as a regular PC --as long as you build it sensibly rather than slap it together ghetto-style, and don't leave components banging around loose in the case.

 

That is exactly the kind of well thought out informative post that makes me keep coming back to these forums. Thanks Nexxo, that completely answers my question, now off to start sourcing some water cooling parts. Although at this time of year in Canada I could just sit the computer outside on the step and it would stay more than cool enough.

 

nope leaks are not a problem as long as you secure the tubes in properly. eg my friend in switzerland when he got his first watercooling gear from aqua computer he didn't want to break anything so he didn't push the tubes into the plug & cool connectors lol... turned on the pump and water just sprayed everywhere, spending the next week with a hairdrier.
As with moving it around id be more concered about my hard drives taking a bash than leaks happening.

 

No probs, Chewy 27. Note I edited the above post to add some pics.

 

I did the same thing but it didn't make too much mess and it dried pretty quickly.

 

Same here lol!

 

And me
With plug&cool fittings, you gotta push them all the way in, and then some more. We all learnt that the hard way.

 

well i find watercooling no worse then air for transporting depends how strong you are hehe



Took that beast to lan even had a TFT in the side of it and Sc4mpi can probably varify the weight it wasn't light put it that way hehe . Saying that my current pc isn't light either rofl .


morgan.

Edit - Read the thread now

Nexxo has made some good points there Stev, that external box is well lets face it Sh*te. I've attended a good few lans over the past couple of years and i've seen a fair amount of computers there the majority of watercooling over air is slowly coming around much like TFT to crt But there have also been a few misshaps there was a lad at a biggame once that had his watercooling set up on the piss like he didn't seem to know anything about it and faffed for the whole lan. Now then there is people like sc4mpi who go to same if not more lans then me and he has a well thought out machine that i can probably quote never leaked under normal circomstances it did but that was due to one of his pumps dying haha which has been sorted anyhoo if you put some Common Sense into it and don't just slap dash it together you'll be fine as Nexxo said if you can make a barb leak with a wormscrew on it you haven't put enough PTFE tape on or your a divert.

Watercooling isn't like air u can't just slap something on and hope it works you gotta work at it a little, u don't just slap ingrediants into a pot and hope you get cake you gotta work things out measure cook etc.. like watercooling gotta plan, fit, test and check .


Morgan.

 

Listen to nexxo as i am sure you are. He knows his watercooling **** and liek he said, good wormdrive barbs WILL NOT leak. Think it out and build it right and you will have no problems. Also, when you are building it, if you think twice about ANYTHING, ask before you do it to prevent mistakes. Just a word of advice form one who has experienced it many times. (the asking thing)

 

thats a nicly done watercool

i took mine for few years to lans and had no problems. case was fine just sitting in back of car. was even fine after a little bump in the car.

Like they say build it right and will be fine.

 

i'm taking my beast to I-27.

its a lian-li server case, with the 1.5kg 1250 (thanks Nexxo for posting that, or at least i think it was you) and a triple rad in the top with about a pint of water in there i think.

watercooling has added quite a bit of weight, but not so much that its not worth taking to the lan or not watercooling it.

cos once you have water, you will never go back

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y201/amd4life/DSC00152.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y201/amd4life/06012006.jpg

its also going in a nissan micra with two other towers, 2 CRTs and my TFT, with 3 people. its gonna be a squeeze me thinks

and another note, if its going in the car and you have not watercooled your GFX, take it out, along with any other peripheral cards that are heavy.

 

if its secured in place then it'll be fine, your not gonna nock it hard enough in a car to mess anything up and if you do its gonna mess you up to. Just make sure it doesn't fall over or better still use a seat belt make sure your computer is tucked away and it'll be fine. Nissan micra damn its gonna be packed lol



morgan.

 

Idealy you should try and transport a computer with the motherboard flat, so any weight presses striaght thru on to the case. I usually go fro wrapping it in a blanket as well to stop scratches

 

haha I just saw 2800's pictures! haha! Those right angle connectors will be KILLING your flow!

Seriously.

 

OMGZ!!! ROLF!!!!111one! thats so funny.

Criticism should always be constructive and you do not know why he is using right angled fittings or if it affecting his performance.

 

if you notice the RBX that kills flow too as water goes through a tiny nozzle, yet i still have a whirlpool in the res, i also had a kink in the pipe for about a month without noticing which cripled my flow and it didn't affect the temperatures at all.

Do you think people with small bore tubing get anything like the flow i do with that 1250 and half inch tubing, flow isn't everything mate, go learn about watercooling before you make a random statement about bollocks

 

i wonder if it's possible to water cool a laptop - and be able to move it

 

you just made a post in laptop section... but why would you want to do this? You will only be laughed at as it is such a stupid idea (they hardly make noise anyway )