Cooling Help on complete system cooling (CPU, GPU, Northbride, etc)

this is a long post, if you dont wanna read all, then please just read my questions down below and try to answer them.

OK. as im getting a new big case to mod soon, i figured id take a leap into watercooling (as im sick and tired of the crazy noise my computer makes).

so.. since i want to cool almost anything in my computer, i need to know what would be the most efficient way of doing so.

so.. here are the things i want water cooled:
- CPU (p4 1,6)
- Northbridge
- GPU on a gf3
- Ram on gf3
- HDDs (two seagates probably)
(- PSU.. that one might be hard and kinda dangerous. i dont think ill do that just yet)
- i also plan on making a tiny little thing for my southbridge. nothing fancy, just a tiny block and a tube that goes right through it. (i managed to get higher fsb's with a tiny hs and some frag tape this way as my harddrive stopped giving me errors!.)

and maybe system ram. what i dont know is if cooling the system ram will even me worthwile. will it perform better or run faster than my thermaltake blue ramsinks? i read somewhere that system ram runs better when its hotter. (ofcourse not tooo hot).

i plan on adding the water tank, pump and radiator into a self made case along with 2-4 120mm fans. (this box will be in another room so noise isnt _that_ important.

So... to my "real questions":
- 1. what is the best route for the water to flow through? what water blocks should the water go through first and so on.)
- 2. do i need two radiators or pumps? (like... first it goes through one rad and pump, then cpu, gpu and gf3 ram, then another rad or pump, then the rest?) will it work good enough with only one rad and pump?
- 3. what pump should i get for this system? how much waterflow, etc. (there is about 5 metres distance between my computer and that "box full of goodies". (with the pump, rad and tank)
- 4. what diamter tubing should i use?
- how big must the radiator be? and do i need two for all these things?
- 5. How big of a water tank do i need, if i want the system not to burn down before like 10 minutes without the pump? (so i can install some thermal probe thingy and shut down the computer automatically)
- 6. what kind of radiator should i get? (im not gonna pay lots for it so some kind of used one from an old car or something that i can get somewhere would be cool)
- 7. probably a silly question, but would water cooling my cdrw be smart. (mostly because there will be no airflow through the case at all, exept passive blowholes)
- 8. after some testing i have also found out that my chieftech psu 330w which would be my "system" PSU would make an annoying buzz. and as i want a completely stealth comp, i need to find another way. so.. would it be possible to add that psu to the box with the pump and stuff too? can i extend the power cords 5 metres? if not i might just have to get some sexy enermax 441watts power supply yo replace it (do they make buzzing sounds too?)

any other ideas you might have, just throw them in. i might even make a tutorial on how i did all this along the way.

phew, long post. i hope youve got the time to help me.

 

oh and another idea from the top of my head... a beaverage cooler. maybe mounted in an old cd drive tray or something. ofcourse watercooled.

it would be awesome for lan parties and.. well anything else. if you have some ideas or links about something similar please post it here.

 

As far as a bevrage cooler, just go purchace a 60 w TEC, and slap it on the bottom of a copper plate. Set your pop/beer/whatever onm the copper plate, and there you go

Wattercooling your drinks would also be cool, but I'm not sure if you'd want all that extra heat introduced into your resavour.

 

heh, i could make an all external portable drink cooler... just add a small power supply i have (which only has a couple of molexes on it). then i add a TEC, copper block, make a nice small housing, and start her up

 

ok, ive been looking around for more watercooling snacks and thought up one way the water could flow around.. tell me if this setup is any good, or if i could change it a bit to improve performance.

Wanter tank -> The Pump -> Radiator -> CPU -> North Bridge -> GPU -> GF3 Ram -> Little south bridge cooler -> Harddrives ->>>> Then back to water tank, etc etc etc.

will GF3 cooling be good with this setup? tell me what you think.

 

the pump... is an Eheim 1048 that flows about 600 litre enough? I see this one at a lot of cooling webshops. (its actually the only one i found online in norway).

I was also thinking about making the water tank itself out of aluminium. Would that be any better than using just a plastic thingy?

 

I am not a watercooling expert (never done it myself), but I would think that by the time it got to the end, that it wouldn't be very much cooler than the device you're cooling.

As I said, I know little or nothing about watercooling.

Any experts/vetrans out there willing to share advice?

 

yea thats what i thought too. but the south bridge and harddrives and also gf3 ram doesnt really need that much cooling. most of the cooling is needed on the cpu, chip, or gpu.

 

Yes, you have the order of cooling right. Me just thinks that pouring all that heat into your res, would your rad be able to handle all that?

 

maybe i might just as well get two rads.

then cool like this:

Radiator -> CPU -> North Bridge -> Harddrives -> Then another rad -> GPU -> GF3 Ram -> southbridge cooler.

then the things that are connected directly together are close to eachother and cooling will probably be a lot better with an aextra rad. tell me what you think.

 

Damn nico looks like you have your hands full Here we go:

1) Waterblock->Res/Airtrap->Pump->Rad
2) If you ask me you'll need 2 pumps and rads..cause your cooling too much with just one set.
3) Eheim/Danner are the popular ones...High gph(lph) is not necessarily a good thing. My danner is 250 gph which i think is on the high end.
4) Usually you can get 1/2 easier in the US and 3/8ths in the UK..but i don't think its much of a problem these days. IMO i would say get 1/2 for better flow.
5) I have 34oz of water running through my system. Its a tough one to answer, cause it really depends on your setup. Use your discretion.
6) Car HE's work great but have to be modded to mount/fit. Barbs need to be fitted also. Maybe look into a BiX if you don't want to go through the hassle. They are a very compact design and work well.
7) Never heard of cooling a cdr..but i can't imagine it getting that hot. Usually they have a little fan on the back, should be enough.
8) Hmm..again its tough to say, depends on the case really. Its hard finding a place to put everything, sometimes you have to get real creative.

Hope this helps!

 

For my pennies worth. Before you go any further I would say stop and have a small think. The main areas that need cooling are CPU, GPU and chipset. GC memory can be cooled well by passive cooling as can the southbridge. Memory cooling is questionable as to the benefits. Forget the CD drive and go for the hard drive if you can.

If this is you first cooling job, take it carmly and build up.

You have a lot to push your water around so you will need to go for a big pump like the eheim 1250 or the big danner. Aim for 1/2" to maintain water flow.

A big heatercore from a car should handle all of your cooling, but you will have to sort out mounting etc.

Look at the solutions on:

www.zerofanzone.co.uk
www.digital-explosion.co.uk

Deside what you can realistically start with and then we can start to look at order of thingd etc.

 

well.. you might be on to something. i could always slap on some gf3 ram cooling later. etc.

and by HE, do you mean a radiator?


ive already read through some stuff on those two sites, lots of info there.

oh, what is gph? how much water the pump moves?

i also have another question, will my system work just as well with no water tank at all?

 

Oops sorry.. HE=Heat Exchanger (or radiator) GPH=Gallons Per Hour. I think a reservior just looks cool!

 

Actualy I beg to differ, bear with me.

The more water you have, the slower it warms up (or cools down).

Just a bit of theroy. It also takes more time to cool large ammounts of water down.

Signing out...

 

So then what would the radiator be used for then? And if you went with that logic, wouldn't less water heat up quicker?

 

You still use the radiator, don't insult me

And, have you ever tried boiling 5 gal of water at the same time as you boil a pint? Amasing the diffrence

In other words, less water does heat (or cool) down faster. As I stated above.

 

WELL THEN WHAT WOULD WATER...just playing with ya big guy
Your theory is sound, the only thing i think is that if you have the proper flowrate (not 600 billion gph) and give the water enough "sitting" time in the radiator, i don't think it matters how much h2o is in the system. Just a thought..

 

Ok, got ya.

 

My turn

Another advantage of a larger amount of water is that it has a greater stability in temps. That is why the heater core design is so good, it has two reserviours of water (one top, one bottom) thus increasing water quantity. Dont forget you are only cooling at the rad, so the rest of the water in your system is for stability. If you were cooling all of the water at once, then it would be a problem, but you are not.