The Sound of Silence - Everything Water cooled - Update Feb 23

Got some great solutions there.. I might steal some of them for my suitcase.. if you dont mind

I was going to watercool the PSU's almost the way you have anyway.. but now I want to watercool everything on the motherboard too

I wont have any airflow through the case, so every watercooled component helps when it comes to air temperature inside the case.

 

That's some amazing work, the design of the blocks is so simple (says he who sliced his finger open last night drilling a hole in a sheet of mesh ... don't ask!) but look very effective and clean! The work on the PSU is brillent, I look forward to seeing how that turns out.

I haven't been able to read fully the post (I'm at work at the mo) so be kind if this has already been answered but are you planning to run a passive radiator? and if so what are your plans for this?

 

this sounds like a very interesting project i wouldnt mind being able to see it.:S could ne one possible tell why i see no pictures after letting the page load for 5minutes, im on dsl here 5minute load time is just wrong and i wanna see pictures hehe

 

Thank you!

Steal all you want! If I wanted to keep the ideas to my self, I ought to have posted at the patent office, not on a public Internet site!

For the months where I have just been brewing on these ideas, I have found great inspiration seeing others work on their mods. So I take this as one of the best modding compliments I could wish for: Someone else has found some inspiration.

Yes, that IS one supreme Suitcase you have there.

Thanks! They are indeed simple, and easy to implement. I am still hoping that they will also prove to be working.

One should think that modding should not be TOO dangerous. But eve these simplistic designs have come at a small cost. I have had to refill our first-aid kit with finger band-aids too. When will one ever learn?

I have plans for a passive cooler. I am looking at this Modular Passive convector/Radiator from AquaCool

I am even dreaming of a heat transferer unit, so I can transport the heat from the computer and the monitor outside during the summer.
I am just not sure my funds will last that far. We'll have to see.

And I Want you to see the pictures as well!!!

I have checked to see if the pictures were available on a computer that Definately Did Not have them in the internet cash, and they do appear there. At least for that one test.

The pictures are hostes on a web hotel with a 1Gbps Internet connction, and I have a "NoLimit" deal for download from that server (even though they tend to get a little upset if one exceeds a 3-5Gbyte download limit a month). The pictures have only caused a 705Mb download so far, so that should also not be the problem.
Please let me know if the problem is persistent. I have uploaded these pictures because I want to share them!

 

ya i still cant see ne of the picture im not to sure wut the problem is either all the other threads pics come up fine for me just this one doesnt seem to like me much hehe

 

don't know what to do about it. as the file count on the pictures are now a 2.5Gb downloaded, so others seem to see them just fine.
Sorry man, seems to be your bad luck.

 

The Water Brew!!!

My question is now: What liquids to put into the Water Cooling system?

I have read these two good articles:
"PC Water Coolant Chemistry - Part I"
"PC Water Coolant Chemistry - Part II" ​

But I still want to create my own brew. So far I have tested with a glycol/water mix, where I have added some extra Alcohol (increases the viscosity of the liquid) and some food preservative Atamon (to function as the anti algie stuff), and some UV Blue concentrate (just for fun).

The glycol should keep the liquid anti corrosive. The glycol here in Denmark is colored blue, which goes well with my blue theme color.

I am sure the bottles look different in your country.

Left: Glycol (car-cooler antifreeze stuff), middle: Rubbing alcohol (93% pure alcohol), right:Atamon (a non-toxic food preservative)



I have then tested the pH value of my brew.


and a bit closer

It seems to be somewhere between 8 and 9. Just as it is supposed to.



Just for comparison I also tested "Pure" Tap Water


and a cloride solution



I have tested my cooling brew in the radiator for about a week. It seems to develop some kind of furry threads, and the pvc tubing has become a bit blue.

I suppose the glycol sort of attaches it self to all surfaces, to give it it's anti-corrosive surfaces.

What do you guys think?

 

The Water Flow plan / Splitter Block

I want to use a multi splitter water distribution block, so I have one water loop for the CPU, one for the HD, one for the PSU and one for the rest.

Here is an illustration of the water flow system I plan to set up.


As you can see quite a few tubes connect to the Splitter Block.
The question is: How to make a simple and space efficient system?

I have already decided to use layers of 5mm thick Plexi/Acryl glas. And tubes will be connected at the top and buttom of the block. The block will handle both supply of cold water and return of warm water.

Here I am working on making the right holes for the 10mm OD and 16mm OD tubes.

As I only have a handheld drill, I had to make extra lines to aim for, if I were to have any hopes for drilling somewhat straight holes through the block.
I especilally wanted the six 5mm screws to sit relatively straight in the block.


The Asetek HD Cooler Blocks use an O-ring to seal the water inside the block and the tubes. It seems to be a very, very efficient system.

See how the 10mm OD tube passes the O-ring, and goes into the 10mm drill hole. And how it is stopped by the 8mm drill hole.
Asetek also has a fitting in the 16mm drill hole, that holds the tube in place.

It is my intention to make a system using an O-ring in the splitter block.

 

O-ring system for the Splitter Block

I tried to make 8-10-14-10 mm drill holes to hold the tubes and the O-ring in place. But it did not work out well for me. One probably needs a propper router/CRC system with super sharp cutter bits to make it work well.

My hand held drill system and discount drills just did not make for a good solution. So I had to come up with a different plan.


Here I am testing a system that seems to work very well, even when created using my hand held tools.

I found O-rings that are 8,7mm ID. This makes for a very tight seal on a 10mm OD tube. For the 16mm OD tubes I have some 15,3mm ID O-rings.

I then drill 10mm and 16mm holes in two sheets of Plexi/Acryl, and the O-rings will then seal against the surface of the plexi when put under some pressure.

See how a part of this O-ring has a clear black color where the pressure of just pushing the two sheets together.

That clear black half moon makes for a perfect water seal.

Well, the clear black color has to be all round the O-ring, but that will only happen when I use the six screws that hold together the whole Splitter Block.

 

You're my hero

I love the MOSFET-cooling, looks proper awesome

Can't wait to see how this turns out in the end!

 

Well thank you! I have been called many things in my life, but not too many have called me a hero. I feel honored.

I suppose the MOSFET coolers are somewhat of a novelty.
I hope to finish up the Splitter Block one of these days, so I can start testing to see if all those cooler blocks actually work.

 

That water-cooling setup's pretty damn hefty, glad you know what you're doing . Will the one pump be enough?

<A88>

 

Nice work Alvin. I'll be interested to see how this turns out

Hope to see some nice illumination also

 

Actually I have no clue about what I am doing
Meaning, I have never done this before, so it actually really IS a project log. All the information I have is something from the internet, and some common sense, AND some testing.

I once build my own house, including the electricity, central water heating system, water supply and waste disposal system. I made my living supporting computers and networks, so I have no special skills to build houses, so I had never done that before either, but it turned out really well, and sustained my famliy for the about ten years we lived there.
The cold water was always cold, even durning heatwave summers. The warm water was always hot, and the cost of heating the house was abt. 20% less than other comparable houses. And we never blew a fuse because of overloading the electric system.
So all in all, I'd say, it worked out guite well.

The pump for this water cooling system.
I actually don't know if one pump will be enough to pump the water around the system. Someone else asked the same question before, and at that time I did some math and found that my pump Hydor L20 is rated to pump 11,7 Liter a minute (700L/h). Which by no means is a lot for a water cooling system.

I do have an extra Hydor L20 pump available, so I can change things if I need to. Only I am running out of space inside the cabinet, so I'll make the first test using only one pump.

So far I just think that the parallel tube system will ensure as low resistance as possible. And once I have put everything together, I'll have to do some extensive testing.

 

To get sufficient flow through that many pipes you might need something like the eheim 1260 or another very high flow pump. Not quiet but it'll blast the water through the system.

 

Hope all these creative ideas work out for you man. Don't think I've seen home made watercooling taken this far before.

 

Thanks. I have bought 50 Blue LEDs and two UV catode tubes for some illumination, but I have no specific plans about how to use them yet.
I kind of needed to see how the whole water cooling system turned out first.

It has been very inspiring to see your one dial, one button, menu controlled, LCD display - control system.
I have a LCD on the front of the computer, and wish to find time to make a temp monitoring system, and more, for this setup. However during March I'll have to focus on fixing up my old car, as it is due for it's two year safety checkup.

Any good suggestions about how to light up the system?

 

Well, the name of the Mod is "the Sound of Silence", so any way it works out, the end result MUST be super quiet. I definately do not want to be able to hear ANY sound from a water pump.

If all else fails, I'll have to set up two pumps in parallel. That will give a pumping capacity of 1400L/h or 23L/minute.
Also my entire computer only uses app. 110W. It's not OC'd or any kind of high performance system, so I hope it will work out okay.

 

The guy at ZeroFanZone (zfz.com) has given me much inspiration, as his system is entirely without fans. His water blocks are supreme quality copper blocks - very impressive work.
His system is however hooked up to the house (his external passive cooling system is a large metal water tank six feet under, in his backyard).

I also want to end up with a system that can run entirely without fans, when hooked up to my appartment, but I also want it to be easily switchable to a self-contained system, thus I have the radiator and the 197 CFM fan built-in.


You guys just check back now and then, and I'll be sure let you know how it all turnes out.

 

I've almost finished making watercooling for the RAM and two aluminium ribs on the motherboard will be featured in my next update...
thanks for the inspiration man