Cooling how to go about water cooling on the cheap?

hey,
well, i reeeeaallllyyyy wanna get water cooling. thing is, i lack money most of the time, so am wondering if anyone has ideas/knows how to go about water cooling on the cheap.
im pretty sure all i need is GPU/CPU cooling, as NB involves another water block, etc, more money, bah. sooo.. with that in mind, anyone got any suggestions? thanks

 

Well alot of parts can be custom built. It depends on what skiils/equipment you have.

You could make your own water blocks and Pick up a good heatercore from your local breakers yard. (vauxhall cores are good. astra, nova, corsa) there the 2 biggest things you can do to save money.

 

hhmm.. where might i be able to get water blocks done? i could get them done on the school CAD/CAM thingy. i will need blueprints though. anyplace people know where i can download autocad, DXF, etc files of waterblock designs? thanks

 

cheap? buy 2nd hand stuff. lurk around forums you'll find a good bargain on watercooling equipments. use a T fitting and you can add a res later if you have £££..

a used cpu block, rad, pump, new tubings, fittings, clamps, water, fan, etc will cost you around £80 more or less

 

"cheap" and "water" dont seem right together

 

£80?! crazy. well, that would be awesome. would that be good gear or low quality? does anyone have any block designs in autocad for example, as i could mill my own,...

heh.. well i hope to make it "cheap", i really have no other option

EDIT: this any good? http://www.overclockers.com/tips206/

 

Exactly. My adivce would be to give up the idea of getting a good system cheap.

On the other hand you could get second hand parts, a cheap heatercore and hope it works as well as a decent and far cheaper heatsink.

What kind of a budget do you have anyway?

My water cooling system is goign to cost ~£220. Expensive yes but it will be very high quality and will guarantee me silence with damn good cooling.

 

In terms of performance, no. Look here at the pro cooling forums. Browse there to see the sorts of thing people are making.

 

Well lets have a look.

You can get 2nd hand good cpu blocks for £25 (theres a Maze4 in the classifieds at the mo)

A hydor L30/eheim1250 pump would be around £20-£30 second hand (hydor L30s are only 35ish new!)

A good heatercore rad would be £10-15max

Tubing and fittings would be no more than £20-25

25+35+15+25=£100 tops

I think you could do it for less if you did a bit more yourself. If you want to make your own block search for 'rotor' blocks there the best for DIYers with limited equipment (a drill and dremel)

 

ok.. i decided. ive designed some blocks in prodesktop. which i will put onto the school CAM mill. http://www.zerofanzone.com/ <--- seems a damn good place to see what can be done at home. where can i get a rad. from?
piping can be "obtained" i will buy a nice res *5 1/4" bay one" and get pump from neighbour, then thats me set. what do people think?

 

post your cpu block designs and we can give you some feedback

 

Eep.. there not quite finished.. and prodesktop really is CACK at rendering. but i will post them tomorrow.. hopefully bryce will be able to do a good job of rendering it saved as a .dxf file.

 

Just a warning about the bay res. They are probably the worst kind of res you can get for a watercooling setup. You would be better off getting a danger den res or a criticool tube one.

 

ok... but it loos so damn hardcore. also.. methinks i will purchase a real rad. as im having trouble finiding a smallish appropriate one. erm. over-clock.co.uk generic dual 120mm one ok? also.. i may be running the cooling on a dual proc system.. what kinda pump power do i need? thanks

 

hmm.. i thought bayres is more reliable than the dd res.. the dd's cracks like nobody's business

 

There aren't really any good reservoirs designed for a 1/2" system.

As you mentioned, the danger den one cracks. The bay res does very little as an airtrap, essentially, it is there to look good.

Some of the german ones are VERY well made and work well, but need converting to 1/2".

As for the rest of the system, a second hand 1250 would be a god way to go. Pair this with a heater core and a nice homemade block, and you'll have a good system.

8-ball

 

One of the first times i had to disagree with you 8-BALL

/........been selling DD Reservoirs for over 2 years now and only had 2 "cracked" ones back

One that i cracked when trying to force 1/2" BSPT thread barbs into NPT holes (see pic)

And one that came back as a result of DD changing manufacturer and apparently the new manufacturer had used the wrong glue to stick the top and bottom on and it failed after about a week of being filled with water.

DD realised this problem and recalled the whole batch so not to many people were affected by this and to date we have had no more returned!

And as for the Bay Res..........i have always found them to be an excellent air trap both in terms of looks and functionality............what makes you say they do little as an air trap?????

Sorry but i'm only going off my experience!

Heres the DD Res that i forced the brass BSP Barbs into

 

I was simply reporting what had been moentioned on various forums across the web, though I will admit that I have no experience with either.

As for the bay res. I have heard a lot of people talking about how it doesn't work as well as an airtrap as something like the danger den. But then they do tend to win a llot of support for the whole "water in the front of the case" thing.

It hink they both had problems early on, and as you have pointed out, it would appear that some of these have been ironed out.

The problem with the bay res, is that it is less forgiving with regards to water level. If the level drops close to that of the inlet, the water will become churned up, and as the outlet is at the same level, bubbles could be sucked down the outlet.

This is less likely to occur with more conventional "airtrap" designs.

My point being that the bay res, is primarily a res before an airtrap.

8-ball

 

Surely the res is the one part that is particularly easy to sort out yourself using blkhead fittings and your choice of plastic storage container.

 

This is true, but more often than not, a nice res can make the centre piece of a good looking system. Many of the German offerings are perfect for this.

I seem to remember coolmiester using a particularly nice res, though, I may be thinking of the wrong person.

8-ball

EDIT: I just remembered the focus of this topic is doing it cheap.

In which case, yes a homemade res is a good way to save money.

But, as has been mentioned before, a T-piece would most probably suffice until funds allow for a res.

8-ball