Cheapest cooling there is...........i think......

[eGoCeNTRoNiX]

Would the vaccumm not be one hell of a power hog to be running all the time? You're talking between 10 and 12 amps in most cases.. LOTS OF POWER.. lol.. I'd hate to have that electric bill.. lol..

[matt719]

Which brings us back to my point, just spend the extra $100 and get real water cooling. If you really want to make it cheap, make your water block out of a piece of copper with holes drills in it. Use a water tight container as resovoir. Don't get a pump that's too expensive. Make yours own radiator. I've seen people make pine tree designs with copper that don't even require a fan, they just sit on your desk like they were decorations. Be creative, I'm sure you can think of a lot of things. But remember, you'll probably need all the basic parts. I can garentee you your not the first person to think about making affordable water cooling, so things like not having a pump or radiator have probably been tried and failed, otherwise similar products would be for sale.

[eGoCeNTRoNiX]

We all float down here.... ha ha ha ha. Sorry Matt.. Couldn't resist. but yes, you do have a good point.. But can you blame us for trying?

[Kal-EL6]

i mean no offence to anyone, but it's guys like us (modders) who make alot of the cool and functional discoveries that eventually make it to a final product on the market. WE figure out what works and someone copies it and makes money!!! So i'm trying all avenues to cooling before i drop my $300 Canadian for a water cooling system that may or may not work just as well as my home made one. Besides, isn't this all about having fun anyway!!!!!! ]

[Pugsley]

If i was going to do all that, I would use my 1337 modeling skill and build mini coling towers like you see at power plants. that would be totoaly neato!

[eGoCeNTRoNiX]

Are you referring to a tool or a trade pugsley?

[Pugsley]

skill as in somthing i am good at. Not as in tool.

[Saturn1]

You can make a "cooling tower" by using some PVC pipe and a few fittings. Bring the water to be cooled to the top of the pipe and put it through a nozzle to spray the water out. Make the water nozzle adjustable so the droplet size can be fine tuned. If you really want to keep it cool put a fan port in the side of the pipe close to the bottom tank and have it on an adjustable power supply. If you keep the fan rpm just right you can have maximum air cooling without the water spraying over the top of the tube.

[Saturn]

Cool, Got my old Alias back.
Thanks!

[eGoCeNTRoNiX]

Saturn, that sounds pretty complicated.. But I think it would be a cool design if it could be done with glass tubing like a Mad scientists lab? lol.. Anyways.. I'm not too much worried about water cooling right now. I've still gotta decide whether or not I want to OC my XP-1900+ or not.. It's already pretty fast. eGo

[Pugsley]

I still think it would be cooler to just have a real looking cooling tower on your desk. all lit up and stuff just like a real one.

I have built one of thiese (the sub station) and it looks ok. have yet to paint it, but i was gonna put it in my computer and make it look like it did somthing. But thats if i had a window!

[canton_kid]

I don't think I would want any lose open watter around my system! Contain it all INSIDE pipes tubes or other closed areas for me.

Now about that perpetual motion thingy. NOT!
One rule of perpetual motion I beleave is that OUSTSIDE sources of power cannot be used. Once set into motion it must remain so without outside influence. Well think about it, why would the hot water rise? Because it is hot, why is it hot? Because it is heated by an outside source, the CPU which is useing outside power, thus not perpetual at all since it stops if you shut down the system or power failure.

Now, if we could first heat the water to set it into motion, then use the motion of the water to run a small gererator to power the cpu to create the heat to keep the water in motion we might be getting somewhere. BUT, then we have loses cause by evaperation even in a closed system for some reason we still have a tendency to lose water.

To be a bit more serious though, I think a home made water cooler should be easy enough to build and much cheaper than most decent kits.

You can get a new heater core for most older cars, vans or trucks for about $20. Replaced a nice sized one last year for that myself. Then a littlle copper tubing about 20-50 cents a foot depending on size, you need what maybe 3-5 feet? Toss in a few fittings, a drain valve, and some solder. Now for a pump there are tons of cheap ones out there that might work. You can buy a whole water fountain now for about $20 either 120v ac or battery operated, your choice.

You need a water block on your CPU now. Should not be to expensive to make one, be sure it's water tight or you may lose more than the cost of a kit with a leak! My idea for a block is to take a cheap heatsink like the pin type and solder four side and a top on it, water tight of course. The sink is already made to fit the cpu and draw off the heat, you just have to cool the sink with the water now instead of air. With all those pins there is alot of surface to exchange heat with the water.

Since water seeks it's own level, long as there is water above the level of the inlet tube you are not raising the water, you are just pushing it. There is a difference here! If you lift the water higher than it's normal level you have both weight of water and resistance of the pipe to overcome. If your inlet is below the top of the water then it seeks it's own level itself and you are not lifting it's weight at all. So you must over come the resistance of the water pushing against the pipe/tubing. That could make a big difference in the size of the pump you need and the power to run it.

Now where to install the pump? Should it pull the hot water up from the CPU and therfore be sucking the cold water down. Or, should it be pushing the cold water down and let the presure push the hot water up? I would go for pulling up the hot water myself, but I could be wrong.

My reason for pulling up the water is I worry too much about leaks! If you get a pin hole in your system and are pushing down the cold water you may spay water all through your system, most likely not a good thing to do! If you are pulling the water up and get a pinhole then you should suck in air instead of blowing out water long as the system is running. If you lose a whole line it doesn't matter probably but for a pin hole you may hardly get a drip.

In any case I personanlly don't think I want to water cool an expensive system just in case! Now I might try a homemade water cooler some day with a cheapo all in one board for $50 and a $50 CPU. 1700 XP is getting realy cheap now and I really like them, I have 3.
I might latter grab M/B with sound, video, lan, ect.. built in and try it. I like the looks of a water cooler and it being somethng different, but don't need the extra cooling myself.

Looking at a reasonable parts list I think about $60 should cover it. If you look around for good used parts it might be nearly free! I have tubbing laying around, junks cars with good heater cores, an old heat sink, and I could probably find a used fountain pump easy too. Look for a working desk fountain at a yardsale for $5!

Another thought it seams is that most people seem to want the water placed on top of the system. Thats how I figured the above. If you want to push the water, then place the tank below the system and push the water up through the cpu block and up to the cooling radiator. You could then spray the water through the radiator to cool it faster and let it drain normally back down to the tank.

For now though I just want my darned Shuttle AK35 to boot and I would be happy!

[himura-dono]

saturn is referring to bong cooling. it's kinda out of date now as most people are already using a water pump like an eheim, or a submersible one like a via aqua or have moved to phase change cooling.

rubbermaid boy, your idea will work if you take the 10-20gallon (too big in my opinon) rubber maid storage container, and use a via aqua submersible pump, and some tygon tubing connected to a water block. the rubbermaid container works as a reservoir, and even something as simple as a small desk fan blowing on it will cool it. however, the main problem to bong cooling, or the reservoir system i just described for you with an external reservoir, is that to cool it, you need a fan blowing air on it. now the air being blown on it from your room, will most likely have bacteria's blown in or mold grotwth. these cause you to have to consistently clean out your entire system. secondly, it's noisy.

for those who invest in a cooling system of an eheim external pump, and a radiator, the cooling becomes nearly silent. usually only a few quiet fans for case cooling, and maybe slightly higher powered ones for a shroud over the radiator to cool the metal that absorbs the heat from the water.

[canton_kid]

Hmm.

What's that heat pump called that is buried in the ground for cooiling? Now that's a wild Idea for external water cooling.

Bury your tank about 2 -3 feet under ground, pump the cold water from the bottom to your system then dump the hot water back to the top of the burried tank. Should remain a constant 56f degrees or so if I remember correctly.

an old clean hot watter tank buried and some copper tubing for lines and a pump should get you down to some pretty low temps

Watch for condensation though.

I will actually be trying a similar idea but much larger to cool my house next summer if I can get the work done. Need a back hoe to dig the holes and these jerks around here don't know how to do anything different. They can dig a basement or a ditch, but ask for a specail type dig and they scratch their butts and pick their nose and say duh I don't know! I think sometimes the use the same finger for both too!

Gee if I could just afford to buy my own back hoe and dozer :}

[ShibasScotch]

To keep the water cooler, you could even add ICE cubes to the bucket every hour or so LOL