home made water cooled 6600gt agp not 56k friendly
 

I have not made any water blocks for a couple a couple of years but i still have everything left from when i attempted to make a cascade style block.

I wanted a 6800gt/ultra with the dd cooler but not the £500 price tag so when the 6600gt agp came out i picked one up and decided to make a cooler for it.

Now i know the ram is ddr3 and that it does not need cooling but i wanted to make a cooler for both anyway as more of a challange than anything else and as this one had the agp bridge chip i coverd that too.

If this goes well i might speak to a local CNC company i know and get an estimate for them to make it properly if anyone is interested but i dont think it will be cheap.

anyway first i worked on the design and measured the card as presice as i could.
The ram is 1.2mm thick and the core is 2.4 so i will also have to take 1.2mm of the back of the cooler.

after measureing i built a simple model of the card so i could start work on the cooler model. Then i printed out my design and started work.

http://www.ljsnet.co.uk/template.jpg

and then to work with the trusty hacksaw

http://www.ljsnet.co.uk/cutout.jpg

Once i had the shape i made sure the mounting holes are correct and drilled them out. With only 3 holes to mount and nothing at the top of the card i hope once it's installed it will stay inplace else the ram will suffer with bad contact.

Then using a bench drill and cross vice i started work on the core area and then the ram. The copper i used is 10mm this and i have drilled 5mm into it.
Then tidy up with the dremel.

http://www.ljsnet.co.uk/drillpress.jpg

This is about 4 hours work.

http://www.ljsnet.co.uk/sofar1.jpg
http://www.ljsnet.co.uk/sofar2.jpg

Hopefully i will do some more this weekend.

That's a big chunk!

How much does that weigh? It must be at least 5 lbs...

not sure how much it ways but it's not that big compared to some gfx car coolers like the ones bladerunner makes.

if the peice was square it would be 10cm x 10cm x 1cm.

Not sure what top i am going to use. I need to find the pages here on how to solder the top on in the oven.

All you do is tin up one side, lay the other side on top and put it in the oven. You already have a hole cut in the bottom plate, so you dont have to worry about it imploding :D

I'm coming up with .89 kg (1.96 lbs).

(Given copper's density as 8920 kg/m^3, and dimensions (pre-drill) of 10 cm by 10 cm and 1 cm)

Nexxo's work here might come in handy:
http://forums.procooling.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=10367

leejsmith How did the block turn out?

I just about trashed my x-y vice getting it this far before i started on the gpu/ram side. There is no way i could mill that side down so the ram/gpu makes good contact.

I did think about using artic apoxy or some thing for the ram building layers and then smoothing them down that should work.

http://www.ljsnet.co.uk/Dscf1003.jpg

it ways 530 grams as the moment.

I have a maze4 gpu on my 6600gt but it's so close to the ram i cant get any ram sinks on them.
I did think about making something to add to the maze4 gpu to touch the ram too.

you said in the first post th difrence was 1.2 mm between the GPU and the ram...
what about using a copper shim where the ram would be? it would save you from having to mill it down or using that much arctic apoxy. get a small strip of 1mm thick copper should do it...
i bought a similar videocard.. chaintech one... and was thinking of making a block for it as well...

I'm thinking of making one...
ok doing more then thinking...
done all thd measuring parted already and planned out the flow..
simular to leejsmith...
before I order any copper..
The base I have roughed out at 4"x4.5" and .5" thick...
Also where the ram is lower then the GPU I plan to use some copper shims also 0.048" (18 ga.) thick...
how think should I make the top piece?
I was thinking 0.048" (18 ga.) copper sheet
any thoughts?

I tried to finish the block but both my cross vice and crappy piller drill have had it.
I think i could finish of the channles witht my dremel.

I was looking at a acrylic top mainly as i have a peice that would fit perfect.

I think the only problem with the copper sheet top would be any warping when soldering it to the base if it's too thin.

Is your 6600gt referance ? the xfx only has 4 holes 2 either side the gpu and 2 either side the agp/pci-e bridge chip. Not much to hold it at the top of the card.

I checked my collection of copper bits and i have a sheet of 1mm copper should be ok for the memory shim good idea :)

Bah, shims is for pansies! Just tighten the screws and that 1,2mm gap is history. ;) :D


(/jk)

just heat the card up and it should bend just enough to make contact :p

File down pennies. That should be good enough heat transfer.

I'll spend the 80¢ and get some precut copper from online metals.. considering I'll be ordering the rest of the copper from there anyways...
I agree.. mine is the same setup...
I may have to come up with some sort of clamp for the top if the ram doesn't connect properly...
guess I'll order copper tonight...

pennies arent solid copper anyways

actually, they are SOLID - just not solid copper

they are plated zinc
and solid copper pennies can be found or even bought very cheaply
i have found a large number of them
i think they changed to zinc/copper in the early 60s

Late 80s actually. Theres all this penny madness over at OCForums.com. I got a good laugh from that topic :D. Copper bar is less than the amount of pennies you'd have to get to find enough all copper pennies to make it worth while.

from here: http://home.att.net/~numericana/answer/trivia.htm

did a bit more work on this block today.

http://www.ljsnet.co.uk/6600gt1.jpg http://www.ljsnet.co.uk/6600gt2.jpg

still need to brase / solder metal glue the barbs in and make threads so the top will screw into the copper base. Then i will use silicon to seal it.

For the memory shim i will use thermal epoxy to fix it to the base of the block after i have lapped them both.

have you made any progress madhacker ?

Yup I ordered some copper from online metals...
Still waiting on that...
They sent me a nice chunk 4"x4.5"x.5" of brass :cry:
What am I going to do with that :shrug:
Right now I am using it for a coster... :mad:

That template that you made for your holes...
What program did you do that in?
I have tried to do something simular in autocad but i am going to use all 4 mounting holes if i can...
After printing it out my mounting holes are of by 1mm or so.
Could I get a copy of your template?

i used 3dstudio max 2.5 i will convert it to a dxf and see whats it's like. I will find the jpg i used to print in paintshop pro. all i did was adjust the image size on the page until it aligned with the mount holes on the board.
the image i used should still have the page setup too.

you could cheat and make the mount holes bigger to cover for the 1mm they are out.

True... I think at my current design I have so that I am trimming off as much excessive copper that I can to get it lighter... I hope that doesn't interfere... but that can be changed as well... After feeling the weight of the brass I now realize how heavy it will be...

Or I can also re measure it... there is that extra satisfaction knowing I did it all myself...
I can get some measurements from the “Mounting hole distances for CPUs” thread.

http://www.ljsnet.co.uk/6600gt-print-at-38.jpg

i found printing at 38% in paint shop pro with a4 paper gave me the best results but if you print and measure the block in the bottem left it should be 30mm.

@leejsmith -> Nice work! I've just stumbled accross this thread and noticed that we you almost identical equipment :D :cool:
Have you got it finished yet mate?
P.S. I found that one can sucessfuly use endmills with this type of equipment and if you go slowly and have your x-vice assmebled correctly (and one axis blocked, also it looks like a turning table could serve you well) then you can obtain a very nice straight cuts with flat bottoms. I got my bits endmills from rswww - they are quite expensive unfortunately :(
Anyways, keep up your good work!