relatively portable, silent, passively cooled BEAST

[LopeDogg]

*EDIT*
SEE THE BEAST!
just dont look too long or u might turn into salt.

its almost done, im in the final testing tweaking phase of the project.
Its meant to be a silent PC to leave on all the time, listen to music, program, internet, download etc. and play old games *g*

Specs are
XP 1800+
768MB of PC133 ram
voodoo 3 3000
WD 80GB (with FDB bearings)
Seagate barracuda 160GB

loop:
pump>HDD waterblock>CPU>Nbridge>GFX card>PSU>radiator>resevior

The radiator consists of about 5.5KG of aluminium plates, 6m of copper pipe, a bunch of PVC pipe, close to 200 bolts, and a bunch of jubilee clips.
The radiator is an array of 12 pieces of 2 plates clamped to a pipe.
(ill post pics tomorrow)

I might make a mosfet waterblock, and ill probably make one to take 2 cdrom drives and enclose them in foam.

The hard drives will be wrapped in foam.

system seems to be running well, im gonna reduce Vcore a bit, it can go lower (its at 1.67V)
Currently my Case is open, case temp is 24C, CPU 49C, WD 37C, Seagate 35C.

I ran unreal tournament for about 10-20 mins, and the cpu temp climbed gradually up to 57C. the HDDs climbed up to about 39C.

it will be interesting to see what happens once i reduce Vcore.
Im not too happy with those HDD temps, im thinking of making a seperate loop (dedicated section of the radiator, seperate pump and res) just for the HDDs and CDROMs.

the stand ive got the PC perched on is kind of blocking 1/4-1/2 the intake for the radiator...
ive cooled most of the things in my PSU... power transistors, load resistors, main output inductor... but the side of the PSU still gets warm... probably not anything to worry about, but im gonna drill some holes in the PSU cover to get a bit of air exchange...

im not happy about the pump...
i used to have this 5W pump, that if decoupled, you could barely hear it was on...
ive got the same model of that pump now, (but not the same one) and it makes a noise , more noise than a 15W pump (which im using atm)
also gonna insulate the resevior...

im gonna see how it goes tomorrow with decreasing Vcore a bit... even if the hard drive temps are lower, i dont want them jumping up and down in temp at the CPU's whim. :/
so it seems dedicating a part of the radiator to them is inevitable.
i might also add a few more units to the radiator.

at the moment all i hear is the pump, humming away.
and then some HDD noise. (they aren't insulated yet)

Btw, i dont like my HDDs being over 37C

fussy bastard...
i reckon im paranoid for a good reason :]

one thing is for sure
as is, the PC is quiet as hell, and can be used for any office/internet type application, ive only given it a 20 min run in unreal, but i didnt like how things were going it would be nice if i could play some games on this pc etc.
(im getting a new pc soon, which will prob be a noisy air cooled thing)

anyways, ill post those pics tomorrow
peace

EDIT(tuesday)
ok
here r the pics.
after drilling holes in my PSU im so much happier about it... it looks really good (i dont mean aesthetically) and it runs cool.
the only thing now, is to insulate the hard drives, and get another pump... i checked out the impellar on my 5W and its got some play on it, causing the rattling, so im gonna sort that out, and get another one (hopefully hussle for a replacement)

ive got enough copper pipe to put on another layer of radiator pieces (4 more)...
the temps are good now, i havent run an extended gaming session yet... but the temps will be all the more sweeter if i add another row of rad pieces.
i lowered my Vcore btw, and ran CPU burn in for a long time today, the cpu goes up to 52C max (which im very happy with)
and the HDDS sit at around 38-39C, i did some long intensive HDD stuff earlier and my HDD went up to 40C... which is actually pretty normal?
(reassurance please
and while im adding that row of rad pieces, ill do the CDROM waterblock, and the mosfet block i reckon.

im considering giving the metal bits a lick of matt black spray paint... does it need a primer? (hopefully not) If i do itll be while everything still attatched, no ways im taking it apart...

peace

[LopeDogg]

i just had a brainwave...
i took 2 15w pumps, and attatched them to each other facing opposite directions... the theory is their vibrations would be out of phase and cancel each other out.
i got slightly confusing results, i tried them both facing the same way, then suddenly, there was no vibration.
then i remembered reading somewhere "these types of pumps will spin in a "random" direction when you turn them on, some of them rattle when spinning one way, just turn it off and on till it makes less noise"

so i had them secured to each other, facing the same way, and i tried turning the power on and off
sometimes id get vibration from the pair, other times...... NO VIBRATION
awesome.

this makes me want to get 2 of those little 5W pumps and use one for the radiator and one for the cooling loop.
but those 5w pumps are ridiculously quiet in any case, and the minor vibrations they make shouldnt really propagate if decoupled...
but its something to ponder.
peace

EDIT:
its so much fun
ive got them joined together with an elastic band, i pull them apart and they vibrate in my hands, then i let them go together, and the vibration stops *g*

definitely worthwhile on a system big pumps
u can just have a button, where while u hold it it cuts the power to one of the pumps... so u press the button till there is no vibration.
it also means if ur too lazy to press the button or u dont do it, u get double the vibration, whatever that means

peace

[killme413]

OR you are smart and buy a 12v pump and glue the impeller and get no vibrations and no rattle and no noise. And instead of making your own ulgy looking radiator you go buy a wallmounted radiator wich you have in houses and it would work great.

[LopeDogg]

well you're charming.

i got the pump replaced today, the manager at the shop was very cool about it. the one i got now is dead silent. gonna install it tomorrow.
im pretty happy with the system... still getting used to it.
i havent had a proper pc for a while :/

peace

[killernoodle]

That setup hardly looks portable. You could get a AXP-M 2400+ and put a decently sized heatsink on there and have it truly silent (minus the HDD of course)

[bigben2k]

I admire the kitchen workspace; I wish I could get away with doing that!

[LopeDogg]

bigben:
the parentals are away *g*

hmm, ive been really confused about this pc...
ive decided its too much effort to silence the CDROMs, and i dont use them too often anyway. and the mosfets ill heatsink.
the PC runs very nicely, im very happy with it.
i want to do something to make this radiator less of an eyesore though.
the only viable thing i can think of is to paint it black or something.
peace

[gazorp]

Originally Posted by LopeDogg

bigben:
the parentals are away *g*

hmm, ive been really confused about this pc...
ive decided its too much effort to silence the CDROMs, and i dont use them too often anyway. and the mosfets ill heatsink.
the PC runs very nicely, im very happy with it.
i want to do something to make this radiator less of an eyesore though.
the only viable thing i can think of is to paint it black or something.
peace

How about replpacing it with a heater core?

[flatline]

i had a simmila idear 1nce for a rad but the other way pipes going thru alu plate with washes between plates to let air past

neway nice 1 its good to see something not heatercore ish now and again

[LopeDogg]

hmm, ive got all the parts that i need now to finish this beast off.
im gonna build a PVC resevior for it, and put it inside the case, and im gonna paint the pipes blue. its gonna look good
i ran unreal for quite a long time yesterday, temps were good

ive got 2 hard drives in the system... a WD 80GB (fdb bearings) and a Seagate barracuda 160GB (quiet as hell) (they are sitting in a polystyrene box now, almost inaudible)
the WD gets hot when you copy a lot of data (make it work) :/
each side of the waterblock looks like this
CHHH
C
CHHH
CP
C=copper plate P=pipe
(its just 2 1.2mm copper plates and 3 15mm pipes with 2 elbows)

i tried swapping the hard drives around, putting the WD at the bottom position, right next to the pipe, with the seagate on top.

i ran a stress test today... (ambient is 32C)
i ran CPU burn till my cpu got to 53C (ive only ever see it get to 55 on this rig)
then i did a big data copy from one HDD to the other...
what happened was the WD heated up to 50C while the seagate stayed at 41C (the seagate only increased 2C the whole time (and very slowly))
this is strange because the seagate is furthest from the copper pipe, and its got the blazing hot WD inbetween itself and the pipe.

i looked up the data for the WD drive... it says 5.5W idle, and 5.8W read/write.
this is very strange, because 0.3W doesnt cause that type of dramatic change.
ive tried the WD in both positions of the waterblock, screwed it in very tightly...
these are the possible scenarios i can think of:
1. Bad contact between HDD and waterblock > use thermal grease
2. The temp probe is sitting on some hot chip on the hard drive, with bad thermal conductivity to the chassis of the HDD.
3. The WD sucks ass, and i should get another barracuda. (they dont make that high pitched whine, which is a real plus) (its very faint, and the polystyrene pretty much kills it)
so i could get my HDD and WB all messy with thermal grease... but i really doubt its gonna do anything.
if the problem is number 2, then perhaps the WD needs individual chips cooled :/
eh, easier to get another barracuda.


but WD issues aside. my Seagate is sitting at 41C now (9 above ambient)
which isnt bad... but what happens when we have some killer summer heat? and the ambient temp is 43C? i cant have my HDD sitting at 52C.
so id kind of like to get another pump, and make a 2nd res, and have a loop just for the hard drives, dedicate say 4 of the 16 pieces of the radiator to them (because they are special anyways
the whole PC ran fine with just 12 pieces anyway.
so that is something i might do in the future.

another thing i thought of...
is since the temperatures get so killer in summer here, and no radiator can really deal with such temps, perhaps i should have an evaporation bowl somewhere on my pc, which i fill up in those times of extreme heat?
it could just be like a copper bowl which my coolant water flows past, and is normally unused, but in times of extreme heat, i could fill the bowl with water, and have my temps drop dramatically.

(for my first watercooling experiment, i just ran my PC out of a bucket, with no radiator, and the evaporation from that kept it pleanty cool)

i notiuced the other day ive got some nice real estate under my pc for such a thing...

i was initially unhappy with the aesthetics of this beast, but ive got some plans for it, and its gonna look pretty sick actually it'll be done this week
here r some pics.

[Brians256]

Thanks for posting! Keep giving info on how it works out for you. Very interesting to see someone put this kind of effort into it.

[LopeDogg]

thanks brian

heres my baby!

gonna spray the legs silver tomorrow
and maybe spray the pipes at the top and bottom of the rad blue
spraying the pipes blue is partly cos i think it will look cool, and partly because those pipes would get a lot of light otherwise, and i dont want nasty stuff growing...

btw: antifreeze is SICK (thats about 7% antifreeze in there)
(bleeding it was really easy with the PC lying on the radiator (last time it was a b**ch

peace

[montyt]

Fantastic to see someone doing something them selves.
You see lots people with all purchased pieces put together with glowing lights.
And if that gets you going good luck to you.

I prefer to see people using their head and having a go and getting back to the hobby / enthusiast way of doing it.

and I bet you didn’t pay heaps for blocks and rads and the likes.


great job.