System size and convection

[|kbn|]

Hello. Has been about a year since I last used my watercooling, maybe 2 years since I really done anything with it.


I had some ideas recently when installing an old system that was gathering dust. A friend donated some parts after deciding its not practicle and has little benifit over recent aircooling.

I decided I would try explore how to make it more practicle, after reinstalling my 1/2" system. Altough I only have 4 components inside the case - cpu and gpu waterblocks, two ball valves to help with disconnecting it.

I notice that heatpipes are hugely popular now, becuase they are cheap, practicle and perform well.

Can watercooling do the same?


I made a small test waterblock, measuring 25x19x10mm (plus connections). I intend to base this on a 5mm ID system.
There is maybe 50grams of copper in the below picture...
Needs some more stuff done, I will fill the channel ends posibly with 1.5mm copper inserts and solder it together.
For mounting I have made a small bracket from SS 2mm thick and it will use normal mounting holes.


Attached is a picuture of the block inside some tygon, next to an ancient athlon xp 1700+!
I plan to test this on a 0-50w heatsource, and depending on the result it will probably live on the northbridge of my nforce4, as a seperate system to the main one.

Which leads me to this:

I would also like to try convection, IE pumpless. Im searching for info if anyone has done this and how successfull it would be. While it is very different, I see that heatpipes are very good as passive systems and that a correctly designed convection system may also work.

[RedViper]

Can water cooling be cheap, practicle and perform well in comparison to the newer heatpipe designs?

1. As cheap? I doubt it, but then I see WC as a hobby. This means that I'll spend hard for the latest stuff. I'm sure others can/will differ on this.

2. Practicle? If you enjoy the process, absolutely.

3. Performance? In the cooling tier that WC inhabits, yes. WC scales well based on how you personally want it to perform and how much you want to spend.

As far as your rig, I'll just say that I admire anyone who can measure and cut with confidence.

[|kbn|]

Cheap as in costing ~£1 materials and not much in time.

Some more pictures, need to make a mount for it still.





Ideally the channels would be 2-3x deeper, an the top could have been thinner for weight/space saving.




Sitting on my spare cpu block.

Next one will be a gpu block, little bigger to match die size with side barbs =)

[ben333]

Very interesting idea! I'll be interested to see how this preforms.

[|kbn|]

I havent got round to testing it since I cant get my nb heatsink off..

But I didnt design it for gpu so I have been planning another block. Im thinking of using 3/8" thick bar instead for 7mm channels.



26.4*25*13.2 without fittings

[|kbn|]