My tap water gets pretty hot here in Texas during the summer so that would decrease the efficacy of the whole setup. Also I figure if the water is not good enough to drink then it not good enough for my computer.

ok, true, perhapse i was talking out of my ass on that one. But what I said about bacteria still stands. Maybe it's just here in FL, since FL water sucks, but there is a lot of bacteria in our water. And in a warm moist enviornment like a computer, bacteria may thrive.

OK, so just dumping a coil of copper tubing as a heat exchanger in the toilet tank would cause annoying questions from less informed people, BUT:
What water temp do one usually have in an aquarium?
Would a coil of copper tube cause the fishes in the aquarium any health problems (copper in the water)?
(any known speices more restistent to copper?)
Would a computers heat (CPU, GPU, northbridge, PSU, HDDs) overheat the water in the aquarium, causing the fishes to die?
Plan (OK, frankly it´s more of a stoopid idea, been sniffing the marking pens for a while):
1. Get an aquarium (don´t have on for the moment)
2. Take some 10´ copper tube as a heat exchanger from computer
3. Let the aquarium water cool water in copper tube
Approximtely how large aquarium should be needed? 50 liters? 200 liters?
regards
Mikael S.

Aquarium water is usually room temp, but that is too cold for most fish, so there is usually a water heater in the tank to heat up the water to slightly above room temp. Therefore, to answer your question about weather or not the fish will die from the heat....probably not.

But to answer your question about weather or not they will die from copper in the water...they shouldn't, since Cu is not very reactive in water, but at the point where the tube enters the water, the copper may react with the air and form Copper Oxide, this may or may not be harmful to the fish. I'm not sure.

As for the toilet tank idea, that's good, but you do realize that you would need to keep the computer in the bathroom, or run copper pipes from your bathroom to your computer room or bedroom. Depending on your house layout, that's a lot of pipes. I doubt your significant other would sign off on such an endeavor.

Using the toilet tank is out of the question.
I was given a maul as a birthday present a few years ago, and I stored it at the toilet (You never know when You will need it), wich caused me a few questions from some of my friends.
Having the computer connented to the toilet tank is simply not an option. My reputation is already bad enough.
regards
Mikael S.

whats a maul?

A 10 lbs two-hand sledge hammer, approximately 4´ long.
regards
Mikael S.

Hi, setting up my WC rig for the first time. can some pros clear my doubts.

which is better? UPW or DIW
any advise ?

what is UPW or DIW?
does it relate to Tap water for cooling?

:O and you fit that in your toilet tank!?!?!?!? 4 feet? That's like the size of a small child!!! It both scares and impresses me that, should you ever want to, you have the capacity to fit a small child in your toilet tank. Wow.

upw = ultrapure water
diw = distilled ionized water

just plain distilled water is best, with some anti corrosion additive like hyper lube.

how would useing heavy water effect cooling?

You wouldn't have to worry about the cooling between all the federal investigations and FBI agents following you.

Its only used for cooling nuclear reactors because of how it responds to radioactivity; its doubtful you'd see any improvement in cooling even with a test bench rivaling BillAs. Add that to what getting some would cost and what not...

Link: http://www.dansdata.com/io024.htm

fair enough

Nonono, I had it standing *next to* the toilet.
Don´t give me any stupid ideas ;)
regards
Mikael S.

you have a small child standing next to your toilet tank?
aren't you scared that he/she can take the sledge hammer out of the toilet tank and attack you when you doing your "business"?....
and then escape

;)

Back on topic...

I've contemplated building a cooling system that makes use of a water main. You'd have to be in a building where some amount of flow is guaranteed through the pipe 24/7. Build a heat exchanger that attaches around the water main with as much surface area as possible. wrapping 20 feet of copper tubing tightly around the pipe might work, but I'd try to design something where the exchanger is actually bathed in the incoming water somehow, thusly eliminating the resistance of the thick steel pipe.

kinda like drill a hole in the water main and snake the copper pipe all arround inside of the water main?

but what if you don't use the water for a few hours...
would the water in the main get warm.. diminishing the power of the water cooling?
unless you can garantee constant flow...

:D
Check Your mail, this is just too off topic.

Ewan, sorry for wrecking Your thread.

regards
Mikael S.

The OT toilet child was an improvement to the thread if you ask me. Kinda like the batman fins on US cars from the 50'S Completely useless, but they sure look good.

Krazy's idea of using a mains pipe as a heatsink isn't what I'm after, since there are all sorts of things you can use as a heatsink. You would still need a pump and a coil and whatnot.

Dude, you obviously aren't familiar with the physics associated with batman fins in relation to the aerodynamics of quad-wheeled motorized vehicular units. Much like racing stripes, tinted glass, or gold plated rims, well placed batman fins can easily boost your engine by anywhere from 10 to 20,000 horse power. That's why the space shuttle has those huge fins. Without the power provided by batman fins, the shuttle wouldn't be able to get into orbit.
;)

on topic:

what you people really want is oil cooling. Grab a fat ass heatsink and shove it on the cpu, same for the video card, and everything else. Then just build a box out of aluminum(or better yet, big heatsinks). The sheer thermal capacity of the oil(make sure to use transformer oil for the pc, you can get away with motor oil for the other stuff)will cool the pc quite well, and the aluminum sides will dissapate the heat quite well. Dont go crazy and immerse the HDD and cdrom though.

If your gunna go the complete emersion route, you might as well go all out and use flourinert with liquid nitrogen
:D