Ideas on how to build a water cooling rig on a tight budge? I Need help!!
 

Ok. You're talking to a college student here who's about to start another semester, so I have very little money left right now. I haven't OC'd my processor yet because I'm not sure if the current temp. is too high. (measured by asus pc probe and bios: cpu = 49C-50C idle and case temp = 35C idle) I'm thinking that in order to OC this i'm going to need water cooling. I want to build my own rig to save money, so I desperatly need ideas on how to find or make a radiator, what to use for a resevior, and where to find a cheap pump that will work. If anyone can help me out on any of this I'd greatly appreciate it. (I REALLY REALLY want to be able to OC) :(

1) heater core from a chevette ($20)
2) mag 3 pump from petsmart. find a 10$ discount code somewhere. ($30)
3) maze2 waterblock from dangerden(can't skimp here.) ($42)
4) you don't need a res. ($0)
5) your hose and connections can be bought from home depot. ($15)

I think Id rather pay a little more for the radiator and get the one from Dtec.

Why? It performs at best marginally better then a strandard heatercore. The only reason to buy it is to avoid mixing metals and the ease of having the barbs soldered for you. If absolute low cost is the issue then a standard heatercore is the best way to go.

Also, if money's tight then why not just air cool? Its more then enough for TBird overclocking. What sink are you using now? Don't even tell me that you have retail. If you don't mind noise any of the Copper 7000RPM units will easily cool your rig for a few hundred extra MHz for about $30.

I have a heater core from a '87 chevette and it was a full copper unit that looks exactly like the D-Tek or Big Momma units (once you solder on barbs). I'm pretty sure all the later models came this way as I removed a half dozen to find the best looking one, and they where all the same and all copper.

Secondly you can't go cheap watercooled, if your just starting to overclock and your broke get a WBK38 heat sink or something cheap (theres probably better low priced units now). You should be able to overclock quite well if you select a good heat sink. I ran my 1.33g at up to 1600 and it was just at the 50 area full load (around 25 in room), fully stable. Check the other forums.

Otherwise Resago has a mint combo (mine :) ), I'd just be wary of Home Depot hose and get something like silicon that's more flexible (as stiff hose rocked my waterblock off, and I burn't a 1.33 before it got to Windows to check temps)

In another thread over at hardocp I did a description of costs for a full water- cooling system with pump and bong for about .... $35. For another few dollars you can even add a brass or copper vid-cooler. I will just copy this info over to this thread:

Read both my articles, they really are meant to be read together:

http://www.overclockers.com/tips494/waterblock3.gif

http://www.overclockers.com/tips494/

http://www.overclockers.com/tips464/

Check at different hardware stores and start pricing this stuff out. Home Depot is not always the best place

The water block is about $12, or less. I said less than $20 in the article, because I was including the cost of my 2 vid card water blocks which are about $2.50 each.

The copper cap for the waterblock is about $6.50 and the three copper hose connectors are about $.50 each. Rivets for fins add less than $1. Somebody should cut you a 2.5 x 3.5 inch peice of plexiglas for under $3. I think they charged me $2, which brings us up to $11

The bong is about $3 because you should be able to find a spare 5 gallaon bucket for free. I am asuming this guy already has a case fan, even a cheap generic one will do...the showerhead I used goes for $2-3

For the cheap pumps you could try this:
http://www.price1.com/aquaticpump/index.html

I would prefer a Danner. I found this in about 30 seconds, the 140 gph model is $19.99 at this link :
http://www.petsmart.com/products/product_770.shtml

I use the 190 gph model and it seems fine. I think it was $20 locally. Some of these big pumps are overkill. If you can increase the efficency of your shower head you can go with a less powerful pump.

I am sure you could find a better deal on a pump if you looked. I remember somebody posted some really good deals on slightly larger Danners for about $18.

I did not mention the hose, but its really cheap. I think I spent around $1 on mine. I think its about 25-35 cents a foot. Plan well and the cost should be minimal.

That seems to add up to around $35.


I just got an axia and have made some new vid-blocks. I will put it all together soon and post the results