My bong and nearly entirely liquid-cooled PC
 

Okay ... this is going to be a long post, but I'm first going to recommend you to check out my nearly-up-to-date website: www.gotkarma.net/comp/

It has pictures up to my latest bong changes ... but not assembled and running.

Next ... some pictures:

Old bong setup, old motherboard, and only cooling the processor at that point ... but you get the idea.
http://www.gotkarma.net/comp/images/...0-%20setup.jpg

the window
http://www.gotkarma.net/comp/images/...thoutflash.jpg

when I first added the radeon block:
http://www.gotkarma.net/comp/images/...adeonblock.jpg

revised, cleaner setup:
http://www.gotkarma.net/comp/images/...ngeinsetup.jpg

the bong now:
http://www.gotkarma.net/comp/images/...20-%20bong.jpg

the showerhead is mounted inside the bong ... jbwelded by the hose barb.
http://www.gotkarma.net/comp/images/...ewmounting.jpg

the blue stuff up top catches small water particles so I don't end up with little specs everywhere. works very well, doesn't really restrict airflow too much. its an aquarium filter. I also use the same stuff inside the bong to filter water at the outlet.
http://www.gotkarma.net/comp/images/...peckfilter.jpg

interlude ... wheeee, bong tips over floods room. The added length on the top of the bong was too much for my "just-right" hose length for my old setup .... pulled it down one day while I was at work. hooray, hardwood is pushing up :rolleyes: MAH!
http://www.gotkarma.net/comp/images/IMG_1390.jpg

northrbridge block:
http://www.gotkarma.net/comp/images/IMG_1399.jpg

everything together:
http://www.gotkarma.net/comp/images/IMG_1400.jpg

plastic clamps are there to prevent kinking.
http://www.gotkarma.net/comp/images/IMG_1401.jpg

using original mounting place ... no epoxy.
http://www.gotkarma.net/comp/images/IMG_1403.jpg

currently, I just wanna see it post .. and it did, so I'm happy. electronics weren't fried, just the floor when the bong tipped, LOL. Changed motherboards too from IC7 to IS7 .... but the IC7 was fine.
http://www.gotkarma.net/comp/images/IMG_1406.jpg

okay ... time for some interesting facts ...

motherboard temp probes are wrong, but if they were right, I'd be doing load at 38C ... but considering system is reading 35C, there is something wrong ;-) I'll have external probes set up later. Right now I'm busy with other stuff.

Eheim 1060 serves me well ... but I plan to move to an iwaki pump with better flowrates when more pressure and height is added to the system. Any recommendations on models and where I should buy it? I'm so fuddlebrained right now I always forget the advice I've been given before on those pumps. The model numbers confuse me too much :D All I know right now is that WMD = bad, MD = good :)

The northrbridge is something I'm proud of. I removed the fan and heatsink ... took the circular mounting setup, dremeled the inside out so it'd fit around the waterblock, used a carbide tip on my dremel to cut holes in it, and then cranked it to the block. This way I'm not forced to use epoxy, since these new abit boards lack the 2-hold mounting mechanism that this relies on. It works very well ... and I have a SHITLOAD of pressure on it ... so much I was afraid I might crack the core. The pictures you see are ones where I was experimenting with mounting pressure ... anything less than full pressure (you see, its kinda space off a bit in the pics, I later found that to be too lose) worried me about bending, improper contact, jostling, etc.

One of the hoses right before the Y off of the CPU (the bottom one) is a bit shorter than the one above it ... which gives me a more forgiving angle for moving it to the graphics processor. I found CPU -> northbridge -> videocard might have been neater, but had too many tight bends. Temperatures aren't a worry with my bong cooling, really. I chose to watercool the northrbridge because its louder than all of my other fans that run at 7v .... damn annoying little thing, and I was to worried about it overheating if I undervolted it.

The bong will hopefully soon be painted. Maybe I'll have time tomorrow ... who knows. I'm bringing the entire unit to Kentucky (I live in PA! 11 hour drive!) for MillionManLan ... if some of you guys are going, say hello!)

All feedback is greatly appreciated. I will answer whatever questions you guys have, and if you have any ideas on how I could make this better, let me know! :)

Looks like a good setup. What's your water temperature?

If anything, I think you have some serious issues with hoses tigging on various blocks, which may make them sit improperly, and affect performance. You might consider bending some copper tubing, and coupling them in with short sections of hose, and clamps. Read pHaestus' article.

This is my first time on this website and forums ... so I'm unfamiliar with the article you're talking about ....

As for the improper seating, I know what you mean. The processor is okay because there is tons of mounting pressure (the pics you see right now I don't even have it fully mounted, just glamour shots) and there is nothing really pulling it considerably one way or the other. The GPU waterblock is epoxied on, so thats fine ... and my only real worry is the northbridge waterblock ... but I have such incredible pressure on there it might not even be an issue either.

By pressure, I had to strain and have someone hold the case to prevent it from tipping while I stuck it on ... despite my best efforts not to ask for help ;-)

I'm still looking into the northbridge waterblock and will wait to see results from the system temperature probe before I make any other decisions to move to copper tubing etc. My problem with that is I'm a tinkerer ... and constantly changing things. Using copper tubing, although hardy, and very unlikely to cause strain on any components due to bending etc, I still worry about not being able to make the changes that I want on short notice.

In the 6 foot evap tower I built a couple years ago I used a danner supreme mag drive 5 (500gph). The flow at 6ft came out smoothly and kept my proc 0-1c over case temp. With the impellar mod the pump ran silent. It got pretty warm but never hot enough to the point where I couldn't hold it in my hand. The stronger models are fairly inexpensive and have good flow rate at high lifts. Here's a link to a lift graph for various models.

Hmm, not sure if I'll get any better results with a Mag 5 than I would with my 600gph eheim 1060 ... the problem is the flow rate drops off considerably when a fair amount of head is added to the system, with bongs such.

I mean ... the water flows fine, just not nearly as fast as I'd like to see it go. Having a 5' bong combined with 1 heavily restrictive waterblocks, a bunch of bends, and two other waterblocks is hell on any pump.

The iwakis though, depending on the model, can handle an insane amount of backpressure.

That has got to be the weirdest RAM I have seen.

Incidentally I don't like the tubing layout there had got to be a better way of doing it... the Northbridge is allways just the wrong place.

Nice work.

Very nice work Got KarmA? I realy like it ;)

I just got my bong set up going that i made about a month ago ...Been running it for 2 days now :)


Heres a few pics Bong


Nothing fancy but been realy happy with temps so far
I play games for a few hours and my room temp is at 25 C water temp at 21 C cpu has never gone above 32 C all temps taken with an external probe digidoc 5

Bong is only 35" from the bottom of the box to the top of the lid :)
And is almost completly silence ....Only noise i get is from the 2 slot fans and thats not much :)

I,m using a eheim 1048 pump a swiftech mcw372 v2 with 3/8 OD tubing ..I have another swiftech 372 v2 block that i made to fit my GF4 ti 4600 card that i havnt mounted yet :)


PS : Lets us know what kinda temps you geting would love to know :)


oops i,m running an Athlon XP2100+ polo core @ 2ghz :)

I noticed you managed to get a dtek northbridge block atached using the regular HSF mounting clip from the IC7. How easy was that to do, since I've just picked up an IC7 and it's been puzzling me.

8-ball

PS, nice rig.

Heh, I was rather proud of that myself. I just took a dremel with a grinding bit (sanding drum will work too) and took some material out of the inside so it would fit around the waterblock ... then took a tungston carbide drilling tip and cut the holes on either side so I could affix it to the waterblock. It works very well ... you have to be careful with the cutting of holes though ...

1) I broke one of my nice tips.... it was a very small one, drilled great, but just was too small and broke after I got it in. Perhaps I just wasn't steady enough.
2) If you use a fatter tip thats already the size of the hole you want to make, it'll be a bit tougher. You'll probably want someone to hold the object for you (you can't really do much with it on a vice, but I guess you could try using some other clamps) and then spend a lot of time stabilizing the portion of the dremel closest to the object. Otherwise it flies in every which direction.

Very hard metal... was a real pain in the butt :mad:

Here's the article in question:
http://www.procooling.com/articles/h...s_with_h2o.php

So what's your water temp again?

I'll give temps when I've got it up and running. right now its in my basement and I don't really have it running ... I've got so much other stuff to do in my life right now :-\

women are the devil ... remember that boys.

another alternative is the way i did it, two 3mm bolts through the loops with a nut on either end, cable ties + a dden z block.. think u can guess the rest, works a treat. oh, and cos i'm a fearty and already killed two boards cos of shorting out with the nb block, some nice insulator material on the base of the block where its not in contact with the die wouldn't hurt.

Would give u a pic, but my PSU just blew up (q-tec's suck btw) and took the motherboard with it, so no IC7 for me atm :(

buy an antec true power ... good stuff ... much cheaper than the PC Power and Cooling, and nearly the same quality.

mm, just picked up an enermax.. already got it eyed up for putting my psu block back into action ;], looks like a great candidate for it :)

just watch for that tho budget buyers, make sure your psu has a decent 12v line on it.. 16A (q-tec 550!) just doesn't cut it nymore :(

I had an enermax ... not fond of them at all. Rails dipped way too low. Antec >>>> Enermax.

who in the world runs Mavic Sup's anymore!$%@#%@#% lol anyway..


The setup looks pretty good , but 1/2 ID to the videocard is a bit Overkill no? --Josh

I smell bacon...canadian bacon

:)

LOL thats me :)

I just got banned at the [H], if thats where you know me from. Sent kyle an email just recently.

Welcome to the club ;)

Thanks again for reminding me why I didn't go for a bong setup :) Your tubing looks very, very tight. I'm running with Tygon R-3603 which, by all accounts is comparable with ClearFlex60 and I know how much pressure Tygon can put on the GPU block and gfx board - I imagine what you're doing is going to unseat the GPU block or put an alarming amoun of stress on the gfx board silicon.

Still, that bong looks awesome ;) Great work and that Geil RAM looks superb!

Probably trying to keep flow restriction to a minimum - besides, since when did a concept such as "overkill" ever exist in cooling?

it existed , in the fact that your gfx card's water is coming from the out of the cpu , which is more than likely close to ambient , your gfx card isn't going to get below ambient , so the need for 1/2 to the gfx is like omfg nice work though --Josh