Just thought I'd say hello and give everyone something to laugh at. I'm getting back into liquid cooling after a 4.5 year hiatus. I've dug up some pics of my very first water cooled rig, and then "rev. 2". Hope you all get a good chuckle...
This is from February 2000 so you can keep things in perspective.
Leak testing the loop...
550MHz Athlon. Took it to ~890MHz with this rig with some soldering and a GFD (remember those?)
Fluval external aquarium pump. Excellent flow, just a pain to keep the reservoir topped off.
Hayden 676 Trans Cooler in a shoe box. Stacked plate design worked very well, but as you'll see I didn't give it the optimal air flow. Surface area made up for that though.
80mm fans. Sad.
That's a BeCooling block in case you were wondering. Not much choice back then!
Full setup. I took out the 80's and put a 120 on the other side of the box, effectively using the whole thing as a plenum. Worked pretty good, but too much volume and not enough air pressure for optimal performance.
5 months later in July 2000, I took a 700MHz T-Bird to the magic 1GHz with this setup. Moved to a submersible pond pump in a 4"x4" electrical box and mounted a different (higher flow) transmission cooler on the back. Much, much cleaner!
This worked very well and I took it to LAN parties a few times with no leaks or mishaps. Later I realized that the stacked plate Hayden worked better, and I used two 120mm aluminum Panaflo L1A's to cover most of the surface. I rocked with that on through Socket 370 in 2001 and then hung it up and went back to air.
I have to say things have come a looooong way since then, even though the principles are the same. Glad to see there are lots of good parts out there to choose from. Now I just have to finish my new rig and show you guys those pics (managed to snag one of the last Swiftech Storms).
Have a Happy New Year!!!
Tom