As posted on my case mod worklog on Pheaton.com, this is my prototype waterblock I've been working on.
I took a Thermaltake 1U skived copper heatsink and turned it into a waterblock. I figured the thin fins and straight thru design would give a good waterflow combined with good surface area - and it was cheap. $16 for the heatsink and I had everything else laying around the house. The fins have a rough texture to them due to the skiving process.
The original:
The Transformation:
I removed 5/8" of fins on each side, then the remaining copper was milled out by hand with a 1/8" carbide Dremel bit on a Drill press :shrug: The base is 1/10" - a bit on the thick side, but I had nothing to mill it any thinner with and I didn't want to spend days trying to lap it with coarser sandpaper
The plexi, well.. I had a bunch of 1/4" plexy laying around, and I didn't want to spend any more money on a prototype. It's 4 laminations of 1/4" plexiglass
I tweaked the hell out of it when tapping the pipe thread, and it held up with no stress cracks, etc...
It will have 2 1/2" hose x 1/4" NPT hose barbs on each side. Water will be split down one end, thru the fins and out the other end.
If I don't screw it up, I might actually sand down the sides & flame polish it for a final production piece. I have a 2nd heatsink that, if it fits, will be adapted into a GPU block. It's currently cooling my P4 1.6A @ 2.13Ghz until I slap this thing on it.
I've been planning this for a while. Someone else found this HS before I did and started a waterblock, but I don't know who(and haven't been able to find), so I can't give the props due.