[V12|V12]

I'm going to get to the point: I just woke up after having a dream of all things, about a new DIY-water-block design... it's still a little cloudy, but I'm still baffled about having a dream about water-block design (laughing)! Any how, after reading and much observation of members, (new & old) I've begun to notice that more and more people seem to either be buying milled blocks, have access to mills or have a mini-CNC station in their own garage!! That left me thinking, where have all the original "DIY'ers" gone? Seems like they are of a dinosaur breed... going extinct? There's been a couple folks that have popped up with some original and innovative ideas that came from the barest lump of copper and not-so-copper like materials, but they are a scattered lot. (I don't know if I speak for a minority of others out there with a severely LOW cooling budget, but filled with ideas, yet no CNC-type access, hell not even a drill-press) I would like to see more DIY blocks/projects! Though they do not yield the awe inspiring look and complexity of a CNC'd block, or even a manually milled block, these simple-to-make water blocks can (if made right and with some cooling homework done) compete nearly as well! For example there's a person going by the nick of "Hoot" and his "Pinned" block, which was made from an old and very low performing Socket-A class heatsink, was tested and yielded quiet amazing numbers, I believe it was around a low .11xx! Now if a home made block such as that, with some minimal tooling and material (believe me, look up "Hoots" block on google or overclockers.com) can achieve such fantastic results, then anyone can do it!!
As I mentioned previously; some of us out there do not even have the funds for a ragged drill-press (which can work wonders!) and just have bare hand tools. For us, making blocks is much more of a task, with such a limited assortment of tools, (of which can get pretty costly too) lets see some more crafty and unique folks out there posting their ideas (Pics too!)... I am a proud part of this group! My first block was a horrible attempt, which turned out to be a 1-1/2" PVC cap and some ULTRA-thin copper sheet, it had to be no more than .5mm "THICK?!" With a little goop, a hand drill, bits supposed to be for wood-working, and numerous trips to Home-Depot, I finally made my first block! Not a great performer, but it worked... Coupled with a HUGE Little-Giant pump I found in the physics scrap bin at OSU, this pump was at LEAST 800-1000GPH from only 3/8" outlet, you could see the vinyl tubing shrink from the inlet's suction! Lol! I moved up to finding some copper plates, and made blocks using a brazing torch and much use of the kitchen stove and sink, as there was nowhere else to heat and contain very HOT copper plates.

For example of how even a crappy DIY-block (search my posts for a pic lol!) can perform: I've got an XP1600 (AGOIA-Y Green) running around 1814Mhz, CPU-default Vcore @1.792v/181FSB etc. From my calculations it is putting out ~85.323W (35C-load-22.7C-amb /85.323W) yielding ~.1441 C/W idle and over the past 16hrs (2:58am-6:58pm) I've have yet (accounting for changes in night/day ambient increases and decreases) to see my max temp reach more than 38-39C. Doesn't sound like much compared to a CNC'd block, but considering my block only cost ~$10 to make, and about an 1hr of working, w/ breaks, that's not too bad? Heck even I laugh at the inner construction of it, now that I know even more than before about block design and fluid-dynamics (concerning heat dissipation). A nice drill press would surely make my block design exponentially better (okay not that much, but a lot), but finding one that's built relatively well and CHEAP is tough! Plus the added expense of milling bits, and a mini x/y-table... I'll be working in the garage with my hand tools as usual...

COME FORTH DIY'ERS AND REPRESENT YOURS!!!!

Good day, Go-BUCKS!