Bring on the quiet

[Jimmah]

First off, I'm a toolmaking student so I have access (and permission) to use any machining tool I want, even an old Cincinatti 3 axis CNC mill (if they get it working again that is). I've built ghetto wc setups before using pvc and ebay'd blocks, worked ok but was loud-ish.

Idea is I wish to reduce fan noise by eliminating some excess fans. ATM I have 1 80mm fan for HDD's (It will probably be staying, its quiet enough as is), 1 80mm on the side (vibrates the panel, needs to go), 1 120mm exhaust, GPU fan, 80mm on CPU and 2 in the psu. Granted this isn't much really, I'm just anal like that.

Plan is, I want less fans than I started with, passive het radiating being my option. This is what I've bought from a local metal recycler:

Pics of starting materials

Note the long tube-looking thingy, I think thats one of those nylong holder thingys from banks for making isles and such. Anyways, here is a closeup:

Close Up

Measured approx 352 square inches if I use the 25" of it (cut in half for less flow restriction) with an approx 8.75mm ID. Should be enough to accomodate a 1/4" inlet if I drill/ream the inside diameter a tad.

For a reservoir I found this old cut piece looking rather lonely on a shelf:

Reservoir Close Up

Its thick enough that I could cut 1/8" x 1/16" grooves in it spaced 1/8" apart, I didn't do that math but it should add significant area to dissipate even more excess heat. I haven't picked a machine screw yet for it but I assume 8 of them per side would be enough to hold a 1/4" aluminum plate water tight (with silicone of course).

For a block, I found some aluminum in the garbage (seriously) at school, nabbed it and cleaned it up:

Block

Now this part I'm clueless with, its by no means large enough for one inlet/dual outlets, so I will need help on the design if all possible. Just needs about 3/16" in each corner for the screws. Holding it down could be done with sheet stainless (have lots of it) or something else thats pretty.


So, think it'll work? I still have to make someting for the fill port/coolant level indicator, will be aluminum (maybe round bar, also have lots to work with). I have a skt 754 sempron 2800 (at 2.25 ghz) and I will not be cooling the GPU with water. If y'all think I need more cooling thingies there is one more left, can grab it no problem.

Thanks for the input! I do appreciate it

 

[Jimmah]

Forgot to mention, everything will be external with the pump inside the giant round tube thing. Can be changed though, I'm not picky.

 

[Hauk]

Will you build me a girlfriend? She should enjoy sex all the time and never complain.

But seriously, looks like an interesting project you have going. Keep us posted...

 

[nealh]

just do not mix metals..many radiators are copper and an AL block would be a n real issue for corrison

ok..looks like you are using only one metal type ..good luck

 

[rhino56]

nowadays its pretty cheap to buy a block and parts compared to making your own. but a neat project that will be lots of fun and more rewarding then buying anyday.

 

[Jimmah]

Yeah I've seen some pretty affordable blocks out there, just not interested in building 90% and buying the most important part, I do appreciate the idea though.

I'm looking over the giant tube thing and thinking it may be a bit too large, gonna try to trade it for some 3" x 6" square tube at school, might be more asthetically pleasing and easier to work with.

So, if everyone had to choose, would you go with a submerged pump or external? Depending on what I end up with decides the size of the reservoir, so many opinions are always welcome.

Thanks for everyone reply thus far! I will have progress and pics on Tuesday, something will be machined (probably will cut the future main heat sink tube thing to length, face the ends and maybe tap if i have time).

EDIT: Forgot to mention, I'm having trouble picking out what kind of barbs I should use. I would LOVE compression fittings, preferrably some diagrams so I can make them real quick, otherwise some plain barbs would work.

 

[Jimmah]

And now for ze update:

Cut the tube thingy (I wish I knew what it was called) into 13" lengths:

Tubes taped together

I'm not sure if 13" x 2 is enough to cool even a plain sempron 2800, let alone my lightly overclocked one, may end up buying the rest of the tube from the recycler.

Milled the small block square, found some 1/4" plate and milled that with it (free is free, and a free top is super), need to go out tomorrow and pick up some socked head cap screws and a nice fine tap. Should make for a good northbridge block if I feel the need to put one in.

Pic of tubes and milled bits not so close up

Ditched the huge tube for now, its way too massive for an external reservoir, trying to trade the millwright at school for something else.

I'm stuck now though, need to figure out how to connect the tubes to some kind of manifold while keeping at least 1/4" ID (.215 would do, min I'd like to go though).

Anyone wanna help out with ideas? I'd really appreciate some thoughts, input is always welcome

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: Jimmah
And now for ze update:

Cut the tube thingy (I wish I knew what it was called) into 13" lengths:

Tubes taped together

I'm not sure if 13" x 2 is enough to cool even a plain sempron 2800, let alone my lightly overclocked one, may end up buying the rest of the tube from the recycler.

Milled the small block square, found some 1/4" plate and milled that with it (free is free, and a free top is super), need to go out tomorrow and pick up some socked head cap screws and a nice fine tap. Should make for a good northbridge block if I feel the need to put one in.

Pic of tubes and milled bits not so close up

Ditched the huge tube for now, its way too massive for an external reservoir, trying to trade the millwright at school for something else.

I'm stuck now though, need to figure out how to connect the tubes to some kind of manifold while keeping at least 1/4" ID (.215 would do, min I'd like to go though).

Anyone wanna help out with ideas? I'd really appreciate some thoughts, input is always welcome

oh shiet it looks like your building a innotek style passive radiator.
Just to let you know your not going to get super great cooling from this, but it will be hella quiet.

Heres how innotek did there design, it might help you out a bit.
Here

However i think you should take it to 1 more lvl and make a tower like this which is a heck of a lot cooler looking
Here again

Somethings you should be aware about is that it seems your using aluminum. That limits you on the blocks you can use in your loop. The new Zalman gold plated one is what i would recomend for your CPU, and the zalman aluminum GPU block for the GPU.

As i said your not going to get awesome cooling off this because ur basically having the liquid sit inside a cup thats being cooled. A thin piped force induction radiators are usually the best choice, but if overclocking isnt your peeve and silence is, i dont see how you could get quieter on = cooling level.

 

[Howard]

Galvanic corrosion can easily be made a non-issue with some zinc. I'm sure the OP can get some.

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: Howard
Galvanic corrosion can easily be made a non-issue with some zinc. I'm sure the OP can get some.

howard i dont think anything can ever not scare me from ever mixing metals after seeing what it can do on a zalman reserator. :X

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: aigomorla

Originally posted by: Howard
Galvanic corrosion can easily be made a non-issue with some zinc. I'm sure the OP can get some.

howard i dont think anything can ever not scare me from ever mixing metals after seeing what it can do on a zalman reserator. :X

k

 

[Jimmah]

Originally posted by: aigomorla

oh shiet it looks like your building a innotek style passive radiator.
Just to let you know your not going to get super great cooling from this, but it will be hella quiet.

Heres how innotek did there design, it might help you out a bit.
Here

However i think you should take it to 1 more lvl and make a tower like this which is a heck of a lot cooler looking
Here again

Somethings you should be aware about is that it seems your using aluminum. That limits you on the blocks you can use in your loop. The new Zalman gold plated one is what i would recomend for your CPU, and the zalman aluminum GPU block for the GPU.

As i said your not going to get awesome cooling off this because ur basically having the liquid sit inside a cup thats being cooled. A thin piped force induction radiators are usually the best choice, but if overclocking isnt your peeve and silence is, i dont see how you could get quieter on = cooling level.[/quote]

Wow those look fantastic! I'd like to keep with the first links look, mounted to the side of the case and such, maybe on a diagonal just to be different.

About the cpu block: I'm in the process of going back to the recyclers for more material, used up my last bit making the northbridge block.

Think 1/4" is enough? Read so much about 3/8" being the minimum for most, passive cooling seems to be on the wayside, not enough hard data. Could almost get away with .200 dia. with a decent enough pump.

Thanks for the replies and ideas! So much to ponder, so little material....

 

[Jimmah]

New update, sorry it took so long:

Decided to use the previous small 1.8 x 1.4 x .75 chunk of aluminum as a northbridge block instead of cpu block, went looking and found this on the floor of our cnc shop, played around with it and came up with this:

Ghetto-milled .375 x 2 x 3 plate

Just winged it for testing, dunno how pleased I am with it though.

Found some more scrap and made the top for the block:

Drilled top

Thats a pic of the underside, both the plate and top have been smoothed for better flow, wanted a restrictive type block, dunno how well this one would do may end up getting another plate to make the channels longer, wider and deeper.

Top and Bottom

Also quickly made the northbridge block, just a simple cross-drilled setup:

NB Pic 1
NB Pic 2


Simple stuff, haven't had much free time to do my own things, should have some more things finished by next Thursday.

What'chya all think about the cpu block? Would you leave it as is or change it somehow? Also, am not sure but brass reacts with aluminum similar to copper yes? If so then I get to make my own aluminum fittings, if no I will use brass.

 

[Jimmah]

Finally an update:

I'm lazy, so doculenting this has been poor at best, anyways on to the pics.

Mounting for reservoir, new case feet, NB block

CPU block and mounting clamp, distribution block, HDD block

4 cooling tubes, reservoir

Mounting tabs on case

The lot of machined aluminum


As you can see, I'm almost done! Still need to sand the stuff a bit, some leftover epoxy on some things. Waiting on a 1/4 npt tap I won on Ebay for 5$ and the pump (from a member here) and if I need to make an enclosure for the pump. So really, not much left to build, then onto assembly and completion!

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: SteelSix
Will you build me a girlfriend? She should enjoy sex all the time and never complain.

But seriously, looks like an interesting project you have going. Keep us posted...

If we are dreaming how about a nymphomaniac whose father owns a liquor and wine distributorship.

 

[aigomorla]

Jimmah, just a quick question. I was wondering if it was at all possible for you to construct those passive reserviors out of copper? I kinda want to attempt a project thats on passive, but everyone uses aluminum. And how much would it cost to construct something of that nature as well.

 

[Jimmah]

Originally posted by: aigomorla
Jimmah, just a quick question. I was wondering if it was at all possible for you to construct those passive reserviors out of copper? I kinda want to attempt a project thats on passive, but everyone uses aluminum. And how much would it cost to construct something of that nature as well.

I found these tube things at a local recyclers, could machine one if you had the needed machines and tools other than that I don't know where you could get one from copper. Blocks and other parts would be simple to make from copper. Brass is another option, stronger than copper and looks much nicer. For cost you would be looking at the cost per pound for the copper plus machine time, I don't have exact numbers since prices vary, sorry.

 

[CurseTheSky]

That's a lot of metal.

Looks like a fun project though. Are you worried at all that your waterblock and HDD block are a bit big? They look huge in the pictures (thickness wise, etc.) Any chance you could take a picture of them next to a common object, maybe a quater, AND a computer mouse?

The cooling tubes look awesome. I hope it all works out for you.

 

[Jimmah]

Originally posted by: CurseTheSky
That's a lot of metal.

Looks like a fun project though. Are you worried at all that your waterblock and HDD block are a bit big? They look huge in the pictures (thickness wise, etc.) Any chance you could take a picture of them next to a common object, maybe a quater, AND a computer mouse?

The cooling tubes look awesome. I hope it all works out for you.

Ok I didn't have a quarter, did have two dimes and a nickle though

HDD and CPU block

The HDD block I think may be too small for the drives (using 2 80gb WD sata drives in RAID 0), so might end up just mounting it someplace to help remove more heat.

Ordered fittings today! 3x 1/4 npt 1/2 dia 90 degree and 5x 1/4 npt 1/2 dia straight poly from d-tek, hopefully if all goes well it should be running within a week or two! *excited*

 

[Jimmah]

Update:

Ok took the comp apart for some mild test fitting, cpu block fits great! NB block is another story, my x800 xt pe just barely clears the holddown I made, and the block is a bit on the wide side so it'll have to be cocked a bit to enable use of the stock holes. Cooling tubes are mounted!


Tubes mounted to side of case


The fit better than i could have hoped

More updates tomorrow, its my week off so I can devote lots of time to this.

 

[Jimmah]

Almost finished! Just need the fittings from d-tek (should be here by Wednesday at the latest) and to tap the holes, assembly and filling. Really looking forward to removing some fans, and just seeing it in action!

Mostly assembled

Looks better than I had hoped, onlyh problem is its a serious pain getting the side panel off now, kinda wishing I had used the other side, oh well.

 

[Jimmah]

Its finished!

Up and running

Idles at a cool 30c, playing Farcry and EvE it doesn't go past 36c. Slight hum coming from it, needs some more padding but otherwise its working better than expected. What a ah heck to fill though, ugh took about 2 hours to figure out how to do it right. Board temps increased by 1 degree on average, video card dropped even with slower fan speeds.

I'm extremely satisfied how things turned out, flow levels are nice and high, and its fun to feel the reservoir while the cpu is loading, you can feel it getting hotter

More pics to come when I'm not super lazy

 

[Jimmah]

Last Update:

So its been running for about a week now, no problems except for a small leak in one of the outside fittings (less than a drop every 5 mins or so), thats all fixed up now though. Loaded temps haven't gone past 37c loaded for 5 hours with ambient at approx. 22c and overclocked to 2.4 ghz (stock vcore), idle stays at 30c. Noticed something interesting, as soon as its loaded it jumps to 35c and creeps up to 37c very slowly, soon as the load is removed it drops to 34c and creeps back down to 30c, must be from the passive aspect I think.

Pics:

Shot of the back, distribution and return fitings and the 'T' fitting for bleeding

Side view with all tubes and reservoir

Shot of the reservoir and upper tubes

Also, the door latch has been broken forever on my case, got fed up and glued a maget into the old lock, pulled the locking mechanism out and replaced it with a steel button i made from scrap.

Shot of the magnet and steel button


Thanks for looking! I really had a good time making this project, will definitly be adding more blocks and heat dissipation surfaces this summer, I think I have the homebrew bug

 

[tylerdustin2008]

That looks f***ing amazing!!!

Nice work

 

[Neurodog]

WoW, look awesome.