My Bathtub Water Cooling System Project for Audio System

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Ketchup

Elite Member
Sep 1, 2002
14,553
248
106
When I was running stock air cooler on the X1950xtx card the RAMsinks were burning hot. It literally burned my fingers. But with this bathtub cooling, the RAMsinks are mild to the touch, just a few degrees hotter than the ambient. It's amazing. For bathtub reservoir, the use of radiator is unnecessary. For replacing the bathtub reservoir with something small, like the size of water bucket, the radiator would be needed.
cheez

That makes sense. The heat from the chip would flow to the entire PCB, exaggerating the heat output of those chips. Added to that you are using an entire bath tub, that water would take forever to heat up.

We don't understand why you are running such an old chips (I know you have stated the visual quality difference) but your setup would definitely keep it cool.
 

sushiwarrior

Senior member
Mar 17, 2010
738
0
71
How much better is the video quality? Did the dihydrogen monoxide absorb some of the oscillating pragmatic rays and focus the images better for a slightly more oak-flavoured, wider-angle picture? If not, you may need to address any kinks in your cables. 90 degree bends tend to bottleneck the pixels, could be issues with the PCB too. Try placing the card in the oven at 225C for several hours to allow for more pliable PCB traces, and then use a toothpick to rearrange the traces in a more organic manner. This should give a much more flavorful and dynamic image.
 

smackababy

Lifer
Oct 30, 2008
27,024
79
86
I think his current card has a red PCB, which is of the highest quality. He would have to find a black PCB card to even come close, but most blue PCBs are what is around today. And we all know how those suffer in quality.
 

sushiwarrior

Senior member
Mar 17, 2010
738
0
71
I think his current card has a red PCB, which is of the highest quality. He would have to find a black PCB card to even come close, but most blue PCBs are what is around today. And we all know how those suffer in quality.

Well ideally you would take a multi-layer PCB of RGB colours, to synthesize with the frequency of the oscillator engine in the GPU. You also want full-spectrum copper, which has been treated with an ionized titanium-oxide process, to fully bring forth the depth and clarity of the picture. Frankly, I am very worried that OP is not buying a video card from my company, WaterfallVisuals LTD. We do all of our manufacturing from underneath a volcano, where all of our products are bathed in the positive ions from the magma flow. We use all natural magma and lava to do all of our soldering and smelting. Only the finest metals, flown in from around the world via messenger pigeons, are used in our processes. We use a single pixel output to truly express the natural image and expression of visual media. You can even buy some of our products for less than the price of most large suburban homes! They provide excellent value and unsurpassed quality, with more pixel response and color harmony than anything seen before. You will never see an image so refined, airy, and with as much punch. Give us a call, OP.
 

Fallen Kell

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
6,100
467
126
Out of curiosity, why are you so adamant to keep the video card? You could easily buy a passive card if you aren't planning on gaming, and then there's no worry. Heck, you could go the route that I did for my HTPC that's in my bedroom (I'm very picky about noise in the room where I sleep) and purchase a fully-passive Streacom case. They are not cheap, but they are 100% dead silent.

You can easily buy a passive card even if you are planning on gaming since he would be gaming at 1080p (something which isn't really that stressful for current games and hardware). A Powercolor HD7850 SCS3 will play just about anything at 1080p without problems.
 
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Smoblikat

Diamond Member
Nov 19, 2011
5,184
107
106
Well ideally you would take a multi-layer PCB of RGB colours, to synthesize with the frequency of the oscillator engine in the GPU. You also want full-spectrum copper, which has been treated with an ionized titanium-oxide process, to fully bring forth the depth and clarity of the picture. Frankly, I am very worried that OP is not buying a video card from my company, WaterfallVisuals LTD. We do all of our manufacturing from underneath a volcano, where all of our products are bathed in the positive ions from the magma flow. We use all natural magma and lava to do all of our soldering and smelting. Only the finest metals, flown in from around the world via messenger pigeons, are used in our processes. We use a single pixel output to truly express the natural image and expression of visual media. You can even buy some of our products for less than the price of most large suburban homes! They provide excellent value and unsurpassed quality, with more pixel response and color harmony than anything seen before. You will never see an image so refined, airy, and with as much punch. Give us a call, OP.

I think you are overlooking a very critical part of digital outputs, and even pixels in general. Pixels are, by nature, very aggressive creatures. They tend to group together in "racially" oriented cults of red, green, and blue. What really needs to happen is not only a multi-layer oxide-infused PCB of those three colors, but each layer needs to have its own color processing unit, which will then feed all of its information to the main GPU to provide an unbiased opinion on where the pixels should go on the screen. After that, unless you have a screen with 100% Colombian lead encircling each pixel to prevent it from warring with other colored pixels, you can pretty much kiss any color quality good bye. This is where most people fall short, sure they have a multiple layered rainbow graphics card with at least 4 processors that were machined under a volcano with pure ingredients flown in by pigeons, but they fail to get a monitor capable of handling that kind of raw engineering. Thats why, at my company, we take a typical 23" 1080P monitor and turn it into a lead infused 50" 768P monster....or as we colloquially call it down in the labs a "monstitor". Each pixel has a thick coating of lead surrounding it, which prevents it from warring with other pixel factions. I seriously think that is why OP is having such a hard time finding a card with equal or greater picture quality, he just doesnt have enough lead in his diet.
 

cheez

Golden Member
Nov 19, 2010
1,722
69
91
Guys, here is an UPDATE:


Some things I have found out from my bathtub watercooling project.

- The water in the bathtub (45 gallons of water est.) stays in cool/cold temperature to the touch after running my system for over 3 weeks straight 24/7. This consists of 80% music listening and 20% video playback. I tried dumping a bucket of ice to the tub. It got a little colder but after a few hours it has returned back to previous water temperature. Hmmm... so I tried not adding ice for a couple of weeks. The water still remained same temperature as before. In other words, no matter what I did to it the temperature of the water stayed the same. The water in the tub has been COOLING ITSELF. This is interesting. You don't need a fan for this. You can go on forever.

- Video card GPU temperature stayed at 32~ 33C consistently. And the RAMsinks were mild to the touch, I could even barely feel heat. What this is telling is that cooling the GPU chip has direct impact on the temperature of the RAM chips and the rest of components on the card. There is absolutely no fan in my system. Nothing is blowing air toward the video card or my motherboard. The wine storage cabinet is also closed so there is less air circulation in the system. But the temperature of the ram chips are surprisingly mild, barely warm to the touch. My guess was right, since I had done phase change cooling my video cards in the long past, never needed to cool the memory chips as they were already cold to the touch, and was able to overclock the memory to a level that was not possible with all air HS/F cooling.

- I am surprised how my 10+ year old MaxiJet 1200 pump is able to handle 80 feet of loop to cool my CPU and GPU. The pump is rated at 295 gph but I know it's worn out and lost some pumping power due to such stress.

- Water in the tub after using 3+ weeks didn't get dirty as I thought it would. Upon checking my water there isn't much of debris (hair / dust). And the debris stays a float. The pump is located at the bottom of the tub. I checked the water lines in the loop and they look good so far. I haven't even flushed out the tub yet by replacing with fresh water.

- Because my open loop is keeping my CPU to low temperatures I am able to run the CPU at 1.07V stable. Memory is running at 1.8V. All the rest of system voltages are at the lowest settings.



This bathtub cooling really works based on my testing. I am happy with this. Unfortunately I am / will be broke for the next several years there is a very small chance I will get myself a deep freezer. I just got my money reserved on a $14000 power cable I won't have any extra money left to buy anything else other than food and mortgage / utility / credit card bills... I will stop watering my grass and flowers. The water bills are no joke.

Once I get the deep freezer I will switch over from bathtub to the freezer as a reservoir. Don't think this will happen this year. Maybe next year when I get some tax refund.....


I am not gonna even bother responding to that Yamtomato or whatever the heck his name is... as he is purely trolling in my thread. ;)



How much better is the video quality? Did the dihydrogen monoxide absorb some of the oscillating pragmatic rays and focus the images better for a slightly more oak-flavoured, wider-angle picture? If not, you may need to address any kinks in your cables. 90 degree bends tend to bottleneck the pixels, could be issues with the PCB too. Try placing the card in the oven at 225C for several hours to allow for more pliable PCB traces, and then use a toothpick to rearrange the traces in a more organic manner. This should give a much more flavorful and dynamic image.
The video calibration setting in ATi Control center seems to be more accurate with my card with WinXP or Server 2003. I never had good result with the calibration with newer ATi cards (HD6000 series).

Also this old card works perfectly with DirectX 9 with old catalyst driver and Windows Server 2003. They mate perfectly for my russian designed video playback software (it's expensive, not a freebee's you guys use). The software version is old too, which I must have, as this works best for video playback performance and quality.

The video is also transparent, more punchy and realistic. The colors are more natural. The flesh tones are accurate and more realistic. Video playback speed is phenomenal. The video was encoded at 30 fps but the playback feels like a 120 fps. It's ultra rock solid / smooth. There is no image blur in fast motion. Also the video and voice is totally synced. Not that I am saying this card does it, but works best with my playback software.

Anyways, to answer your question, no there are no cables that are bent 90 degrees. All my cables are nicely managed. I use a good quality DVI-D cable for video.


I think his current card has a red PCB, which is of the highest quality. He would have to find a black PCB card to even come close, but most blue PCBs are what is around today. And we all know how those suffer in quality.
Thank you for the input. It is appreciated. :)

Successful troll thread is amazingly successful. Three thumbs up, would read never again.
I am not a troll. Good to know that you gave me three thumbs up, but calling me troll is uncalled for. My cooling is serious and I received a good result with it. I am still amazed how my little water pump is able to handle this long distance loop.


cheez
 
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Smoblikat

Diamond Member
Nov 19, 2011
5,184
107
106
Guys, here is an UPDATE:


Some things I have found out from my bathtub watercooling project.

- The water in the bathtub (45 gallons of water est.) stays in cool/cold temperature to the touch after running my system for over 3 weeks straight 24/7. This consists of 80% music listening and 20% video playback. I tried dumping a bucket of ice to the tub. It got a little colder but after a few hours it has returned back to previous water temperature. Hmmm... so I tried not adding ice for a couple of weeks. The water still remained same temperature as before. In other words, no matter what I did to it the temperature of the water stayed the same. The water in the tub has been COOLING ITSELF. This is interesting. You don't need a fan for this. You can go on forever.

- Video card GPU temperature stayed at 32~ 33C consistently. And the RAMsinks were mild to the touch, I could even barely feel heat. What this is telling is that cooling the GPU chip has direct impact on the temperature of the RAM chips and the rest of components on the card. There is absolutely no fan in my system. Nothing is blowing air toward the video card or my motherboard. The wine storage cabinet is also closed so there is less air circulation in the system. But the temperature of the ram chips are surprisingly mild, barely warm to the touch. My guess was right, since I had done phase change cooling my video cards in the long past, never needed to cool the memory chips as they were already cold to the touch, and was able to overclock the memory to a level that was not possible with all air HS/F cooling.

- I am surprised how my 10+ year old MaxiJet 1200 pump is able to handle 80 feet of loop to cool my CPU and GPU. The pump is rated at 295 gph but I know it's worn out and lost some pumping power due to such stress.

- Water in the tub after using 3+ weeks didn't get dirty as I thought it would. Upon checking my water there isn't much of debris (hair / dust). And the debris stays a float. The pump is located at the bottom of the tub. I checked the water lines in the loop and they look good so far. I haven't even flushed out the tub yet by replacing with fresh water.

- Because my open loop is keeping my CPU to low temperatures I am able to run the CPU at 1.07V stable. Memory is running at 1.8V. All the rest of system voltages are at the lowest settings.



This bathtub cooling really works based on my testing. I am happy with this. Unfortunately I am / will be broke for the next several years there is a very small chance I will get myself a deep freezer. I just got my money reserved on a $14000 power cable I won't have any extra money left to buy anything else other than food and mortgage / utility / credit card bills...

Once I get the deep freezer I will switch over from bathtub to the freezer as a reservoir. Don't think this will happen this year. Maybe next year when I get some tax refund.....


I am not gonna even bother responding to that Yamtomato or whatever the heck his name is... as he is purely trolling in my thread. ;)




The video calibration setting in ATi Control center seems to be more accurate with my card with WinXP or Server 2003. I never had good result with the calibration with newer ATi cards (HD6000 series).

Also this old card works perfectly with DirectX 9 with old catalyst driver and Windows Server 2003. They mate perfectly for my russian designed video playback software (it's expensive, not a freebee's you guys use). The software version is old too, which I must have, as this works best for video playback performance and quality.

The video is also transparent, more punchy and realistic. The colors are more natural too. Video playback speed is phenomenal. The video was encoded at 30 fps but the playback feels like a 120 fps. It's ultra rock solid / smooth. There is no image blur in fast motion. Also the video and voice is totally synced. Not that I am saying this card does it, but works best with my playback software.

Anyways, to answer your question, no there are no cables that are bent 90 degrees. All my cables are nicely managed. I use a good quality DVI-D cable for video.



Thank you for the input. It is appreciated. :)


I am not a troll. Good to know that you gave me three thumbs up, but calling me troll is uncalled for. My cooling is serious and I received a good result with it. I am still amazed how my little water pump is able to handle this long distance loop.


cheez

What happens when your pump fails when you are at work and your system melts?
 

cheez

Golden Member
Nov 19, 2010
1,722
69
91
What happens when your pump fails when you are at work and your system melts?
Good question. Well the system has overheating protection so the motherboard will shut down itself when the CPU temp reaches certain temperature.


cheez
 

jaedaliu

Platinum Member
Feb 25, 2005
2,670
1
81
So, this doesn't contribute to the topic, but I have to say it. Cheez's ideas are exciting and fun. He does crazy stuff we wouldn't do, and it's pretty interesting.

The problem that I have, is that he talks about how much money he's spending on his power cords and how great they are and how little money he has to spend on other stuff because of it.

It's great that he's being fiscally responsible by defining where he spends his money, and doesn't spend more than he can afford. However, I completely disagree with his budget decisions, and it annoys me to read about them. If he just left the bits about being broke and the $$$ spent on power cables out, the thread would improve by 10000x.
 

cheez

Golden Member
Nov 19, 2010
1,722
69
91
Let me see if I got this right:
OP spends thousands on power cables
I spent tens of thousands not just thousands.

then won't spend a few hundred on a proper cooling setup.
Power cable is the first priority, for me that is. And what do you mean by "proper cooling setup"? Closed loop watercooling kit? Anybody can / does that, and is too norm. Just like average Joe buying cars like a Civic or Corolla. I don't post normal boring stuff on internet. I would take that time and do something else with it.

OP spends thousands on power cables, then uses an old, obsolete, consumer graphics card for video rather than a Quadro or FirePro.
X1950XTX is a very nice card. It gives exactly what I want. I don't mind the Quadro or FirePro, but I think they were more expensive I think.. I didn't have more money to spend at the time so X1950XTX it is.

OP spends thousands on power cables, then uses RCA cables to hook up his PC to his sound system.
RCA is a very good source of interconnect. These are single ended RCA cables not your typical R/L Composite cables. RCA's can easily outperform the digital cables depending on what the rest of your spec is. We really can't talk about cables here though. Mods asked me not to talk about it. Don't go OT. ;)


OP spends thousands on power cables, then, well, that really sums it up, I think...
I recently ordered a $40k power cable. It's not done building. He needs another 3 weeks at least. I also have another one ordered for the RCA cables. As you can see, my money is already reserved for all these, hence I have no money left to buy anything else except for food, gas, and utility bills. I have two cars, one very expensive and one cheap econo car. I'll have to keep driving my econo car to work to save gas. Don't have money to pay for gas on my premium ride.

You keep bringing up about audio cables. I am not the one talking about it. I was talking about my watercooling system and I can't buy more stuff for my watercooling because I spent all on cables. I am not talking about cables specifically. Please keep on topic.


As for my bathtub watercooling, it's been over a month and I am shocked to see that it hasn't collected much debris at the top surface of the water in the bathtub. I checked the water lines in the loop and they seem clean. I haven't flushed the tub yet. Maybe I'll do it next month oh well. I need something like sifter / strainer from kitchen utensils or something to collect debris on the top surface of water in the tub. Then this could be my permanent watercooling solution.

800px-Passoire-chinois.JPG



I just don't have money for a deep freezer as all my money is reserved on power cables. :\


cheez
 
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aigomorla

CPU, Cases&Cooling Mod PC Gaming Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 28, 2005
20,894
3,247
126
OK u guys who have nothing productive to say, STOP.
I have deleted all the nonsense posts.

I will give u guys a Soft Warning, but if i need to Waterjet you guys out of this thread so be it.

THIS WILL BE MY FINAL WARNING
If you have nothing productive to say, don't say anything or I WILL TOS YOU OUT.

Case and Cooling Moderator
Aigomorla
 

cheez

Golden Member
Nov 19, 2010
1,722
69
91
:oops:

Yesterday I was taking a dump in my bathroom and the waterpump in the tub right beside me stopped running all the sudden. :eek:

I said awwwww s#@!! What will I do now?? Without the pump I can't use my computer at all!!!!! I have no backup pump. :( I went to my living room to shut down my PC. Came back to the tub and I hear the pump running now! After a little bit it stopped pumping again. I was like hmmmmm.... is it not getting power from the wall outlet? I unplugged and plugged the cord to the next outlet. Same thing, the pump stopped after several minutes. There's a pattern where it pumps for several minutes and then stops for about a minute, or maybe less.

Upon close inspection there are three cracks on the seal on the backside of the pump. And it is burning hot to the touch. Looks like it's overheating too. My logic tells me this can't be a good thing!

I pulled out my blackberry and ordered the Maxijet MP1200 pump right away. Good thing it's on sale for $24.90. Paid $20+ extra for a Next Day delivery. It will get here TUESDAY. :D HURRY HURRY MY PUMP IS DYING... don't know when it will go dead completely.

Since it pumps for several minutes and stops for less than a minute I was able to continue to use my computer. I listened to music. But I had to frequently go to the bathroom to check my pump to see if it's pumping or went completely dead..

C'mon pump! Hang in there till I get a replacement!


You see, if there's a problem, I report. I don't go hide problems in front of the crowds.


cheez
 

Scheeringa

Member
Sep 18, 2013
31
0
0
What about mineral oil? That make cases that look just like a fishbowl, and it may be a little cleaner than just having a motherboard on a cabinet.
 

cheez

Golden Member
Nov 19, 2010
1,722
69
91
I got the pump last Tuesday. I took video of replacing the pump, and flushing my tub.... My water is a bit better this time as I filled up salt in my water softener. Since I don't have internet I wasn't able to upload the video right away. I will upload it this weekend at my Mom's house!

It's the same type of pump and is brand new, but it vibrates more than my bad one! I need to mount an additional rod by the curtain rod above the tub and connect a long string so the pump can be literally hung... get it down low enough so it is submerged. That will remove vibration noise! Right now I can hear the vibration from the living room!

What about mineral oil? That make cases that look just like a fishbowl, and it may be a little cleaner than just having a motherboard on a cabinet.
Do you have some pics of that you are talking about? Sounds intriguing.


cheez
 
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cheez

Golden Member
Nov 19, 2010
1,722
69
91
Seems like a lot of maintenance for a WC system
Yeah there's a bit more care needed. I often go check how my bathtub reservoir is doing. But I check it when I go take leak or dump. I left out the important part. The water evaporates, at very high rate! I checked and make sure the drain plug is closed tight, it is. Since the water surface is much larger, more it evaporates. Makes sense to me. So every so often I turn on the faucet to fill some water. There must be a good gallon of water evaporate in 24 hours.


cheez
 

smackababy

Lifer
Oct 30, 2008
27,024
79
86
I don't know if it is so much evaporation. The plug won't hold the water forever. Even with a good stop, some water will seep through, just very slowly.

At least, it is working out for you though.
 

cheez

Golden Member
Nov 19, 2010
1,722
69
91
You could cover the bath tub with a plastic bag or big container lid of some sort.
No the temp of the water will rise due to no air circulation. The heat exhange capability will be reduced significantly... Nice thing is no dust will get on the water however.

I don't know if it is so much evaporation. The plug won't hold the water forever. Even with a good stop, some water will seep through, just very slowly.

At least, it is working out for you though.
Good point. Small amount of water could escape down the drain.

I now just leave the faucet turned on very slightly. The water drip acts as a refilling system. I actually started this a few days ago. When I check the water level in the morning and when I get home from work it stayed about the same.


I think flushing the tub once a month is a good idea.


Cheez
 

cheez

Golden Member
Nov 19, 2010
1,722
69
91
This is the water pump replacement I got last Tuesday.

Replacing water pump and flushing my tub

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osT8DHpfUz0&feature=youtu.be


On the bad pump there are three cracks on the seal on the backside of the pump but my crappy camera cannot take closeups. I need to upgrade my camera.


They rebadged the pump with the name Cobalt Aquatics. But it is actually MaxiJet.

v0c4.jpg


9atb.jpg




cheez
 
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BrightCandle

Diamond Member
Mar 15, 2007
4,762
0
76
You pump likely died for one of two reasons:
1) The gunk in the water got clogged up in the pump and it gradually or immediately caused damage.
2) The water is too warm and the pump isn't sufficiently cooled to do its job.

Running it this way you are going to have a high rate of failure, not just of the pump but also your waterblocks which will now be full of gunk and limescale filling up the very fine pins inside of them reducing the cooling they provide and the inside of your tubing which is getting coated. I would expect you'll be replacing pretty much everything in a few months time. I did try to say this right at the beginning of this project that unless you used a closed distilled water system you would have problems with the components and I assure you its not the last failure you will see.
 

cheez

Golden Member
Nov 19, 2010
1,722
69
91
You pump likely died for one of two reasons:
1) The gunk in the water got clogged up in the pump and it gradually or immediately caused damage.
2) The water is too warm and the pump isn't sufficiently cooled to do its job.
My guess is that:
1). The old pump wasn't plugged up with gunk, as the water flow was pretty good, seems about the same as the new one. You can tell by checking out the end of the hose.
2). The water isn't warm, I clearly said it's cool / cold to the touch. It never reached warm temperatures 24/7. I suspect that the problem is due to the pump reaching its age. It's good 12 years old, used it for good 8 years, gone though abuse. I think the old worn out pump couldn't take the pressure (80 ft open loop) anymore and decided to crap out on me. P.s. I had seen reviews from the users who owned this pump and some of them lasted a few weeks! and they used it for a little aquarium not 80 ft open loop lol.

Running it this way you are going to have a high rate of failure, not just of the pump but also your waterblocks which will now be full of gunk and limescale filling up the very fine pins inside of them reducing the cooling they provide and the inside of your tubing which is getting coated.

I would expect you'll be replacing pretty much everything in a few months time. I did try to say this right at the beginning of this project that unless you used a closed distilled water system you would have problems with the components and I assure you its not the last failure you will see.
I doubt it. I am using the soft water so the extra minerals and other junk don't get accumulated in the water line. Look at the tubing it looks pretty clear. It's already been a month now since I started the bathtub water cooling. I checked the CPU and GPU temps and they are about the same as when I first started the water cooling. I really doubt my blocks go bad as like I said before, the old block I have still works fine. That's nearly 10 years old (D-Tek TC-4 Rev2). I checked for water flow through the block and is good. That appears it's not clugged up with gunks.

Besides, even if the blocks last a few years that's a bargain as I only spent under $40 for each block.


We will see how this new pump holds up. If the pump fails I will surely report here and any progress I have. I am more concerned about the pressure on pumping through 80ft long open loop.


cheez
 
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