Water cooling question.

[Vicken]

I have this urge to water cool my computers within a few weeks. The main reason is noise. Also, I trying to overclocking a PIII 650 to 866 or more. I can't stand the noise of fans. Don't try to stop me! Ok, I am a little crazy. At this time, I don't plan to use peltiers, but I will in the future. I plan to buy a waterblock and the pump from an online vendor, the rest I am going to do myself. I plan on using a digital doc 2 to monitor the temps. The only thing I am looking for is a hardware solution to turn off the system if the pump fails (which I know is unlikely, but I want a fool proof system). Also, is attaching a heatsink (no fan) on top of the waterblock effective (assuming were not using peltiers)?

 

[namelcric]

I have a room temp watercooled system I built from scratch. It is very effective and quite silent. I use a submersible fountain pump (the water in the resivoir dampens any noise it makes). The water is very effective at removing the heat and a heatsink on top of the waterblock wouldn't really help much. Get a good quality pump and use a temp monitoring app that lets you set a max temp alarm and you should be safe. If you wanted to get fancy you could use some additional hardware to monitor the temp and pull/hold the reset line if the temp gets too high.

 

[Eldraad]

I too have built my own system from scratch...the need for quiet downloading while sleeping was just too great! It doesn't cost THAT much of course once someone else has done all the experimenting for you, unless you are like me and need to play..er, Experiment yourself.

I have not seen anyone stick a heatsink on top of a waterblock before but I do not see where it will hurt. Experiment with the idea maybe adding a fan to that sink that will turn on if the pump fails? I have seen a few reviews where the pump was turned off (in the name of science!) and seeing how long the cpu took to reach an unacceptable temperature. This usually was stated as "It did not work as well as I had hoped, but it gave me more time to shut down my system". There is a program called Motherboard Monitor on the web and it supports a Shutdown program add-in at http://www.dworld.de called Shutdown Now! You would set the alarm temp to a point above whatever your high temperature in heavy game play and when triggered the system should shut down. I say should because I havent tried to use it yet due to my constant messing...er..tweaking of the system.

I know you said Hardware solution for the shutdown but that is about all that I know of out there for you. by the way, the pvc electrical boxes make great tanks. And a small heater core or transmission radiator is great for getting rid of that heat.

Long winded old cuss ain't I? Haven't typed on this board for weeks and now I need a nap....good luck.

 

[Vicken]

I just thought of a hardware solution. I could hook up a fan on the waterblock. The fan will only be on if the digital doc 2 senses a dangerous temperature. Hardware solution. I believe a fan and a waterblock should be enough to cool the CPU. Although, I would definitely test this.

 

[Postman]

I tried MBM with fast98shutdown utility. Booted the machine and removed fan from the cpu heatsink. After the temperature rose to the alert-level machine played a beep and went down no probs. Nice.

 

[BuddyHolly]

Keep in mind that if you have your cpu idled, there will be little or no heat problem in case of a pump failure while you are away. I have thought about adding the heatsink with a fan to the water block as a back up, but have not done it yet. I am more leaning towards putting two pumps in series to prevent failure.

 

[Eldraad]

Buddy Holly,

I am not sure, just how you are going to work that? The two pumps in series I mean. Is it power-wise or water flow? If power (my pump is connected to my on switch...AT style power supply) I would think when one pump burned out that would stop the current to the backup pump if in series. I thought about a backup pump in mine but I have no room in the tank for a second pump. What would you be doing?

I thought I would try two pumps in parallel...with each power connector ending at the main switch so they would both switch on together. Then the output of each pump would pass through a "T" or "Y" shaped connector to combine the flows. Please let us know what you do an how it works out as a backup pump would be nice.

 

[BuddyHolly]

Eldraad, I have not tried it yet, but what I will probably do is have the output on one 95ghp pump directly into the input of another 95gph pump. The impellers are not a total obstruction when they are not running, so water should continue to flow and close to normal rates. This should also inclease the total flow. There are problems...a) added heat from the two submersable pumps b)how to tell if/when one dies. Neither would be too great compared to the safety backup.
These would not plugged into seperate power strips and would run independant of the computer. My current one runs all the time as does one 120v fan. I also run a 12v fan off the power supply.
I have thought of the "Y" solution, but am not sure of how much interferance they will cause. I will probably try both and see which one works more to my satisfaction. The more I think about it, the "Y" solution would be much easier if it works, so I will give it a try first. I need something since I have a 112w peltier coming in a few days. Corrosion got my 78w pelt. Let me know if you want any more info/have any ideas. Thanks