Need some advice

[ramrod126]

Hi, I have been lurking here along time but haven't really posted much. After looking through the modding threads I have some great ideas for my Antec 1200. the first thing I want to do is replace the windows with smoked acrylic and make a custom front panel with acrylic as well. I also want to move from a Corsair H50 to a full custom watercooling loop.

My question is does anyone see any reason why I couldn't use an empty Crystal Head vodka bottle for a reservoir? My thought is to use a stopper in the top with two tubes made of glass in the bottle itself, one at the top and one that runs close to the bottom for bottom to top flow. I figure I could pretty it up with some temp controlled LEDs that go from blue to purple to red depending on heat.

If you don't know what bottle I am talking about here is a link

http://squidly.com/2008/12/26/crystal-head-vodka/

 

[CustomModAddict]

Not sure if current WC pumps have enough lift to suck up fluid. Where is it is usually drawn from the bottom of the res. I am sure it can be done some how your gonna have to experiment with it.

Goodluck wanna see it if you get it working.

 

[Mickey21]

Your average water pump made for watercooling would have no issue sucking the fluid out of the tube, but make sure your tubes are of decent thickness as this will affect your water flows. An ID (internal diameter) tube of 3/8th inch would be minimal ideal size. I cant tell from the image the real life scale of the bottle in question, but there might be issues with a cork sized opening. The thinner the tube, the less water flow you will have and can eventually impact your cooling ability.

Fluid is normally drawn from the same place in any reservoir whether you take from the bottom of the res or top. You want to draw fluid from a low point in the res, because once you start your cooling loop the fluid is drawn out of the reservoir into the loop moving any air in the lines to the reservoir. If this air displaces your fluid to a level that is now under your suction tube, you will lose vacuum in your pump and it will begin cavitating lowering your flow to a crawl if at all depending on fluid level.

It is hard to tell without inflection in text, but I believe you intend to put two tubes through the top cork opening and run one to the bottom and leave the other at the top to bring fluid back? If that is correct, then I would say your biggest concern is tube diameter.

 

[ramrod126]

It is hard to tell without inflection in text, but I believe you intend to put two tubes through the top cork opening and run one to the bottom and leave the other at the top to bring fluid back? If that is correct, then I would say your biggest concern is tube diameter.

That is exactly what I plan. The top opening in the bottle is close to an inch and a half as far as I could tell from seeing it in the liquor store. There is a "magnum" size as well but that costs a hundred bucks and would actually be to big to fit in a case I think.

I am going to buy a bottle of this stuff anyway so the most I will be out is a couple bucks for rubber stoppers if it doesn't work.

 

[Mickey21]

Sounds like a plan, try to cram as much tub thickness in as you can to help with your flow and should come off without a hitch. If memory serves me correctly though, I believe I have already seen one just like you mention in person already though. It has been a couple of years, but I believe I have seen this done before on a mod with the same skull in question. If I remember correctly, I saw the mod in person back in 2005 or 2006 in Dallas during a Quakecon. It might have been a different skull, but it was done as you are planning to do it. Looked pretty cool and was lit blue.