• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Old schoolin the GPU Coolin

P

Pherret

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 18, 2002
Messages
392
I am slowly working towards the goal of WC my shuttle for silence. My 6600GT agp can get up over 90C when overclocked and realy stressed on the stock cooler. And to add to that, the fan is just beginning to show signs of old age. So I thought Id throw that in the loop too. I have 2 problems:

1: I will be using 1/2" tubing in the loop. This usually isn't much of a problem, as DD and Swiftech make nice 1/2" barb gpu coolers, but none will work because of problem #2.

2: Because its a G series Shuttle (SK83G), as most know, the agp slot is right on the left edge of the board. This means, from my measurements, the cooler must not exceed 20mm in thickness. 1-2mm more and your scratching/bulging the side panel.

There are very very few blocks that are that thin. And I could not find any more than 1 (Silverprop Cyclone Fusion SL) that also used 1/2" fittings. But I wasn't about to pay the premium for that one.

So I decided to make use of some 2"x1/4" copper stock I had to make my own block. 3 layers soldered together: bottom plate w/ board attachment holes, middle channel plate, and top capping plate. All totaling about 3/4" (19mm) thick. Then drilling a pair of holes in one side and soldering in 1/2" barbs.

The material:


The tool:


Measure once:


Cut twice ;):


And thats all so far. That drill press realy shows how crappy a $3 harbor freight drill bit set is. They are pre-bent from the factory free of charge!! :D so I immediately went out and bought a decent set of "jet point" Irwin bits. I needed a 1/2" bit anyway.

FYI - Crappy bits with oil cut about as well as good bits without oil.

I tried to use a knockout punch to make a large hole in the middle plate. I sheared the bolt on one and could not get another one more than 1/16" in. Yes... They were also harbor freight. So Im probably gona hit it with a 40m hole saw tomorrow.

Let me know what ya ol' timers think ;)
 
I managed to find all our holesaw stuff besides the 1,1/2" one I needed. So I had to buy another one for $9, saw only, no spindle. Oah well. Sawing that hole was messy and loud, but seemed to go without a hitch.

Third time's the charm:


Chopped up:


Fluxed:


Soldering:


Cooling:


After initial grinding and sanding:


Now I have a nice little "jacket". I used 220 grit on everything so far. Currently I'm trying to get shape more than shine. Now were I lazy, Id stop here and solder the base on. Though, I think Ive got some more shaping to do. We'll see tomorrow. :)
 
Looks very nice so far, how do you plan on attaching the barbs to that?

The Cyclone Fusion SL is a great block, its a shame nobody else can seem to make a block so nice that is as slim as that is (19mm goodness mmmm).
 
Erasmus354 said:
Looks very nice so far, how do you plan on attaching the barbs to that?

The Cyclone Fusion SL is a great block, its a shame nobody else can seem to make a block so nice that is as slim as that is (19mm goodness mmmm).
Click to expand...

So far my plan is to solder it all up with no holes. Then carefully drill down in the top edge of the block and solder in some modified 1/2" to 1/2" hose splicing barbs. There are many dangers to this plan that I realise:

For one that means once both holes are drilled there will be a piece of the middle plate between the barbs that will be kind of free floating. Too much drilling force and it could easily snap the solder joints holding it in place. Not to mention the fact that it could possibly start surfing along inside the block on melted solder when I try to solder in the barbs.

And another problem I see is that I remember from somewhere that drilling into a cavity like that has high risk of snapping the bit. Ill dive as slow as possible and the drill press is already at its slowest pully setting, 620rpm.

The Fusion SL is very nice. It kindof looks more like some flashy keychain than a vga cooler.
 
drill the top first,stick copper ramsinks in the middle of the inside of the base [better cooling]then solder the top on
 
best [486] said:
drill the top first,stick copper ramsinks in the middle of the inside of the base [better cooling]then solder the top on
Click to expand...

If you didn't already notice the cups he drilled in the one piece he already has his cooling structures in place.
 
Sorry guys, I couldn't get to it yesterday :(. Today I should have some time to work on it.

Yeah Ive got the cups drilled to provide some surface area. I wouldn't want to put in another interface between whats hot and whats cooling it, which, something like a ramsink would create.

And drilling before I solder the top on is basically impossible for this design. I must drill into the side of the block which means the bit will be drilling somewhat into all 3 layers. The problem is when I drill through the middle plate and get to the air gap inside it will still be biting into both top and bottom plate. That has risk of breaking the bit.
 
Got a decent amount done today. Its looking like a block finally! Lets get down to pics shall we?

Everything all shaped up:


Soldered:


Drilled:


Insides:


The space between:


No action solder pics this time, sorry. I was doing it alone this time.

So far I think Im past most of the hurtles. I made it all a bit more shapely to get some of the weight off, and to look good of course. I don't know if it is appearent in the pics but when drilling the fitting holes it appears like the bit wandered towards the center of the block after a little ways in. Not to mention they are not exactly alligned, but I had no way of clamping it down besides a board on either side. As long as it sticks to the 50/50 rule (50ft or 50Ghz ;)) its fine for me. It will look better with the fittings in, and after a more thorough sanding.

On a side note my Hydor L30 came in. Im almost regretting the purchase as I stare at it's size, thinking of how loud it could be. Its so beastly my old pump hid inside the old res! :p

Aah well... I guess a pump you can hear can be both a curse and a blessing. If it was totally inaudible I might go mad with worry. :eek:

What should I look out for in this pump? About all I remember is there is something that is easily breakable if you try to disassemble/reassemble and don't tighten the fittings too much. Is that all? Should I use some teflon tape on the threads or is the plastic to plastic seal ok?

Oah, now that I look at em the fittings have o-rings, but the bastards only gave me 3 suction cup feet. :(
 
WEAK, only 3 of the feet might be a problem. Other than that, the impellers seem to go bad after awhile in those, and it will be noisey if there is any air in the loop. I used to have an L35. Be really careful about not tightening the barbs too much.
 
wow very nice work on the block...why didn't you get a DDC though? You could have enclosed that pump inside of your case.
 
Wow. That is incredibly well done. Placement on the indentations for the cooling on the insides could have been placed a little more evenly, but excellent nonetheless.

What I think you should do now though, is buy some HIGH grit sandpaper, and make the whole outside of the block shiney, then buy some high gloss paint, and paint it =D. Cause it will hide the color of the solder so it doesn't look home made =P. That would be sexy. Either way... Its still hot. I hope it performs good.
 
pfft, I would want anyone and everyone to know that I made that...solder be damned full speed ahead!
 
Thanks alot guys :D

TehRoflcopter said:
Wow. That is incredibly well done. Placement on the indentations for the cooling on the insides could have been placed a little more evenly, but excellent nonetheless.

What I think you should do now though, is buy some HIGH grit sandpaper, and make the whole outside of the block shiney, then buy some high gloss paint, and paint it =D. Cause it will hide the color of the solder so it doesn't look home made =P. That would be sexy. Either way... Its still hot. I hope it performs good.
Click to expand...

To be honest, I wasn't caring much about being exact on those "dimples". 1 they are only there to get some more surface area, and 2 well they will most likely never be seen again. So they will perform their duty just as well as if I strived for ultimate perfection ;). I knew the rest of the block was goingto comeout looking homemade somehow anyway. People are not perfect, thats why anything handmade is never truely duplicated.

Painting may actually complete the trick of looking like a "professional" block, but I still hear the calling from the cooling gods of olde to wear my copper with pride!

Though you did give me an idea. Now I want to paint the bracket section black and leave the protruding block copper. How do you guys think that would look? Ive got some leftover rust-oleum "crystal clear enamel", will that stick alright to the bare copper? If I do paint some areas does it have to be enamel so it doesn't fight with the clearcoat?

And did I mention Im not done sanding? Im trying to get rid of as much excess solder a possible. It just seemed dumb to sand it all off when Im going to be soldering on it again and be back to square 1 with big solder blobs.
 
I just thought about incredibly shiney copper... That would look FREAKING good. Oh of course I know your not done sanding =P, I was just suggesting something =D. If you did a really really good job on sanding up the waterblock and making it uber shiney, then a layer of clearcoat would definately help to keep that shine.

What colour were you thinking of painting the brackets?

Sorry if I sounded rude in my above post, but, I was more interested in sharing ideas with you rather then considering your own plans. My bad man =).

Just a suggestion and all. Look into a high gloss black enamel paint, that would look spectacular. But the shiney copper is still really cool though too... Hmmm... /ponders
 
So now I got the barbs in. I forgot to take a pic of them after I cut them down though :eek:. Basically I cut off about 2/3 of one barb at an angle to allow it to flow through as much of that open channel as possible.

Barbs out:


Barbs in:


Ugly:


Polished up:


Back side:


No flash:


After cleaning off the lumps and discolorations, I hit it with some 1000 grit and then a polishing wheel on my "rotary tool" (its a craftsman not dremel :rolleyes: ). I am not completely satisfied with the finish so I will most likely try to get the deeper scratches out with more 1000 grit and see how it polishes again.

I am lovin the color too much to cover it up at all!

I realize I haven't posted any pics of the base. There is not much to see yet, besides some small pitting that I am suspicious were bubbles in the copper that I sanded open. Im not sure if I will eventually polish the base or not. Im in the camp that believes there needs to be some sort of roughness (even if only sanding marks) for the thermal paste to squish into or else there will be a meniscus layer stuck keeping the base and gpu from touching. Its flatness that realy counts, and thats the real reason behind lapping!

And yes something rough can be wholly flat.
 
This is a very cool project, wish I had the knowledge and tools to do things like this myself. Its turning out very nice btw. I think a high polish copper would look very nice.
 
TehRoflcopter said:
I just thought about incredibly shiney copper... That would look FREAKING good. Oh of course I know your not done sanding =P, I was just suggesting something =D. If you did a really really good job on sanding up the waterblock and making it uber shiney, then a layer of clearcoat would definately help to keep that shine.

What colour were you thinking of painting the brackets?

Sorry if I sounded rude in my above post, but, I was more interested in sharing ideas with you rather then considering your own plans. My bad man =).

Just a suggestion and all. Look into a high gloss black enamel paint, that would look spectacular. But the shiney copper is still really cool though too... Hmmm... /ponders
Click to expand...

No problem man. I didn't want to intimidate, only lay out my thoughts.

I definately saw your point about the solder, I just wasn't yet done sanding it off to see how it would look.

I was thinking of painting the bracket sections black, but now that I sanded and polished it all down it just looks too good to cover any of it up. The darker the color the deeper the shine so Its got a much deeper shine than gold.
 
Hahahaha, I polished up a copper pipe with a dremel tool the other day, it got so shiney that it changed colors. I was amazed, i'd never seen copper so shiney before. It went darker then I thought it would too...
 
Im done sanding... it drove me crazy trying to get all the details sanded down. So I just chose a stopping point, polished it and hit it with the clearcoat. I put a little too much because it kind of sagged. I sanded that down and hit it with one more layer. Now I consider the construction part done. All thats left is figuring out how to mount it. Well, and vid card pron too. :cool:

The before pic:


Stock:


Topless:


It fits!:


Nice and cozy:


Will need mod for fat tubes:


Close but looks good:


The mounting holes were tapped for 6-32, but were too large. The screw holes on the board would not let the 6-32 screws through. I originally, before cutting the copper, tried to tap it out to 4-40 but the tap broke in the hole and I was forced to drill it out. It turns out the 4-40 would have been a perfect size :eek:. So I held it on the board (for the pics) with a 4-40 flat head screw and a rubber gromet pushed on the threads behind the card. For the real mounting Im thinking of black allen head screws with a nut holding down the springs, from the stock HSF, on the back. Those springs are suprisingly strong, but I dunno how they will do against the weight of this big copper slug.

My old camera eats 3 courses of batteries a day.:rolleyes: It refused to take the final pictures of where the block was contacting the GPU. The block may seem lopsided, but the water channel is exactly where it needs to be. Ill get some more batts here sometime.

Well this may just be the last major update for this thread. Im waiting to gather up money for lots of bits and pieces left for the WC setup, but there will most likely be a new thread for that.

Though that HSI chip cooler is looking a little out of place isn't it? hmmmmm...
 
Pherret said:
I realize I haven't posted any pics of the base. There is not much to see yet, besides some small pitting that I am suspicious were bubbles in the copper that I sanded open. Im not sure if I will eventually polish the base or not. Im in the camp that believes there needs to be some sort of roughness (even if only sanding marks) for the thermal paste to squish into or else there will be a meniscus layer stuck keeping the base and gpu from touching. Its flatness that realy counts, and thats the real reason behind lapping!

And yes something rough can be wholly flat.
Click to expand...

You would actually get better temps if you really polished up the base well, because copper has a higher thermal conductivity than thermal paste. What you need to do is just use less thermal paste if you have your base polished really well. You are correct in that having it flat is the most important thing. But normal metal that hasn't been polished, just made flat, has a lot of little holes in it. So much so that maybe only 20% of the metal is actually making contact with the processor, this is why you need to use thermal paste. Lapping your block really well increases the amount of the waterblock that actually contacts the processor, which means less thermal paste in between, which means better overall transfer of heat.

In the end though if you have your block flat I wouldn't worry too much.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top