Waterfall Res!

Would you buy a waterfall res if one existed?

  • Total voters
    104
J

Jiggaman2576

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 27, 2004
Messages
377
I recently saw a thread where some people wanted to have a resivior that had a waterfall in it. I got out my 3D modeling sofware and designed such a thing and its in the hands of an acrylic fabrication company in Canada. My question is, if this company made and sold such a product, would anyone be interested in it? It can be customized for different sizes, and I'm sure they can do colors as well. So, as the poll says, would you buy a waterfall res if one existed?
 
negative - For me, the biggest reason to go WC was for silence and a "waterfall" would sort of squash that! It's a pretty cool idea though.
 
The biggest challenges would be making it small enough to place inside a case (or not have it tower over your case externally) and designing it so the reservoir would do its job by removing air bubbles from a loop (and not create them). If this turned out well, looks cool, and still functions as a reservoir, then I imagine $40-$50 wouldn't be too much to ask for.
 
Since the purpose of this would be largely decorative, I'd have to see pictures of it installed before I passed judgement. It sounds like a neat idea, though.
 
I am working on rendering the 3D model in pro E to make it look somewhat realistic. When I say waterfall, I dont' mean like 5Ft drop. I'm talking inches people, not enough to even make all that much noise. The current design is only 6" Tall X 5" Wide X 3" deep. Nice and small for most cases. If it does work well the design could easily be customized to work with different dimensions. I have a UFO case that is huge, and this will fit behind a 120MM fan opening so all that will be visable is the water falling into the bottom of the res. Also I have put in measures to isolate water bubbles, weather or not it works though is something I'll have to find out. I'll post back once the rendering is decent enough for me to be happy with.
 
There already is such a reservoir and it is made by Aqua Computer that has been selling like hotcakes at the country fair. It is called an Aquabox and here is a pic:





aquabox_5.jpg
 
The one I have deisgned looks nothing like that and has no screws. Still working on getting a rendering, glass is tricky to render and have look realistic!
 
i would definitely be interested, but like the others said, i would have to see it first
 
I have been working with the acrylic guy to optimize the design so they can make it easier and at less cost. I'm also trying to use some other 3D software for the rendering, pro E doesn't do glass very well :(
 
id be interested but id have to see it and possibly even video clip (just for sound) before i jump in.
i remember the thread you are talking about, i had said that would be pretty swell if it could be stackable so you could make it as many bays as you could fit.
my stacker has 8 unused slots (i could just move the hdd's elsewhere) so YEAH
 
I would like it for like a Media PC, where i would build the PC to look good in the TV Room, and a waterfall like ressie, could be a discussion piece, art, etc...
 
Sweet.....but I'd have a valve to divert water to another location when I wanted to quiet it.
 
a huge cascading waterfall might be a bit much, but something small would be awesome.

i definately like a reservoir where you can 'see the action'. i tried my hand at making a custom one (video on google soon). It looked great at first, but then the design flaws kept me from using for more than a week...

 
They have them, they're called "bong coolers" (seriously, that's what they're called :p) and they replace your rad, as they use evaporative cooling, and can actually bring your water's temp below ambient. Only problem is, they're big.

 
I have read all about bong coolers and how they work. This is not such a thing. This is strictly for looking cool. I doubt the water would fall far enough to do any sort of phase change or catch any cool air since it will be enclosed. I have a heavy workload today so I probably wont get to posting any pics of it till later tonight. I could post the plans for it, but then what fun is that?
 
Bongs are a whole different story, but it would be cool to see someone make one with clear pipe. Jiggaman, even though you're having lighting issues, it would be cool to see some concepts pictures of it.
 
im going to the depot this weekend and picking up some stuff, this waterfall res has got me thinking. I may take a stab at it!!!!! Can someone please recomend me a good brand for bonding plexi or acrylic together?
 
bradyapba said:
that doesn't look like a waterfall to me.
Click to expand...

The screws in the side adjust the blockage so you can increase the amount of coolant that goes over the top ledge onto the sight glass.
 
still not what i would want/expect from a waterfall...


i would want more of an up and down, "look like a mini water fall" not a rectangle like the aqua one...

preferably in a totally clear res.

i would like to see a pic of the aqua one looking like a water fall, or a video even.

though now in my mind I know what would want for a "waterfall" Res....
 
If it fit in the sidepanel, definatly. Although it might create lots of airbubbles.
 
Awesome idea!! I think it would look best in clear lexan unlike the blue of the aquacomputer with a blue dye in the water. That would look great.
 
i was thinking of something like this....

water fountain

except it would be all acyrlic...

intake through the top.. flowing over a flat piece of acyrlic.. matbe even falling onto a second piece coming from the other side.. then into the bottom of the ressie, and out the bottom....
 
i think it will fog up...thats part of the reason the AC one is designed like it is. still a cool idea though.
 
This has been done before... :confused:

If you have a fan blowing on the water that is falling then you can get the water a degree or two below ambient.

Edit: The one I saw was a giant AMD logo, there was a shower nozzle at the top with a 120mm fan (or two?) blowing on the falling water. It worked well, didnt fog.
 
Nice reservoir Cricket, too bad it shot so many bubbles into your loop :p

It might be possible to find a combination of a waterfall reservoir like Cricket's, then another normal reservoir directly after it, to actually get rid of the air bubbles.
 
I fixed the problem with the bubbles by adding a ring of pvc with a notch cut out to the inner rim of the reservoir. like this


changed the way it looked, but effectively removed the bubbles. the biggest problem was I couldn't leave the top of the res removable w/o having slight leakage.

also, I used a 90degree peice of metal I cut from the case to divert the water as it came in through the top. After the first two weeks when water wetter(about 5% mix) turned my tubing foggy, I switched out for tygon and zerex. I then noticed that the peice of metal i was using had corrosion spots, so I took it out... This made the inner ring pointless and added an uncontrolable amount of bubbles to the loop. I ended up closing the loop and have been running that way since :( ironically, my tubes eventually went opaque anyways, it just took a little longer. another two inches, and I think I could have made it work. That, or having the inlet on the side. I didn't realize there would be enough flow to cause the problem with bubbles i was having.

the biggest problem I see with any clear reservior is that my limited experience says any additive will eventually affect the clarity of the acrylic. a removable front plate, like the aquabox or repack, will allow cleaning of the inside. that, of course, means the housing would need to be something that could take the screwing/unscrewing involved in removing said face.

has anyone had any luck running a mix that doesn't fog up tubing/acrylic? I see plenty of good looking reserviors/tubing in the pics thread, but the cases in question don't seem to be running with any WW/Zerex, or anti-freeze mixtures.

 
Sorry for the long delay..I've been terribly busy at work and at home. Wife and kids will do that to yah! Here is a picture that I have been promising!

assembly41yg.jpg


Guess I could have resized it, but there will be no question now on how it all goes together. Enjoy

Jigga
 
how tall is that?

having the base a little deeper horizontally would help keep any bubbles out of the loop... although complicating the design.

i do agree with the previous comment in regards to the pexi fogging up. i'm not sure how to eliminate that w/o having the cascading water hit the front of the res.
 
It is tower shaped I guess, but keep in mind its only 6" tall by 5" wide and 3" deep so its not all that big. I'm rendering a model of my case with it installed so you can where I will put it. Inventor 11 just came in today and it renders pretty awesome! Peace out...
 
I am talking with the manufacturer about it, but if it works well how I have it setup right now I'll design a few different models to fit in either drive bays or other common locations. I have an idea for a top mount version that would sit on top of any case and require only 2 holes to be cut in the case for the tubing. Also I'm tossing in the idea of using thicker acrylic and adding small holes on the edges for LED's. This is all in the works, but it may be a month or 2 before we start seeing any prototypes. If anyone else has some ideas and just needs some drawings made up, I can do just about anything you want and render you a pretty picture when I'm done too! Later

Jigga
 
we'll you tell those manufacturers to make it and set the msrp no higher than 39.99 and i'll buy one FOR SURE .. two or three 5.25 drive bays would be SICK...
 
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