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What makes it good?

O

otacon6530

n00b
Joined
May 21, 2009
Messages
17
At first I was going to get the evercool, but people said you could make a water cooling system for cheaper and it would be better then any of the regular sold kits.

I have read alot and know I need:

Reservoir/tank
radiator/with fane
pump/with decent GPH
typhon tubes
relay/ for it to be automatic
waterblocks for whatever I want to cool down


My question is. What makes a good water cooling system good?

the evercool system has all of these things, but the radiator is small. so I edit the loop and add another large radiator. Will that make it a good one?
 
A good water system will have all those parts (except the relay because they turn on with the computer and the res could be replaced with a t-line, though i prefer the res)

the res just has to hold water for the system so when it expands from heat there is some air that will compress easier and it helps with bleeding, though i think you can do all that with a t-line

a radiator has to take the heat from the water and transfer it to the air, to do this they run it through a bunch of tubes connected to copper fins which have fans pulling air through them, this is one of the most important bits because it needs to cool all the heat put into the water from your components

the pump afik, just has to be powerful enough to make the water go around and then a little more so it brings the water in the water blocks at a high enough speed to make it cool right, like i said though that on a afik bases

tubing is important but isnt going to ruin a water setup, if you choose cheap stuff you might pay for it but if you get something like tygon tubing then it wont kink as easily

For waterblocks you just need to poke around here a bit to learn what the best is, i think its the heatkiller 3.0, and what the most free flowing is

now, i dont know what hardware your putting this stuff on, as far as i can tell its alright for older stuff but i dont know if it will handle newer cpu's and gpu's with those blocks
 
So what you are saying is there isn't any good or bad as long as it does the job? So as long as the radiator can cool it off enough there is not much to the rest other than doing what it is suppose to do. Ok. So I am now confident that I will be able to do this if the only thing I can not cop out on is the radiator. I was just wondering what the important part was. So I am going to jerry rig something together, buy a good radiator and waterblocks, then buy a cool looking 5.25 monitoring system with the cool leds to monitor the water level and heat.

Thanks for the help.



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one more question.... Is there a car radiator that can fit inside a fulltower?

My system is sort of tight:

Q660 Quad processor : 775 slot
Dual Nvidia 8800GS PCIE Cards (take a lot of room)
4, 2gb ram =8gb
two hard drives (one 500gb, other 1.5tb)
Card reader in floppy slot
DVD Drive
1000W PS

Nothing is overclocked yet. I run at a high temp and need to get it down.
only two fans not counting cpu with a tunnel out vent.
 
this is what i have. it is a heater core from a pontiac. instead of being the radiator, which cools fluid to cool the engine, the heater core blows intake air through the hot radiator coolant in another part of the engine area, heating it up, and blowing it into the cars interior. this is how you get your heating in the winter. anyway theyre pretty good radiators. all copper and extra thick. that site even puts in the barbs for you first because that part is pretty annoying. these are pretty much the same price, for just a little more area, but since the heater core is thicker it has more surface are, which leads to more heat dissipated. this is more comparable to the heater core but costs more if you want something thats a little easier to work with, but i havent seen any comparisons between the two so i really cant tell you which would give you better cooling. the black ice has easy mounts, whereas the heater core doesnt. also the heater core is more like 140mmx280mm surface area instead of 120mmx240mm so youd have to account for that, maybe get some 140mm fans or make a shroud. if you want a 3x120mm rad, there arent any heater cores that size so youll need one from swiftech or black ice or whatever. hope that answers some radiator questions. just ask if you want me to clarify anything else. i didnt want to write 5 pages here.

and my personal opinion is that the only really important things in your loop are radiators and clamps. if you have a 1x120 vs a 3x120, you will notice a HUGE difference in cooling. if you get a top of the line copper heatkiller for $85 vs a fuzion v1 for $20 used, you will get like 5 degrees difference. clamps are important because they can be the difference between happily watercooling your $1000 rig for years and years, or losing $500 worth of components. :( other than that, pumps are all pretty capable, tubing is all fine as long as you dont try to make it bend more than its capable of. reservoirs you can use or not, and ive heard of fans dropping a loop 5 degrees on vs off. so the difference between good and decent fans is probably just a few degrees but some $30. wow that was a long post.
 
Thank you for the necessarily long post you gave me. I of course meant a heater core and not a huge radiator from a car. I will be sure to get really good clamps and make them tight. Also before I ever put this in my machine I will have it run for a couple days with it on paper to check for leaking.
 
What is a shroud? It asks if I want a Shroud with my heater core?
 
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a shroud is just a plastic or metal or whatever part that spaces the fans away from the radiator. when you butt the fans right up to it, you only get air to flow through 2 circular cross sections, with a circular hole in the middle because the fan hub obviously doesnt blow any air. if you space it out with a shroud like this one i made for my friend then you can get all that air to instead flow through the entire core. make sense? personally i think if you have the same amount of air basically then it would make only a minuscule difference if it is evenly dispersed or if some areas have more flow and some have none. i havent seen anywhere where someone compared temps with and without a shroud directly to see how much it helps. if you have the space and the money, then go for it. i think its not worth the cost personally. BUT ive never used one so i may be very wrong. get a second opinion. and use worm drive hose clamps for most security. you can get them at the hardware store.

also why are you opting for the heater core over the black ice radiator?
 
Well I can get a heater core for $10 or I can get the black ice for $40-$50. The previous post led me to believe it is just surface area that allows the water to cool. So why pay 30-40 extra dollars?
 
partially because one designed for a computer may be easier to mount. also surface area is the main things but there are many different factors that play into a rads effectiveness
 
nah the main thing is surface area and if its copper, which it is. other than that single/double pass and other stuff really arent that significant. i agree the heater core is a much better deal. you just have to know that it will take extra work to mount it in your case. if youre up for that, then its worth the savings. you can get some awesome fittings to put in your heater core at the hardware store. i replaced the plastic ones mine came with with some spiffy brass ones. on some heater cores you can just use the built in copper pipes that come out of it and hose clamp some 1/2" hose onto that.
 
This type of thing is a hobby not just something I need or want to get done quickly. I like the idea of calling up a person selling a heater core and saying "I do not care what model car it comes from I am putting it in my computer!" lol. Mounting will not be a problem. I can jerry rig it just like I always do. maybe even zippy tie it to the wall of the case. lol (not what I am planning though)



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Should the fan blow on the radiator or blow away from the radiator? Airflow up or down?
 
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either way will give you comparable results. for fans you will want to look for higher air pressure over higher flow. try to find a heater core that is as close to 120x240mm and youll be set. i like to mod for the fun of it too. ive been building up parts from the fs/ft forums as they come up for the last couple months. this is what ive come up with:

heater core: $25
mcp600: $30
fuzion v+hose clamps: $25
ek vga-supreme: $25
res+tubing:$10
brass barbs for heater core: $5
4 yate loon high speed fans: $20
sunbeam rheobus extreme: $15

so theres a great setup, cpu and vga, for $155 shipped. gonna take a bit of work and a few bucks worth of hardware, but im excited for it. also gotta find some little ramsinks for the video card. it sounds like youve got a similar plan, so watch the fs forum and grab stuff as you find good prices.
 
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That is what I am talking about. Modifying computers is amazing. Going to get some blue led fans to put on my heater core (which I plan to paint metalic blue).

I just set up a time next week to pick up a camaro heater core for $5. I love it. I am going to go check the size to make sure it will be good, but my hopes are high. I also have accomplished in getting a reservoir for a whole $3. Thanks Craigslist.org! Two big parts down just a pump to go. ( I know I need tubing too.).


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sunbeam rheobus extreme? Is this more than just a fan control? My case has a fan control.

And should I connect the pump power to my fan control or would that be a bad idea?
 
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ekuest said:
either way will give you comparable results. for fans you will want to look for higher air pressure over higher flow. try to find a heater core that is as close to 120x240mm and youll be set. i like to mod for the fun of it too. ive been building up parts from the fs/ft forums as they come up for the last couple months. this is what ive come up with:

mcp600: $30
fuzion v1+hose clamps: $25
ek vga-supreme: $25
res+tubing:$10
brass barbs for heater core: $5
4 yate loon high speed fans: $20
sunbeam rheobus extreme: $15

so theres a great setup, cpu and vga, for $115 shipped. gonna take a bit of work and a few bucks worth of hardware, but im excited for it. also gotta find some little ramsinks for the video card. it sounds like youve got a similar plan, so watch the fs forum and grab stuff as you find good prices.
Click to expand...

Did you get your heater core free?
 
hm. hard to answer. ive found that one for $25 shipped, so i guess you should add that in. i actually got one that was already painted and had the barbs in from that site i linked to earlier, but i traded for it. i made that heatercore shroud i showed you for suleyman (turk-FX) out of like $2 in sheet metal and a couple bucks for fasteners. so not really free. could have sworn i put it in there earlier... also i added the stuff up wrong before. haha. ok i added it in and re added everything. should be correct now. ive seen setups bought all new from swiftech or whatever that are pretty comparable for $500.
 
Thanks for the help. I believe that I am well on my way with this project. I will post back when I get all of it working.
 
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