Water Cooling - In a Big Way

[Avid6eek]

The Hydor L35 - A high end aquarium pump that is used in computer water cooling. It pumps 320 gallons per hour of water.

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My custom pumping solution. My new water cooling system will have two of these...each of them pumping just over 1,400 gallons per hour.

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Any questions? Didn't think so

[NotMyBest2Day]

The theory sounds great, but I would think that if you make the water flow too fast through the blocks and such, then it will create too much turbulence and actually degrade performance. It's kind of like a fan when you make it spin too fast, you get cavitation and it actually pushes less air. Unless you're going to go with 3/4" or 1" fittings on the blocks, I would have to say that the aquarium pump idea would be the equivalent of shooting a mosquito with an elephant gun.

I could be wrong though. Go ahead and try it and post the results.

[Avid6eek]

Through a water cooling system turbulent flow is what you want. This allows more water to come in contact with the surface area of the water block. If water simply glides through the water block, the same water molecules will be in contact with the copper surface of the water block on it's whole trip through the block. I don't know if I'm explaining it well enough to understand. Speed and turbulance is key to pulling the most heat from a water block.

[NotMyBest2Day]

I hope you'll have a monster rad then. I was just thinking about it again and the thermostat in my brother's truck was sticking, and we just decided to take it out and not replace it so the cooling would run wide open. This actually made the temp warmer than when the thermostat worked. The reason for that is the thermostat also reduces the diameter of the pipe, so it limits the flow. Without it, the water goes through the rad too fast to cool off enough before going back in.

Just something to think about.

[Avid6eek]

That shouldn't have happened. It doesn't matter how fast the liquid is flowing through the system. If it leaves the radiator fast, it will get back just as fast. If half of the distance through your water cooling system is through the radiator, no matter how fast the water is moving it will spend half its time in the radiator.

[dantheman]

I'm sure you'll have to be much more carefull about leaks with this solution. By the way where did you get that huge pump?

[Avid6eek]

It's a continuous duty AC sump pump. Picked it up at Home Depot for $65. The small DC pump I'm using in my rig right now cost more than the big pump. The brass plumming work on top of it was extra. I just picked up a second pump at Home Depot today. Each pump is going to have two outlet barbs. going to the various system components.

[in54n3]

avid, you're a nut.

:P

[Avid6eek]

I'm a nut....I just purchased the system radiator - 23" x 12" of double pass copper radiator with a beautiful stainless steel shroud

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It's going to be cooled with two 1700cfm high performance automotive radiator fans

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People are going to need phase change just to keep up with my water cooling setup

[stangz]

So much for it being quiet in his room anymore ... I give it 1 hour before his mom tells him to shut it off

[chris000001]

he should mount the pumps and Rad outside and have tubes feeding in...altho i dont kno how well that would work in New York....just an idea tho

[Avid6eek]

So much for it being quiet in his room anymore ... I give it 1 hour before his mom tells him to shut it off

Ha! I've got a plan for the noise. I'll post pictures once the whole setup is complete.

[Skorp]

Twelve inch fans? You'll need a couple more to handle that TEC.

[jimmyt]

wow ur just getting crazyer by the day

[Avid6eek]

I may have as many as 4 TECs in the system. A regular triple 120mm rad/fan combo could handle the heat without a problem, but I want it to be even more extreme then that. It's going to be at least a couple weeks until I get this sytem going. This week I'm doing nothing but cramming for midterms.

[PCgeek]

Actually shiz, turbulence increases performance, but only to a certain point. After that the water goes to fast to make contact with the block and actually pull heat off. If you want high flowing pumps, you are going to need high flowing blocks and rad. Looks like u got the rad covered, but you might want to look into a custom block thats like 3 inches thick and you might also want to look into 1" tubing...

EDIT - That pump takes just 2.57 seconds to pump a WHOLE GALON of water... I hope you know exactly what you're doing cause that's gonna be a hell of a lot of pressure in that cooling system.

[Avid6eek]

Actually shiz, turbulence increases performance, but only to a certain point. After that the water goes to fast to make contact with the block and actually pull heat off.

You lost me here. The water goes to fast to make contact with the block? The water never loses contact with the block as there is no air in the system. At any point the block is 100% full of water.

[NotMyBest2Day]

Water, air..everything has a certain amount of time it takes to absorb energy (heat), and also get rid of it in a radiator. Density plays a big part in this. More dense = longer time to absorb/expel energy. I'm sure you've noticed that air heats up and cools off faster than water, and water heats up and cools off faster than a chunk of steel. That's what I was trying to tell you earlier on in the thread about how the water was going too fast through the radiator to cool off enough before going back in and getting more heat.

[Avid6eek]

NotMyBest2Day...I understand what your saying. The faster the water is flowing, the less time it is being spent in the radiator to cool off. It seems like you are missing the fact that the water is also spending less time in the water blocks to gain heat.

Increasing the water flow is the same as placing a faster fan on your heatsink. You are pumping more of what you need to absorb the heat energy, whether it be air or water. As you increase the fan speed on the heatsink you lower your temperatures. This rate of thermal dissapation is only limited by how fast the heatsink can transfer heat from the heat source to the fins. Basically, the faster you get the fan moving, the lower your temps will be. This rate continues until you are limited by the heatsink metal.

[AMDfan]

First off Avid i wanna congratulate you for being so courageous. However, i foresee a flaw. The ideal solution is a liquid passing through your PC with a high specific heat capacity so it can carry away more thermal energy. The drawback is that it takes time for this energy to conduct into the water so you cant have your water passing through too fast. This i believe is the problem you will face. To solve it you can pass the water through a tube with a larger diameter to slow it down or use a smaller pump.

Lastly, good luck with your ambitious project and i hope you succeed