So if you don't know, I recently bought an 8350, and I was disgusted by how poorly the stock cooler performed. I have very little funds, and I have very big expectations. So, that means it's time to get custom and make my own water cooling rig.
I'm making my own waterblock, as well as using some parts from an old koolance case to do this. My goal is to do this all for 50 dollars or less. I just got the copper at work today (for free!) and I'm about to go get the case now.
Excellent piece of copper. Can't wait to shape this into a waterblock. Any suggestions for how I should make the waterblock, let me know.
And for anyone who is saying I should have just bought an air cooler.
NO.
My computer is my hobby. I want to make something that I will be proud of. An air cooler will get the job done, but that doesn't mean I'll be happy with it.
I'll be back with updates later, once I grab the case. Thanks for looking :)
The case itself is very old. The internals in there are, well, they're pretty damn outdated. However, the radiator and the pump/res are going to be perfect, I think.
The pump, interestingly enough, is submerged in the res. If I can somehow cram everything in to me case, that's going to help me a lot. It'll be a big space saver and also I'm assuming that the submerged pump will be a lot quieter than an external pump.
Broke off both connectors trying to get the old tubing off... oh well. I think that's easily fixable, considering the amount of work I"m going to be putting in to all of this.
Will do. Just wish someone would buy this damn mobo so I can get one with a better power phase. Once this is all done I want to oc the crap out of my 8350.
What mobo and power supply are you using? I have a friend buying an 8350 with a custom loop so I'd love to see how your "homebrew" of sorts stacks up. This is one of the coolest projects I've seen in a while. :)
I'm using an ASRock 970 Extreme4 right now, but I'm desperately trying to get rid of it because I need an 8+2 phase mobo (trying to grab the 970-UD3).
And the psu is (dont hate) a coolmax zx-700. Actually gets the job done really well, so far.
But yeah. I highly doubt I could even get past 4.5 on this board, if I even get that. I need a better board. This one is feature packed, by the vrms are going to die if I try to get a massive oc from this.
Tomorrow I'm starting on the actual cooler, though. Going to pick up some new tubing (old shit looked like surgical tubing or some nasty shit) and get the pump and res all cleaned out/fixed up. Should be a good day. Still not exactly sure what I'm going to be doing as far as the actual waterblock goes. I need to draw up some plans, I guess.
Working on the pump and tubing today. I broke off the fittings on accident, but they were crap anyway. So I'm replacing the old pump fittings with new barb fittings and securing them with epoxy, and then I'm going to try to get the print off of the tubing so that it's completely clear and there aren't any letters/numbers on it.
These are the fittings for the waterblock.. Not sure if i should go with these or elbows? I feel like these might end up sticking out too far. What do you guys think?
Dumped the old pump and res (felt like it would be a little too ghetto anyway) and went with something thats going to offer more power and control. Yep, say hello to a 120 volt garden fountain pump.. It's got variable flow control, so I plan on fine tuning it for the best amount of gallons per minute. Should be perfect. Plus, you really can't beat it for 10 bucks. It's submersible. I need to find a res!
Not gonna let this thread die.. I hit a little snag with the old pump and res kind of crapping out when I was drilling for the new fittings and that almost made me give up, but this is something I want to do. I'm not going to give up until my computer is finished and my temps are perfect.
Selling my 970 Extreme 4 in favor of the gigabyte 970a ud3. I need that better power phase so I can have a decent oc. In a few weeks, everything should be all done, guys. Can't wait to see how this all turns out.
as far as im concerned you have done a great start of a home brew custom loop sadly i dont think your $50 price limit is enough. the cost of milling and fitting of the block would take you over that limit alone where i live. if you are in desperate need of cheep milling process try any of your local trade school's. some may do it for free or almost nothing as long as it helps the students learn. and for the love of god dont give up, i love seeing home grown solutions beating commercial products.
The biggest problem I can see is how you are planning on securing the two halves of the CPU cooling block together, and if you intend on making your own mounting hardware, which I assume you would. The trick will be to saw the block in two, then find someone with a CNC mill and have then cut the well with channels into the bottom (the channels being simple parallel lines running from one side to the other, preferably following the flow of the coolant through the loop, otherwise, depending on the accuracy of the mill, you could go with posts placed as closely as possible. I would probably recommend talking with someone who knows their way around a CNC mill and the 3D mapping software that accompanies it. Umm, then aside from that, you want to make sure that you keep the threads from your barb fittings from hitting anything. You also want to polish all of the mating surfaces, and the well of the flow chamber to ensure the best contact and flow rates. Then you have to find a gasket of some form with which to seal the two halves together after you drill and tap some holes for really small bolts to go through and connect the two plates (due to the difficulty of finding really long bolts of that small of a size, it is a good idea to mill the top of the top plate so that there is as little material to bolt through as possible, so you have raised areas that you would drill and tap for the barbs (ideally milled to have an outer diameter that matches that of the barb, or the tubing, whichever is larger) and then the rest would be flat with the holes drilled around the edges to secure everything, the gasket would fit around the inside, like with an EK waterblock. Which, mentioning them, you can buy replacement gaskets for, so you would be able to mill the blocks to support them.
So look up how they go together and just make a match so it works similarly. Or, if you don't intend to ever disassemble it, you can always just use silicon adhesive to bond it together.
Have I mentioned yet that I think this is a really cool project, and that I love to see that someone is actually trying to make something like this work? I find it very amusing and it brings up some pretty interesting and ingenious ideas.
I'm not CNCing the block. I'm doing it myself. If I go for a maze style, I'll be using a drill press. If I go for a maze style block, I'll be using a drill press and probably a dremel to shape it. If I go for a fin style, I'll be using a hacksaw and some rasps to shape it. Either way, the block of copper is cutting cut right in half with a hacksaw, most likely.
The fittings, and the two halves of the block, will all be joined together via solder. Working on several plumbing jobs, I know a trick or two (:
And right now these are my current expenses-
Radiator - 20
Pump - 10
Fittings and tubing- 7
37 dollars in total, still have 13 left for the reservoir and any other miscellaneous stuff I'll be needing.
This is seriously the most glorious watercooling setup I've seen. I've never thought someone would use a fountain pump, nor will I probably ever again, haha. For $40 you can't get much better than this.
I would use 45 degree barbs; the ones you have in the picture seem to stick out way to far.
I really love your idea, though. I want to watercool my 3770k and 680, but after some calculations, it is going to cost about $400 for everything... For $40, you are doing great :)
i decided to stay with these fittings, and simply shorten the threads and the barbs with a hacksaw.
Going on a date later with my girlfriend, hopefully she and I can stop at bed bath and beyond afterwards, and I can find something suitable to use as a reservoir.. (;
Will post another update tonight and answer any questions that people have.
and brennan, buying parts for a computer will always be much more expensive than simply buying something in stores that can be used for the exact same application.
Today I bought what I will be using for my reservoir (: Here's some pictures of the new reservoir and pump-
This is the res. Picked it up at bed, bath and beyond while I was out with my girlfriend. It's airtight and has a lid, which will be absolutely perfect for this.
And this is a better picture of the pump. It moves a max of 158 gallons/hour, but I think that that may actually be too much, so I bought one that has a flow control. This will reduce the amount that it sends, hopefully. If it doesn't, maybe I can get a reducer or a small ball valve for it.
