Quote from: tolip_wen on July 10, 2014, 05:13:02 PM

Quote from: proclivity on July 10, 2014, 04:09:50 PM

Quote from: bitpop on July 10, 2014, 08:21:51 AM

What do you think about potting the entire thing then putting it into running water? A giant cheap water cooler

sounds interesting.. i look forward to your write up! this would certainly void the warranty.

i am (seriously) considering piping water in a loop from my pool and using that as a 30,000 gallon heat sink

i even bought a variable speed pool pump so i can run it 24/7 at a moderate flow rate. just need to work out a few kinks linking WC parts together and how to safely run water through my attic.

You might check about chlorine and copper. No idea personally.
You can just place a radiator in the pool water for inexpensive heat exchanger.
Then your pool plumbing can be done with a hose cutter and screw driver frugally.

PVC thru the attic or copper or tough garden hose.
Does your attic ever freeze?

I'm contemplating burying a small coil of copper in the yard for heat exchange.
I have a high water table here.

Can start on a budget with garden pump and a bucket.
Good to have backups too, save the air cooling toys.

I live in a shoebox with single window unit A/C and the as delivered had me hiding in other room.
I cool with outdoor Illinois air whatever it is.
Today I start with 82F/28C/300K ambient.

Watch out for cheapo $20-25 waterblocks on ebay.
(good? bad? depends if ya know ahead of time)
The blue/black metal ones, the fittings are not G1/4 so whatever you get is what you have forever.
The ones for GPU with 90 installed do not come with CPU mounting.
DO NOT TRY TO TURN THE 90 BARBS they are glued in.
(unless you want to clean and reglue threads)
Straight hose barbs are great but hose has minimum bend radius, will it fit?
They are not flat. Lapping WB takes some time and cost of wet sandpaper 400-1200 as needed.
I like em for value, have to add labor, what is time worth? fun?
I doubt customer satisfaction is high for most first time customers with theese.
You have been warned Wink

I DID get some clear ones from ebay that look real good (also needed minor lapping)

Next stop for decent WB is about $40, times 5 and most people are done calculating.
Pumps, radiators, fittings, adds up fast, how committed are you?
Alphacool rotating 90's are shit avoid at all cost! One of me ASIC went swimming.
EDIT Alphacool makes great radiators.

Also keep in mind airflow for VRMs.
WB obstructs air and mounts block more.
I go with high mounts.

FrozenCPU has cupons on web if you google.

YMMV

EDIT
A pool COVER pump is about the right size for watercooling.
Triple check for leaks if you use much higher flow and pressure.
Some of the cheapo flex fittings may explode downstream from a pool filter pump.
It is the better problem to have. RE: too high/low pressure!
Great idea, another reason to envy peeps with pools as I sweat by the hot ASICs

Always very good comments tolip

I have done most of my homework.. chlorine does attack copper but pH is the big issue. Pool heater heat exchangers are often copper. I did buy cheapie WBs from HK with side entry

so they are probably low on copper content. There should be minimum airflow distruption and I plan to reorganize fans and heatsinks for better VRM cooling. Maybe experiment with some piping and JB weld on a Jupiter board for lower risk to earnings. I will have a pressure relief value to 'short' the loop and will have the setup after the filter on a 'side' loop from the main run and expect the pressure should stay quite low.

The radiator in the pool is a good idea.. I thought about this and my concern at the time was that I have a pretty long run (would add ~50-60 feet to the loop) and about 10-12ft of vertical going into and coming out of the attic space.

Freezing in the attic isn't a big concern here in central Florida, but with the heat these put out we can engineer it so it cannot freeze in any climate. If it did get cold enough I could even skip the radiator Wink

Anyway... still thinking it all through and I do very much appreciate your input!