# My Home Made Water Cooling Setup!



## amit_talkin (Aug 1, 2009)

I m posting pics of my running home made wc setup. I was working on it for last 2 months, finally done it!  Its working great for last 20 days in my system. so here are the pics , hope u like this ghetto way of water cooling setup . 

I m now planning to make water block for my HD4890, but I want full cover block, so confused abt how to make it!. Hope I will find a way though .

so Here we go...

1. The CPU Water Block






2. Water Block with acrylic mount





3. Lapped contact surface of the water block





4. Radiator with 6x120mm - 80 CFM Fans.





5. Reservoir ( Submersible pump inside, 1200 LPH ).





* System Pics below *


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## MRCL (Aug 1, 2009)

Lol omg omfg. That really works? I take my hat off to you.


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## amit_talkin (Aug 1, 2009)

MRCL said:


> Lol omg omfg. That really works? I take my hat off to you.



Yes, it works! as I said, Its been running over 20 days without any prob. ( No leakage , my pc is 24x7 ON for downloads and havent shutdown for last 2 days. ) . My temp. went down 8c compared to OCZ Vendetta 2 I was using on my PC.


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## Asylum (Aug 1, 2009)

Dam...Nice job there man.
Your liquid looks alittle thick though.What are you useing?
Maybe try thining it out with some distilled water.
Should make your temps even better.


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## amit_talkin (Aug 1, 2009)

Asylum said:


> Dam...Nice job there man.
> Your liquid looks alittle thick though.What are you useing?
> Maybe try thining it out with some distilled water.
> Should make your temps even better.



As this is my 1st project, I was too eager to complete it fast as possible. So I didnt care much about coolant n all. Right now I m using Distilled water + automobile coolant ( 1:5 ) . Dont know this one is good or bad for my setup .


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## r9 (Aug 1, 2009)

Why can`t I see the pictures ?


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## JrRacinFan (Aug 1, 2009)

Nice job! You could probably cut out the coolant and use strictly distilled water if you wish. Either way congrats and i love the look of that CPU block.


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## djshadow (Aug 1, 2009)

Thats extremely sick ! Your da man here . 

And btw, maybe u have some ideas for NB ?

I cant see there, you used glue (as i think it's copper lol ) for copper ?
Or you have welded it ?

I'm really suprised with your home made things.


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## TheCrow (Aug 1, 2009)

Kudos for giving it a bash and pulling it off!

Absolutely brilliant! Just goes to show you dont have to spend a fortune, just have an idea!


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## a_ump (Aug 1, 2009)

dam nice man, haha this is one thing i never thought i'd see. homemade cpu block and h20 setup. that'd be tight if you manage to pull off a full coverage water block for your card


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## tong (Aug 1, 2009)

MRCL said:


> Lol omg omfg. That really works? I take my hat off to you.




How do you think water cooling pc's got started? Those "old-school" of us use to hang out at http://www.procooling.com/ in their forums trading secrets, that's where it got started back in the celeron 300 days.  Doing home made water blocks and such, trading machining tips and secrets, where do you think Cathar got so big?  Everyone knows the Swiftech storm, thing is it's based on Cathar's design, and one of his rev 6 silver based blocks still brings close to 300 dollars for the block due to the unmatched performance.  Pump curves, flow rates, thermal dissipation.... all of that was started there.

It's the place you went to to figure out what kind of block would due best with the pump u wanted to use or radiator or even what blocks and which designs were good for TEC's, what kind of flow rates and head pressure your pump would need to get the right flow to not burn your whole system if you did have a TEC.  The original heater-core radiator designs were from there (most radiators now are based on this one specifically), 1977 Pontiac Bonneville with AC heater-core (35 bux at your local parts store and it fits 2 x 120mm fans perfectly), there was a whole thread dedicated to flow rates and thermal dissipation of just heater-cores, in fact it went even further as to what brand car they belonged to, the original 240mm radiator was a heater-core from a Ford. Bet most of you never heard of Iwaki pumps, most new pump designs got their start there, silent water cooling got it's original base there also, one of the members built a whole system with 0 fans in it, all water cooling using passive cooling as a method of heat dissipation for all his hardware. There's a dedicated thread just to additives and water temp relationship, most of the additives today that are being used are junk due to clogging and pump destruction, but people still use it. 

I think there;s still threads with pictures of peoples home made blocks. EKK got started there, bunch of other blocks got designs and inputs from that site and the true enthusiasts.

To the OP, nice setup, now that's true hardcore water-cooling enthusiast. Tip: try doing a waterfall evap as a reservoir, bet you'll drop another 3 to 5 degrees C on top of it, only thing is you need to keep your eye on the water level.

Edit: oh yeah it makes you pee a lot due to the sound of the waterfall it makes.


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## Easo (Aug 1, 2009)

This is great!


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## NastyHabits (Aug 1, 2009)

Fantastic.  Love it.  

Beware of using pure distilled water with your setup.  It that's a modern radiator, it's made of aluminum and plastic.  You should run the same ratio as a car: 1:1 water and antifreeze.  If it's an old radiator with a copper core and brass tanks, then water is fine.


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## kyle2020 (Aug 1, 2009)

Any shots of the block itself inside? As in pin array and such


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## MRCL (Aug 1, 2009)

tong said:


> How do you think water cooling pc's got started?



I'm new to watercooling myself. Of course it had to start somewhere, and I saw pictures of the earliest blocks and such. But I'm not familiar with the whole history. So sorry if I offended you in any way


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## amit_talkin (Aug 4, 2009)

JrRacinFan said:


> Nice job! You could probably cut out the coolant and use strictly distilled water if you wish. Either way congrats and i love the look of that CPU block.



Thnx man, yeah well I will remove extra coolant n will add more dis. water . 



djshadow said:


> Thats extremely sick ! Your da man here .
> 
> And btw, maybe u have some ideas for NB ?
> 
> ...



My NB heatsink is too large, but I dont know how to remove that heatpipe which connects NB to CPU regulators heatsink. otherwise it is easy to make NB water block. And I have used silver ( which u said glue ) to weld copper 2 copper. that shiny white material u seeing around copper is silver. nozzles are made from brass.



TheCrow said:


> Kudos for giving it a bash and pulling it off!
> 
> Absolutely brilliant! Just goes to show you dont have to spend a fortune, just have an idea!



Thanks very much for ur compliments buddy .



a_ump said:


> dam nice man, haha this is one thing i never thought i'd see. homemade cpu block and h20 setup. that'd be tight if you manage to pull off a full coverage water block for your card



I m also thinking abt how to make full cover block for 4890! It can be done for GPU only, but full cover block is a diff. story..need lotta work to make it and still I dont knw how to start working on it! :s. I m thinking I can make 2 piece block,,1 for GPU , 1 for vrams .



NastyHabits said:


> Fantastic.  Love it.
> 
> Beware of using pure distilled water with your setup.  It that's a modern radiator, it's made of aluminum and plastic.  You should run the same ratio as a car: 1:1 water and antifreeze.  If it's an old radiator with a copper core and brass tanks, then water is fine.



Its not modern radiator, its copper-brass radiator and should be much efficient than aluminum based radiators. current coolant i m using has ratio of 1:5 ( coolant: water ).



kyle2020 said:


> Any shots of the block itself inside? As in pin array and such



sorry to say, no pins or array inside the block, I didnt get this idea in my mind until block was made! so it is plain surface inside. contact surface is 3mm thick and lapped.


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## D3M0N-G4M3R (Aug 4, 2009)

Whats your temps like man? I agree with the above post on that liquid though, that looks really sticky and thick.


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## Sasqui (Aug 4, 2009)

Way CoOL!!!  What are you using for a pump? (...did I miss that part?)


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## amit_talkin (Aug 4, 2009)

D3M0N-G4M3R said:


> Whats your temps like man? I agree with the above post on that liquid though, that looks really sticky and thick.



temp. on my q9450@3.6GHz are 51-47-42-43 idle...I know its high, because I have got faulty CPU chip ( got it cheaper though ). previously with OCZ vendetta 2, it was 58-55-54-51! in how much proporsal I should use coolant?



Sasqui said:


> Way CoOL!!!  What are you using for a pump? (...did I miss that part?)



Its a submersible pump. see reservoir pic. 
Here is the product link

```
http://www.tullu.com/pump02_submersible.htm
```


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## btarunr (Aug 4, 2009)

amit_talkin said:


> sorry to say, no pins or array inside the block, I didnt get this idea in my mind until block was made! so it is plain surface inside. contact surface is 3mm thick and lapped.



The easiest way to get started (now that the base is thick), is to etch it from the inside to add surface-area.

Great job otherwise


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## Sasqui (Aug 4, 2009)

amit_talkin said:


> Its a submersible pump. see reservoir pic.
> Here is the product link
> 
> ```
> ...



Sweet.  What model did you get?


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## btarunr (Aug 4, 2009)

He said 1200 lph, so it has to be THS-3000.


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## amit_talkin (Aug 4, 2009)

Yeah, THS 3000. guess wht it costs? $17 USD! with 1 year warranty. radiator cost me $36 USD. Lapping was done on electro-platting machine. it cost me $0.21 USD.


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## Braveheart (Aug 4, 2009)

Im impressed.


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## D3M0N-G4M3R (Aug 5, 2009)

i think if your using coolant its  20% (10% maybe) coolant and the rest distilled water, i think anyways, itd be worth checking that. it may be different anyways for ur coolant, that does look pretty thick though. It may even be worth using distilled water on its own to see if your temps improve and just buy some good water dye.


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## CH33TAH (Aug 5, 2009)

Awesome ! Where did you have the waterblock machined ?


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## Flibolito (Aug 5, 2009)

Awesome bro I really like that setup.


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## amit_talkin (Aug 6, 2009)

CH33TAH said:


> Awesome ! Where did you have the waterblock machined ?



making block was an interesting part of the project. It was done at a 'Steel Workshop'.
cutting, finishing was done on lathe machine, then they weld it with gas-welder. They were very experienced with all these so overall work was done nicely. However, it needs to be done carefully, because it gets too hot while doing welding job, and copper surface could bend up due to too much heat. Same with lapping process on electro-platting machine ( the machine on which they lap steel parts, like our bathroom accessories, thts why the look shiny ), it also needs too much care because too much heating could loose welded joints.

Materials I have used to make this block are a copper plate ( 60x60mm for CPU contact surface, 50x50mm for top surface where nozzles are welded ,3mm thick ), a piece of copper pipe ( 1/2 inch, 50mm diameter ), 2 brass nozzles.


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