Check This out - A Homemade Passive Water Cooling System

Omega65Omega65 Philadelphia, Pa
edited June 2003 in Hardware
Overclockers.com: PC Water Cooling with a Passive Radiator

rack.jpg
Even though it is assumed that the concrete floor is conducting the heat from the radiator, the garage ambient temperature seems to have an influence on the water temperature. For most of the year the garage air temperature should be 14-15 degrees C. On rare occasions the garage air temperature will rise to 28 degrees C and above. Therefore on average, it is predicted the CPU temperature will be below 30 degrees C.

In conclusion, it appears both project objectives were achieved. The computer is very quiet with only the power supply fans turning at low RPM, and, on average, the CPU temperature will likely be 30 degrees C or less.
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Comments

  • CCWCCW Suffolk, UK
    edited June 2003
    lol, if they got some desk fans blowing over that they could get it even cooelr, i mean its not like theyre gonan ehar the noise, its in their garage.

    Craig
  • dydxdydx Cymru, UK
    edited June 2003
    You could build something like that, but leave the radiator in the bottom of a swimming pool.

    A water cooled water cooler.



    mD
  • PyobliEPyobliE UK
    edited June 2003
    Thats pretty cool. Can just imagine that guy trying to explain to his wife why he was placing tubing from the garage to his office....
  • dydxdydx Cymru, UK
    edited June 2003
    Weve got LANs, weve got SANs, next, its gonna be CANs, cooling area networks.

    Pipes running through the house to all the computers, from the 'cooling server' in the garage.

    This guy on some site, built something like that to cool 3 computers in some kinda home made rack. Looked pretty impressive.



    mD
  • CCWCCW Suffolk, UK
    edited June 2003
    Originally posted by dydx
    You could build something like that, but leave the radiator in the bottom of a swimming pool.

    A water cooled water cooler.



    mD

    good idea, especially if the water in the "swimming pool" is chilled
  • dydxdydx Cymru, UK
    edited June 2003
    The radiator would double up as a pool heater, even though a CPU isnt going to heat that much water as fast as the wind is cooling the water.

    All I need to test my theory is a swimming pool. Id get pretty good temps here, as its June, and I still have to weat a coat to go outside its so cold.


    mD
  • CCWCCW Suffolk, UK
    edited June 2003
    it would be better of to have the swimming pool chilled instead of ambient

    Craig
  • DexterHolland911DexterHolland911 Hong Kong
    edited June 2003
    That is pretty cool... but pretty useless. As long as you have a decent sized radiator... just turn the fans off. My temps only go up 2 degrees. What would be really cool (literally lol) Is if you had a cooled swimming pool and put the radiator in that. Like a waterchiller. :)
  • CCWCCW Suffolk, UK
    edited June 2003
    Originally posted by DexterHolland911
    What would be really cool (literally lol) Is if you had a cooled swimming pool and put the radiator in that. Like a waterchiller. :)

    we are talkinig about a radiator in a chilled water
  • DexterHolland911DexterHolland911 Hong Kong
    edited June 2003
    good idea, especially if the water in the "swimming pool" is chilled

    Sorry, didn't see that. :) In my original post I meant the original setup shown would be pretty useless.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited June 2003
    Interesting idea, however, if it were me, I'd have buried it under ground, used a bigger pump, and thrown a 226w pelt on the cpu, an 80w pelt on the gfx card, an 80w pelt on the chipst, and hdd water blocks for good measure... :D
  • CCWCCW Suffolk, UK
    edited June 2003
    Originally posted by Geeky1
    and hdd water blocks for good measure... :D

    You wouldnt if you had SCSI!

    Craig
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited June 2003
    I do have SCSI... 2 10,000rpm IBM Ultrastar LVD-160/SE drives, 36.7 & 18.2GB respectively... (the older, 4mb cache ones)
  • DexterHolland911DexterHolland911 Hong Kong
    edited June 2003
    Geeky1 - Not that easy to just say: I'd throw some pelts on :D If it was oppainter, he'd throw 6x220watt pelts on the radiator and another 2 more on the CPU. :)
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited June 2003
    Originally posted by Geeky1
    Interesting idea, however, if it were me, I'd have buried it under ground, used a bigger pump, and thrown a 226w pelt on the cpu, an 80w pelt on the gfx card, an 80w pelt on the chipst, and hdd water blocks for good measure... :D
    I was thinking along this line but was thinking that in a cool climate you could just encase it in concrete like the floor of the foundation for your house. I guarantee that in a location of at least 40 Deg N or 44 Deg S you would be in good shape as the ground stays fairly cool and the concrete in contact with the ground under the house would stay very cool. Something like this would work very well for a "Cooling Network".
  • stoopidstoopid Albany, NY New
    edited June 2003
    Funny, I had ideas about subterranian cooling quite a while back, looks like others are starting to use their noggins too ;)

    I was originally concerned with the conduction of the heat away from the PC... the ground or well or whatever will dissipate will be more than enough to absorb and disperse any heat that tiny cpu can generate... but getting the cool in and warm out is another issue... maybe some super coolant (capable of -30C) would do the trick, through 20 feet of 1/2" stainless steel coil/tubing/piping buried 10 feet underground...
  • dydxdydx Cymru, UK
    edited June 2003
    Great minds think alike.

    My swimming pool idea is better tho :P


    mD
  • DexterHolland911DexterHolland911 Hong Kong
    edited June 2003
    The grounds is not a very efficient conductor of heat. :) Personally I like the swimming pool idea better. :P
  • stoopidstoopid Albany, NY New
    edited June 2003
    Originally posted by DexterHolland911
    The grounds is not a very efficient conductor of heat. :) Personally I like the swimming pool idea better. :P

    10 feet under the ground is so 'compacted' and moist that it should not be a problem.

    Swimming pools tend to be a little too warm for cooling, I'll take 15C year-round temps over 30+C summer temps anyday ;)
  • dydxdydx Cymru, UK
    edited June 2003
    It aint a problem where i live.

    It would be nicely chilled allyear round.


    mD
  • DexterHolland911DexterHolland911 Hong Kong
    edited June 2003
    stoopid - It won't be a problem... but it will hamper performance. I would love to see it actually done. You'll need a big ass pump.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited June 2003
    Dex, as you said, the ground is a very poor conductor of heat, however, they use subterranean cooling for houses in some places. If you go down more than ~10', the temperature is pretty much universally something like 55*F anywhere in the world, give or take a few * either way. You could compensate for the ground's poor thermal conductivity with more surface area...
  • Omega65Omega65 Philadelphia, Pa
    edited June 2003
    Actually some guy did do the underground cooling thing. The Link died with the old ICF though.

    He buried a tank underground and pumped water between it and his computer. It worked quite well....
  • stoopidstoopid Albany, NY New
    edited June 2003
    Originally posted by Omega65
    Actually some guy did do the underground cooling thing. The Link died with the old ICF though.

    He buried a tank underground and pumped water between it and his computer. It worked quite well....

    I'd consider something like this, but the potential maintenance on the tank would be too much for me to justify it... so I was figuring on cutting some performance corners and just used a closed loop system and have the actual length of piping and depth of the coil be the secret ingredient to compensate for the lack of surface area/heat transfer...

    Now to see if my landlord agrees to me digging up his yard and driveway to run tubing and piping to my 3rd floor apartment :p

    And, yes, it would have to be one big arse pump.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited June 2003
    Use a high-quality industrial pump... that is, if you can handle 100 gallons of water per minute or more....
  • stoopidstoopid Albany, NY New
    edited June 2003
    Originally posted by Geeky1
    Use a high-quality industrial pump... that is, if you can handle 100 gallons of water per minute or more....

    Then again, you don't want it moving TOO fast, as it will pull the water through the piping in the ground TOO fast and not allow for enough time for heat transfer/absorption... you'd actually have to fugure out the time it takes a particle to move through the system, how long the heat exchange needs to take while the particle is beneath ground in the piping, then offset that time by the amount of cooling lost spend going back above ground (into warmer air) until it returns to the waterblock... :rolleyes:

    BTW, I'm highly caffeinated today :D
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited June 2003
    no such thing as too fast :D just too little surface area. If the water's moving too fast, the pipes are obviously too small :D
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited June 2003
    Originally posted by Geeky1
    no such thing as too fast :D just too little surface area. If the water's moving too fast, the pipes are obviously too small :D
    I agree! Not too mention you will have too much head loss too. So it would only figure that the longer the lines the larger diameter tubing you will need. Once you go bigger than 3/4" I think it would be better to taper up and down in steps so as to eliminate backup in one spot. A good possibility would be to use !/2" lines to connect to the wall connection where you would have 3/4" tubing in the walls to the coils which would be 1" or 1 1/4". Just think if you built a house that way and had the coil just make one loop undr the perimiter of the foundation for your house??? Less elbows and more length to disapate heat and pick up extra cooling from the ground. MMMMM And to think I will be building a house in a few more years too!
  • DexterHolland911DexterHolland911 Hong Kong
    edited June 2003
    For fixed piping there is such a thing as too fast, obviously. But I gotta love your thinking :D Just make it bigger, larger more complicated heatsink, bigger tubing. Go all out. :D
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited June 2003
    all out means one of those diesel-powered well pump things that does like 1000gpm w/6" intake and discharge tubes... you'll have to glue the water block to the cpu and the cpu to the mb and then bolt the case to the floor to keep it from moving :D
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