[BLOG] Ghetto water cooling thoughts

BuddyJBuddyJ Dept. of PropagandaOKC Icrontian
edited November -1 in Community
I want to build a ghetto water cooling setup for under $100 that'll beat the ProWater we recently reviewed. It may be impossible. I may be crazy. Here's a tentative list of the components.
  • $22 aquarium pump 220 gal/hr from Petsmart
  • $23 '86 Chevette heater core radiator with fittings and JB weld from Autozone
  • $40 OCZ waterblock from OCZ
  • $9 Scythe 120mm 88cfm fan from Newegg

That leaves me with $6 to get the tubing, misc fittings and some PVC pipe to build a reservoir out of from the local hardware store. Where can I cut costs? I don't know. Suggestions?

Comments

  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    Take a look around for some used components. I've seen quite a few watercooling sales in tech forums. Might be able to find a cheap block and rad through those sorts of channels. Also, skip out on the resevoir--its not necessary. Look to create some kind of a 'T' line with a 'fillport-style' cap for filling the loop. It has been a while since I've done a DIY watercooling project, so I'm sure some of the other veterans (mudd) will speak up shortly :)
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    I'll second the used waterblock idea too, for saving money. You can find blocks such as the Swiftech Apogee series going for around $20-25 in the various forums Classifieds/Trading Posts. With a $22 aquarium pump, I would look for a lower restriction waterblock to insure adequate flow rate. And the Chevette heater core is good, but for a few bucks more you can get a 77 Bonneville heater core, which is a dual fan sized radiator which gives you much more cooling headroom. You can make your own plenum (shroud) out of some easy to work material such as aluminum flashing with either of the heater cores. The aluminum flashing is easy to work with and easy to cut and shape (used it myself to make a plenum). And radiators are another item you can shop in the forum Classies too. For tubing, you can buy something like the MasterKlear stuff that is pretty good for around $1/foot IIRC. And like LL said, you can use a "T" fitting and make a T line for filling the loop with too, saving some money on a reservoir.
  • BuddyJBuddyJ Dept. of Propaganda OKC Icrontian
    I'm trying to stay away from used items. Shopping around is a great way to save, but I'd like to try and do this using off-the-shelf parts that are available almost everywhere. Lots of people are too lazy to go the used route, and it's hard to know what you're getting sometimes. I'd like to make this friendly for the short attention span crowd. ;)

    Personally, I'd rather build using an Apogee GTZ block and a trip to the wrecking yard to pull a heater core.
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