Advice on external Water Cooling

MickeyFinns · 5 Apr 2007 at 22:26

Hey there im planning a new project.

I am about to delve into water cooling but i am quite interested in building a external unit.

Im only planning to cool the CPU for now and so i plan to make a show sized box out of plexi or something similiar and have res in it, a PA120.3 rad, a pump, fan controller fans and a old generic PSU.

Now my main question is is there any major cons of these designs?

For example would there be problems based on the length of the tubes running from one box to the other.

Also since the Water bBox and PC will have seperate PSU's what if someone turns the pc on without the water or the water psu dies?

So please discuss away the pro and cons of my ideas...

Cheers for all responses.

PhillyDee · 5 Apr 2007 at 23:14

Well, you would chain both PSU's together with one power button. That would eliminate one problem, and if you set the pc to automatically shut down the pc when the die temp reaches, say, 60 degrees it shouldnt kill it.

MickeyFinns · 5 Apr 2007 at 23:25

Yeah those are good ideas.

Anyone got any advice on the hose length issue?

Dude · 6 Apr 2007 at 01:27

Well you could use a 12v pump so that it is powered by the PC or do what i have done for years , have the plugs for my PC & watercooling in the same extension(glue them in if you are paranoid).
The lengths of the tubing should not really be a major factor , the height difference between an external res & PC will make more difference.
I once used a 25 metre length of new tubing without cutting it to test a new setup & once it had filled the tubing it worked OK , there are losses due to friction/turbulence so it is best to keep tubing lengths as short as possible.

w3bbo · 6 Apr 2007 at 06:49

As stated - keep tubing lengths as short as possible for max performance.