Anyone ever made a waterblock?

Bigdogbmx

Bigdogbmx

Bigdogbmx

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Basically Im looking at making a CPU waterblock and wondered if anyone has any advice. I dont have access to any fancy machinery, but I do have the help of my dad who is a retired thermal analyst (a chemist who analyses thermal properties of stuff). We were thinking something very basic, like a sort of copper box, with fins going from base to lid inside, placed in rows slightly offset so the water is forced to flow around all of them. Seeing as I lack experience, and Id rather not have to build a few of these before I get it right, so if anyone can help me with little pointers they would be much appreciated.
2 obvious things I would like to know are what thickness copper is best for the base, and also how large the area of the base needs to be. It will be getting used on an opteron 170 with the IHS removed for a while, then in a few months most likely onto a Core 2 duo.

Thanks in advance for any replies, George.
 
IMO its not worth the hassle, youll be looking at £30 for the block of copper, a few quid for the connectors, a few quid to get some machine time, tooling and gaskets, and then youll still be left with an ineffecient cooler... Id instead spend the money on a solution that has already been developed, tested and produced.

TBH, ive got access to free materials, my dad owns a small CNC milling machine and I can write CNC programs (Fanuc) to create pretty much anything I wanted and at the end of the day I will never be able to create something better than what one of the major WC companies has already developed. I did manufacturer my own TEC mounting to attach to a Swiftech waterblock as at the time that wasnt available elsewhere.

Not trying to put you off really, just pointing out it isnt a cheap solution and certainly not the best... some things like how thick to make the copper base/Contact face? too thick and heat takes longer to transfer thorough and too thin and it can get overwhelmed by the CPU heat and no amount of water will sufficiently cool it.
 
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Google for it. It used to be quite common but simply isn't worth doing any more except for "fun". Modern blocks have very thin bases with highly turbulent flow over high surface areas.
 
Thanks for the replies fellas, I am looking at doing it mainly for fun to be honest. As far as the cost of copper, I wont be using a block of copper and machining it, the plan is to build a box of copper out of plates, with fins soldered in going against the flow of the water. Wether this will be enough remains to be seen but it will be fun making it either way. Ill take pics as we go along and keep you guys informed as to how effective it is.

Cheers, George.
 
As said it's become a defunct art sadly, water cooling has reached a plateau where by any improvements in individual components are minor, the ideal kit pretty much exists at this stage or can be purchased and modified to a state of almost ideal for very little money. Things are a lot more mature than they were back in the day (I still have an old Maze 2 and AGOIA TBird kicking about.... with a TEC that thing used to be amazing). Air coolers have also improved considerably. If you google the subject you'll find a lot of people used to experiment with DIY blocks back in the day, some even made a viable business out of it at one point.
 
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