DIY: would this work?

[Telecaster]

I'm not experienced with watercooling a PC at all, I've had a few AIOs and that's about it, but I was thinking earlier if this would work?

Could you cool the liquid in the loop by passing the pipework through a large container of water in an external tank/container?

We all know things like garden water butts stay cold even in the summer if they don't sit in the sun, so a coil of pipe running through one of those connected to PC cooling loop should work, right? I know you'd have to get the pipe through the wall etc but I'm just at theory stage here. The winter temps would be interesting!

Are PC pumps strong enough to move this sort of volume? You'd do away with rads and fans obviously, as a plumber the pipework and cost of rigging it up isn't really a concern, I'm just interested in whether or not it would work?

 

[Jokester]

This actually works really well, pretty sure there's at least one member who has this type of setup.

As long as the barrel is on the same level as the PC and not that far away a standard pump will work fine.

 

[RJC]

That would work, I have seen people place radiators in the toilet water cistern or having the rad sitting outside on the window ledge.

Use copper pipe in the water butt and have fins or a external spiral to allow the heat to dissipate that would be workable.

During the winter months you would need to ensure that you don't get condensation forming on the pipe work going into the PC, whether you you use a rad for winter using a divert-er valve.

 

[Telecaster]

Interesting.

I did think of the condensation in the winter issue, but if I run it in copper like an external water feed then the section in the house should warm it up enough to prevent much condense I'd have thought.

 

[Cenedd]

Some sort of mixer tap? Thermostatic even? They do those for lovers of really cold showers, right?
Even manually, if you could have some water recirculate and some from the outside, it should keep the temps above the room's dew point.