spot where my radiator is ( you will never guess )

chalfontcrew · 31 Mar 2015 at 07:42

i have just finished updating my rig by replacing motherboard processor etc from my old rig that has been running on the same cooling system for 7 years with no problems at all and it runs super cool as the water is at 9 degrees at the moment ( time of year is march ) please let me know what you think of my mad radiator. don't laugh just remember it has been running for 7 years with no problems it just works and is super silent

here is the link to the youtube video i have just uploaded the other day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHAs7k8KEcA

chalfontcrew · 31 Mar 2015 at 21:17

thanks for your reply

chalfontcrew · 31 Mar 2015 at 21:19

pastymuncher said:
Sorry but that is the most messy watercooling build I have ever seen (you did ask what we thought of it). Way too much tubing for my liking. I suppose if you are happy with it that's the important thing. With my rads mounted in a box on a windowsill I currently have water temps of 6.5 degrees in and 7.3 degrees out plus it's all tidy.

i like messy as neat and tidy is so last year and i still have my windowsill to put flowers on

chalfontcrew · 31 Mar 2015 at 21:22

^JP^ said:
I love things like this!
Reminds me of the guy who put a big metal tank underground with a sump pump in it to cool his system.
Sure the pipes and fittings could be neater but the ingenuity of using the water butt as a heat exchanger and getting some seriously good temperatures without spending hundreds on radiators is brilliant!

thank you for such a nice reply

chalfontcrew · 1 Apr 2015 at 07:39

Five.Stars said:
Probably spent hundreds on fittings!

Nope I reused all the fittings from 7 years ago and because I did need more I just buy plastic nylon ones that are for the automotive industry and cost penny's each, even the y splitters only cost me a quid or so and the special shaped manifolds I just turn them up. So no it doesn't cost much unless you are drawn into buying these overpriced fittings that they coat in a fancy paint colour then charge the earth for them. I use car hose spring clamps that are holding the hoses together on your cars cooling system as they are designed to cope with temps of 110 degree's c and pressures of 50 psi and therefore just will not leak in my system that actually has a negative presure of 1 psi when the pump is running as the pump is sucking the water out of the PC because I placed the pump on the out flow and not the in flow.

chalfontcrew · 1 Apr 2015 at 17:51

stuie said:
Dont you get issues with condensation?

No I don't have problems with condensation as in the winter months I turn the red levers that you can see in the video which diverts the incoming cold water to 10 meters of 22 mm bore copper tubing that runs behind my desk and that takes the chill of the water before it enters the pc. And in the warmer months I again turn the levers diverting the water so it comes in directly to the pc. The water pump is on the floor behind the pc I think I do show it in the video I pumps 400 litres an hour if I remember correctly as the pump is also seven years old and is still going strong.

chalfontcrew · 1 Apr 2015 at 18:25

mattyg said:
Would it not cool slightly better if the loop in was at the top of the water butt going down. As the bottom would be the coolest part.

It may make 0.00000000001 Deg difference mind

Has anyone cooled by using and old Guiness extra cold cooler

Because I still use up to half of the water butt water to water the flowers in the summer I decided to have the water coming in at the bottom then coiling up the butt then back down again using a tighter coil and I used 22 mm copper pipe and the loop holds about 8 litres of water to fill it not including the 50 gallons in the butt to sink out the heat

chalfontcrew · 3 Apr 2015 at 16:22

kaku said:
Can't imagine doing something that extreme in my house. The results speak for themselves though!
Have to admit I'm surprised you're using a relatively 'weak' pump. I'm guessing the lack of any radiator-related restriction helps somewhat?

the pump i use only pumps 400 litres an hour and that is when it was new, let alone the wear and tear that it has on it having been pumping for 7 years, it probally only pumps 300 litres nowadays. but the fact is that when you are using water coming in at 9 degrees at this time of year and have 50 gallons of it and the pc just isn't going to be able heat that lot up you don't need a powerful pump as it can just leisurely circulate around the loop. but when you have a system that holds just say 2 litres or so of water you need a rapid pump that is working its socks off passing as much water past the cpu etc as possible then big fans trying to remove the heat in the radiator as fast as possible because it only has a second or so inside of the radiator before it is back in the cpu heating up again. thanks for the remarks you gave me. :-)

chalfontcrew · 3 Apr 2015 at 16:29

Tattysnuc said:
Love what you've done - it really delivers on the original theme of modding and overclocking. I'm surprised at the location of the filter in the loop - would that not have been better placed in line with the pump as opposed to off the GPU loop, that way the muck doesn;t travel and get embedded in the narrow heat exchanger fins within your GPU/CPU.

Probably negligible difference - it clearly all works and very well too

Look forward to seeing any other projects you've got.

yes i wanted to put it in the main loop but the filter only has a tube bore of 8mm whereas the main system has a bore of 13mm and that would have put a big strain on the old pump of mine.
so i decided to just filter a section of the water as it will eventually filter it all over time.
the water in my old loop was inside for 7 years i never changed it at all as i used ptnuke to kill all bacteria and car antifreeze. and also after a time the water just isn't dirty any more.
thanks for your kind remarks

chalfontcrew · 3 Apr 2015 at 16:36

Tattysnuc said:
Love what you've done - it really delivers on the original theme of modding and overclocking. I'm surprised at the location of the filter in the loop - would that not have been better placed in line with the pump as opposed to off the GPU loop, that way the muck doesn;t travel and get embedded in the narrow heat exchanger fins within your GPU/CPU.

Probably negligible difference - it clearly all works and very well too

Look forward to seeing any other projects you've got.

i have the ability to reverse the direction of the pump and it back washes it like a swimming pool then the filter will pick up the dirt again over time.
but i will say that the old gpu cooler only had 4 big fins inside the heat exhanger, but the new heat exchanger does have these micro fins so i might have to flush it out more often, time will tell.
and as my cpu block is just the old one from the old system it still does have the 4 big fins, so i'm ok there

chalfontcrew · 3 Apr 2015 at 16:39

chillidog said:
am not having an dig hear but i hope your not an plumber by trade i got to say that's one total mess. the only thing that looks any good is the gpu temp
but if your happy with it well done but i know my misses would kill me if i done that

don't you worry yourself, we are all different, the world would be a boring place if we were all the same. thanks for your remarks though

chalfontcrew · 5 Apr 2015 at 00:19

Bryan Kortez said:
Very nice idea Would be handy for the summer as my room gets hot with my PC running and the heat being exhausted into my room.

That's a good point there the room doesn't heat up at all in fact it probably cools a bit as the cold water is running in those cold pipes behind the desk.
When I first built the system 7 years ago I did install a temp sensor in the water butt to see if the water warmed at all but I never saw an increase in temps at all even when I had been playing crysis 1 for hours on end.

chalfontcrew · 5 Apr 2015 at 00:21

flame696 said:
Brilliant and original idea! Now wheres my drill im going to start drilling so holes in the wall

Thanks for your kind remarks . you new a 20mm drill and you have to drill 2 holes one for flow and one for return. :-)

chalfontcrew · 5 Apr 2015 at 21:26

1uke said:
I love this. Yes it looks a little untidy but I agree *Tidy* is so last year! Especially when you have accomplished something like this and got over so many hurdles which could have cost you a small fortune. Also love your temps which are much better than my watercooled build which cost a small fortune compared to yours.

Thanks for the kind remarks

chalfontcrew · 7 Apr 2015 at 07:27

Mynight said:
Ha very nice!

Must admit I'm surprised the internal run is enough to bring it up to temp.

You've clearly spent some time planning this. Impressed.

The internal run is about 12 Meters long and is in 22mm bore copper tubing and if you do the calculations 22mm internal bore pipe holds .31 litres per Meter so that's .31 x 12 = 3.72 litres of coolant in those pipes alone and if the speed of the pump is say 300 litres per hour that's 5 litres a minute which means it is spending 45 seconds in the pipe just to warm the water up 5 degrees or so. Anyway it does seem to work well and has for many years. Thanks for your interest and kind remarks.