Watercooling a system

bigsharn

bigsharn

bigsharn

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Location
York
I'm thinking of WCing my CPU (but I want to be able to add extra bloacks when I get extra funds, hence not just getting the H50). So far I have a Laing DDC pump and a D-Tek Fuzion block coming, and I'm thinking of using a radiator out of an old merc. (Funds will depend on whether I get a res or just a T-connector and a fillport)

Will the Pump be powerful enough to go around the car radiator
Will the rad be enough to cool the CPU passively (I'll get fans when I cool the GPU and chipset)?
Does coolant make much of a difference? (Distilled water vs Feser for example?)

And most importantly
Have I forgotten anything?

Thanks all
Sharn
 
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Would imagine for the size of the car radiator a pond pump may be more adequate, using car rads are a bit old skool and unfortunately before my Watercooling knowledge, someone with more experience may be able to advise here.

Again for the amount of coolant needed, go for distilled, save a fortune and will perform the same, can't see a reason why it couldn't do it passive either
 
The only thing is a friend had an accident and wrote his car off (some idiot arse-rammed him) and I'm getting the rad for a fiver, I'll be getting a proper rad (and probably a better case that will actually fit it) when I get blocks and stuff

Thanks for the help so far but I could really do with knowing if the pump will be powerful enough :p
 
I'm not too bothered about a high flow at the moment, I just want to get it working :p

I'd have thought a low flow rate would be better for WC anyway, giving more time for heat to transfer from the water into the radiator (I know there's a balance)

I've bought the DDC on the (very) cheap so I'm not bothered about comparable pump at the moment, but thanks, I'll definitely look into it for when I come out of the ghetto :)
 
OK - for what it's worth (and you've ignored good advice already) - flow rate is almost everything in a water cooling system.

You want the water circulating through the system as often as possible, taking up and dumping as much heat as possible.

If low flow rates were better we wouldn't necessarily have pumps.

A DDC will possibly burn itself out with a car radiator. Even a D5 will probably struggle depending on how far away the radiator is from the case. Think about the weight of water you are asking the pump to move. It's enormous. A pond pump is a much better bet.

How are you adapting the massive inlets and outlets on the car radiator to the tubing you are using in the PC?

Ghetto is one thing, but you actually need to be very skilled to make ghetto work at all, let alone properly.
 
I'm not ignoring it, I just don't know about watercooling, at all (hence posting the topic and asking the question of if low-flow would be better)

I think I may use a pond pump, or ask for the heater core radiator instead and clean it out (or both)

Thanks :)
 
Is it really worth the hassle? You're going to end up with a physically huge rad, a stupidly loud pump and a horrid mess of tubing with dodgy adapters everywhere, which is likely to leak, all to cool your CPU?

You can get to bits for watercooling a CPU for about £150-200, is it really worth the time spend messing around? It'll probably be worse than decent air cooling aswell.
 
If i were you, id go and check the second hand website and pick up a second hand swiftech h220 kit nice n cheap around £45-75, fits perfectly in the antec 300 and will offer superior coolnig performance, no leaks, mobility, silence, ease of installation if you dont have much experience in WC and an inevitable saving on your wallet :)
 
I doubt performance will be actually worse, I'm only using a Freezer 7 pro right now, I think I might look at a proper rad though instead of the car radiator, from what people have said the car radiator is the main problem with the setup... At least I'll have the other bits soonish
 
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