Need help with planing! Help a brotha' out! (Please D:)

[AnOldieButAGoodie]

Hello!!

I need pro help. I have a VERY limited budget, and I want to fully watercool my system. I know I am not buying any good parts, if any at this point. I am completely ghetto rigging this. My previous plans were to get copper coil around a big ass box fan and pump water from a 2 gallon reservoir. Once I found out my pump wasnt compatible, I scrapped my old idea and went back to the drawing board. My current plan is, and with research backing me up, could I theoretically use my 5.5 gallon fishtank, fill it with water, and just pump water through my system, no radiator, keeping my system absolutely silent and spending less then $100? Tell me what is wrong about this, etc etc. Thank you so much! 

Water maps:

#1:

2 gallon bucket with a pump inside, pumping water through vinyl tubing into a cpu block on the cpu, then a second cpu block on the gpu (vram cooled by small adhesive heatsinks), then forcing water out of the system into 20' of copper coil strapped onto a box fan to then be dumped into the 2 gallon bucket to start all over again.

#2:
5 (or more) gallon fishtank full of water with a pump inside pumping water through vinyl tubing into a cpu block on the cpu, then a second cpu block on the gpu (vram cooled by small adhesive heatsinks), then forcing water out of the system to be dumped back into the 5 (or more) gallon fishtank.


Now, logically speaking, the larger fishtank(s) I have, the longer it would tank to eventaully heat up all the water, and the sheer size of the fishtank(s) would promote heat dissipation. But this would also mean that the water would be ambient temperature, then would increasing heat up due to the cpu and gpu. I could solve this problem in 2 ways, an ass ton of fishtanks and water, or a large fishtank stacked with icepacks. The icepack idea would require a mini freezer though, and I would have to develope a schedule based upon how often I would need to switch out ice packs. Also, the icepack idea, depending on how cold and how many of them, would produce condensation...    At this point I am just ranting about different ways. If you are still reading this, tell me what you think! Tell me what I am doing/thinking incorrectly. Tell me some of your ideas! Thank you so much, you sir are the real MVP.

-AnOldieButAGoodie

[Sam Z Man]

Hello!!

I need pro help... keeping my system absolutely silent and spending less then $100?

-AnOldieButAGoodie

 

Use aircolling

[AnOldieButAGoodie]

Use aircolling

1. I am overclocking

2. my room is hotter then an oven

[Sportiva]

Have fun making a full custom loop with only $100.

[failblox]

If you value the hardware you're doing this on at all, I highly recommend you do not do something like this. I'm not sure if you got inspiration from LTT's Scrapyard Wars videos, but those are not good solutions to make a system silent (especially in the long run). I'll run down what I think are some of the reasons you shouldn't do this.

 

Not having a radiator will increase your temperatures significantly. The water in the loop may take a while to heat up, even if you get a bigger fishtank, but all the water will heat up eventually, and there will be very little surface area to dissipate the heat. This may result in temperatures perhaps appearing to be fine at first, but after running under load for a few hours, that heated up water is not going to be something you want and your temps will likely be too hot.

 

If you just used regular water, there might be gunk and other living things in the water which you can't see, but over time, will cause stuff to build up in your loop. Additionally, your plan to have an open fish tank will cause a lot of dust to get in there, and therefore, into your system. Over time junk can build up and make it difficult to move water around the loop, increasing your temperatures even more.

 

Overall, your plan seems too complicated and I'm almost certain something will go wrong - if not now, then shortly after. If I were you, I'd just stick to air cooling. It might be a bit louder and hotter, but at least you'll have a functional system.

[Mayhemster]

1. I am overclocking

2. my room is hotter then an oven

As long is your room isn't 80c air cooling will work fine. You wont get a crazy over clock, but you wont get that with water cooling in a room that hot anyways. Water cooling is still cooled by room air, so it will have the same limitation.

[Sam Z Man]

1. I am overclocking

2. my room is hotter then an oven

 

You do know a 100$ getto ass water cooling solution will perform worse then air cooling on the same budget. 

[AnOldieButAGoodie]

If you value the hardware you're doing this on at all, I highly recommend you do not do something like this. I'm not sure if you got inspiration from LTT's Scrapyard Wars videos, but those are not good solutions to make a system silent (especially in the long run). I'll run down what I think are some of the reasons you shouldn't do this.

 

Not having a radiator will increase your temperatures significantly. The water in the loop may take a while to heat up, even if you get a bigger fishtank, but all the water will heat up eventually, and there will be very little surface area to dissipate the heat. This may result in temperatures perhaps appearing to be fine at first, but after running under load for a few hours, that heated up water is not going to be something you want and your temps will likely be too hot.

 

If you just used regular water, there might be gunk and other living things in the water which you can't see, but over time, will cause stuff to build up in your loop. Additionally, your plan to have an open fish tank will cause a lot of dust to get in there, and therefore, into your system. Over time junk can build up and make it difficult to move water around the loop, increasing your temperatures even more.

 

Overall, your plan seems too complicated and I'm almost certain something will go wrong - if not now, then shortly after. If I were you, I'd just stick to air cooling. It might be a bit louder and hotter, but at least you'll have a functional system.

Okay, thanks!! 

I was thinking, could I run hosing through a mini fridge? I could pick one up for real cheap, run 100' of garden hosing, drill small holes in the side, and have that act as my radiator? I have plenty of spare plugs in my room, and mini fridges are quiet, or at least quieter then my computer. I could then use reduces to get a fit from the garden hose to vinyl tubing. I could also reuse the fish tank, which has a cover so no dust! But I honestly need a good cooling solution and I dont have a lot to spend. Once again, thanks a lot!

[failblox]

Okay, thanks!! 

I was thinking, could I run hosing through a mini fridge? I could pick one up for real cheap, run 100' of garden hosing, drill small holes in the side, and have that act as my radiator? I have plenty of spare plugs in my room, and mini fridges are quiet, or at least quieter then my computer. I could then use reduces to get a fit from the garden hose to vinyl tubing. I could also reuse the fish tank, which has a cover so no dust! But I honestly need a good cooling solution and I dont have a lot to spend. Once again, thanks a lot!

Get air cooling. There's nothing wrong with that.

 

A mini fridge will not act as a radiator. Water is going to be running through that fridge too fast for it to cool down significantly enough to make a difference, and whatever tubing you want to use is not going to help with that.

 

Also, some fridges can be pretty loud when they're on, so that defeats your 'silent' purpose.

 

I can't stress this enough, along with what other people in this thread have already said - just get air cooling. If you spend a decent amount of money on air cooling, you can get very good cost/performance ratio with it. If you really want to do water cooling, do it properly and spend a few hundred dollars on it.