Figuring out the cheapest way to build a system...

5k3l3t0r · January 23, 2013

I love the idea have water running through my computer or on my computer. But, all the hardware for a good water cooling is was expensive. My friend Tom suggested a couple of things for my water cooling solution. One was to put into a refrigeration. He had a difficult time of how you make it air tight, so that none of the cold air would escape from the casing. There are number of ways you can do it. He also suggested to safe money on water cooling parts is to find alternatives like the pumps and the tubing. The waterblocks are too hard to find alternatives.

I found that most fish tank water pumps can be used because they have similar specs. Some of the pumps can be submerge in water. You could kill two birds with this method I guess. I could build a reservoir large enough for your coolant and your pump and place it in a couple of 5.25" drive bays. I know a lot of companies now are doing cpu waterblock and pump combination. I worry about that because if the pump shorts and all the water spreads on your motherboard - scary.

Most tubing that you find at the hardware store is tested to not to leak in the first place. I have compared the thickness of cooling systems and the tubing at the hardware store, the hardware store tubing is thicker, but it does server the same purpose. You can also buy tubing thickness in thinner amounts.

Just a suggestion for your next build

zahlio · January 23, 2013

The fridge idea is crazy. But could work. What you could do was getting a mini fridge, something like a: http://www.drinkstuff.com/products/product.asp?ID=8584&catID=19&name=Frostbite+Mini+Fridge+Silver

The home made ghetto water cooling idea can be done, but you will never get the reliability of a boxed product. So therefore i would'nt do that.

Whaler_99 · January 23, 2013

There is something to be said for the cost of the solution - an all nice and neat and purpose built WC solution versus a bit of DIY that you desscribe. I wonder just how noisy that fish pump would be? I know one of the things a lot of WC pumps work on is a balance of flow versus sound - one reason we WC - for silence. Not saying it wouldn't be good - just have not seen it. As said above, reliability, esp of the pump, is of utmost concern. On the kids fish tank, I have had a couple of pumps go... we notice, sometimes after a day or two. :) Kids, go figure. :) In a WC rig though, that could mean some fried parts. I did see though a guy using a bucket and a submersable pond pump in a ghetto setup to clean WC parts, go flush water through them and had a screen catching the water as it went back into the bucket holding the pump/res to capture debris. Cool if you are doing a lot of that sort of thing...

Also, cooling in a fridge or something, main issue is due to cold air and the heat from CPU and such, condensation created. Even if you just had the rad in their, you can cool the fluid to much and if not carefule, condensation issues....