Laptop Water Loop

[daveholland86]

Long time listener / lurker first time caller.  I am rolling around the thought of building a pseudo portable water loop setup for my laptop.  First off right out of the gate, I know it's going to be bulky and I know it's not cost effective.  I am interested in doing this since I don't see many being done in the US.  There actually is a ton of custom stuff in China for it.  It would be copper tubing bent to run along existing heat pipe, maybe flattened and soldered together for better thermal conductivity.  Disconnects for the water pump and radiator that sit enclosed outside the computer for quick disconnect and use without the water loop while portable but the enclosure will be powered by 1x 5v USB so it could also be packed if wanted.  Not really that I ever plan on taking it anywhere, the first test bed is a Laptop turned Plex server that is just stays on and sits on a desk.  The design I have in my head mimics some stuff I have seen out there already but not recent in the last 6 years.  The idea of it is to still have a functioning air system where water will supplement when enabled.  

Overall do you think it's a worthwhile project that people are interested in seeing the results and possible subsequent failure?  

[Sorenson]

I would definitely be interested in seeing the project. I would imagine there is a high likely hood of failure, but if you can pull it off it will be awesome.

[daveholland86]

I am also wondering if a 120mm cooler will be enough, I am looking at a low power fan, so we are totaling around 40 CFM on the radiator.  Now would that be enough flow since I actually have not any custom water solutions before.

On the Plex laptop it peaks maybe about 80c open air no cooler pad.  Where I am really interested is working it over to the Asus Strix and seeing what we can do in terms of pushing the GPU farther, while still keeping it quiet and cool while gaming.  
 

With everything going on and the lock downs, I am finding myself really bored and really interested in taking the project on, it is not something that I need to do or have overheating issues already.

[daveholland86]

Ok back after my vacation and I have ordered everything for the test bed.  I have 22g copper wire coming, so I can just tie down the water line for the time being before committing to a full solder on.  All in all it ran about $100 for the supplies and I guess it will be a fairly costly experiment.  Maybe not as much as Linus paid out to make that wreck of a heatsink though.  

[daveholland86]

So I got the copper pipe in today.  Well the ad said soft copper, it was not soft.  My bends are garbage.  Waiting on the water pump and then I have everything to do initial testing.  

[Devryd]

I watercooled my laptop last year and I had a similar approach. I wanted it to be usable without the loop, but that didnt work. So I mounted everything to a piece of wood and my laptop is now a little bigger and heavier but really quiet. I also used a 120mm and my cpu and gpu dont go over 50°C

[Devryd]

 

here you can see it.

 

[daveholland86]

Now I am also finding my 5v water pump is just about garbage.  It will pump water but flow rate is too slow and after it fills the rad, it doesn't have enough torque to start with the water lines already filled.  Have to upgrade to 12v setup.  Since I want it portable and to be a one USB solution, I have to get voltage converters and break out the soldering iron.  Another order placed and the price keeps creeping upwards.  I am about to just Alex this thing and hook it up to a running faucet.  

[Devryd]

I used a dc-dc step up converter too. It worked nicely for me and I was able to set the voltage at about 10V where the pump was working but was still pretty quiet.

[Devryd]

Have you tried to solder your copper tubing to the heatpipes?
Soldering heatpipes is pretty hard and also a little dangerous. Soldering something too a heatpipe should be even harder, since you have to heat the entire heatpipe and the cooler, to which the heatpipe is soldered to.

[daveholland86]

Alright I have a dry fit and proof of concept.  It's working and its working well, I guess right about where it should be for as quick as I put it together.  The pipe was bent quickly, the rad fan is lacking, feels really slow, is a cheap one off Amazon same as the water pump.  I feel like I have a really slow flow.  

 

Over all, I was able to drop about 5 - 10c on the water loop by simply just tying a copper tube over the existing heat pipe.  I couldn't flatten it, I did not solder it or put any TIM between the surfaces, just a dry lay on top to get initial testing.  The whole thing is on an Alex level of being janky and yes, the water res is a mason jar.  Idle temps are a good 10c lower. Fans never ramp up.  

 

CPU stress Air

 

CPU stress Water

 

100% CPU and GPU Stress Air

 

100% CPU and GPU Stress Water

Future plans include making an enclosure for the rad and building a water res for the pump.  I am also going to cut multiple pipe sections and use polyurethane tubing for the bends and bypass copper.  I will also attempt to flatten out the copper and either solder it together or put a little TIM on there and use the wire as a hold.  

 

At about the end of the test I realized the air fan exhaust was blowing right into the rad.  Going to need to move that.  

[Devryd]

looks great. Do you have an idea for quick connect fittings yet? I dont know if they exist in this diameter

[daveholland86]

8 hours ago, Devryd said:

looks great. Do you have an idea for quick connect fittings yet? I dont know if they exist in this diameter

Yes 6mm push to connect is what I am using for pneumatic hose.  Its waterproof and makes for an easy connector.

The box design is done. 

 

Had to ditch the single USB connector.  I just cant pull enough power through it.  AC adapter has been fit and will give me 40+ watts.  Second pump installed in parallel to aid water flow rate.  the fan is a standard 120 x 120 x 25.  Since I have more power I will most likely get something with more than 45 CFM flow.  The whole thing will be laser cut and glued together and waterproofed in the res area.  

Machine left idle overnight and still holding 45c, which is 10c lower than just air idle.  I found some low temp soldier paste, that will be used to fuse final version to the heat pipe and should aid in more thermal transfer than I am getting now. 

 

 

[Devryd]

I dont think you will need two pumps. I use one of the exact same ones and it is fine in my laptop. And mine relies only on water for cooling, i got rid of the original cooler completly.
2 pumps would be more reliable of course, since the system would still work if one breaks

[daveholland86]

19 hours ago, Devryd said:

I dont think you will need two pumps. I use one of the exact same ones and it is fine in my laptop. And mine relies only on water for cooling, i got rid of the original cooler completly.
2 pumps would be more reliable of course, since the system would still work if one breaks

I am going for reliability and the slight bump in flow it should give me.  Flow is so slow now I am worried it will burn the pump out early.  I have had the system running since my initial test and its still plugging along.  Still idling at 42c on day 3.  

I am using 6mm copper tubing and 6mm polyurethane pneumatic hose.  I can press fit them together and the hose stretches to fit but fits so tightly that I dont need to secure it with anything.  I was originally looking to conceal this cooling within the laptop but it just is not possible with this old MSI laptop.  I will be moving to my Asus soon enough and will have to assess if I have enough room to conceal and put the bottom cover back on.  I still need to make a final version piping for the MSI which includes flat tubing.  

I would say the total all in cost was around $6200 including the laser cutter for the enclosure.  If you have one laying around, you could do this project for about $200.  

[Devryd]

where exacly did your project get so expensive?
I spend about 50€ on my laptop (a little under 60$) and it works fine. Sure, i got the tubing from a friend, but that cant be the only difference

[daveholland86]

4 hours ago, Devryd said:

where exacly did your project get so expensive?
I spend about 50€ on my laptop (a little under 60$) and it works fine. Sure, i got the tubing from a friend, but that cant be the only difference

I purchased everything from Amazon.  Rad, fan, piping, etc.  I needed everything to do the job.  Here is a list I put together as I explored this idea for a while.  
https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/183BEAYALCXZC?ref_=wl_share

 

Flattened the tubing and did a rerun with my extra piping.  There is no way this thing was ever going to get the back cover on again.  Its ok though because I took it off about 4 years ago to shed heat.  

[daveholland86]

It came out so much better than expected.  I almost feel I should be working in a design job. The dickbutt is for Linus. 

[daveholland86]

Sealing up the Water Res, which I found was a complete pain, about 5x more the silicone on here than I thought was going to be required.  Water fill test, leak, water fill test, leak, repeat about 5 times until it held.  

 

Hard lines.  They were heated and bent using an insert and do no restrict flow.  Looking good and went together as planned.  Just not planned was the small spaces and my large hands. 

 

 

Completed version and it works.  Probably the new higher CFM and pressure fan, but I am getting now consistently 2c lower than my setup before.  

 

 

The idea of this project is to be portable, or more so exchangeable.  I have multiple laptops and while not in use, the cooling unit will run on my Plex machine.  With the quick disconnects on the laptops and the cooler unit, I can hook it up to anyone I am using at the time if I don't want excessive fan noise while gaming or working.  

[Devryd]

How you do complete testing yet? How were the temps after the loop was hot?
 

[daveholland86]

2 hours ago, Devryd said:

How you do complete testing yet? How were the temps after the loop was hot?
 

With the new enclosure I am seeing about 5c lower temps over the jar water loop.  The fan is more powerful and I have increased flow with the two pumps.  I am actually now having a hard time keeping the water res sealed.  It will stay sealed with no leaks for a day or two but then develop a leak.  Maybe I have finally got it sealed this time, we will see. 

I also finally put a copper loop on my Asus Strix and I am seeing about 60C under load.  Its cool enough the fans never kick on over idle.  The case is also very tight, but I was able to get the back panel back on where I just have a hose running out of the computer. 

[Devryd]

If you have so much problem with getting it sealed, you could put a little plastic bag insite the container and glue it to the inside of the walls. The water would stay inside the plastic bag insite the container.

[datalaughing]

Just be aware that due the amount of extra stuff in the laptop you may be restricting airflow over the other components. VRMs, Ram and chipset sometimes just need a little bit of airflow for cooling and longevity.

[daveholland86]

On 7/22/2020 at 5:04 AM, datalaughing said:

Just be aware that due the amount of extra stuff in the laptop you may be restricting airflow over the other components. VRMs, Ram and chipset sometimes just need a little bit of airflow for cooling and longevity.

The Asus has cooled VRMs with the heat sink.  There is also a cooling pad that can be used to push air into the vents.