Waterblock recommendations for Socket 478, along with a few other custom loop-related questions

[WhitetailAni]

I'm now in the market for a Socket 478 waterblock, as P4HT (my Pentium 4 XP retro gaming rig build) is nearing completion. It's going to be hooked up to a Pentium 4 3.4 GHz Prescott along with the northbridge of an ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe.

Why watercool? The motherboard I have has a waterblock thermal permaglued onto the northbridge, and I have no idea how I'm going to remove it. So I'd like to watercool.

Plus, according to @Bitter (who I got the motherboard and CPU from) this P4 can reach 4 GHz stable with "proper cooling", and I figured "Why not watercool? I'm just doing a CPU/northbridge loop with flexible tubing - it doesn't have to be fancy since the side panels are big pieces of sheet metal." I'm planning to use 2 80mm radiators since my case has 2 80mm fans preinstalled that move a good amount of air.

The waterblock on my northbridge has an inner diameter of 1/4", which leads to my questions.

 

1. Is this CPU waterblock compatible with my northbridge waterblock, which I assume is G1/8 (since G1/4 seems to have an inner diameter of 1/2")?

2. Any recommendations for radiators? All I know is that I want 80mm with 1/4" inner diameter, but I'm not sure where I should be looking for that.

3. What should I be looking for in tubing and fittings?

 

I'm completely new to the custom loop market and unsure exactly what I need. Any and all help is appreciated!

[svmlegacy]

1 hour ago, FakeKGB said:

my northbridge waterblock

You're going to have to figure out a couple things... confirm the thread dimensions, and the material of the heatsink. I wouldn't assume it's a G type thread being potentially 15 years old. Compatibility with other components depends on the material. You can adapt tubing to accomodate the different size threads. Major diameter is taken as the distance across the male threads. Distance between female threads is the minor diameter, and should be 11.44 mm for G1/4, or 8.57 mm for G1/8.

[WhitetailAni]

Just now, svmlegacy said:

You're going to have to figure out a couple things... confirm the thread dimensions, and the material of the heatsink. I wouldn't assume it's a G type thread being potentially 15 years old. Compatibility with other components depends on the material. You can adapt tubing to accomodate the different size threads. Major diameter is taken as the distance across the male threads. Distance between female threads is the minor diameter, and should be 11.44 mm for G1/4, or 8.57 mm for G1/8.

It doesn't have threads, it's just got a smooth tube with a lip on it. My assumption is that I'd stick some tubing over it and zip-tie it on or something. I think it's like compression fittings, but without the top part.

 

Most of my custom-loop knowledge is taken from watching JTC videos so it's probably a bit twisted up.

[svmlegacy]

Just now, FakeKGB said:

It doesn't have threads, it's just got a smooth tube with a lip on it. My assumption is that I'd stick some tubing over it and zip-tie it on or something. I think it's like compression fittings, but without the top part.

That's called a "barb" fitting. You'll want to find tubing that fits snugly on it, and either use a zip tie or hose clamp behind the barb. They work well. Measure the OD of the smooth part, and size the ID of the tubing slightly smaller.

[Bitter]

NB block was from Koolance, takes 1/4 tubing. CPU was originally water cooled by a Koolance system, I still have it but I've adapted the water block to 115x uses now and it can just barely handle 300W of CPU so it's not so bad for being 20yr old tech. So the whole system was 1/4 inch tube, worked just fine. You could easily cool it with a 240mm rad (that's the same as the Koolance case, but it was super thin and had 3x80mm with some adapters, weird old stuff).

There's the thread!

 

So hardest part is going to be making a bracket to hold a water block to the CPU mounts, but I bet if you scan ebaby you'll come up with some old Koolance hardware.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/283781636447?hash=item4212b4215f:g:v2oAAOSw6FheRW8G#viTabs_0

There's the block, but no mounting hardware. You might be able to cobble something to work but the actual hardware was pretty good. Sadly I'm still using mine.

 

 

Ok, here's like 2/3 of what you need. https://www.performance-pcs.com/water-cooling/water-block-accessories/accessories-cpu-blocks/koolance-cpu-bracket-clips-long-cpu-200-300-cpu-p05-d.html

There's a bridge part in the middle with a screw that sets mount pressure by pushing on the block. Both parts slip inside it's channel. Uhhh let me see if I can find it.

https://koolance.com/files/products/manuals/manual_cpu-305_102d(eng).pdf

K, hopefully this makes it all clearer.

[Bitter]

Yeah so I'm gonna keep scouring the internets off and on here and hopefully either find the parts you need or help you figure out something else. I'd say you should buy those parts that are available, then you could probably make something using those to hold it down and your own tension screw.

[WhitetailAni]

@svmlegacy I knew I was forgetting something.

What should I look for in a pump and/or reservoir? I know I need a pump, but I'm not sure if I need a reservoir or not. Any specific models I should look out for? 

Also, when I Google "1/4" inner diameter flexible tubing" I get a bunch of vinyl tubing. Is that fine or should I look for something else?

[Bitter]

Vinyl is fine, grab some from a local store. It's not the prettiest stuff and it does harden up over time so I guess it's kind of like doing a hard-line kit. Otherwise you're looking at spendy Tygon tube or silicone tube but silicone is very water permeable so you'll be topping up from evaporative losses often. Tygon is very soft and tends to kink easily, so does silicone.

 

Yes, reservoir, yes pump. You can get a double 5.25 bay res with a pump cavity for a D5 style pump or a single 5.25 bay res and run an external pump, or just get a pump/res that's free standing inside the case. The bay ones are kind of baller retro IMO.

[WhitetailAni]

2 hours ago, Bitter said:

Vinyl is fine, grab some from a local store. It's not the prettiest stuff and it does harden up over time so I guess it's kind of like doing a hard-line kit. Otherwise you're looking at spendy Tygon tube or silicone tube but silicone is very water permeable so you'll be topping up from evaporative losses often. Tygon is very soft and tends to kink easily, so does silicone.

 

Yes, reservoir, yes pump. You can get a double 5.25 bay res with a pump cavity for a D5 style pump or a single 5.25 bay res and run an external pump, or just get a pump/res that's free standing inside the case. The bay ones are kind of baller retro IMO.

I think I'll go for a single-5.25" bay res since I've got three optical drives. I was going to do 4 but then remembered the reservoir.

The pump I think I'll stick somewhere in the HDD bay. Plenty of space in there.

For tubing, don't care too much about aesthetics in the case since it's a giant aluminum box. Was able to find that the model is the Lian Li PC-62; LGR's got a video on it, look up Megaluminum Monster LGR.

[Bitter]

32 minutes ago, FakeKGB said:

I think I'll go for a single-5.25" bay res since I've got three optical drives. I was going to do 4 but then remembered the reservoir.

The pump I think I'll stick somewhere in the HDD bay. Plenty of space in there.

For tubing, don't care too much about aesthetics in the case since it's a giant aluminum box. Was able to find that the model is the Lian Li PC-62; LGR's got a video on it, look up Megaluminum Monster LGR.

POST REPORTED FOR TOO MUCH AWESOME.

Dude, all you need is the aquarium side panel and you'll be a chick(?)/dude(?)/trans(?)/agender(?)/pokemon(???) magnet!

 

Anyway, this thing is going to need a build thread. That's some awesome retro-rig.

[WhitetailAni]

1 hour ago, Bitter said:

Anyway, this thing is going to need a build thread. That's some awesome retro-rig.

Now that I'm home and I've got time I'm working on it.

1 hour ago, Bitter said:

Dude, all you need is the aquarium side panel and you'll be a chick(?)/dude(?)/trans(?)/agender(?)/pokemon(???) magnet!

I'm keeping an eye out, though I do kinda like the aluminum-box design of the case. But if the side panel's not too expensive it's mine.

[WhitetailAni]

2 hours ago, Bitter said:

POST REPORTED FOR TOO MUCH AWESOME.

Dude, all you need is the aquarium side panel and you'll be a chick(?)/dude(?)/trans(?)/agender(?)/pokemon(???) magnet!

 

Anyway, this thing is going to need a build thread. That's some awesome retro-rig.

Realized that I was missing radiators and would like to check that these won't explode and kill anything. It's the only thing I can find that's 1/4" inner diameter.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/132345579357

[Bitter]

1 minute ago, FakeKGB said:

Realized that I was missing radiators and would like to check that these won't explode and kill anything. It's the only thing I can find that's 1/4" inner diameter.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/132345579357

Get any good radiator with threaded fittings and just use 1/4 fittings? Those would probably work but they're not very densely finned so you likely won't get the greatest performance from them. The 6800 Ultra is going to add at least 100W of heat to the loop, so the better the rads the better off you'll be. Your rads don't have to be on the case, fans you can get creative and mount them to a stand-off on the side of the case with fans external. Puget systems did a lot of cases like that back in the day, it works great becuasse the heat is outside the case and you don't have to worry about case air-flow either. Run a 240mm or 360mm rad on standoffs, you can get threaded ones for building stuff on ebay cheaply.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/323745304637

or whatever thread will fit into the radiator, then some holes in the side panel and some nuts on the inside of the side panel, vavoom you've got a big radiator. You could also top mount the rad to the case too if you don't want it off the side.

 

[WhitetailAni]

What kind of pump should I get? I looked up "D5 pump" but they're all expensive - cheapest I found was $50 for a D5 pump on eBay. Plus I'd need fittings from G1/4 to B1/4 (barb 1/4 inner diameter), which aren't too expensive but still not super cheap ($5 each, with $3.5 shipping).

[Bitter]

Knock off pump would probably be fine?

US $25.09  18%OFF | Compute Cooling PC Water Cooler Mute Silent Pump PWM INtelligent Temperature Regulation Flow 800L / H PU-FS4M-J https://a.aliexpress.com/_mKeHqavUS $25.09  18%OFF | Compute Cooling PC Water Cooler Mute Silent Pump PWM INtelligent Temperature Regulation Flow 800L / H PU-FS4M-J https://a.aliexpress.com/_mKeHqav

 

 

Koolancr used two pumps in the res in push and pull but they were just submersible aquarium pumps. No joke.

 

 

Fittings for cheap too.

 

US $3.39  46%OFF | 6pcs/Set Barb-Fitting PC Water Cooling Two-Touch Fitting G1/4 Thread Barb Connector for Tube 6mm/ 7.2mm/ 9mm/ 11mm Diameter https://a.aliexpress.com/_mrlsn8p

[WhitetailAni]

1 minute ago, Bitter said:

Knock off pump would probably be fine?

US $25.09  18%OFF | Compute Cooling PC Water Cooler Mute Silent Pump PWM INtelligent Temperature Regulation Flow 800L / H PU-FS4M-J https://a.aliexpress.com/_mKeHqavUS $25.09  18%OFF | Compute Cooling PC Water Cooler Mute Silent Pump PWM INtelligent Temperature Regulation Flow 800L / H PU-FS4M-J https://a.aliexpress.com/_mKeHqav

 

 

Koolancr used two pumps in the res in push and pull but they were just submersible aquarium pumps. No joke.

Would this work fine?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/284319961354?hash=item4232ca510a:g:DhMAAOSw5NVguZPU

Trying to keep all purchases to eBay since it's easier that way (eBay account is my mom's, and transferring funds takes awhile).

[Bitter]

Eh 1/4 tube isn't exactly high volume stuff, that might work fine. I doubt you'll run out of pump volume, pressure is what I'd be worried about since the 1/4 stuff is kind of restrictive.

https://www.amazon.com/Water-Cooling-Integrated-Support-System/dp/B07PB1WJ6Z

That's got a little more beans and prime shipping if you care about getting it in a hurry (or if you're like me and have a rewards card with 5% back from Amazon purchases)