My whole room watercooling project - I need your help!

[TheBluePotato]

Hello guys!

 

I'm Marco. I'm from Germany and I'm planning to build a whole room water cooled with my friend like Linus did a while ago.

 

I know it's probably not the best idea in the world, I know its expensive and Yes i know I shouldnn't use any sort of metal at all; - but hey, Its very badass.

 

We are planning to get 2 GTX 980s in SLI and a Core I7-5970X. Also the Radiator to cool everything will be a 4x3 Radiator. (4 triple Radiators)

 

Now we have a problem. We haven't started yet and we are asking ourselfes some questions. Should we use a single pump for our 2 PC's connected to the loop? Should we use a watercooling pump or like a gardening one? Where to place it? In the "go to PC" or "going to Radiator" way? Would it be better to put the reservoirs on the wall? In the Radiator? In the PC's? Use 1 single Reservoir for everything or 1 in every PC? And should we even use 1 pump or have multiple? Or 1 pump in each PC? Is the Radiator big enough? (Which I think it it, its quite overkill in my opinion)

 

I hope you can help and advise me a little bit with this problem.

I also attached a picture of a 3D modeled plan for the room using Sketchup. It's not quite finished yet but well - It's a little step forward.

 

---------------------EDIT!------------------- I forgot to mention the isolation of the tubing! Of course it will need to get isolatet (at least the hot side) to prevent the room from heating up. I will use 20mm tubes for the... well tube. Then I will get 25mm tubing and put it over the 20mm. I will get an airpump and make a vacuum inbetween the tubes (not a full vacuum because of the pressure but at least a little bit of air should be outta there.) In order to isolate it. I will use clear arcrylic tubes because I wanna see the fluid in the end.

 

Greetings from Germany and thanks in advance!

 

-Marco

 

 

[QFA350]

Don't even try..... The maintenance and the time is not worth it. It is a cool idea but is there any pumps that can work with it??? Linus' two pumps barely held up! Just saying!

[vanished]

The direction of flow doesn't matter at all

make sure the reservoirs are above the pump

you want a good quality pump capable of decent pressures and flow rates

make sure you insulate the piping or it will act as a rad and release heat into the room making this all pointless

[Xenift]

Just don't make mistakes like Linus did and end up getting gunk in his systems.

[Shimejii]

air conditioner will be better imo

[HollyBoni]

Read my thread:
http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/519458-external-radiators-winter-condensation/

You'll somehow need to control the temperature of the water, or isolate everything like hell, which is really hard on a full cover GPU block. If the water temp gets lower than the room temperature (which is super easy especially in the winter) you'll get condensation on the tubes, GPU and CPU block and bad things will happen. Linus didn't even account for this in his video, and it's a really big issue. 

 

http://i.imgur.com/l9fVfbu.jpg

 

For example, if your room is 20C and the humidity is 65%, you'll get condensation if the water is 13.2C. Imagine how cold the water is in the winter when it's -5C outside... 

 

I will put my radiators outside, it's really really easy to do, but only when it's safe. Spring or summer. 

[HollyBoni]

Don't even try..... The maintenance and the time is not worth it. It is a cool idea but is there any pumps that can work with it??? Linus' two pumps barely held up! Just saying!

 

Linus had tons of PCs on one loop. If you do it properly it's not hard, and the maintenance is easy. A 18W DDC or two would be plenty enough. The biggest problem really is condensation, I don't even know how Linus didn't think about that especially with Canadian winters... 

[TheBluePotato]

Thanks for all the fast replies already! I will use an inside Radiator in the Winter, of course. As you see from the picture the tubing will be directly underneeth the roof so can anyone advise me a reservoir small enough to fit there? It will have about 10-18 cm of space and I really want one of these "tubes" instead of just a simple cube reservoir for the looks.

 

Also look in the main first post I made some Edits about the tubing which I totally forgot.

[vanished]

Read my thread:

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/519458-external-radiators-winter-condensation/

You'll somehow need to control the temperature of the water, or isolate everything like hell, which is really hard on a full cover GPU block. If the water temp gets lower than the room temperature (which is super easy especially in the winter) you'll get condensation on the tubes, GPU and CPU block and bad things will happen. Linus didn't even account for this in his video, and it's a really big issue. 

 

http://i.imgur.com/l9fVfbu.jpg

 

For example, if your room is 20C and the humidity is 65%, you'll get condensation if the water is 13.2C. Imagine how cold the water is in the winter when it's -5C outside... 

 

I will put my radiators outside, it's really really easy to do, but only when it's safe. Spring or summer. 

if it gets cold enough, the water will freeze and then you've really got a problem

 

Linus had tons of PCs on one loop. If you do it properly it's not hard, and the maintenance is easy. A 18W DDC or two would be plenty enough. The biggest problem really is condensation, I don't even know how Linus didn't think about that especially with Canadian winters... 

I think he knew he was moving soon so it wouldn't be around come winter.

[HollyBoni]

if it gets cold enough, the water will freeze and then you've really got a problem

 

I think he knew he was moving soon so it wouldn't be around come winter.

That's why antifreeze was invented.  A 40-60 mix is freeze resistant to -23C. Plenty of people already run antifreeze in their loop as an anti corrosive agent (including me), it's harmless. You put 4-5% alcohol in it and it also kills anything organic. Money is not the issue here probably but a system like this takes a lot of water, it's stupid to buy some ready to use watercooling stuff that's 10x the price because it says EK on it. 

Condensation is a much much much bigger issue. 

 

Thanks for all the fast replies already! I will use an inside Radiator in the Winter, of course. As you see from the picture the tubing will be directly underneeth the roof so can anyone advise me a reservoir small enough to fit there? It will have about 10-18 cm of space and I really want one of these "tubes" instead of just a simple cube reservoir for the looks.

 

Also look in the main first post I made some Edits about the tubing which I totally forgot.

 

If you do this please really pay close attention to the water temperature, even in fall or spring. For example gaming at night could be an issue. A really small difference in outside temperature is enough to get condensation, I highly suggest looking up dew point. 

[TheBluePotato]

That's why antifreeze was invented.  A 40-60 mix is freeze resistant to -23C. Plenty of people already run antifreeze in their loop as an anti corrosive agent (including me), it's harmless. You put 4-5% alcohol in it and it also kills anything organic. Money is not the issue here probably but a system like this takes a lot of water, it's stupid to buy some ready to use watercooling stuff that's 10x the price because it says EK on it. 

Condensation is a much much much bigger issue. 

 

 

If you do this please really pay close attention to the water temperature, even in fall or spring. For example gaming at night could be an issue. A really small difference in outside temperature is enough to get condensation, I highly suggest looking up dew point. 

I will get some thermometers in there (in my room, the loop in the coming from radiator part and the outside and then 0put in an electric ventil to autmatically switch between inside and outside radiator.

[HollyBoni]

I will get some thermometers in there (in my room, the loop in the coming from radiator part and the outside and then 0put in an electric ventil to autmatically switch between inside and outside radiator.

Good idea, I want to do that too. Imagine in winter you could keep the water at room temperature even under full load... And you wouldn't even need fans on the radiators. Dream. 

[Benji_w]

Don't even try..... The maintenance and the time is not worth it. It is a cool idea but is there any pumps that can work with it??? Linus' two pumps barely held up! Just saying!

 

Linus made loads of easily avoided mistakes...

[TheCaptain53]

I've got a slightly different idea of how you can reach your goal. What about a heat exchanger in the model and comprise your cooling system of two loops?

For example, you'll run the two PCs in one loop which is contained in room A. The PC loop is exchanging heat with a loop in room B (all connected to a rad in a bucket of water? not sure how it could be achieved), which is then handle the dispersal of the heat into room B or outside, using some PC rads or botching it and use a car radiator. That would be hilarious.

This would allow for relatively easy maintenance of the PC loop (given that it's carefully designed), and you won't have to worry about it freezing because it's contained inside. For the outside loop, you don't have to be so careful and could use tap water and copper tubes (not that I recommend doing this, it's just an example). This would also allow for separate pumps handling the PC loop and the outside loop. You could use D5 or DDC pumps for the inside loop, and then something like a fountain pump for the outside loop. 

These are just my thoughts. 

[TheBluePotato]

Not a bad idea. I kinda wanna do it the same way. As you can see from the pictures there is a door inbetween the 2 desks. In the room behind the door will be the radiator for when the thermometer registers a temperatur lower on the outside than the inside and the ventil switches between the outside and inside radiator. The inside rediator in the other room wouldnt heat up our gaming room and it would still be cooled. Also we have a whole house air conditioning system with an heat exchanger. so this will not get lost and evenly disbursted in the house too.

[HollyBoni]

A thermostat is the ultimate solution.

 

1 loop, two rads, parallel. One rad outside with a fan (in the winter it's not needed) one rad inside passive.

 

This way you have cold water in the outside rad, and hotter water in the inside rad.

 

Here comes the thermostat:

http://i.imgur.com/vEVnd0X.png

This thing is automatic. You tell it that you want 25C water. It'll mix the hot and cold water automatically.
 

[TheBluePotato]

A thermostat is the ultimate solution.

 

1 loop, two rads, parallel. One rad outside with a fan (in the winter it's not needed) one rad inside passive.

 

This way you have cold water in the outside rad, and hotter water in the inside rad.

 

Here comes the thermostat:

http://i.imgur.com/vEVnd0X.png

This thing is automatic. You tell it that you want 25C water. It'll mix the hot and cold water automatically.

 

Very nice idea but I cant use metal in the loop. It will happen... something... which happened to linus before. I can build the sme thing out of some special hand made plastic stuff tho. so ill do this. its a great idea. And if it gets too cold so it cant mix it it will just use the inside temperature water. Cool

[HollyBoni]

Very nice idea but I cant use metal in the loop. It will happen... something... which happened to linus before. I can build the sme thing out of some special hand made plastic stuff tho. so ill do this. its a great idea. And if it gets too cold so it cant mix it it will just use the inside temperature water. Cool

It's made out of copper. 

[Benji_w]

Very nice idea but I cant use metal in the loop. It will happen... something... which happened to linus before. I can build the sme thing out of some special hand made plastic stuff tho. so ill do this. its a great idea. And if it gets too cold so it cant mix it it will just use the inside temperature water. Cool

 

The thermostat idea would help keep out cold or freezing water from your equipment but tbh I don't think it's nescisary. If you use PETG tubing for your loop on the walls try get some clear stuff, it would look pretty cool, have you seen antvenom's basement cooling solution? He did what linus couldn't do properly...

[TheBluePotato]

It will be transparent acrylic as I think I mentioned above (I think, maybe I didn't). It will be filled with probably black liquid which I've seen somewhere and it looked amazing especially on white walls.

[Benji_w]

It will be transparent acrylic as I think I mentioned above (I think, maybe I didn't). It will be filled with probably black liquid which I've seen somewhere and it looked amazing especially on white walls.

 

That is Mayhems Oil Black coolant/dye.

[Shade x Legend]

The MCP655 is a high flow rate and high pressure pump... if you get two of these ( one per pc) and just set the pc's up to be able to cool on their own minus the rad, then use quick disconnects to connect the pc's to your whole loop.

[xgn]

That sketch looks sweet. Check out the case Thermaltake P5. if you are going to wallmount the pc.

[TheBluePotato]

Holy sh*t this case looks sweet     

 

Im so gonna use this. Thank you very much for sharing this!

[HollyBoni]

The thermostat idea would help keep out cold or freezing water from your equipment but tbh I don't think it's nescisary. If you use PETG tubing for your loop on the walls try get some clear stuff, it would look pretty cool, have you seen antvenom's basement cooling solution? He did what linus couldn't do properly...

You don't think it's necessary? Think again.

 

http://i.imgur.com/l9fVfbu.jpg

 

If the room temp is 20C and the humidity is 65%, you'll get condensation if the water is 13.2C. 

 

->condensation->water dipping down from the tubes, GPU and CPU block->the end.