ghetto liquid cooling idea

[aodix85]

I had an idea...I've been thinking about a liquid cooled rig for a while and I know ya'll are making stuff work in weird ways, so I thought, to save some $$ do you think it would be possible to use a standard HSF with heatpipes that go from one side of the CPU to the other BUT cut off the tops and take out the wicking material with like a metal hanger or something, and then add barbs to each of the pipes or just remove a few fins so that you have a length of pipe a tube can fit on to so that you can liquid cool it that way?  I realize the heatpipes are much smaller than typical water cooling tubes of course so I was thinking you could get something with 3 heatpipes total for 6 connections (3 per side of course) and connect the three with 3 pieces of flexible tubing which would then use an adapter to convert the three small heatpipe size tubes to one larger water cooling tube (auto store or home depot plumbing section?).  THEN for a rad use a car heater core which a bunch of people have done apparently in the past.  The only thing you would need to buy then would be a pump and reservoir and I am unsure if a reservoir is needed as some of those heater cores have reservoirs on them.  Two other things, I was thinking you could possibly use a cheap aftermarket fuel pump as a pump (not sure though because they are 12V with only two leads, no sense or control, I think) and mineral oil as the coolant (does that work)?  It would be ghetto as fuck but if it worked it would use a typical HSF that is pretty inexpensive and so no waterblock required, it would use the HSF fan as well as the rad and fans there so, sort of a dual solution with some redundancy if something failed, and some automotive parts that are really easy and cheap to get at any auto parts store.  The mineral oil idea would simply lubricate the pump and IF it leaked it would NOT cause any damage to components (has this been done before?  it seems SO obvious as a solution IF it can carry as much heat away as water?).  I would try it all myself but I only have one rig because I'm a broke ass teacher in Turkey (making me even more broke than when I was in the States) and I cant afford to fuck something up.  Also I am using an HP Z600 with a pair of X5660's and EVERYTHING is proprietary including the fan plugs and stuff so it would take a ton of fucking around.  Anyways I thought if anyone might consider trying it yall would.  If you wanted I could make a diagram of what you mean, Im actually a mechanical engineer so I can draw some shit up if you aren't sure what I mean.  BTW you guys are awesome, I check out linus videos all day long and they're fantastic.  Anyways I love doing this stuff I just don't have the money to do it myself anymore so, I am living vicariously through you!!!

[Ninjanometry]

I believe one of the issues is the mineral oil as coolant.  A mineral oil submerged system "works" because there is so much oil and because it is constantly moving and being circulated through the submerged system AND moving through a pump and rad.  Mineral oil "holds" heat more than water from what I understand, so a closed system would only insulate that heat further.  The rad would have to be a beast to cool oil, I'm thinking.  The oil is more viscous than other coolants too, which isn't necessarily a problem for the pumps, but contributes to the insulative property by making the oil move through a system slower by comparison.  I think better to use other coolants.  I DO like the idea of connecting to existing heatpipes on a heatsink/cooler.  The "ghetto-ness" of it is nice.  A potential issue here though is that every connection point is another potential point of failure and leakage.
*DISCLAIMER*
this is all just purely speculation on my part...

[aodix85]

yea i thought the same thing about the mineral oil....otherwise somebody smarter than me would have done it years ago....as for the connection points yea i absolutely agree, each point is a possible source of failure so it would probably be best to assemble at least the CPU cooler/block portion of the watercooling system outside of the puter then gently install it once you know it doesnt leak then throw the rest together.......im really hoping that either someone has the money and balls to try this (as i have neither, my wife neutered me and my wallet) or that this post gets a bazillion hits and linus tries it!

[shibbs]

I've seen a post where someone tried this.

 

They had a problem getting enough water to flow through the heat pipes for it to do anything properly. I think the main issue is that the inside of the heat pipes are NOT at all smooth, and almost completely close off on the bends. It's much easier getting a gas to move through them than water.

[aodix85]

i wonder what brand and model that was and what the pump was that he used...smoothness of the pipes is surely an issue as well as the bends but there are some BIG heatpipes on some of these coolers, Ive just got to think with the right combo it  could work well

[OddsCrazyStuff]

If there is an way to save money and get the same performance, someone somewhere have tried it before you (thats the reality of 6 billion + people in the world). So if not everyone is doing it already, its ether a really slim chance of it working or it does not work at all.

[leadeater]

On 5/13/2016 at 4:29 PM, aodix85 said:

-snip-

 

Paragraphs would turn your post from an unreadable nightmare in to a pleasant read.

 

Not sure how set you are on DIY vs just wanting it water cooled but I did a similar thing with a dual socket Xeon E5520 using two H55's. I know money is an issue but H55's are fairly low in price and there may even be 2nd hand ones on ebay.

[Stefan1024]

I cut througth heat pipes before, and they are basicly completely filled with compressed copper poweder. You are not able to pump water througth them unless you can get it out. But this is a very difficult (or simply impossible) task.

How about just welding some copper pipes to a >3 mm thick copper plate, drill 4 holes in the plate and the waterbock is finished?

 

As for the mineral oil: is works but is less efficient than water. You need a high flow rate and then it should work.