Ghetto watercooling project

[roughavoc]

So I have a plan and I want to know if there is anything I am missing that would cause it to fail

I currently have a H100 cooling CPU and a H55 cooling GPU mounted with a NZXT G10, the only thing I actually want to do is make the tubing longer on the H100 as it is pretty taught atm but might as well do a whole change instead

 

My plan: Remove the pump parts of the H100 and H55 and just use them as blocks, use the radiators both, buy a cheap 12V pump that has triple the LPH of the H55 and H100 so should work fine (this one) and use a jar as the reservoir (this part is temporary till I find a cheap one)

Tubing might be a nightmare with different fittings sizes but I don't see a reason why this wouldn't work and cable ties will come to the rescue, temps are fine at the moment and the increase pump might help lower the temps by a tiny bit.

Anything I am missing that would cause a massive pain in the ass with this?

[W-L]

2 minutes ago, roughavoc said:

-SNIP-

If you just want to do it as a small project for short term use it is doable but long term it can potentially have issues with clogging. Just be sure to use a mixed metal fluid if you do want to try something like this or you will encounter galvanic corrosion. 

[roughavoc]

2 minutes ago, W-L said:

If you just want to do it as a small project for short term use it is doable but long term it can potentially have issues with clogging. Just be sure to use a mixed metal fluid if you do want to try something like this or you will encounter galvanic corrosion. 

Something like this I am guessing? https://www.overclockers.co.uk/mayhems-ultra-pure-h2o-watercooling-fluid-1l-wc-004-mh.html

[W-L]

3 minutes ago, roughavoc said:

Something like this I am guessing? https://www.overclockers.co.uk/mayhems-ultra-pure-h2o-watercooling-fluid-1l-wc-004-mh.html

No that's just distilled water you nee something with additives to prevent corrosion this is an example, you will still have issues with gunking and clogging however with regular soft tubing that isn't plasticer free in the long run:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/mayhems-x1-clear-premixed-watercooling-fluid-1l-wc-035-mh.html

[roughavoc]

2 minutes ago, W-L said:

No that's just distilled water you nee something with additives to prevent corrosion this is an example, you will still have issues with gunking and clogging however with regular soft tubing that isn't plasticer free in the long run:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/mayhems-x1-clear-premixed-watercooling-fluid-1l-wc-035-mh.html

Ah I thought it would all be pre-mixed as it was under the category

Alright, so I will pick that fluid what tubing plastics should I look out for? it seems the blocks are both 6ID/8OD and the pump is 5.4ID/8.6OD so I don't have to mess around with fittings all too much

[W-L]

1 minute ago, roughavoc said:

Ah I thought it would all be pre-mixed as it was under the category

Alright, so I will pick that fluid what tubing plastics should I look out for? it seems the blocks are both 6ID/8OD and the pump is 5.4ID/8.6OD so I don't have to mess around with fittings all too much

There are basically no options for that other than looking into food industry stuff where they have food safe tubing and plastics like tygon. It's one of the reasons why I don't recommend for long term use and just as proof of concept type cooling solutions more than anything else. 

 

If you wanted to do something long term it would be good to look into getting a starter kit from EKWB. 

[roughavoc]

1 minute ago, W-L said:

There are basically no options for that other than looking into food industry stuff where they have food safe tubing and plastics like tygon. It's one of the reasons why I don't recommend for long term use and just as proof of concept type cooling solutions more than anything else. 

 

If you wanted to do something long term it would be good to look into getting a starter kit from EKWB. 

Kits are far too expensive, this project should cost £15 tops versus £150+ for a starter kit just to save some hassle here and there

Thanks for the help with coolant though! would have made a mistake and just bought some distilled water.

[sl06bhytmar]

10 hours ago, roughavoc said:

Kits are far too expensive, this project should cost £15 tops versus £150+ for a starter kit just to save some hassle here and there

Thanks for the help with coolant though! would have made a mistake and just bought some distilled water.

Buy Coollaboratory Liquid Coolant Pro which is designed to be used with mixed metal loops. If you're still having doubts about them then you can check my project from here: 

Hopefully last parts will arrive this or next week and I can prime the system.

 

[roughavoc]

I feel like I should post how this project went:

I found a pump / res combo on OCUK for £30. At that price I decided it is better off to not be super cheap and get something that should be somewhat reliable. Still stuck with the H100 and H55 as the blocks, bought some 6mmID/8mmOD tubing off of eBay along with the Mayhem X1 Oil UV Black Liquid and 2 Bitspower G1/4" to 1/4" fittings (needed to get tubing from the pump to the rest of the parts.

I also De-Lidded my 4770k using the Vice only method, super easy to do (If I didn't have a vice made of rust)

After cutting all the tubing off of the Corsair units I started removing the pumps from the blocks as well as looking for any gunk that may have been in the loop from the factory, both blocks were completely clean (This also allowed me to tell which was intake and what was outtake of the blocks)

After that I started work on getting the tube distances all measured out roughly and started cutting. I didn't order much tubing so I made sure that I wasn't throwing any away. 

With it all fitted I moved onto filling and bleeding the loop, was a lot easier than I thought it would be, apart from I made one massive mistake and didn't somehow forgot there was still liquid in the tube + funnel I was using to pour into the res, lifted it out of the res and it went everywhere, that set be back about an hour as I had to check that everything was dry and even I wasn't sure so took apart the case to double check there was none left on the bottom of the motherboard.

Powered it up and bleed the system, all the major bubbles went in about 5 mins, left the pump running for about 2 hours before I put the system back together, since then the liquid level in the res drops about 1-2mm each day. 

Images: IMGUR

What I have done since then; I bought 3x Phanteks PH-F120MP and 2x Phantkes PH-F140MP which helped with airflow a lot. I swapped the direction of air flow as well 
I just bought the EK Supremacy Full Nickel for £40 and some more fittings as the CPU temps are just as high as using the H100 on it's own as after some testing I am sure the block itself is limiting the cooling 

Why I think this: When running a GPU benchmark I can feel the difference in temps between in the intake tube to the GPU and outtake even though it only running at 45C, when doing the same with the CPU running at 75-80C the tubes feel exactly the same. As well as despite De-Lidding, one core stays 10-15C lower than the others (I checked the TIM was applied correctly etc)

The next change I want to do is to either find some very stick thermal pads to put some tiny copper heat sinks on the VRM section of my GPU as since water cooling I can't OC as much as I could on air with 100% fan despite running 40C cooler. This has to do due to the lack of heat sinks on the VRM.