water cooling without a pump and first time mod advice.

pred racer

Here goes.....

im gonna be building a system after christmas based on an e6700..
I was hoping to water cool it and I have a few questions..
has anyone tried watercooling without a pump? using a large res and gravity/convection flow (ie the same as a back boiler system in a house)
my plan is to use a cpu, gpu, psu cooler and plumb it in to a large amount of 1/2" copper on the wall behind my pc (possibly even on the outside of the house:eek: ) to act as a rad, and as a large res. question is would the waterflow be enough through 6mm tubing to cool my cpu(or what is the largest tubing you can use with off the shelf cooling blocks) or is the pump neccessary and im just being an idiot:rolleyes: the logistics arent a problem I can get joiners from poly to 6/8mm copper and from there I can step it up to whatever size I want, plus I used to work as a plumber. part of this plan would also be to run it through a custom coffee warmer that Im going to make.

the other question would be the case or lack of, I am hoping to mount the mobo on drawer runners under my desk and the drives etc on the desk itself in a custom made anti vibe thingy..... sorta like the desk is the computer case Again no problem with the tech side of it (grounding etc) has anyone done this before, any advice?? the whole Idea is

1 No fans....... No noise
2 no case on my desk
3 try to orient things in such a way that to add/subtract a part is not a big deal and that all cables can be accessed easily but are also out of the way!

Sorry for the long question but I would love to hear what somebody who actually knows what they are doing thinks.

Cuddlesworth

I understand what you are trying to do, but the dynamics are all wrong. Copper is expensive, having gone up harshly in price lately. This would kind of negate the idea of doing it yourself, rads, block etc?

This is not a rad trying to heat a room, this is 80watts+ outputting heat onto a area 2 cm squared area of metal. You need a half decent flow to transfer heat from the block.

You need to think about leaks, seal corrosion and copper erosion on the blocks that would arise from a system like that. Are you prepared for this?

If you were a plumber as you say then you need to think of cooling pc parts like setting up heating in a large bungleow. You need to think about minimum flow rate, length of pipes tubing, restrictions, pump power, how many loops you want in what order with the appropriate power to force the water through to attain minimum levels of flow.


There are a few passive solutions out there, Zalmon resorater, or the mora2 rad with some alphacool blocks and a low power quiet pump like a enheim.

pred racer

krazy_8s wrote:

I understand what you are trying to do, but the dynamics are all wrong. Copper is expensive, having gone up harshly in price lately. This would kind of negate the idea of doing it yourself, rads, block etc?.

No problems here as I have all the materials I would need.

krazy_8s wrote:

This is not a rad trying to heat a room, this is 80watts+ outputting heat onto a area 2 cm squared area of metal. You need a half decent flow to transfer heat from the block.

Yeah this is the bit I was worried about whether I could get enough water flow using a passive system to cool a surface area that small, or indeed whether things would have to get unreasonably hot before everything started moving.

krazy_8s wrote:

You need to think about leaks, seal corrosion and copper erosion on the blocks that would arise from a system like that. Are you prepared for this?

yeah. leaks shouldnt be a problem as the inside of the computer will be regular WC gear and will only be joining the other circuit mabe a foot from the back, as for the other stuff I dont think this is going to be a long term thing, its just to see if I can;)

krazy_8s wrote:

If you were a plumber as you say then you need to think of cooling pc parts like setting up heating in a large bungleow. You need to think about minimum flow rate, length of pipes tubing, restrictions, pump power, how many loops you want in what order with the appropriate power to force the water through to attain minimum levels of flow.

If this works and there is no guarantee it will. Im hoping that the heat from the cpu/gpu etc will move the whole system around without the need for a pump as it does in a gravity flow system in a house(its the way Ive got my house set up so I can still heat the place even when the power is out.) and yes Im hoping someone can help me out with flow rates needed for heat dissapation etc.

krazy_8s wrote:

There are a few passive solutions out there, Zalmon resorater, or the mora2 rad with some alphacool blocks and a low power quiet pump like a enheim.

Ill have a look at these, thanks for the input.

pred racer

That Zalman reserator looks brilliant, maybe a change of plan in the offing:)

L31mr0d

Or go for a setup like this guy and just fill the copper pipes with liquid nitrogen *huzzah* and get 23k in 3dmark06 :eek:

awhir

wow thats a nice job who ever done that they usaly look **** when there going for the max scroes.

Anti

Unfourtanatly with such a small ammount of water, and such small pipes a gravity system will not work. It has been tried before and has failed every time.What you could always do. Is get 2 very small quiet pumps, 1 before and 1 after the rad. This will be the best solution.

Anti

Also that XS link seems to be dead. Atually XS seems to be down

pred racer

thanks Anti.. thats basically what I wanted to hear, Ill try something else instead.