Budget cooling rig

[Genesius]

Dilemma in general...
Also, as a general rule; watercooling should not be done cheaply hence why I think what your doing is pointless...
WC should make a rig beautiful, silent and cool (temp wise), but you'll be lucky if you achieve one of those...

But don't take my word for it, prove me wrong

why is that th general rule, its just water used to cool something? why should cooling a computer cost more than cooling your food? i just dont understand this attitude.

'WC should make a rig beautiful, silent and cool (temp wise)' - umm no it shouldnt, water cooling should cool stuff with water. as i said in post 8 'not everything has to be a fortune and new and shiney. it has to be neat and function'

my water cooling system has to cool my cpu. if it can be quieter than the H100 i currently have then great, if not then thats fine.

So far you have got your 1 opinion and your sticking o it, but your yet to explain WHY it wont work. If you have a valid reason why then id listen, but so far you have just said an assortment of negative words like pointless - so heres the point............to cool my cpu more efficiently, to do it on a budget.

I dont like flashy lights and crap on my computer -it lives under a desk, it has no side window, my cable management is good only because good cable management improves air flow. its a computer to function not o sit on my desk.

ahhh i give up.

don't even care anymore. he asked for opinions, he asked for what it would benefit him. i told him what he didn't want to hear, so he is pissed.

not pissed at all. i asked what improvements over my current temps i could expect by switching to a custom loop your answer to that was it cant be done on that budget. you didnt answer the question at all!

i asked for opinions on parts and you didnt answer that either. in fact you didnt answer any question i asked.

if however you had said 'hey listen, what your doing sounds like a fun project but i just dont think that pump/insert reason here is going to do what you want it to do for X Y Z reasons'

then i would be listening, but you cant just say its pointless or a waste of time or no benefit without being able to tell me why. maybe im missing something glaringly obvious but we're 20 posts in and so far there are no reasons for this negativity.

so thank you for your posts. ill update here when i buy stuff.

so far i have rad, rad shroud rad stand 3 ap15 GT's =£50

 

[Cru]

I dont like flashy lights and crap on my computer -it lives under a desk, it has no side window, my cable management is good only because good cable management improves air flow. its a computer to function not o sit on my desk.

Well then that's the wrong forum for you imo.

 

[SeekaX]

not pissed at all. i asked what improvements over my current temps i could expect by switching to a custom loop your answer to that was it cant be done on that budget. you didnt answer the question at all!

i asked for opinions on parts and you didnt answer that either. in fact you didnt answer any question i asked.

if however you had said 'hey listen, what your doing sounds like a fun project but i just dont think that pump/insert reason here is going to do what you want it to do for X Y Z reasons'

then i would be listening, but you cant just say its pointless or a waste of time or no benefit without being able to tell me why. maybe im missing something glaringly obvious but we're 20 posts in and so far there are no reasons for this negativity.

so thank you for your posts. ill update here when i buy stuff.

so far i have rad, rad shroud rad stand 3 ap15 GT's =£50

my opinion is that it isn't worth it. why would i tell you to spend money on a project that won't be worth it. and i did state reasons. if you already own an h100 you won't see much improvement with a cheap custom loop. custom loops in general without a gpu block don't make a whole lot of sense. but go ahead and prove me wrong.

 

[Genesius]

Ok so can someone tell me what's wrong with this set up


Ok so I stayed up waiting to snipe some auctions, I missed out on an EK multi option 150 basic. I was trying to read about it with only 9mins to go and didn't have time to bid twice, I missed that and it went for £13!
At about 4am I managed to find another item about to end with no bids! Listing title was 'Phobia Resevoir'. I just typed in the search (res,resevoir,reservoir).
So due to the sellers spelling mistake I ended up paying £13.94 posted and it includes barbs. I don't know what colour it is because the only pic was taken using a toaster! But it, along with the rad come with barbs.


Ok so can someone tell me what's wrong with this set up, forget what I paid for it. Is this a good set up? I've done so much reading on components, I just can't seem to find a decent used cpu block or a budget one that's good.


Eheim pump. - already owned
Thermochill PA120.3
Fan shroud
Fan bracket
3x gentle typhoon ap15 - all of above £50 delivered. Fleabay
Phobya balancer 150. £14 fleabay
need to find a block

Possible new block choice aqua computer cuplex rev 3. Doesn't seem that good though.

Ok so tubing I can order through work
5ltrs distilled water is 8.99 delivered so I can order that from work too
Glycol if I want it I have loads of at work
Barbs come with the items but I would feel better using compression fittings when I get the cash
I have loads of copper pipe about though so I might try and do the external part of he loop in that and polish it. Don't know yet, just thinking out loud.
Rad needs painting as its red at he moment. I have some primer and some land rover white or ford panther black so I'll make a decision when it arrives
So as far as I can work out I have £35 max to spend on a CPU block.

UPDATE!
Ok so I've got all the bits.

£70 budget but no more than £100
I got a rad with fans, shroud and mount
A res
And a new xspc rasa. (As advised by Tom & airdeano - I just stopped reading so into everything and just bought one!)

Already had pump
Total cost £106.

Ok so I didn't stay under £100, but £6 isn't bad.
I managed to get my distilled water from work, (could have used britta &kettle for a true budget approach lol) and I have some 12/16mm clear tubing (unused pond airline id i remember) that will do for the time being.

Rad & res come with fittings but I had to spend £6 on buying 2 more for the Rasa block.

So if I had bought everything new it would have been over £200, but doing it using second hand parts I managed £106, even if I had needed a small pump I could have bought one for £30. The point is for £130 anyone who is willing to trawl the net could have bought everything to get a custom wc rig with future expand ability. Lets face it, what ever we buy is going to get modded or upgraded/changed sooner or later anyway.

HOWEVER, like everything I do I jump right in, so in the next couple of weeks I will be:
Paint rad white
Add ball valves/ quick disconnects for outside of the rig
Add lighting to under my desk where the external cooling will all be mounted so I can see res level and 'operate' on the pc if I need to
Get white tubing to match my white case

Oh, think long and hard for a reason not to delid my i5, failing that, delid my i5.

So I'll get this stuff up and running hopefully by the weekend and ill post pics and then I'll post picks of the updates oh and temps.

I'm really hoping a 6ltr wc system won't need much cooling with fans, have to see though

 

[Genesius]

Dilemma in general...
Also, as a general rule; watercooling should not be done cheaply hence why I think what your doing is pointless...
WC should make a rig beautiful, silent and cool (temp wise), but you'll be lucky if you achieve one of those...

But don't take my word for it, prove me wrong

*****EDIT******
THE SYSTEM IS IN!!!!

'Also, as a general rule; watercooling should not be done cheaply hence why I think what your doing is pointless...'

1. i did it cheaply, initialy i spent £105, but i went over that a bit more by adding some quick disconnects. Then i sold the barbd i got with the rad and res and bought new XSPC ones. Thats about it. All in i recon im in for £120 including 3 cans of Hycote paint for the rad,black,white and clear coat.

2.'WC should make a rig beautiful, silent and cool (temp wise), but you'll be lucky if you achieve one of those...'

Well, it is beautiful, the black and white rad with white tubing are cool. The res that sits mounted to the wall level with my desk is cool.
Silent and temps, well i delidded so its a little unfair but.... temps with my H100 at full tilt with the stock fans were....
IBT Very high 40 passes
77 87 82 81

Now my system can do the same test and all i hear is a light buzz from the aquarium pump. All in thesystem is quieter than it was although not totally silent. but temps are:
55 60 59 62

so thats a pretty epic 25 degrees.

I think thats job done!!!

 

[NRG!]

Lets see some pics

 

[alienware]

Pics or it didn't happen.

 

[Genesius]

So here we go, my budget build/Eheim aquarium pump in cooling loop?

So again, all in with tubing, paint, reselling bits and already having a pump i recon i have done about £130. I have still to add quick disconnects because getting my system out of where it lives is a pain as you will see.

so this is my sapre room, you can just make out my rig in the corner. It lives in that tiny hole in the corner so cooling is a big issue for me. This is the only place i have room for it and it intergrates with my rack devices on the right easily as its so close.
Excuse the mess, but the room has turned into a jungle of computer parts and builds lately.

so this is the rad and shroud, it was horrible 'Ford Escort' red (dont mind it on the car, not on my rad)

so i sanded it down painted the fins black, masked it up and go the white paint out.

And here it is hanging in my kitchen drying. I think it looks good.

heres all my bits ready to be assembled.

this is a picture of the hole that the computer lives in before i started the build. You can see where the pump will live and the pc will sit behind it. That thing on the floor is the canister for the pump, the pump head clips on top of that!

nearly installed. I do have 3 GT 1650 fans for the rad, but because of the fast flow rate and the quantity of water in the system i dont even really need them running, the system is pretty much passive. I use my Aquaero LT to bring the voltage right down as low as possible and its set to ramp up only after the cpu hits 70.

10 litres of distilled water ready to go in!

This is my res that sits under my screen at desk level, i think it looks pretty cool there.

whats left of the water. Id say the system takes a little over 6 litres

This is my rig

the inside of my rig (worked quite hard on it so go easy!)
Ive got the shroud off of the my 560Ti and ive got 2 120mm fans blowing on the heatsink from below. Im not going to water cool this as i want to get a 670 which i will water cool at a later date.

And finally the almost finished rig. I still need to secure the fans to the fan shroud, add some quick disconnects and RMA the white sleeved 24pin cable as it didnt work and also get a replacemnt clip for the Phobya balancer because the plastic broke. The doors of my CM690 are off and just resting against the case because i will have to move it out at the weekend.

all up and running i have seen a 25 degree drop in temps but i did also delid which can be seen here


So, what do you think?

 

[jamesriley94]

Turned out alright tbh.

Watercooling on a budget rarely goes well - but that's because most people put aesthetics at the top of their list. As you say, you aren't bothered about that, so for you, it's turned out well.

Bit messy to do it externally, but that's your choice.

Would have probably been easier to get an H100i, but as long as you're happy, it's fine!

Think about spinning the fan in the floor round so it's intaking rather than exhausting. That should help with GPU temps.
Also, you can remove the bottom 4 HDD cages in the CM 690. I'd do that (assuming you don't have more than 2 HDDs( as it should help with air flow a bit.

Other than that, it looks fine!

 

[Genesius]

i think it turned out well too, thanks. it may be a bit messy because its external, but my temps are ridiculous. It gets so hot under that desk that a H100 or H100i would just end up recyclnig its exhausted hot air as it has no real place to go.

i did try and make it look nice even though only i will see it and thats only when i pull the rig out, the main hing is it functions - very well

Its always going to be a bit messy looking because there are so many other audio and cables criss crossing across the desk in order to run all my equipment. All i see now is my little res which is nice.

I dont think switching the fan around will help because it barely kicks in anyway. I just need to save up an get a 670 and waterblock.
I actually have 4 HDD. 2 SSD's and 2 mechanicals because the rig dual boots OSX and Windows 7. Airflow through the case isnt that bad temp wise, its sort of the best i can do with the limited space.

ill be adding another monitor soon and then desperately saving for the 670 because that 560 get very hot even though i changed the TIM to MX-4

 

[Bonifah]

Did you pull that chair out of a car? Lol Either way, that's a nice little studio set up you have there. I'm impressed by how much you moved along with your idea even after so many people said otherwise. Major props to you, even looks good too.

Congratulations.

 

[alxcsb]

I can see the res, some tubing and the CPU block, where's the pump? And the Rad, actually fitted in the loop. What happens when you want to move the rig around?

 

[Genesius]

Did you pull that chair out of a car? Lol Either way, that's a nice little studio set up you have there. I'm impressed by how much you moved along with your idea Ben after so many people said otherwise. Major props to you, even looks good too.

Congratulations.

Yeah it's a front seat from an E36 BMW. So comfortable.
Thanks, I think it looks good too. No one seemed to be able to tell my why it wouldn't work, just that it wouldn't. I just took that as encouragement. I googled about and figured it was because no one seems to have done what I did with the pond pump, but a pump is a pump and Ehiem pumps have been adapted for use in water cooling for ages so I just went ahead and did it.
The cost thing just took time and being a bit resourceful.
Thanks

I can see the res, some tubing and the CPU block, where's the pump? And the Rad, actually fitted in the loop. What happens when you want to move the rig around?

If you look at the 7th picture you can see the huge canister pump standing on the floor to the right and the rad mounted to the underside of the desk.