[MOD] Corsair H50

[maniac]

So I came across my old corsair H50, and as I have no experience with water cooling (and limited budget) I decided to do something with it. I will add a reservoir and do custom tubing (for now). Apart from gaining experience I will also have the ability to change to a 240mm rad if I ever use it inside a rig.

Things I need:

• Reservoir - Phobya Balancer 150 Black Nickel
• Tubing - Undecided
• Compression fittings - Depends on the tubing
• Distilled Water - Will get it locally from an aquarium shop

If I ever want to change to a 240mm rad I will only need to get the rad and another two compression fittings, also I might come across a bargain for a used rad so yeah. This might be the start of my watercooling journey.

So basically all I need help with the tubing, online guides I found say to use 6mm ID and 8mm OD tubing, but I'm buying everything from specialtech's ebay page, and I can't really decide what tubing I need. Specialtech's Ebay page HERE!

 

[SieB]

Here ya go

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Polyureth...K_Computing_Water_Cooling&hash=item4d154ed4c5

 

[maniac]

Here ya go

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Polyureth...K_Computing_Water_Cooling&hash=item4d154ed4c5

I found the clear version of that, but I'm thinking its gonna look stupidly thin, what about this?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/321226331694?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

Edit: or this which has the same ID but thicker OD http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/321211702653?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

Edit 2: Now I can't find barbs or compression fittings with 1/4" ID :|

 

[SieB]

I found the clear version of that, but I'm thinking its gonna look stupidly thin, what about this?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/321226331694?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

Edit: or this which has the same ID but thicker OD http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/321211702653?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

I don't how much size in ID and OD you have to play with to be able to use it with the H50 but if you need 6mm ID and 8mm OD i'd stick with tubing that is that exact size. Going with bigger tubing could cause leaks if it's bigger than it should be.

If you can go with thicker tubing either of those other two should be ok, personally i'd go with the Masterkleer.

They have some 1/4 fittings on the website

http://www.specialtech.co.uk/spshop...14-6mm-Internal-Diameter-Tubing-cid-1843.html

 

[maniac]

I don't how much size in ID and OD you have to play with to be able to use it with the H50 but if you need 6mm ID and 8mm OD i'd stick with tubing that is that exact size. Going with bigger tubing could cause leaks if it's bigger than it should be.

If you can go with thicker tubing either of those other two should be ok, personally i'd go with the Masterkleer.

They have some 1/4 fittings on the website

http://www.specialtech.co.uk/spshop...14-6mm-Internal-Diameter-Tubing-cid-1843.html

Dat 6mm barb looks tinyyyyy I'm not sure what to do, I'll probably go with the tininess for now, I'll pull the trigger after christmas and new years have passed.

 

[SieB]

Dat 6mm barb looks tinyyyyy I'm not sure what to do, I'll probably go with the tininess for now, I'll pull the trigger after christmas and new years have passed.

They do look rather small Post pics of it when you get it all done.

 

[maniac]

They do look rather small Post pics of it when you get it all done.

sure will thats why I posted it in the project log sections although it has been done before

EDIT: I need some minor help guys, I removed the 3 pin plug from the pump unit to fix the sleeved cable and I can't find anywhere on the internetz how the green black and yellow cables are supposed to be connected, if anyone has an h50 that can take of photo of the connector it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Remmy]

This is a really interesting idea maniac and damn those 6mm barbs look funny xD

I can't wait to see what you manage to do with the H50

Did you forget to check the pins before removing the header? Are the wires for the pump joined flat next to each other (like on a lot of fan cables), or are they just three completely separate wires? If they are joined, they only easily go in one way because of the shape of the metal bits on the end don't they? If not, I'd assume black is ground so it goes in slot 1 like on the left hand side of this image

It's stating the obvious a bit just saying black will be ground, but I can't really help with the other two I'm afraid. I can speculate and say I've never seen a green cable used as +ve supply, but I have seen yellow as +ve supply, so I'd hazard a guess at yellow being +ve, black being ground, and the green being the data cable. So in the image layout: Pin 1 - Black, Pin 2 - Yellow, Pin 3 - Green.

Probably best to wait and see if someone can just give you a picture, but if it takes too long, or nobody posts a picture, this is what I would try. I doubt it would do much damage to the pump if it was incorrectly powered just for a couple of seconds, but it's best to be safe.

 

[maniac]

I can't really wait to start working on this so I started doing something before I place my order.

First things first, I cut the pipes, emptied the liquid and dismantled it.

First wrapped the pump cover, will fit in nicely with the Project Blue Rock!.

Also did this to lap the copper waterblock...

not as perfect, but its much better than it was

Also prepped the rad for a coat of black paint to cover the scratches, it will be painted tomorrow

maniac out!

 

[Remmy]

In fact maniac, look at the PCB where the cables connect to the board, and see if each connection is labelled as gnd, +ve/+12ve/Vcc etc. or something which would indicate which cable goes to which pin on the fan header.

It's very hard to tell, but I think the green pin connects to the PCB where it says PWM, indicating that the green wire goes to pin 3 of the header in the earlier image I posted. The yellow cable looks like it goes to a voltage regulation circuit, indicating it is the +ve supply going to pin 2. Black therefore will be ground, pin 1. (As I had guessed earlier It may not be correct still, but it's more evidence than before )

 

[maniac]

Order for the res, fittings and tubing has been placed today

 

[KyoKomodo]

Order for the res, fittings and tubing has been placed today

Really excited to see the end result. May end up in me digging out my H50.

 

[mehere]

love the lapping plank I used a bit of glass that at some point was a TV stands door

 

[enRodjavel]

looking good, seen a couple of h50mods with res and even extra rad and GPU blocks. one of the mods someone just took a hose with the id size as close to the original hose as possible and Ziptied it over =D

 

[Dicehunter]

Subbed, This looks good

 

[Innocent159]

Love the idea.. cant wait to see more

 

[maniac]

Expect some more updates pretty soon as today I got a call from Scan telling me that the coolant is available to be picked up, and later found a note from the postman that my package from SpecialTech has arrived and will be delivered again on Monday, which is weird cause I was at home and the bell seems to be working the first time round......

 

[maniac]

So i got my res, tubing and barbs this morning and the coolant later today. Now after assembling everything and being extremely happy with how it turned out, the pumped started doing a lot of clicking noises, I took it all apart again and tested the pump alone in a cup of water, seems to work fine IF it has water already in it, I had to suck the water through (and got a bit of the remaining ek coolant in my mouth, tasted awful) and then started working normally, so I assembled it again and its still the same, the pump works but the water doesn't move at all, I can tell from the fact that not a single bubble has shown up in the res.

any suggestion how I can help the pump?