Icewater Cooling.

[yonton228]

So I have a spare Swiftech 120.3 in my hands.....I will be modding my case anyways so I thought I would have some fun. However I thought I would ask for some opinions first.

The Plan:

Since I have a spare RAD and a cooler that hasnt been used in years I thought I would go with a ice water bath cooling rig. I will drill 2 holes in the lid of the cooler, route the tubes in and then seal with some RTV and or some expanding foam insulation.

Next I would put a few screws in the bottom side of the lid and use that to suspend the RAD about midway in the ice water. Now the ice water....I will not be constantly making ice cubes, however I will just freeze some water filled milk jugs and swap them out as they melt. Next the watercooling components that I have.

Components:

RAD: 2 Swiftech 120.3
PUMP: D5 vario
CPU BLOCK: D-Tek V1 (Nozzle kit)
GPU BLOCK: Swiftech MCW-60
RES: EK 150
NB BLOCK: Will get one once I get another job

Potential Problems:

1: Condensation
2: Possible corrosion on the rad.
3: Possible pump issues
4: Prolly more that I have thought of

So, thoughts? Opinions? Hate? I can take it all so dont worry. Just thought about trying something different and fun.

PS: Here is a pic of what I have in mind:

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/7400/icewaterjs6.th.png (http://img267.imageshack.us/my.php?image=icewaterjs6.png)http://img267.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif (http://g.imageshack.us/thpix.php)

-yonton228/timmy

[shabranigdo]

Well it sure won't help with corrosion but putting some salt in the ice water bath will lower the temp of the water signifigantly.

[yonton228]

Good ol' icewater + salt= cold beer VERY VERY FAST! :D About the only good thing about that mixture lol. Anyways, its now nap time for me.




-yonton228/timmy

[xTKxhom3r]

why would salt make the water colder? how much salt will i need to cool my beer lol

[Vertigo1]

Salt won't make the water colder, it just lowers the freezing point so you can have it below 0C but not turn to ice.

[xTKxhom3r]

oh wow thats cool i guess you do learn something everyday

[Micutzu]

I've used this kind of setup for benching few years ago.

Just loose the rad and let the water flow pass trough the water+ice mixture. Be careful about condensation as it will definately be there (tubes, blocks, even on the pump) unless the enviromental temperature is under 15C. Be careful about the tubes also as they will get very stiff with cold water passing trough them.

Good luck.

[b@llz0r]

I was gona say u could loose the air rad up the top of your sketch, but the previous poster was correct, you could loose both of them

[Big_Daddy]

Well if he keeps the top rad in, with fans blowing outside air into the case, he'd have a case cooler. It'd warm up the water enough (hopefully, don't hold me to it) and cool the interior of the case enough to avoid condensation.

Now things to improve the idea. Get you a small submersible pump to move the water around in the cooler. So you don't have warm water around the rad. Forget the salt, you don't need it that cold. The salt will destroy the rad. And don't say that it won't because it's under the water. He'll have to take it out every time he wants to replace the jugs of ice. Use distilled water, and PT nuke in the cooler water as well. Else you'll have a science experiment in the cooler within a matter of days.

[mindspat]

Why not just make a Cool Can?

You could take a coffee can, or something equivilant, and run copper tubbing into the can and have it spiral down, then back up and out. As your waterloop passes through the copper tubbing that's inside the Cool Can with its ice+salt addition it will cause a drop in the water temp.

Here's the basis for what I'm refering to: http://www.jegs.com/p/Mr.+Gasket/745113/10002/-1

If I wasn't a forum newb I'd be able to properly display this image of a Mr Gasket "Cool Can": http://www.jegs.com/images/photos/7201350.jpg

I used to have something like this on my old '64 SS Impala with a 327. God I miss that car... :(

[sirheck]

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n280/sirheckiii/Picture496.jpg


Its a little blurry but you will get condensation on your tubes.
Unless you can cool your ambient temps a little.
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n280/sirheckiii/Picture498.jpg

And as stated above if you just let the radiator set in the water the
temps will rise so you would want to keep the water flowing around
the radiator.

[gillbot]

And as stated above if you just let the radiator set in the water the
temps will rise so you would want to keep the water flowing around
the radiator.

Just take a cheap-o submersible pond pump and drop it in there. You can get a cheap one from harbor freight or ebay for around $5. Flow doesn't matter since all it's doing is "stirring" the water for you. Run a tube from the outlet to the top of the rad and let the water flow down over. It will keep the chilled water circulating.

[xTKxhom3r]

oh wow thats alot of condensation

[BreeSpree]

Oh Gawd, this screams bad idea. If you want to do this, maybe you should try chilled liquid cooling, using a liquid chiller instead of a rad. And yes, that condensation looks killer, make sure to inusulate somehow...

[sirheck]

Yeah the tubing had condensation all the way up to the blocks.
I ran it for a couple of hours but had some toilet paper handy.
Only had to wipe it off about every 10 minutes or so(didnt want any dripping
on the gpu.)

That set-up had a Q66 and i got to right around freezing about 1c(according to Core Temp).
Letting the rad just sit in the bucket it would climb to the mid teens celcius.
Moving the rad around would quickly drop it to single digits.

Its really only for temporary bench runs, unless you take time
and insulate your tubing and blocks.

[Chruschef]

... Whats the point of putting the rad in the water? Is there any performance gain, over just throwing the tubes into the water so that the water from the CPU dumps into the top of the bucket or so, and then it takes water from the bottom of the bucket(to take the coldest water.. basic thermodynamics)..

The radiator in the water would just cause some corrosion or something?

[yonton228]

... Whats the point of putting the rad in the water? Is there any performance gain, over just throwing the tubes into the water so that the water from the CPU dumps into the top of the bucket or so, and then it takes water from the bottom of the bucket(to take the coldest water.. basic thermodynamics)..

I realize this. However I want to keep any and all additives in the loop and not hitting the water in the cooler since I would be swapping jugs out.....Really dont want to have anything dripping since I have a cat...

Condensation really does seem to be a S.O.B dont it?



-yonton228/timmy