My Homebrew waterblock is done (well, almost)

[Shlomo]

It is FINISHED! Infact, got it in my machine. The temperature results are less than impressive, but i'll go on about that issue after the pictures....

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u203/BSShlomo/IMG_0208.jpg
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u203/BSShlomo/IMG_0215.jpg
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u203/BSShlomo/IMG_0214.jpg
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u203/BSShlomo/IMG_0228.jpg
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u203/BSShlomo/IMG_0229.jpg
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u203/BSShlomo/IMG_0230.jpg
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u203/BSShlomo/megacool.png


Well first off, due to some machining limitations, I have no jet impingment or turbulance on the core. Mostly due to messing up the baseplate design JUST enough that I couldn't fit a nozzle in the center. I am seeing if I can whip up a midplate for this block to fix that, but time constraints might ruin that for me (this was a highschool senior engineering project). As of now, this performs on par with my IceFloe waterblock from AquaXtreme, even though it probably has 5-8 times the surface area. I guess jet impingment and turbulance REALLY DO matter that much. As you can see the block is stepped, and I lapped it later on (sorry but no pictures, it is already mounted heh). The mounting bracket is a little crude, but that is what you get when you have a friends uncle machine it for free out of some scrap aluminum. I decided to post a picture of what I actually wanted, but apparently that would of cost me some money hehe. Same thing with the interesting tubing run. The guy (friends uncle) tapped the holes some very strange threading (NPT 1/4"??) when I asked for G1/4 OR NPT3/8. So apparently I get neither and have to use 3/8" barbs. I went to homedepot and grabbed some 3/8" to 1/2" barb converters so thats why it is a little strange. The top is made out of an unknown material, it is just what he had on hand. It is supposidly delrin-like in properties, just not anywhere near as hot looking >.<. Though I still have to give my friends uncle major props for donating the time to make this. Without him it would of never gotten finished (other manufacturing places were asking for way more money than I was willing to spend for a project).

Another issue was I screwed up the o-ring channel, so to fix that I went and grabbed some liquid silicon gasket material and just put that in the channels instead. Works great, no leaks, just not re-usable haha, got to reapply it every time I take apart the block.

If anything this was a pretty great learning experience. If I get the chance to make another one it'll definatly fix the mistakes made with this one. As they always say, onwards and upwards!

[Martinm210]

Nice work!

I think everyone should attempt to make their own block at least once. It sure gave me an appreciation for how cheap we're able to buy them due to mass production.

I've probably got 20+ hours into my first block and it wasn't even as good as the D-Tek Fuzion V1.

Back in the days, there was alot more custom building of blocks and part for watercooling, now it's becoming the exception.

Awesome...I like it!:up:

CNC or manually milling? Nevermind. I see CNC patterns on the base, I'd love to have that ability

Slitting saw or a small endmill?

Thanks!
Martin

[Shlomo]

Nice work!

I think everyone should attempt to make their own block at least once. It sure gave me an appreciation for how cheap we're able to buy them due to mass production.

I've probably got 20+ hours into my first block and it wasn't even as good as the D-Tek Fuzion V1.

Back in the days, there was alot more custom building of blocks and part for watercooling, now it's becoming the exception.

Awesome...I like it!:up:

CNC or manually milling?

Slitting saw or a small endmill?

Thanks!
Martin

EDM on the baseplate (donated by a local tech college) and a small CNC endmill for the top. I am unsure about the mounting bracket, probably also on a drillpress if I had to guess.

Thanks for the complements

[Boogerlad]

are you going to sandblast the base?

[Shlomo]

are you going to sandblast the base?

No plans on doing that, sandblasting won't really make much of a difference on its performance imho. What is 1 degree celcius if you're performing 10 or so degrees worse than a supreme/gtz already? :-p

[headala]

IMHO it's unlikely that a homemade block will beat the state-of-the-art ones out now. But the fact that you made your own is big props and your CPU will still run cool. There's real satisfaction in that. Great job!

[Shlomo]

IMHO it's unlikely that a homemade block will beat the state-of-the-art ones out now. But the fact that you made your own is big props and your CPU will still run cool. There's real satisfaction in that. Great job!

Hahah that wasn't my goal. The end goal was to at least perform a little bit better than my IceFloe block. But meh, this is good enough. I'd reckon i'll just keep it in the machine for show at LAN parties and whatnot. Watercooling is sort of impressive to some, but creating your own stuff is where its at. It kind of makes me feel oldschool like i'm back in 2002 hehe.

At the very least I can throw up some major BS in a few areas and ace this project, so the 100 isn't so bad (it'll end up being my final exam which is actually 100% of my final grade).

And besides, I got a new top design now which SHOULD fix my woes, the only problem is that I only have 5 days to get it made, and the person who created my other top is out of town :-\. I'll post pics of the other top tomorrow. It's time to bust out the highschooler card again and beg some machine shops to donate their time for a lonely poor student.

[LOUISSSSS]

how much did you spend in total?

what were the tools that you used (for those of us who need to purchase the tools to make one)

and how does it perform compared to the current (2007-on) blocks?

[Shlomo]

how much did you spend in total?

what were the tools that you used (for those of us who need to purchase the tools to make one)

and how does it perform compared to the current (2007-on) blocks?

Zero dollars (donated by various places/people for my project)

Tools used - Wire EDM for the copper base, manual CNC for the top.

Performance - Bad. But.. at least it performs bad... in a very satisfying way.

My answer to performance woes? Well since I've exhausted my free resources, I had to turn to Alpha Manufacturing in West Columbia to get a new top machined out. I already got the quote (100 dollars) and it'll be done next week. Funny thing is, if I asked for 1000 of these to be made, it'd only cost 5 dollars a top :-p. Well heres the design I went with. I'm splitting the costs with my partner 50/50 (literally).
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u203/BSShlomo/newtop.jpg

[Kram]

Its nice. You say bad performance but what chip is it on? and how hot?

If it has bad performance then I think the base is too thick? it looks near 3mm with the step?

Also the top in picture 4, the ports are along the channels that makes an easy path for laminar flow. If they were across the sides instead of diagonal then it will make a lot more turbulence :)

[Hondacity]

IMHO it's unlikely that a homemade block will beat the state-of-the-art ones out now. But the fact that you made your own is big props and your CPU will still run cool. There's real satisfaction in that. Great job!

so untrue, the ek supreme LT is an example, it can beat the gtz easily, its one of the simplest blocks yet it performs very close to my k350.

dunno if making thin cuts on the block is doable though, but if it is ..its gonna be carnage.

[aspire.comptech]

So your basically making the top to an Aquaxtreme MP-01...

I really think you'd be better off just buying yourself a nice block because I really doubt your going to see much improvement, especially considering your mixing an impingement top with a cross-flow base...

[Shlomo]

So your basically making the top to an Aquaxtreme MP-01...

I really think you'd be better off just buying yourself a nice block because I really doubt your going to see much improvement, especially considering your mixing an impingement top with a cross-flow base...

You miss the point of *do it yourself*

There's a certain satisfaction to it. Makes it worth the cost. Think of it like a hobby yes? In any sense, i've very nearly managed to convince the school to cover this cost since it is apart of their PLTW program...

Anyways, I think i'll post temps reguardless.

E6300 @ 3.29ghz vcore = 1.55, idle - 46, load - 66.
e6300 @ stock, idle = 31 load = 40

Rest of system is a BIP240, d5 vario @ 5 setting, 1/2" tubing, swiftech microres.

[Shlomo]

Heres a screenshot of temps. Previous temps were from running CoreDamage, heres some using BOINC (WCG for Xtremesystems ofcourse!)

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u203/BSShlomo/temperatures.png

I get the new top tomorrow, will post pictures and more temps shortly after that. For now I must begin cadding my next WC project.. i'll provide details on that one in maybe a month. I'm not sure, it is going to take some time to finalize things.

[diredesire]

nice block, and sweet pictures. I was going to ask how you sealed it, but you answered my question ;)

I built my own blocks a while ago, but I think that now I can say i've done it, I'll be buying my stuff due to much less time now that i'm a little "older" ;)

[hellcamino]

Haha that is a pretty good first block! Good job and don't let anyone tell you different!

[Shlomo]

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u203/BSShlomo/IMG_0248.jpg
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u203/BSShlomo/IMG_0249.jpg
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u203/BSShlomo/IMG_0250.jpg
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u203/BSShlomo/IMG_0251.jpg

Just got the top back today, i'm pretty pleased. Now I just need to hack up my mounting bracket and buy some 1/4" NPT to 1/2" hose adapters from mcmaster and i'll be good to go.

I'll probably be posting temps around wednesday.

[systemviper]

nice work, always great to see custom work, that copper is just so sweet!

[Shlomo]

Hey, sorry for such a long time between the last update and this one, but I finally got some barbs in, and I just put the new top on. I have the liqui-gasket sealing atm so no temps, that'll come tonight I suppose. Anyways, pics!

Barbs attached:
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u203/BSShlomo/IMG_0298.jpg
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u203/BSShlomo/IMG_0299.jpg
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u203/BSShlomo/IMG_0300.jpg

Necessary tools:
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u203/BSShlomo/IMG_0301.jpg

Ghetto-modded mounting bracket, and it assembled top view
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u203/BSShlomo/IMG_0302.jpg
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u203/BSShlomo/IMG_0303.jpg

Once again, temps coming in a few hours. Man I hope it works better haha!

[Darth_Penguin]

Great effort! I hope to make a block one day when I CNC my mill