Home made gpu water block

[Shtrafenhoofen]

Here are some pics of my weekend project. I am thinking that maybe I should run the channels in the copper base a little deeper for better heat transfer. At the moment they are running 3mm deep leaving 3mm to the bottom. If anyone has any suggestions on how to make this thing work better than my air cooler let me know b4 i install this chunk of copper ...As soon as I find some fittings Im going to give this block a try....hope it doesnt dissapoint.

[AndrewZorn]

WOW, very professional looking...

EDIT but to answer your question most of the CPU blocks I've seen have a base thickness of 1-3mm, so right now you're on the thick side. I've heard of beefier blocks absorbing more of the excess heat around the chip but I don't know what's really ideal.

Where is the GPU located? Hopefully in the sweep, and not in the middle where the divider ends...

EDIT man that really does look beautiful, a "weekend project"? Do you have all the tools required to do that just 'around'?

[WhiteFireDragon]

looks good, except for the very scratched up acrylic. which card will this be installed on?

[Shtrafenhoofen]

WOW, very professional looking...

Thanks Andrew but will it cool my 260 gtx

EDIT thats the feedback I was looking for...this is my first try at something like this, so am not sure if this is worth putting in my loop yet before some extra modding

As far as the tools go all I used was a Bosch trim router and a jig to get the channels cut out. The same jig was used for the copper and acrylic just with different guides for offsetting the radius

The very center of the gpu is right in the center of the radius which makes me think that it may need a bit more flow .....not sure

[zanzabar]

what kind of 260 do u have (not that it matters for the cooling).

and for that i would try to get the thinnest base that u can like .75-1mm since u have an IHS

[SoulsCollective]

How exactly is that going to be mounted? I'm not seeing any bracket or screw holes.

Other than that, looks very pro (kind of like the earlier DangerDen stuff). Hope it cools well.

[AndrewZorn]

The very center of the gpu is right in the center of the radius which makes me think that it may need a bit more flow .....not sure

do you mean in the center of the partial circle you've created, or on the outer part of the chord

basically
is the water flowing directly over the GPU or not

[Shtrafenhoofen]

The desaturated square is where the gpu will be placed. The 4 black dots are the mounting holes that are'nt drilled yet

[Boogerlad]

Looks like dangerden's maze blocks. Looks nice! Is it sandblasted? It could help performance.

[Dark Bishop]

i would definitely add some more channels to cover the rest of the gpu, copper transfers heat well but not that well.

other than that, it beautiful and i would order one if you started making them.

[PatRaceTin]

wow u made it with CNC? or just a drill

[Chumbucket843]

is that going to cover the vrms? mine get up to 120C in furmark with heatsinks

[3Z3VH]

I don't mean to sound negative, just giving you some ideas...

The channels that are directly over the GPU will have no flow, because they don't join the water channels. You need to allow water to flow through them to let them help cool the GPU.

Also, don't make the channels deeper. You want the water channel to look as flat as possible, because if you make each channel's cross-section look too much like a pipe, it will act just like a pipe... where the water in the center of the pipe flows freely, but the water at the edges (on the surface of the copper) will not move as quickly... meaning you are just circulating a bunch of cool water around, while the water touching the copper doesn't get nearly as much flow.

[karbonkid]

wow, you did that with a router? I am in awe. :o

Also, what 3Z3VH said...

[eth0s]

I don't mean to sound negative, just giving you some ideas...

The channels that are directly over the GPU will have no flow, because they don't join the water channels. You need to allow water to flow through them to let them help cool the GPU.

Also, don't make the channels deeper. You want the water channel to look as flat as possible, because if you make each channel's cross-section look too much like a pipe, it will act just like a pipe... where the water in the center of the pipe flows freely, but the water at the edges (on the surface of the copper) will not move as quickly... meaning you are just circulating a bunch of cool water around, while the water touching the copper doesn't get nearly as much flow.

EDIT: I forgot to say nice job by the way, it does really look professional. It may need a rev. 2 design, but it is looking very promising.

I think 3Z3VH has the right idea here, for best cooling with water (or any non-compressible liquid for that matter) you want turbulent flow, not laminar flow. I think the idea of the channels is to break up the flow and create turbulence, right? The water is not supposed to flow smoothly through those channels, right? Because that would be bad for cooling. In laminar flow only the outer layer along the pipe gets any heat transfer, there is a colder "jet stream" of fluid that sails past the warmer outer water right down the center of the pipe. So if the channels are supposed to produce turbulence, then that is good. One of the best designs for creating turbulence in a gpu block is the diamond pin design from that company that makes the cheapest and most popular radiators and those little rectangular reservoirs, see if you can find a picture, and use that as a guide. Also is your block supposed to be a full-cover block, or a partial cover block, because I am not sure it will cover everything that needs to be cooled. I don't know if you can show us how it will fit on the video card, can you?

[Shtrafenhoofen]

Thank you Ethos and 3Z3VH for the constructive criticism.....I will try this out tonight as is if I have the time....It cant be worse than stock cooling can it ? Even though there are no grooves in the central area there is still some flow because the acrylic is not sitting flat on the copper, theres about 1.5 mm between which still gives some flow I guess

[AndrewZorn]

if the acrylic isn't even touching the copper in the channel area, then there are really big issues going on... flowrate will be good though

[zeroibis]

Yea, it needs to make contact to force the coolant to use the channels or it will just follow path of least resistance. Great work though and it looks amazing

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

guys just so ya know, FC waterblocks dont cool by thin bases and injectors, the cool by pure mass and good flow...

[hellcamino]

That block looks beautiful and particularly so for a homemade job! Please post results with it soon!

[eth0s]

You want the water to flow OVER the channels and not through them, in order to create turbulence. Anything that breaks up the laminar flow will help cooling. Now I see how it's going to work, and this block should work as currently designed. It will cool that gpu down. How effective the cooling will be is a different story. I hope it's better than air cooling, that is the first benchmark of how well it's doing its job. However, I really think with a slight redesign, which includes expanding it to cover the full block, this could really work well, especially for a home-made water block. It's a nice big piece of copper, which should absorb a lot of heat. I just hope there is enough turbulent water contact to absorb most of that heat.

[JASSAF]

very nicely done.

[LinusTech]

It'll perform fine.

The difference between the best GPU blocks and the worst GPU blocks is like 5 degrees. His will not be the worst.

It looks terrific for a home made block!

[stangracin3]

It'll perform fine.

The difference between the best GPU blocks and the worst GPU blocks is like 5 degrees. His will not be the worst.

It looks terrific for a home made block!

+1

it does look good compared to others

[Shtrafenhoofen]

OK so here it is ....after a extremely long leak test of 0 hours and 0 minutes here are some results after playing crysis 15 minutes...... these temps just seem too good to be true... I am glad that I didnt change anything from the original design because honestly I dont think the results could be better .....thanks again for all your comments....

almost forgot ambient temp was 23 c...in the loop I also have a q9550 @3.6 on a triple rad mrc320