Guide: Waterblock Building and Designing

[n00b 0f l337]

So You Want to Build a Block?
No problem, but it isn't as easy as just carving channels? Taking a look at some of the best blocks they don't seem to simple. But most blocks can be built with patience, time, and a drill press.

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Tools
when building a waterblock you will need some tools. Depending on what materials, some work, some don't work, and some work but not well enough for good usage.

* The Dremel - The dremel can be used for cutting into blocks, but it isn't great and is quite sloppy.
* The Drill Press - The best bet for your average block builder, a good drill press with a good vise and most design are possible.
* Jigsaw - Not advised for making blocks, but it can be used to cut bar stock for block building.
* Hacksaw - Another item for use like the jigsaw, but less sloppy.
* CNC - A CNC is a very very expensive peice of machinery, and is good to make the best blocks, but most average builders will never get to touch one of these, a local machining shop may or may not own one.
* Taps - You will most likely need a set of taps to thread your block tops to take the barbs for input and outflow.

Materials
Another thing when building blocks to be concerned about is the material you are using. Using www.dangerden.com for a reference, a bar stock of copper that is 2" x 12" x 1/2" is $20 bucks, and around $35 once tax an shipping are added to the East coast, the Pacific may vary.

- CORROSION. THE BIG C! When mixing metals in a loop, like aluminum and copper, corrosion will begin, and therefore it is a good idea to avoid mixing metals.

* Copper - Copper is the best item for the first time and experienced block builder, it is somewhat expensive, but not as expensive as silver. Copper is also quite easy to use with a drill press and works nicely for heat removal. Copper is normally a good item to use as most radiators/heatercores are copper.

* Aluminum - Aluminum is cheap and very inexpensive. Only around $4 for a bar 2" x 12" x 1/2", aluminum is a poor conductor of heat compared to copper or silver. I would only suggest aluminum for testing if you can indeed drill/build a block design.

- A warning about aluminum. Aluminum even when anodized will eventulaly begin coroding your system if theres any copper in it. So for all purposes, only use it for quick testing, or for desiging templates.

* Silver - Silver is the best. Silver is somewhat easy to use and build and offers amazing thermal properties. For the first time or experienced builder, I would not suggest silver because of price. People like Cathar are very professional and know what they are doing, and are quite amazing with silver. If you decide to use silver, make sure you know what you are doing, or have too much money.


Designing Blocks

Now onto designing. Picking and making a great design is the hardest part. The things to look at when building a block are surface area, flow paths, and resistance.

* Pins/Pillars - A common design is to drill holes into blocks to make a standing pillar of metal. With a common repeating of this you end up with a design like the 6002 Swiftech block. These blocks have plenty of surface area, flow is quite even, and resistance is actually quite helpful.

* Od-Ball - The od ball design is by drilling a set of holes one after the other without them touching and then connecting the "dots" to make path ways across were the core would be on whatever you are cooling. These designs have mediocre flow and are high resistance, but work well.

* Fins - Straight path fins are made just by cutting a line across the block from input to output. These blocks have tons of surface area but the overall pressure drop can be devastating to the rest of the loops flow with a small pump.

* Holes - Often used with jets (coming up) simply by drilling holes into the base below the input allows the water to go down to the base, and these designs work well most of the time.

* Jets - A new common item that isn't in the actual metal, but in whatever top for the block you choose. This is basically drilling holes into the top area below the input barb to direct the incoming water onto holes or pins.

* Impingement - Impinge-ing a base is just the process of adding tons of pins for the water to fall on making turbulence and good conditions for the removal of heat from the block.

Topping your Block

Once you design and build your block, your going to need to top it. There are a few good materials that are a yes-yes, and a few definite no-no's.

* Lucite / Acrylic - Both of these materials are clear, easy to use, and somewhat easy to tap for barbs. The only problem is after a time it can begin to crack, though Dangerden does use this for its tops.

* Stock metal - Whatever metal you used, assuming its not aluminum, you may be able to weld/braze another peice on top to keep it together. This is done for vapor phase change evaporators, and does work for watercooling.

* Brass - Brass is a great material for topping your blocks. It is durable, strong, and lasts. Brass can be somewhat expensive to find or buy as it is quite dense.

* Delrin / Acetal - The newest "craze" for topping your blocks. Delrin or Acetal as its called, is amazing stuff. It is durable and moldable. Its very easy to tap delrin, cut delrin, and such. I suggest using this material for your first blocks!

Lapping Time!

Once you've drilled, tapped, created, designed and redisgned your blocks. Its time to use em. No, wait... Nevermind. Its time to break out that wetsand paper and get down and work. This is the part people normally hate to do, I hate to do it myself. Lapping your block is when you simply just sand it and sand it with finer and finer wetsand paper until its ultimately flat and shiny. This also makes your creation look beautiful. Its a little self explanatory so I'd just say one thing...

The time you spend at this step is worth every moment. And don't kill your hands too much before you get to overclock and break out a good FPS on some noob's buttocks.

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Sooo... Now your creations completed, and its time to show it off, so following all your work its time to have some fun. Mount it up and move it out. And keep building!

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Pictures to compliment designs coming soon.

[n00b 0f l337]

And here is some basic block designs.

[MaxxxRacer]

Good guide. I'll get around to editing it like I promised sometime soon.

[dutchman.pt]

Impressive!
Congratulations.

[n00b 0f l337]

Thank you. I'm working on finding all the different specs for mounting holes. I've got socket a but this will take a while.

EDIT: Ran into these on ProCooling forums. So credit for these goes to them and such.

[One_Hertz]

* Aluminum - Aluminum is cheap and very inexpensive.

lol

[Para]

The water-blocks I'm building are of 99.9% pure copper, and green copper oxides used to start building up on the surfaces pretty fast. So I just went to an electrolisys basin and put a shiny coat of silver to them.

[einCe]

excellent, i might pass this on to my stepdad and get some blocks made

[[FoRcE]]

Im thinking of making a few custom blocks. Ill make some pics of what my base designs are. I dont have access to any form of machining so Ill have to find a shop. Any ideas as to what that would cost?


EDIT: Here are my ideas. The ram block just might have water in the top or i might make it go down into the bigger fins. The GPU and the GPU RAM block will be on the same loop. The input line will split into the GPU and GPU/R block and then they will go back together at the end. Sorry I had to zup them but I couldnt get them on photo bucket.

[n00b 0f l337]

That will be hard with a drill press, but possible with a lot of work with a dremel and a diamond bit. A cnc or milling machine would do that easy....

Good basic designs.

[Overconfidence]

If you don't have access to a machine shop, or don't have any close friends who do, I'd suggest buying a retail waterblock. It will be less work and much cheaper, as well as higher performing (Especially if you were looking at using crude machinery, which would still be costly).

If you're stuck on making your own, look in the yellow pages or online, or ask around your workplace or friends. If you have some decent cashflow, you may want to look into getting a drill press, and a dremel toolset (Especially cheap Chinese knockoffs) won't be too expensive. The ultimate would be a lathe, milling machine, or CNC mill, but these will cost upwards of $1000 for the machine alone, and several thousand more for toolposts, cutting tools, forejaws, etc, not including software to design your waterblock (especially if you're using a CNC mill, which feeds the design from your computer into the mill).

[A Scream]

where do I get the copper block? local machine shop?

[Cooper]

Thank you. I'm working on finding all the different specs for mounting holes. I've got socket a but this will take a while.

EDIT: Ran into these on ProCooling forums. So credit for these goes to them and such.

We definatly need same pic for modern GPUs
If somebody could make one it would be great

[Cobalt]

I'm not thinking of making my own blocks but I'd like to suggest to anyone interested that you may be able to hire time on a CNC milling machine for a little money and if you already have your design figured out it won't take too long. A nearby college has a whole workshop filled with just about every kind of CNC machine you would want and they are allowing people to go on courses which not only teach you how to use them but also let you choose your project. I don't know how many places offer that kind of service but if you can find somewhere like that its pretty much perfect.

[alpha754293]

(Note: Link/cross-referencing to the thread that I have about my cooling idea)

My suggestion for people thinking about using aluminum (Al) as the working solid material that they stick with it throughout the entire system. 1000-series Al should be sufficient, but if you're worried about it; you can try and go for 4032-T6, or 6063-T5 (used for heatsinks per AMD Socket 940 Thermal Design Guide, Publication # 26633-5649).

A quick note about CNCing: Most places MAY require you to figure out how to fixture the piece to the table.

That is usually easier said than done. It really depends. (I know that the biggest question we get when we want to have something CNC'd in-house).

I realize that my current block is rather large, but that it also partially due to me trying to linearize the flow as much as possible, and also having to clear the surrounding components, not spec'd out in the keep-out (KO) zone near and around the socket.

I haven't figured out "all" possible combination/permutation for the outlet KO/clearance studies; as I'm still working on the details of the internal structure.

One idea that I'm toying with right now (trying to negotiate/navigate) through the whole space issue is to try something akin to a common-rail "injection" method for cooling. Another idea that I am also toying with right now is a completely circular design so that the fluid either spirals inward or outward; but I'm trying to figure out the details of the fluid mechanics on that one (before I start modelling it and then submitting it for analysis).

Also, Al may not be that bad because since doesn't conduct heat as well as copper or silver does, that higher temperature difference will help in heat transfer. As long as you have enough flow to keep the heat moving and away from the source, you should be fine.

Since most people aren't going to be trying to take it down below ambient temperatures (because in order to do that, that's getting more towards a refrigeration cycle; which not only adds complexity to the problem, but also changes the problem dramatically), as long as you can keep the heat moving; you should be fine.

My suggest also is that when possible, try and see if you can measure the speed of the flow at the inlet and outlet; along with the temperatures. It will give you sufficent information about the performance of the block as a heat exchange device.

Turbulence is good only in very small amounts.

[Theyoyokid303]

about cnc shops ...... there is this great place called emachine shop can do anything for you anyway... check them out.. emachineshop.com... they even do the top materials like lucite and delrin

[LightningCrash]

very nice!

i'm saving up for a Taig 2026 right now, i should be able to crank out some quality stuff in a short while

just need specs for graphics card mounts now

[alpha754293]

about cnc shops ...... there is this great place called emachine shop can do anything for you anyway... check them out.. emachineshop.com... they even do the top materials like lucite and delrin

It's not a bad program if you doing straight-cut/extruded sketch parts. For more complicated geometry - I don't think that the program can do it. Interesting though.

[joker54]

Hey guys, is it possible to grind a small notch in the bottom of a copper water block, maybe with a dremmel tool, to slip a wafer thin temp sensor in between the CPU and the w/block??

[serialk11r]

I don't think thats a good idea. You'll screw everything up. Besides, the temp sensor will also screw up because one side will be hot and one side will be cold.

[Silvermirage]

Has anyone tried grinding down and then using a silver dollar as a waterblock?

[Jochenp]

you try it
almost impossible
How will you mount it?
Silver won't make up for the lack of a proper design either

[Hellemyr]

Nice guide, but i think its wrong to call it a CNC machine.

CNC is a computerprogram and a mill is the machine itselfe. If you have a mill that suports CNC programs then its a CNC controlled Mill (or just a CNC Mill).
If you havent a CNC mill, you just have a regualr mill.

Its like calling a computer for windows or linux.

[n00b 0f l337]

Yes there is the difference, checkout post 10

[sick_g4m3r]

I have a question about this new idea:

I want to bi-metal hole saw out a 1.5" hole on a .5" x 2" x 2" block and then solder on a highly lapped 1-2mm thin sheet (the point is very thin and excellent flow) of copper 1.75" square to the bottom. It will be soldered inside and outside for double reinforcement. The top of the block would have impingement holes in the middle of the barb so the water blasts straight down on the middle of the thin sheet and essentially as close to the CPU as possible. The water would flow out of a barb at the side(s) of the block instead of up again to create better flow. Would this be practical?

woah i just read this. that sounds dumb but might actually work