Has anyone ever used water cooling on their PC ?

gp001

Founding Member
Jun 30, 2001
4,401
0
66
So. Cal.
I am getting ready to build my new computer and am very curious about water cooling. I've been to all the manufacturers sites and read their "disclaimers". I've read alot on some overclocking forums of people who have them, but they either just added them, or change setups so often they have no long term experience. Anyone on here have a water cooled setup? If so, what type and how long.

I know it may be overkill, but this new rig is going to be fairly involved.
 
  • Sponsors (?)


I made my own setup years ago (jan 2000), before you could buy any of this stuff as a kit. It's overkill, but fun to tinker with. I have changed a few parts and cases over the years, but it still has the original radiator (a tranny cooler from kragen). It started as a celeron366 -> 550, then a 566 ->850, duron 750 -> 1 gig, and now a athlon 1600 -> 2000. It is pretty quiet too. I use a pond pump (Danner mag drive) for it, but it could be a little quieter (has a slight hum). I made the waterblock myself using copper caps, pipe and soft copper tubing.
It's easy to buy all this this stuff online, but a lot more fun to make it yourself. Plus you can get stuff way cheaper (junkyard or autoparts store). In my case (athlon 1600 @ 2000) I don't really need it, but it's cool. I got a friend of mine hooked on it as well. I would post some pics if I had a digicam... I'd say you could check it out sometime, but I won't be down in L.A. for awhile.
 
TazerRE said:
dunno about fluid cooling, but if you're looking into a laptop, I basically Ram-Aired mine! :D

How did you do this? Im serious.

I have a compaq 1700, and these computers have serious overheating issues. I keep a fan next to it and just point it down at it so it will stay cool.

What did you do, and does it really help?
 
I have a desk that I typically set my laptop on at home (so I guess this wouldn't work as well if you're always taking it places... :shrug: ). I cut two holes in the desk and mounted standard desktop case fans in the holes. They're powered by a 100 watt power supply I tore out of an old 486 desk downstairs. The fans are flush-mounted.

I placed one of them directly under where my RAM chips are, and took that cover plate off, so it blows directly on the ram, and up past it. The other one is just kinda off to the side. All that air also pushes more into the standard intake fan.

Yes, it makes a FREAKING HUGE difference.

The laptop is a Dell Inspiron 5150. 3.06 gHz P4, Gig of ram, 64 meg ATI card, ect. It's a heat beast. It was actually overheating itself so bad it'd shut itself down. With this, it stays nice and cool. If I hold my hand above the keyboard, I can just BARELY feel a bit of air flow. Keeps everything cool, even the DVD.

I couldn't have asked for better results.

*end thread hijack*