My Invention (56ker pic warning)

looks funny.. works very well. and cost me about $170 all up.

1300L/H submerged aquarium pump... a cookie jar and some 100mm plumbing pipe.. a 120mm thermaltake case fan.. some copper pipe.. and a Swiftech waterblock. everything apart from the case fan and waterblock was bought from bunnings or my local aquarium.

XP2500 @ 2.2GHz. 32 degrees.. i'll clock higher when i can afford decent ram.

Ok....looks interesting. Please explain a little bit about the theory of operation, and what make your invention work. Nice temperature, was that a load temp? What was the ambient room temp? A few details about the coil would be nice...how many turns in the coil? How long is the coil? What is the radius and spacing of the turns in the coil? What is the diameter of the tubing used for the coil?

So many questions = interest in bulding one.

Alternative cooling methods are always interesting!

At first I thought it was a bong type cooler (there are a few who use them in here) but it is actually an air coil the copper tube acts as a radiator and the tube acts as a shroud and well the fan acts just like a fan.

Actually, it is a bong cooler with a copper coil added...I think.
It looks like half of the returned water goes thru the coil and the other half sprays over the coil.

clocker2 said:

Actually, it is a bong cooler with a copper coil added...I think.
It looks like half of the returned water goes thru the coil and the other half sprays over the coil.

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yep thats exactly what happens..

32 degrees is just the idle temp.. although after using the PC for quite a while playing games etc.. it doesnt seem to rise much.. to about 35 degrees.. to tell you the truth, i havnt installed the mobo temp monitoring prog yet as ive been lazy and havnt found my cd lmao.. but i check the temps occasionaly in the BIOS after its been stressed for a while..

the water is carried from the submerged pump to the waterblock.. then through the coil.. sorry, never counted the turns.. but it was about 1 and a half meters of 1/2 inch copper tube.. its fairly thin copper as it wasnt hard to bend.. one tube sprays/drips water over the copper to help the fan cool it down. and the rest of the water travels down the copper and back into the resevoir. a fairly simple design but i think it works quite well. temp of my room?? i havnt really gone that far as to check.. or check the temp of the water.. but ill do that at some point. id say the only disadvantage so far of the system is that it evapourates water quite fast... it will drop about an inch in around 24 hours of running. not too much of a prop to top it up and distilled water is pretty cheap.

Very original, I like the idea.

thanks very much.. im still looking at perhaps tweaking it a little..

does anyone know what good liquid is to use?

I think straight water is the best, but you may run into growth problems (bacteria? algae?).
Have you compared the performance with/without the copper coil?
Seems like you might be crippling the evaporation rate ( which is what a bong is all about) by only running half the water free....

I would definitely run something else in there because the water is exposed to open air. I don't have any experience with bong coolers, but I'd imagine 5 to 10% antifreeze would work. Someone confirm though.

clocker2 said:

I think straight water is the best, but you may run into growth problems (bacteria? algae?).
Have you compared the performance with/without the copper coil?
Seems like you might be crippling the evaporation rate ( which is what a bong is all about) by only running half the water free....

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yeah i have tryed it without the copper.. and it seems to work a lot better with the copper there.

im actualy not too familiar with other methods of watercooling.. me and a mate built two of these.. one each.. and we sorta came up with ideas as we went.. the first prototype that my mate made was an evapourative cooler that was abotu 1 1/2 meters high... the water falling further is a better way.. but its too big and noisey.. so we compensated with like a half evap half radiated sort of system.

I like it.

Very nice. Also tho if you put additives you should be careful because wouldnt the additives evaporate with the water too? I dont think you want to be breathing in antifreeze... 0_o

SniperXX said:

Very nice. Also tho if you put additives you should be careful because wouldnt the additives evaporate with the water too? I dont think you want to be breathing in antifreeze... 0_o

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exactly..might want to go with a small solution of alcohol though..will evap a whole lot faster too.

no probs.. thanks for your advise

What do you call that ? A half-bong ?
Anyway. Try to stick with distilled water, and to protect your "bong" from dirt / contaminants (maybe put a kind of filter on top ?). Any additive will alter the evaporative properties of your coolant, and more importantly, you'll breathe it ! It would better be not toxic..

Try evaporative bacteriostat.

nothing like drinking while modding to take the edge off and think more clearly. like the empty Wild Turkey bottle by the tire. I prefer Jack & Coke though.

antifreeze evaporates pretty damn slow, so im not sure it would be bad for you to use

Aphex_Tom_9 said:

antifreeze evaporates pretty damn slow, so im not sure it would be bad for you to use

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Even in an evaporative system? AF isn't a very good bacteriostat but it is usually cheap or free

Is it a still and that's what the empty bottle of Wild Turkey is for to tap off of it now and again?