Diy Waterchiller

[wfarid]

i would like to make my own water chiller, but i would want it to be small (like voodoo's) but also hella effective... how could i make a reasonbly small but effective waterchiller taht would pretty much eliminate my need for a radiotor

[Player0]

Waterchillers need a radiator too ;)

[wfarid]

oh ok... well how can I build a small but effective waterchiller.I would like my water temps to be around like 20 celsius would be nice (and this is going to be with both my cpu and gpu pelted, the gpu will prolly have a 176watt peltier and cpu will have a 226watt peltier).

[dicki]

hummmm your runing right up against the good old laws of physics there...

effective and small don't go together i'm afraid the fundamental problem is you need to shift the heat somehow into the atmosphere. the amount of heat you can move directly depends on the surface are available at the boundary of the system. pelts and chillers simply shift the problem one step back from the CPU, at some point you need a big radiator.

there is absolutly no way around the above statement though there are ways to "cheat" however these have thier own drawbacks and require constant maintinence.

evaporative open loop systems can be small and effective because they use the surface area of individual droplets of water to create a massive overall surface area in a very small space.

phase change systems are interesting but you won't find a small one of them (think stand alone prommie size) the water chiller i'm using is 2 foot long and 18" wide...

dicki

[wfarid]

what if i used frion throught my wc/pelt setup and then ran it through my small semi effective chiller? i mean isn't frion easy to cool and what not. Or is water still better than frion?

[dicki]

well freon still requires a compressor... its the phase change of it expanding from a liquid to a gas that removes heat, once its a gas you need to recompress it at which point it warms up a lot so you need the large radiator at that point.

[wfarid]

hmmm ok... well what i want to do is try to get at something small yet decently effective, like a watercool/pelt setup with a waterchiller that i will be able to drag along with me to and from college with no hassles, or a lan party. That is my purpose pretty much. SO i want to get the most efficiency with the limits that i have imposed on my constantly moving tower. I have an antec 1000amg Plusview. It's a pretty big case. So im gonna get a swiftech teced block for both my cpu and gpu, and then im going to switch the 80 watt peltier with a 176 watt peltier for the gpu. I will also get a meanwell 350 (if im able to get my hands on one), a mcp600 rev 2, a 5.25 bay resivoir, and then i a custom built waterchiller (by urs truly). So with all this parts in mind, what would be the MOST EFFECTIVE waterchiller i could build in order to keep the water the coolest AND in this case would just a straight up radiotor be more effective? And what would be louder, the waterchiller or the radiotor?

[dicki]

effective and small don't go together i'm afraid the fundamental problem is you need to shift the heat somehow into the atmosphere.

i hate to bang on about these pesky laws of physics but...

you really really can't do it! theres no two ways about it! small != cold no matter how many fancy words you put in there! hell putting a waterchiller in will make the hot side even hotter! hence requiring an even bigger radiator!

the antec case should be man enough to take a TC 120-3 that will cool 2 pelts no trouble but you will need fans. mount them well with rubber gromits and a fan controller and buy quiet fans and you will have no troubles with noise.

dicki

[wfarid]

well okay i get what ur saying... so forgetting about size and all that bs, how would i build an effective waterchiller that would keep the water really cold?

[dicki]

phase change systems are interesting but you won't find a small one of them (think stand alone prommie size) the water chiller i'm using is 2 foot long and 18" wide...

how much money do you have to spend on it?

my system is based on a beer chiller found in any pub. search the web or get friendly with your local pub and see if they have any old ones going spare. build it into a box, put fans on the hot side and put the cold side in a bucket of water/antifreeze switch it on and about an hour or so later the water will be at about -7c and you can start pumping it through your appropriotly insulated waterblocks.

alternativly you can get an old freezer rip it to bits (without damaging any of the cooling circuits and then wedge that into a box.

if you have money to spend... buy a stand alone prommie and build it into a lian li like dfrancis did (i think theres pics on this site somewhere)

dicki

[wfarid]

beer chiller eh, well luckily there are a lot of pubs around Rutgers University... So i guess ill try me luck with em... lol but if that doesnt work, do you know of any other cheap way of building one?

[wfarid]

couldnt i just get some high wattage pelts, slap on a coldplate and then have the water run over the cold plate to cool the water, maybe if i had enuf time make the water go through a maze while being cooled by the pelt/coldplate? and on the other side i could just use a really big hsf?

[dicki]

yup you can certainly do that

once again we hit size though...

you will need *kilowatts* of peltiers (check player0's article on dual loop cooling) lets say 4 * 226watt pelts. each will need a water block and a *huge* heatsink plus waterblocks for cpu, northbridge and graphics. do the maths and then buy a prommie

dicki

[wfarid]

ahah, well thats great. btw do u have any pics of ur wc/ water chiller ? i'd love to see em...

after hearing all this i think for now im just gonnna buy a swiftech mpc600, the swiftech teced block for both my cpu and gpu, 1/2 tygon tubing, HE120.3 radiotor, 3 76cfm fans (only 28dba), 5.25 resiovior, 176 watt peltier (to replace the 80 watt peltier for my gpu), hose clamps, meanwell s320 (if s350 is out im getting that then)...

Did i forget anything???


Where's the cheapest place to get the tygon tubing, and a 176 watt peltier?

With the current setup I have now I will be able to at least bring my comp back and forth from my dorm to my house, right?

[dicki]

that sounds spot on :)

i'm afraid i can't comment on shops in america? maybe danger den or swiftech can supply that stuff?

it will be portable though it will be *really* heavy! get some decent carry handels for it

dicki