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Computer liquid cooling with Car parts!by hivoltage on April 8, 2010

Table of Contents

License: Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike (by-nc-sa) .............................................................................

Intro: Computer liquid cooling with Car parts! ........................................................................................

step 1: Gather materials and plan! ................................................................................................

step 2: Test fit ...............................................................................................................

step 3: solder up the Heater core .................................................................................................

step 4: Build power connector and switch panel ......................................................................................

step 5: Glue time .............................................................................................................

step 6: Final assembly and testing ................................................................................................

Related Instructables ...........................................................................................................

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Comments ...................................................................................................................

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License: Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike (by-nc-sa)

Intro: Computer liquid cooling with Car parts!

This Instructable will document how to build an external liquid cooling system for a computer based around an automotive heater core. This Instructable is really morea guide than a set of instructions to create a duplicate system. Make yours as flashy or utilitarian as you desire.

Image Notes1. who doesn't love toggle switches?

step 1:Gather materials and plan!First, a short disclaimer. I am not responsible for any damage you do to yourself, others, or your computer or other property if you choose to attempt this project. If youare unsure about building your own system there are plenty of kits and all-in-one closed loop coolers out there that may be more suited to you. If you have some level DIY experience, are comfortable with taking the life of your computer into your own hands, and want a liquid cooling system that stands out, this is the project for you.

To build a liquid cooling system you will need:

*A radiator of some sort. I used a heater core. specifically, one meant for a 1977 Bonneville with A/C. You can use pretty much any other type of radiator or heater corbut my recomendation is to stay away from the aluminum ones. copper or brass only is the way to go. having mixed metals in the loop can cause galvanic corrosion. tpurpose built radiators commonly available at stores like frozencpu or xoxide are great too but expensive. heater cores are able to work as well or better and only costdollars or so.

* A pump. I used the danger den 800L/hr model. other pumps will work but keepin mind flow rates and noise. This pump pushes a lot of water almost silently, so its wthe money that I paid for it.

* wood. I used 1/2" birch plywood. this is great if you are going to stain or paint i t black like I did, but solid wood would also be nice.

*fans. I used 4 cooler master r4 120mm fans. they probably are not near the 90cfm they are rated for, but they still push a good amount of air, and are relatively quiet. used 4 sopriceyfans will definitely add up. these are available for about 7 bucks each if you shop wisely. 120mm fans push the best air vs noise ratio, plus they areideally suited for the size of my heater core.

* A reservoir. Mine is made out of a piece of clear PVC. Use your imagination, I am sure there are lots of other things that could be used as a reservoir, I just can't just

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spending 40 bucks on a plastic container.

*hose barbs, vinyl tubing. I used 3/8" ID tubing, but half inch works well too and increases flow rate.

*assorted screws, bolts, scrap aluminum pieces, switches, connectors, leds, etc. you can personalize your system any way you like. I will probably be adding some UVleds to make the coolant reservoir glow, but the sky is the limit here.

Once you have gathered your Materials, its time to plan out the dimensions and structure of your enclosure. I decided four fans in a Push/pull configuration would affothe maximum airflow through my radiator. a separator divides the box into the "wind tunnel" section and the pump/ power section. a slight groove in the box retains theradiator. If you decide on only two fans, they seem to be more effective at pulling air through the radiator than pushing it. perhaps placing the radiator near a large venand four fans pulling air through the radiator and out of the box would be more effective, or two smaller radiators mounted in the ends of the box with four fans exhausair out of the box. The advantage of my setup is I can selectively turn off a pair of my fans. Once all of the details have been ironed out, begin cutting the wood accordto your plans.

Image Notes1. scribbly is alright

step 2:Test fitDo this many, many times to ensure that things are going to f it into the enclosure as planned. notice how things are situated and consider how you will run the tubing the end. I didnt really leave much room for tubing in my design, only an inch between the fans and the radiator, so finding small enough fit tings was a challenge. I havemy loop set up so that the pump pushes water straight out the the computer, then returning water travels through the radiator before being deposited in the reservoir. tpump draws from the other end of the reservoir, where the bubbles have largely settled out, and continues the cycle. determine which way the hose barbs on yourradiator should point.

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step 3:solder up the Heater coreonce you have determined the appropriate direction, connect elbows and hose barbs appropriately. test fit as necessary to ensure proper fitment. once you are satisfiwith it, disassemble it and clean all surfaces of the copper and brass parts. fill the radiator up to the brim with cold water, to help prevent it from desoldering and causinleaks. wrap everything but the upper tanks in a soaking wet towel. apply flux l iberally to all parts and twist together. carefully solder the pipe fittings together taking cato only heat the fitting you are working on. the tanks on top are only held on with solder,and are difficult to put back on if you have accidentally unsoldered them. allowcool when you are satisfied with it.

To test for leaks, put a short length of tubing onto one barb, then fold it over and clamp it. then attach a second longer tube to the other side. submerge it in a bucket owater, and either blow into the tube or use low pressure from an air compressor. watch for bubbles r ising from any leaks. redo soldering job i f necessary to fix leaks.

Image Notes1. pex brand 1/2" sweat to 3/8"barb

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Image Notes1. no bubbles this time thankfully

step 4:Build power connector and switch panelYou may wish to build a nice panel to hold any switches for lights, fan control switches, power connectors etc. This makes it easier to install switches and things as 1/ply is too thick to mount these things in. I wired my switches such that the top two turn each side on or off completely, and the bottom two switch between the full 12 vo

and 7volts. at 7v the fans are nearly silent, but still push adequate air. At 12v they are stil l to very loud, but push much much more air through the radiator. I have donethis in the same way as the so called "7 volt mod" that is discussed elsewhere on the internet. when the switch is in normal mode the + wire of the fan gets 12v and thside gets ground or 0v. in the 7v position, the + side stil l gets 12v but the - side gets 5v, for a voltage difference of 7 volts. The power connector is just one I found at thlocal electronics place, and connects to a 4-pin molex connector on the computer it is cooling. it carries the 12 volt, 5 volt, and ground rails from the power supply to thexternal box.

step 5:Glue timeOnce satisfied with the layout of the box and all the appropriate holes for mounting and tubing are drilled, you can glue the whole thing together permanently.Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of this because you kind of have to work quickly but carefully. Use lots of clamps, and wipe up the glue squeeze-out with a dam

towel to avoid staining the outside of your box. I also did not take pictures of the staining and f inishing portion of the project, but any type of paint, stain or varnish shoube adequate. I used two coats of black stain followed my three light coats of polyurethane, sanding lightly between coats. black spray paint would have worked, as welatex paints or other varnishes.

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step 6:Final assembly and testingWhen your paint is dry its t ime to put everything back together for good. your project should be coming together! once your tubing has been run, and hose clampsapplied its time for the first test. I connected the loop that would normally go to the computer together to test the system out. say a little prayer and begin adding coolathe reservoir. If you have constructed your system well, it wont leak! as always, exercise extreme caution when mixing water and electricity. yes, the atx supply is only12v but the cord its plugged into isn't. sucking some water through the pump to prime it may be necessary, mine did it just by gravity. do not allow the pump to run toolong without water in it or it will overheat. green food coloring is optional but recommended.let it run for a good long time to be sure that there are no leaks in your syst

when you go actually attaching this to a computer, be sure to use distilled water and anti-corrosion coolant to be on the safe side. coolant comes in a multi tude of coloand is generally UV reactive, so installing black lights on your box isn't a bad idea.Congratulations, You now have your very own liquid cooling system!

My project here is not quite done yet, I am 90% there but a few details still need to be finished. I will probably make some fan grilles for it, possibly made from expandesteel for that industrial look. I do not yet have my water blocks to cool with this, and it may be some time as my daily driver recently broke down and my project moneyhas been diverted to pay for repairs... I will update with my results when I am able to actually run it, and when I add any extra things to it.

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Image Notes1. before green...

Image Notes1. after green! about 1000x cooler.2. ATX bench supply

Image Notes1. picture of final plumbing2. hose clamps. use them.

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d v r t is m n t s

Comments

35 comments Add Comment

XOIIO says: Apr 10, 2010. 11:04 PM REP

Awesome! At first I thought you were using radiator fluid, and now I'm thinking, why not? Won't it carry heat a bit better?

downgrade says: Apr 11, 2010. 2:49 PM REP

Well if you go to watercooling forums everyone fights about this. First of all, any anti-freeze is a bad idea, as it's designed (as you may have guessed) not freeze so it can give up a bit of it's heat carrying capacity.

Now, straight distilled water works great, no need to really add anything to it for heat transfer properties but you will need something to stop bacteriagrowth that will reduce it 's heattransferringability and clog up and slow down water movement.

However there are the performance coolants for cars, some people argue that they are only designed to boil at a higher temp, so the temperatures youcomputer will reach the system will suffer from usage of such chemicals, other people claim to have gotten good results.

So long story short, I have seen all kinds of math, science, and experience thrown around to say yes and no to the question. I usually just stick withdistilled or better yet de-ionized water (as it doesn't transfer electricity, at first, but eventually picks up ions and becomes conductive) with something tostop growth in the water, and usually for fun some sort of dye. What I currently have looks almost clear normally, but under a black l ight glows blue.

So my recommendation is go with whatever sounds best to you, just make sure crap won't grow in your system.

eight says: Apr 15, 2010. 6:59 PM REP

May I suggest this : Redline Water Wetterhttp://www.redlineoil.com.au/product-information.asp#waterwetter

It is great stuff. Makes the system run cooler. I use it in my BMW.It protects against corrosion of every metal bar Magnesium.

Conventional coolants as stated do NOT help heat transfer. They are added for their antifreeze and anti corrosion properties.

Cost is about US$22 or here in Australia about AU$45

Thanks for a great project instructable !

hivoltage says: Apr 12, 2010. 1:06 PM REP

Yeah, I've done a little research myself and have found that theres no real consensus, and that differences in coolant mixtures dont seem to havemuch of a distinct effect. That is, temperature differences are minimal. So I mixed up a gallon of distilled water with a small amount of automotivecoolant, and will probably get a biocide and a dye of some sort.

downgrade says: Apr 12, 2010. 1:14 PM REPOne neat note is anti-freeze lows under UV li ht, so if you like reen it's cheaper than reen UV dye.

downgrade says: Apr 11, 2010. 2:51 PM REP

Oh yeah, and as the poster said, anti-corrosive is a good idea, although if you stick with all copper parts not really essential (if I am rememberingright), but still a good idea, but it is usually combined with anything else you put in there so not hard to find.

hivoltage says: Apr 10, 2010. 11:16 PM REP

Yeah I'm planning to use regular automotive coolant. The stuff thats specially formulated for PCs is ethylene glycol based as well, anyway. Its notcurrently hooked up to my computer yet because I need to buy the waterblocks still, but when I do I'll probably use radiator fluid cut with some distilledwater.

XOIIO says: Apr 11, 2010. 12:24 AM REP

COOL.

mrsayao says: Apr 15, 2010. 11:01 AM REP

Although the tubing is probably thick enough, I'd find some grommets to fit where the tubing goes in/out of the box. Probably not necessary since youprobably won't move it around much, but i t's a good precaution. Just my 2 cents. Great work!

HAL 9000 says: Apr 15, 2010. 5:17 PM REP

Grommets or Bushings would also make it look even more awesome. Sweet instructable, good to see some clever re-purposing.

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hivoltage says: Apr 15, 2010. 1:26 PM REP

will do if I can find a grommet, I meant to make the holes smaller but grabbed the wrong size bit out of the index... a couple of bulkhead fittings would bperfect, but that means more barbs and stuff I have to buy.

Spokehedz says: Apr 15, 2010. 4:18 PM REP

I was thinking about making something similar to this but with really long tubes to put the entire unit outside so that the ACdoesn'thave to fight to keep myroom cool from my gigantic computer.

paulm says: Apr 15, 2010. 12:28 PM REP

Its a cool idea, but does it need to be that large?

(can this be downsized?)

msibleyj says: Apr 15, 2010. 6:50 AM REP

A beautiful piece of craftsmanship!

domJS says: Apr 15, 2010. 6:15 AM REP

would love to see an add on guide on how to install it, i can picture it, but im not entirely certain, im very very tempted by this so ill be following this for moreinfo, good luck with getting the funds!

nicksbrg says: Apr 12, 2010. 8:22 PM REP

that sick!!

danielemur says: Apr 9, 2010. 8:03 PM REP

Nice Instructable! one day and you have already gotten 9 comments. I had no idea that green food coloring could make it about 1000X colder :)

Oroka says: Apr 10, 2010. 8:46 PM REP

It is commonly known that the cooler something looks, the faster it goes. A cool case has a 2xmultiplierto it, cool case with water cooling, 3x. Flameon the case... 8x.

valhallas_end says: Apr 11, 2010. 5:14 PM REP

But the faster something goes, the hotter it gets (Shelby, anyone?). The hotter it gets, the cooler it looks, so the faster it goes, so the hotter it gets,so...

You may have discovered perpetual energy machines here!

downgrade says: Apr 11, 2010. 2:50 PM REP

Flaming racing stripes are illegal on cars because of this, as they get close to causing sonic booms, so if you added some racing product stickers,then you would just o too fast and disturb too many people.

MaXoR says: Apr 15, 2010. 7:56 AM REP

Lets not forget..... yellow!

Add some smooth yellow somewhere, and greased lightning won't be fast enough.....

......If you add a muffler pipe with a large resonating can on the end.... it might even fracture time itself!(Don't forget the civic-nation stickers....)

sorry, just HAD to throw that in!

hivoltage says: Apr 9, 2010. 8:06 PM REP

Thanks! and yes, I have proven that fact empirically.

MaXoR says: Apr 15, 2010. 7:58 AM REP

Love this idea.... mostly because yesterday I was in my garage holding a spare fuel pump thinking this exact thingLOL!!!

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zigzagchris says: Apr 10, 2010. 3:44 PM REP

wow that is awesome looking do u just run the tubes through the case of the computer?

hivoltage says: Apr 10, 2010. 4:23 PM REP

Thanks! Yeah my case has a couple of punch out holes specifically for external water cooling. There are PCI brackets with 3/8" or1/2" holesyou caninstall if your case doesnt have aplace for tubes to go in.

zigzagchris says: Apr 10, 2010. 7:09 PM REP

thats pretty cool. i havent been fortunate to have the money to build a computer.

PyroMonger says: Apr 9, 2010. 3:56 PM REP

Very Cool Project!!

P.S. I love toggle switches too!!

Grooby says: Apr 9, 2010. 11:39 PM REP

I Love Them As Well, so much better than push switches

SinAmos says: Apr 9, 2010. 5:06 PM REP

I likey, Mickey.

mossDboss says: Apr 9, 2010. 2:48 PM REP

would you post temp readings?

very nice and clean, thanks

hivoltage says: Apr 9, 2010. 3:34 PM REP

I would love to, but my budget did not quite stretch far enough to buy the water blocks too, and now my daily driver is broken down so my budget for thproject has dried up temporarily. When I get the remaining parts I will post temperatures.

stephenniall says: Apr 9, 2010. 10:38 AM REP

Ive been looking for cheap ways to watercool my pc im not sure about the system im going with yet but Im sure using your pvc pipe Water Container on thtop of my pc ! it looks brilliant glowing green

hivoltage says: Apr 9, 2010. 1:40 PM REP

Yeah the pre-made reservoirs you can find seem to be ridiculously priced for what is basically no more than a tube or bottle. You will need 3/8" NPT o1/4" NPT pipe tap to thread the plastic to accept hose barbs, however. or get creative with the PVC fittings there are probably some adapters that alreahave that threading on them. the long shape of my PVC design seems to work well because the bubbles all float out and don't get sucked into the pumby the time they reach the other side. Plus, who doesn't think cooling their computer with a tube full of glowing green stuff is cool?

stephenniall says: Apr 9, 2010. 2:04 PM REP

Yeah its expensive watercoolin . I suppose thats why so many people are Makin their own Items.

bulsatar says: Apr 9, 2010. 12:25 PM REP

Since you are not running high pressures you could probably skip the copper and go for plain cpvc which would drop your costs and you wouldn't have tolearn how to solder (or in my case me ;) ). I like it!