Home made water block and underground cooler

WATER-COOLING (overclocked) ATHLON DETAILS, HOME MADE WATER BLOCK AND UNDERGROUND COOLER / RESERVOIR

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My current system, and some water cooling details.

System is:

ABIT KT7 A RAID 133 Mainboard (WW bios)
1.4 Ghz Athlon 266 FSB processor. (swapped from 1.2 Ghz one on 22 June 2001)
762MB PC 133
ATI all in wonder 8mb TV in/out PCI graphics adapter.
A Matching pair of IBM 7200 ATA100 30GB Drives set up as RAID Striped for speed.
A Matching pair of IBM 7200 ATA100 46GH Drives set up as RAID "0" Striped for speed.

Incidentals

1x IBM 7200 ATA100 46GB IDE drive
1x IBM 7200 ATA 66 37GB IDE drive
1x Seagate 8.4 UDMA 33 8.4GB IDE drive (148GB Total)
Hewlett Packard CDRW 8200 DMA
Epson 740 printer - parallel port
Hewlett Packard scanner - parallel port
Hewlett Packard P1110 (Sony Trinitron 21 flat screen monitor 0.23 dot pitch)
Surfboard cable modem 512kbs
Hewlett Packard Network card
Hewlett Packard keyboard
Sound-blaster 128 Live Soundcard
Sony Digital Camera - DSC 70 USB
Microsoft Optical 6 button wheel mouse
Case is Cooler Master Server 201 (active thermal cooling)
Power Supply 430watt Athlon approved twin fan unit.

CPU Runs at several speeds...... With everything in the bios set fastest (mem/cache etc)

1/ all stock settings with a multiplier set to x9 so you get 133, x = 1.2Ghz, Cooler is stock Thermoengine and fan.
2/ all stock settings with a multiplier set to x10 so you get 133 x 10 so 1.33Ghz, same cooler.
3/ all stock settings with a multiplier set to x 10.5 so you get 1.4Ghz - OK with stock Thermoengine cooler for short periods then it locks up due to temperature. Swapped fan for VERY loud 7450rpm one on the same cooler, runs 10 degrees cooler and reliably at 1.4mhz with 1.96 core voltage. Fan simply too LOUD!
4/ Best and most stable solution. Runs at 137 Front side bus, x 10 giving 1.37Ghz and stable for days on end with stock quiet fan, it gives higher temperature but still does not crash.

So It seems we need to keep the 137 or higher front (140 is ok but occasional blue screen....) side bus, and go for a bigger multiplier....... But this gives more heat, and needs more fans etc so gets very noisy.

Even water coolers use big heat exchangers and fans. And can only cool to room temperature about 30 degrees in here. Peltiers take LOTS of power, and cool too much when NOT under load... Causing condensation problems.

My solution is to use the garden.
Once you get 2 to 3 feet down the temperature (according to the Grimsby water board) is permanently between 9 and 11 degrees C all year round regardless of the weather/season etc

So I have built an underground heat exchanger.

Initially I used an underground copper pipe, but this tuned out to be too small, and the water in the system warmed up after a few hours under heavy load. So I decided overkill would be better!

It is an aluminum alloy oxygen bottle, about 4 feet high, and ten inches diameter.

My water can go in the top at high temperature but still comes back out at 10 or 11 degrees C! Tried it with a hot tap.........

The black pipe goes to the bottom, and the red to the top. It stands vertically upright under the ground. The following picture shows Brian digging a big hole about 8 feet deep. The bottle is put down here below the water table, so the top of it is about 4 feet underground. You can also see the pipes going up the wall to my computer at the back.

The red pipe feeds water from the block on the CPU, via the pump, to the top of the underground bottle. As it travels down the bottle it cools down to ground temperature of 10 degrees... This is a very deep hole! Who says computers are clean. Brian one of my carers got very dirty digging this wet clay/soil out.... (I live in a wheelchair)

As hot water rises the coldest water will always be at the bottom of the big bottle which is why this is the outlet, which is also why the black pipe is insulated so the now cold water stays cold on the way back to the computer.

To prevent any corrosion, 33 percent car (ford motorcraft pretty red stuff!) and water was used to fill the system up. The bottle was filled before the pipes were connected to the computer since it would be difficult/slow to fill up via the small pipes in the computer. The complete system holds about 2.5 gallons of coolant mixture.

Buy ford motorcraft, mix 1/3 antifreeze rest plain tap water.
All good modern antifreeze is Glycol based its the methanol/cheap stuff to
avoid!
All Modern antifreeze also contains water wetter (non foaming detergent that
removes the surface tension) and Corrosion inhibitor. Stops your water from
being an electrolyte and means that different metals don't turn into a
battery. This will happen with plain water. You get severe galvanic
corrosion without antifreeze!

Water wetter that you buy is actually only on the market because Antifreeze
is slippery and race cars and bikes are not allowed to use it. So a non
slippery water wetter/anti corrosion additive was formulated. Keeps the
scrutineers happy.

Ford Motorcraft antifreeze is bright pink/yellow/orange colour 8-) too!

It returns to the computer via a hole in the wall under my bench where the pump also lives so its really out of sight, screwed to the wall. Now I have to paint the wall again. This pump runs silently and according to the guys that use them for garden fountains etc run for years on end completely reliably.

It is available from many sources as it is used for garden water fountains etc, and is built to run very quietly for years on end. Mine is larger than some, and is the 1250 model, and is a 230v ac induction Centrifugal type pump. I threw away the nasty supplied fittings and replaced them with 8mm "tails" using reducing bushes and conventional BSP threaded fittings So as to be able to use silicon 6mm or 1/4" ID pipe inside the computer as it is everlasting and very flexible and clear. It can simply be pushed on to the block and the pump, (although it is quite difficult) and will seal perfectly and will never go hard, or leak etc.

My bought water block didn't come fast enough, (lack of patience...) so as I had a 4 jaw chuck and a lathe as well as other tools in my room I made a better one myself...
All drillings and cross drillings are 8.5mm, and all threads are 1/8" BSP. The two screws (grub screws, 1/8th BSP) are just plugs to fill the holes where it was cross drilled. All the drillings go to within 3mm of the other end of the block, not right through!

The two connections on the face are for the pumped cooling water.

The two connections on the top are for filling and venting purposes and once the system is filled with 33 % car antifreeze and distilled water these will just serve as (capped off) air bubble collection chambers and will stay inside the case at the top pointing upwards towards top of my case. About 4 inches long will be about right, allowing a funnel to be used for filling, and the other one can be aimed at a glass or jug to collect any overflow as it is filled. This keeps the electronics dry! and means no tees will be needed to fill the system properly.

In this assembled picture above the two pipes sticking out the side are actually the top edge.

Freshly made from an inch long off-cut of 50mm square brass bar........... Each face and drilling machined flat (all 6 sides) and tapping to 1/8th BSP was performed in a 4 jaw chuck, and machining marks removed using plate glass and some self adhesive wet and dry, by hand with a little oil. It is now VERY flat! The part that presses on to the CPU will also be polished, and arctic silver heat transfer compound used.

An "universal" hold down clamp available from www.theoverclockingstore.co.uk will be used to hold the device firmly to the board/CPU.

All the screw fittings have a nitrile rubber sealing ring built in so finger tight only and they will never leak. Give em small a nip with a spanner anyway!
The two "screw plugs" have no rubber seal, so pipe seal and, paint, or PTFE tape is needed on these. I used ordinary clear varnish. They are tapered threads so seal very easily. All these fittings are available from any Pneumatics / air specialists, check the yellow pages. Or MH pneumatics on +44 (0)1472 241370

Pics below. The two connections on the face side are the pumped water inlet and outlet. The other two are simply for filling, and venting the system and point upwards, as this is the highest point of the system

Another picture of my block, in the end only three pipes were used. The fourth had another screw plug in it instead. One pipe and a funnel is enough to fill and vent the top of the system.

The block fitted... With the universal hold down device, and soft silicone tubing used internally so as to put no pressure on the block and guarantee good flat contact.

Showing the bulkhead fittings, with the reinforced fairly stiff tube (1/4 bore) and the same sized soft silicone pipes on the inside.

Notice the earlier GREEN antifreeze!

In this 1.4Ghz configuration my machine runs at a steady 27 degrees C (via cpu monitor with a dab of heat transfer compound on the sensor which has been bent op a touch to press firmly on the back side of the cpu) while running stuff like SETI which gets it as hot as it gets.

But then I ordered a 122watt Peltier 50mm square, a copper coldplate, and a shim...... The shim alone with a little heat transfer paste on it reduces temp by around3 degrees.

Result is that it will run at 1.6x Ghz and at 1 degrees C !!! but due to the front side bus speed effecting the PCI bus speed my graphics card (PCI) gives occasional blue screens... So for now the Peltier has been removed. I will get an AGP x4 and run it at x2 and that should allow permanent 1.62mhz (10 x 162mhz?) Unless that's not the problem. Strangely it will not boot at 150fsb speeds...

This machine is both server, web server, and ftp server and is on and running reliably 24 hours every day.

My cluttered desk... This computer is also my workstation, where I build websites all day, amongst other things.

With peltier between minus 3 and plus 3

27 degrees without, both running seti for several hours. Much better and quieter than the previous 59/60 degrees under load using thermo engine and a fop 38 fan!!

Unfortunately the thing condensates very badly, but that is easily cured with insulation. Foam like polystyrene etc cut to fit would cure it. So far I have not tried this. So I eventually took it out - for now!

Vaseline was pushed into all the CPU holes with my finger, just in case of water/corrosion problems.

My system would not run reliably at 1.6Gb - at least not reliably enough to get any benchmarks...

So I did post some Sisoft benchmarks that were mailed to me, for a stable system running Athlon at 1.62GB as an example of how the Athlon destroys a Pentium 4 CPU.

But the owner winged so I have removed them. It was clearly labeled as a typical example, and I made no claims that they were my figures but some people get stressed about nothing. Maybe if they actually READ the text properly they would not get so confused.

If you want to see a Cooled Athlon benchmarks go here hopefully when I sort my PCI graphics card and refit the peltier properly, I should get similar results reliably?

My now non Peltier benchmarks from my machine running on simple water cooling. Speed was 1.45Ghz from 10 x 145Ghz FSB speed. Its been going like this for about 10 days now, with no problems, and will actually boot at higher FSB speeds without peltier. But I like it stable! Its my server too...

Updated.....

Now running a 1.4 CPU instead at 1.57Ghz in totally stable fashion, for 2 weeks so far, at 11x 143 clock speed, giving the following results.

Updated again....

Now at 1.62mhz with latest Bios upgrade.

The peltier was a step too far as it caused lots of condensation and took 8 amps from an external power supply. And the thing had to be turned on a few mins before the machine could be turned on, or no boot at all! It was not practical considering the percentage gains and instability.

With just underground water cooling it is currently at between 15 degrees at idle, and 27/8 Centigrade maximum when running a SETI unit at 100 percent CPU usage all night while still playing at being a server and running scandisk and defrag every night automatically. According to my logs the highest it has ever been is 30 degrees for a few mins.