Thats an awful lot of work when you can buy cooling kits for next to nothing that has almost all that pre-fabbed for you. http://www.highspeedpc.com/Merchant...GY&Store_Code=HSPC&Category_Code=WaterCooling But hey, he did a good job, no doubt. IGF
I agree it's a lot of work but I really like the idea of the in/out manifold rather than daisy chaining from one water block to the next. That way everything gets the coolest temp possible. So far I haven't found a prefab version so the only way to do that is to have it custom built
If I remember my fluid dynamics and heat transfer classes correctly, you will have to be careful of a few things: 1) that the pressure drops/friction losses across all of the separate circuits are of similar magnitudes. If not, you may end up starving one of them as the coolant takes the "easy" way through a more freely flowing one. 2) It is possible, IIRC, to have to fast of a flow rate. If there is not enough contact time, very little heat is transferred until the deltaT is bigger -- defeating the purpose of liquid cooling. Thermo and fluids were more than 20 years ago now, so I could be wrong. 20 years -- I've become an old fart ARS
It's a very cool project, don't get me wrong... but even the huge amount of labor involved aside, I have to wonder if he spent as much on copper as he would have spent on a pre-made kit. Also, since copper oxidizes, wouldn't aluminium have been a better choice for the blocks? I wouldn't feel too good about a green chunk of copper sitting on my CPU.
Aluminum will not last long sad to say. Copper is good if you take care of it. He did clear coat it. All that work and a sliced finger. I don't think it was worth the trouble. But, it would be something to be proud of for sure.
Ah yes the Tinker is a wonderous person. Just for the love of tinkering is enough reason to take on such a project.
I have this block o' Zalman copper sitting on my CPU right now, and it isn't clearcoated or anything that I know of; that'd interfere with the transfer of heat. And, besides being heavy it is the next best thing to liquid cooling; and at only $40 it is an outstanding buy. Another thing; they don't turn green either. At least mine hasn't.
