i made my own water block:) pics!

used a drill press, over a dozen cheap HSS bits and a dremel and here's what i came out with









sure its not perfect, but i got the copper for and acrylic for nothing and it was a fun time making it - ok i lied it sucked lol. i've ran into it in machine shop back at college and sometimes metals can develop hard spots in them....oh god about half the block was like that. the rest was cutting just fine. go figure. and yes before anyone asks its missing a screw - i busted the tap off it it. couldn't drill it out either, i just ended up melting a tip of a bit right into it. to hell with that, if swiftech gets by with 4 smaller screws than i'm using then 7 is good enough. used some clear automotive silicone to seal the thing up. barbs are just cheap plastic 1/4" NPT threaded 1/2". high flow barbs my ass used a bit of teflon tape on them to help seal although i doubt its needed. for mounting i got some s939 backplate off someone around here for $3 - quite possibly the best $3 i ever spent! backplate is threaded so i'm just going to drill some holes in the acrylic for mounting

so tonight i'm going to leak test....time to cross my fingers.

and then the real challenge - somehow i've got to fit this, tubing, reservoir, MCP655 pump, 2x swiftech blocks for the video cards (got lazy haha) and a swiftech 120x3 rad into this beast



wish me luck, i'll need it!

Dude... No offense... That looks like a deathtrap... And I say that as nicely as I can.

I wish you the best of luck, and I'll be checking back in awhile.

no offense taken - it IS a deathtrap! i'm of the school of thought that goes something along the lines of who cares what it looks like as long as it works. as for that part we'll see....going to rig it up tonight

subscribed for something that has potential to be legendary! (don't forget to do it tonight)

Did you lap the bottom of it? That copper looks pretty rough

Looks heavier than the TRUE Ultra Copper as well....erm how is it going to be mounted to the board exactly?

And you might want to clean your current cooler, all I see is dust instead of fins.

Yeah I'm going to have to subscribe to this one as well, this could go okay or a worse disaster than the guy at PC world touching a PC with wet hands.

i'm always a fan of homemade blocks and copper work...

is that a two-piece copper block or one?

maybe consider thinning out the base a bit

actually i half assed lapped the bottom of that block. i did most of it and got bored so i didnt bother taking all the pits out. most of what you see is actually dust anyhow. i've got a flash on it so every damn minute particle shows up.

however the bottom is very very flat believe it or not - which is the main thing here. little nicks and pits won't mean a hell of a lot and they are a lot smaller than they look. remember this thing is only 2" x 2".

for mounting i got a s939 backplate of someone around here for $3. i remove the stock mounting in the mobo, put that behind it and secure it down with two screws - with small nylon cup washers and some springs between them.

and yup it could go either way i love pulling shit like this. a good friend of mine used to call me 'the king of mickey mouse solutions'

he wasn't kidding.

Nice attempt and I give you kudos for trying. However, if you are serious about this endeavor, get yourself a CNC!

theseeker said:

Nice attempt and I give you kudos for trying. However, if you are serious about this endeavor, get yourself a CNC!

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if i could afford a CNC i'd be doing more interesting things than a waterblock. that kind of equipment is simply not necessary for a project like this. take a good look at it, its pretty obvious i'm not going for a top performer. i'm not going for looks either. its just a fun project to see what i can cook up with only the usual tools anyone might have.

that being said i have to put off the leak testing - that damn hole with the busted tap leaks a bit so i'm siliconing it up better. feel free to laugh

Doesn't look too bad, I read a topic where a guy made a mold out of cement and melted scrap heatsinks to make a waterblock. That was REALLY rough-looking.

If look doesn't matter, maybe you should attach things with JB Weld?

actually JB weld isnt a bad idea at all...i've never used the stuff myself but i have some of the newer really strong epoxy putty around here somewhere... i do want this to be serviceable however. if i can't get that hole sealed up i'm going to have to look at a different approach to seal it. should be time for testing again this morning

Gah what a bunch an namby pambies. Dude! that is awesome for a "garage" built block and will likely work well enough for any practical system. Little worried about the seal when you crank down the hold down I am concerned it just might flex enough to break the seal even with the abundance of screws ( I suggest washers to spread out the stress of the screw head on the acrylic) you used to secure it.

Anywho - excellent effort. Please keep us updated. Wish I had the time to play like that.

Fuck it. Who cares! +10 to DIY! To hell if it breaks it, buy another one and try again. Shit happens.

The guy's doing it for fun.

Good job.

It would be interesting to compare the temps of your block once your done to temps from say a 939 swiftech block. If I were you I'd definitely mount the Rad outside of the case, and get one of those reservoirs that you can fit into a drive bay.

hopefully it does not EXPLODE and consume your 'puter in a giant vortex of DEATH.

Good luck

hey thanks for the good word guys, appreceate it its always nice to have someone praise your work a little even if it is ghetto trash - but like i said thats all i was going for.

and yes i will be comparing temps when i get there. there is going to be some major case modding - and cleaning - before that. hopefully i'll find time between work.

and now onto the good news! leak testing has BEGUN!!



actually looks pretty good, i ran out of proper hose clamps so i used zipties ultra ghetto style....going to go pick a pack of gear clamps up today...but so far the only leaking is from those zipties! woot! and no i'm not using that tubing in the case, i have some masterkleer or tygon shit around here somewhere...just used ghetto cheap stuff for my testbed. it works.

for those that are wondering here's the drillpress i used. what an utter piece of shit. surprisingly it works, but had a bit too much play in the spindle for my liking. its not even mine, landlord has it out in the shed. had to haul it up on a dolly.

I don't think my $90 drill press would do better. It's not rusty, but the bearing seems loose and it rattles a lot. I was turning crazy when I drilled about 250 holes in a PCB with it...

Even collars leak on hose barb fittings, unless you use white grease and screw the collars with a ratchet it's going to leak. (At least, that's what happens at 120 PSI)

CaptainSoble said:

It would be interesting to compare the temps of your block once your done to temps from say a 939 swiftech block. If I were you I'd definitely mount the Rad outside of the case, and get one of those reservoirs that you can fit into a drive bay.

Click to expand...

A good 10-15c difference I would imagine, when paired with a Quad Core intel or something.

its going on my opteron 165, i wouldn't stick it on a quad

Looks very restrictive.

Hate to get a single bubble trapped in it. Could possible mean the difference between a functioning CPU and burning silicon.

no problems with bubbles in testing here. as i recall the famous d-tek fuzion is a rather restrictive block as well. it would take one hell of a bubble to trash a cpu thanks. not only that i knew this was going to be a restrictive block from the start when i was designing it - so after i was done i ground a slight spherical radius on the top of my pillars. i think many of you call it 'bowing'.

so its been going all night and not a leak at all so far. next steps are to do the same with my swiftech blocks and my rad just to be sure.

the ghetto block has been running for over 24 hours now and not a drop leaking after i put the proper clamps on it. just started testing the swiftech GPU blocks to be sure....maybe i can even start installing the whole system next weekend

as i recall the famous d-tek fuzion is a rather restrictive block as well.

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The V2 was slightly more restrictive than the V1, but the V1 was a very low-restriction block TBH.

I'm excited to see this block's performance

Nice, I had my doubts with one alan screw missing but, would be nice to see what temps your chunk of copper is getting

yeah i'm getting REALLY anxious here but i don't want to rush this for fear of burning death and other cool things like that.

if you take a look at the pic of my case its going to take some serious modding to get that stuff into it - the rad is pretty much the same height as my case! hopefully i don't get too shitfaced at my work christmas party on saturday so i can get this on the road.....high hopes i know.

Good luck! Doesn't matter what it looks like, as long as it works. I hope things go smoothly.

Can't wait to see how it all turns out! I'll be staying tuned

a slight update, everything checked out in testing except the rad - turns out the fittings didn't have a big enough o-ring. in the true ghetto spirit of this project i busted out the silicone again

another small update - after a generous helping of silicone my rad is good to go. hopefully install the system this weekend....hold me i'm scaird

OMGWTFBBQ IT WERKS!!

very nice! How bout some pics of it in action?

Freespace 2!!

brb, finding disks

well i ghetto modded my case pretty good this time....wanted a 120mm fan in the back so here was my half assed solution:



the cutout in the top card slot is to accompany the tubing. also stuck a fan in the front. its held in place by steel wire...it was supposed to be for an 80mm also so i had to widen the intake there...since its hidden by the front bezel i figured who cares what it looks like lets make a big gaping hole! dremel was taking a lot time so i had some fun with a sawsall that bastard case never knew what hit it!



one problem i had with the video cards was the copper heatsinks...i have the swiftech ramsinks and the thermal pads are awful. i removed them quite promptly. however my thermal adhesive was dried out...FUCK! so i tried the only thing i could think of....



dunno how well it will work, its loaded with copper so probably not too horrible....if it is i'll just replace it. heres my ghetto waterblock installed on the mobo.



getting ready here....tubing is a total bitch! i dont know how you guys put up with it....and this 7/16" bullshit....my god its annoying as hell. yes i used boiling water to heat it up, it still pissed me off. 7/16" was all i could get in decent tubing. i blame you all.



and the final product. my rad is outside of the case. and i found that bleeding the air out of it took forever even with a res....used my wifes computer since i'm too lazy to hotwire my psu. it works now though! quite happy. the fans on the rad are noisy though...some s-flex crap i got on sale from ncix...might have to invest in some yate loons you guys go on about. i'm going to have everything put back together much better one day soon - panels back on, mounting for the rad on the side of the case...push the damn res in all the way lol. this is for testing. no leaks yet! overclocking this bastard to the moon and back is the next challenge!





the tap in there is hooked up to a tee, so i can drain and refill easier when i want to change the water. running distilled and some PTnuke for now. might as well keep this shit ghetto. i figure change the water once a year.

i'm mostly impressed that i've been able to shove all this crap into such a small crappy case...this thing has been with me for probably close to 8 years now, started off as a beige POS and now look at the poor thing....i'll put it out of its misery one day i promise

Nice, post your sig! some temps for idle and load would be good too..

u should enter this into the ghetto mod thread, it's awesome!

Nice job there!

Eh, the S-Flex fans are really overhyped. They're rated excellent by SPCR for silence, but they're noisier than a LOT of other/cheaper fans out there. Apparently, PWM makes them noisier. Don't know about 7V though...

DragonMaster said:

Nice job there!

Eh, the S-Flex fans are really overhyped. They're rated excellent by SPCR for silence, but they're noisier than a LOT of other/cheaper fans out there. Apparently, PWM makes them noisier. Don't know about 7V though...

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i think you're right there, the s-flex are crap imho. they're not quiet at all, they're the noisiest thing i have right now! my ghetto modded 120mm case fans are pretty much silent. i've always liked the arctic cooling fans for their very different (and effective!) rubber mount system but they only go one way

just in case anyone is curious, the video temps are at idle and the cpu is full load opteron 165 running at 2.4Ghz, voltage looks stock. can't remember idle i think topped out at around 38ºC. for a diy block i'm not doing too badly really.

and yes this should go into the ghetto mod thread lol

so testing 2.8 Ghz now o_0

very cool load temps are around 51C, voltage is 1.42

THRESHIN said:

so testing 2.8 Ghz now o_0

very cool load temps are around 51C, voltage is 1.42

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nice to see someone still messing around with socket 939. im watercooling an opty 165.

just fyi, i get 44c core and 39c cpu readings from my o/ced chip at 2.9+ghz with 1.5v running through it. i'd be damn happy with the temps ur getting with a homemade block though. nice job man.

Undervolting the S-FLEX fans would solve the noise problem. They're actually pretty decent fans, but a tad noisy when run at full blast. The 1200rpm model is also less noisy when undervolted to 800rpm than the 800rpm model is stock, go figure...