Designing a DIY waterblock

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nigerian_businessman

[H]ard|Gawd
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This idea is still in the early stages. I will probably stay late at work on Monday to make a prototype baseplate out of aluminum.

Kind of tired right now (stayed up until 1am working on the draft and had to leave for work @ 4am) but I just wanted to toss this out there for comments, questions, suggestions, etc.

I will be back tomorrow with more to say and hopefully more drafts.
 
yeah, ms paint is not one of my strong points.

the idea behind the design is to have one inlet and 4 outlets that lead to 4 tower like rods with fins on them. these rods will have small counterbores inside at each fin to slow the water down and create turbulence. the fins will be encased in a shroud with two low speed 92mm fans in a push-pull pattern, acting as a sort of heatsink. another plate will be at the top, which will join all the outlets back into one.

If the heatsink tubing idea does not work, I will likely widen the slots inside the block by 20 thou or so and use some jets. both jets and hs tubes would turn out to be such a flow killer that the potential payoff wouldnt be worth it.

anyway this is all in fun and in the name of research. ive got access to a cnc mill, lathe, and plenty of aluminum and copper stock at work, so i figured i may as well make a go at it. ive never even watercooled before so it will be a learning experience all around.
 
What are you trying to achieve with this? Are you trying to replace the need for a radiator? If not then the 4 tubes are kind of pointless. Concentrate on getting the heat from the CPU into the water, and ignore getting the heat out of the water, that is the job of the radiator.

Good waterblock design gets the most heat into the water, without introducing an inordinate amount of restriction. The 4 outlets isn't necessarily a bad idea, have a look at the Dtek Fuzion (google search it, or look at XtremeSystems).
 
Whats the clearance between the center inlet & the corner outlets ?
Remember you still need to put a hose on that so is there enough room.

Also how much will it weigh and how much of that weight is away from the CPU.
Too heavy and it will will put to much torque on the heatsink retension fittings.

Luck .............. :D
 
Erasmus354 said:
What are you trying to achieve with this? Are you trying to replace the need for a radiator? If not then the 4 tubes are kind of pointless. Concentrate on getting the heat from the CPU into the water, and ignore getting the heat out of the water, that is the job of the radiator.

Good waterblock design gets the most heat into the water, without introducing an inordinate amount of restriction. The 4 outlets isn't necessarily a bad idea, have a look at the Dtek Fuzion (google search it, or look at XtremeSystems).
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Thanks for the tips. Maybe I will scrap the fin idea. I may just machine a block out of aluminum to get an idea on how it will restrict flow and what kind of added cooling it will achieve, but you're probably right.
 
If the objective is to move as much water through the block as possible this is the way to go :) What about, instead of just 4 holes, you put like 20 around the outside. And then instead of having the four runways you make a radial pattern. With much finer channels so there is more surface area to extract heat.
 
Chas_The_Man said:
If the objective is to move as much water through the block as possible this is the way to go :) What about, instead of just 4 holes, you put like 20 around the outside. And then instead of having the four runways you make a radial pattern. With much finer channels so there is more surface area to extract heat.
Click to expand...

Well eventhough he may have access to a CNC, he might not be able to monopolize one for a full day to mill out an overly intricate block.
 
Well, it could still be all straight lines. Like a star pattern eminating from the center. Diamond cuts like Apogee. Just in a radial pattern. I dunno I'm just building on the theme. When everybody saw the Fuzion it just made a lot of sence.
 
I think that in general, microchannels have been replaced with pin arrays. Years of R&D have found that turbulence and surface area have a much higher effect then minimizing restriction- look at how long the Storm was the reigning champ! The idea behind the Apogee, and now the Fuzion, is to maximize the contact area while minimizing the pressure drop. I think even Cathar himself said this in explaining the transition from White Water style blocks, into the RBX-and-Storm impingement grids.

Honestly, I've always wondered what kind of results you'd get out of putting a screen-door mesh inside of a smooth block, and layering several of these meshes on top of one another (making sure they make proper contact with the base, possibly by extruding material out of the same block). You'd get plenty of turbulence with minimal pressure drop, and almost unimaginable surface area. The limitation would be transmitting the heat across a long, thing strand of metal... (Copyright, btw. :))
 
http://thermal-management-testing.com/white water.htm
Cathar said:
High water velocity can be even more important than high water volume, even if it means making the block somewhat restrictive by some standards.
The bulk of the heat does not spread laterally very far from a CPU die so there is little point in attempting to cool the edges.
Total surface area directly above the CPU die is very important, to a point.
Water forcibly striking the area directly above the CPU die is very important.
The copper base-plate should only be thick enough to transfer heat as quickly as possible to a larger surface area where it can be dissipated.
Click to expand...
 
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