custom pump and resevoir

Gavin

Howdo,

I bought a second hand water cooled machine a good while ago, around 2 years maybe. Dual Athlon.

The resevoir was home made, I think, with two pumps in it. When playing HL2, the heat alarms kept going off, so I took the water resevoir apart. One of the pumps is broken. The single other pump provides enough circulation to keep the system cool under light load. At the moment the one working pump is sitting in a basin of water with the other tube just feeding into the basin.

So, to get to the point. I need to get this sorted. Replacing the broken pump and puting em both back into the previous resevoir is too awkward. I had a look at pumps and resevoirs designed for computers, but they are expensive and I don't believe as powerful as I need. The pump needs to get the water through a lot of tubes with the two cpus and the radiator.

I think I'll head into B&Q or Woodies and get a small pond or aquarium pump. Problem now is what to use as a resevoir. I don't care what it looks like and I expect I'll probably cut holes in the case,run the tubes outside and leave it sitting outside the case. So I'm looking for a preferably metal container with two attachments for tubing and a way of running a power cable into it for the pump..

Anyone got any ideas ??

Cheers
Gav

Inquitus

I always thought it would look cool if someone fixed a goldfish bowl atop a pc and used that as the reservior, would also oxegenate the water for the fish............

Gavin

I was contemplating that.. I always wanted a fishie.. But he might get rather warm.

WizZard

Hehe, sushi and PC's - now there's a mod!
Making your own res is easy - many people on this board have done it. All you need is plexi and sealant, and some barbs for the tubing.

As regards pumps, why do you not think purpose designed WC pumps are not powerful enough for you? How many, and what type, of blocks are you using in the setup?

Gavin

I don't really know, the ones I've looked at don't seem to have as much water flow as the ones I have at the moment. Two pumps at 0-500l/h each ?

Also, pond ones look a hell of a lot cheaper.. probably noisier too though I guess. It's also quicker to wander into homebase or wherever and buy one straight rather than have to order one over the net.

As for the blocks, there are two of em, copper, with D-Tek written on em. I know no more about them. Any guides around on making your own res with the stuff you mentioned ?

Gav

Endurance Man

Wizzard, any idea where i could get some of those barbs in dublin??

WizZard

@Endurance Man
Barbs can be gotten from www.hitide.ie
BSP ones can be gotten from www.coolercases.co.uk

@Verb
I would recommend a proper, purpose built res. But if you want to do it yourself just make an enclosed box/tube and drill two holes to fit in your barbs. Make sure it is watertight and that's basically a res.
Pond pumps are cheaper, but really noisy. How much do you want to spend on a pump?

Gavin

ok, thanks for the tips. What pumps would you recommend ? Just looking in hitide.ie and there seems to be only one pump that does 300l/h. Something a bit more powerful would be good.

Gav

Inquitus

Verb wrote:

I was contemplating that.. I always wanted a fishie.. But he might get rather warm.

The water in my rig averages about 28-30C.Perfect for certain Tropicalfish.

A great resource to help you choose your fish is available here

http://www.tropicalfishcentre.co.uk/Guide.htm

I'd recommend a good filter to keep the fish crap and Algae out of your blocks. Something like this

http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_filters_eheim_professional_professionel_2_canister_filters.asp?CartId=


Inqui

WizZard

Verb wrote:

ok, thanks for the tips. What pumps would you recommend ? Just looking in hitide.ie and there seems to be only one pump that does 300l/h. Something a bit more powerful would be good.

Gav

Try the pumps on this page http://www.coolercases.co.uk/wc_pumps.htm
I would recommend the Danger Den pumps. Very good, and have the flow rate you require.