50 euro watercooling loop

[Patrick_19]

I can already picture the disgust on your face as you are reading past '50 euro' 😉.

I am planning to build a really cheap water cooling loop for a used graphics card that already has a pretty high end water cooling block attached on it. I just need some guidance and tips on how to put it all together.

My planned components:

15 euro 280mm Radiator: http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Computer-Radiator-Water-Cooling-Cooler-For-CPU-Heat-sink-Aluminum-/332287174348?hash=item4d5ddbe6cc:g:QZwAAOSwwvZZVjtJ

Water pump and reservoir combos (i could really use some recommendations here but anyways I have two options so far):

Budget 14 euro 300L/min pump: http://www.ebay.ie/itm/SC-300T-12V-4W-ultra-quiet-Water-pump-pump-tank-for-pc-CPU-Liquid-Cooling-System-/191827868799?hash=item2ca9d4fc7f:g:N2sAAOSw~OVWx2R0

Bit less budget 24 euro 600L/min pump: http://www.ebay.ie/itm/110mm-Cylinder-Water-tank-SC600-Pump-Computer-Water-Cooling-Radiato-Set-New-/252399606727?hash=item3ac4305bc7:g:Ye4AAOSw5dNWkxL4

So that puts me at either 29 euro or 39 euro. Now I just need some tubing. 8mm inner diameter should be okay I hope. So I will get 2 meters of this for example:

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/8mm-ID-x-10mm-OD-Food-Grade-Flexible-Hose-Silicone-Tubing-Tube-1Meter-U9T3-/253010708285?hash=item3ae89d073d:g:HiUAAOSwz71ZT3d3

So now thats 42 euro. Need some steel ring thingies to tighten the tubing. I can get those from the 2 euro shop no bother.

So thats 44 euro. The radiator looks like it might need some screw in barbed connector thingies. Brass should be good right guys? 3/8 inch barbed ending to 12mm screw ending should fit the radiator and tubing hopefully.

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Solid-Brass-Barbed-Hose-Straight-Pipe-Pagoda-Fitting-Coupler-Connector-Adapter-/182507808202?var=&hash=item2a7e5025ca:m:m6NQn3D2M7Ca9ocpYGBKv4g

So thats another 3 euro for 2 of those things. That brings me up to 45 euro. I might buy another meter of tubing just in case so thats around 47 total now.

Oh and I nearly forgot.. deionised water or car coolant. I think I already have some car coolant otherwise the deionised water is like 5 euro or something in the pharmacy for a 5 L bottle.

So that should be everything. The total is either 42 euro or 52 euro (would be 50 without that extra 1m of tubing) depending on what pump I end up choosing. Can someone take a quick look over this and tell me if it is going to work? The gpu is pretty old a GTX 280 running with a quad core Q6700 so i am not that worried if the whole system gets soaked since i need to upgrade sometime soon anyways. Suggestions for other pumps, rads or anything else would be much appreciated.

 

[lumineZ]

Go for the pump that cost 24 euro since that has alittle more head pressure than the really cheap one.
Keep in mind that if you have a copper, or nickel plated copper GPU block that you will have corrosion since the rad is aluminum. If you still want to run with this setup make sure you have some anti corrosion added to the water.

Besides that, have fun

 

[Patrick_19]

Go for the pump that cost 24 euro since that has alittle more head pressure than the really cheap one.
Keep in mind that if you have a copper, or nickel plated copper GPU block that you will have corrosion since the rad is aluminum. If you still want to run with this setup make sure you have some anti corrosion added to the water.

Besides that, have fun

My GPU block is Aqua Grafx G200 (http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/aqcoaqforgtx.html). It looks like it is made out of copper. Does this mean I need to use a copper radiator to prevent corrosion or should i just go ahead like this and add an anti corrosive?

 

[lumineZ]

That gpu block is made out of copper. If you mix copper and aluminum you will have corrosion period. Even if you add in anti corrosion it is bound to happen. That is also a reason why you have to maintain the loop with swapping out fluid every 12 - 24 months to be on the safe side since the anti corrosion and algae inhibitor wears out after some time.

If you can fit a copper radiator into the budget thats a no brainer and you should get it. But you will always need some kind of anti corrosion and anti algae growth.
Reason for that is that there will never be 100% pure copper and there is bound to be some kind of contaniment of mixed metals. Copper and brass is "safe" but it also comes down to the purety of the metal(s)
I have heard if people just running distiled water and thats it and they have been good for several years, in my book then they have been very lucky. I have seen people really been carefull and flushed and cleaned everything but still managed to get algae growth, corrosion or both at the same time

Make sure to really flush the radiator before setting it up in your loop. Always do 1-3 flushes with distiled water after you have cleaned it ( vinager, mayhems blitx kit, etc etc ).

Supriced in fact you did not know this since you have been / are watercooling the computer.

 

[Patrick_19]

That gpu block is made out of copper. If you mix copper and aluminum you will have corrosion period. Even if you add in anti corrosion it is bound to happen. That is also a reason why you have to maintain the loop with swapping out fluid every 12 - 24 months to be on the safe side since the anti corrosion and algae inhibitor wears out after some time.

If you can fit a copper radiator into the budget thats a no brainer and you should get it. But you will always need some kind of anti corrosion and anti algae growth.
Reason for that is that there will never be 100% pure copper and there is bound to be some kind of contaniment of mixed metals. Copper and brass is "safe" but it also comes down to the purety of the metal(s)
I have heard if people just running distiled water and thats it and they have been good for several years, in my book then they have been very lucky. I have seen people really been carefull and flushed and cleaned everything but still managed to get algae growth, corrosion or both at the same time

Make sure to really flush the radiator before setting it up in your loop. Always do 1-3 flushes with distiled water after you have cleaned it ( vinager, mayhems blitx kit, etc etc ).

Supriced in fact you did not know this since you have been / are watercooling the computer.

Thanks for the tips. I've never water cooled my pc before just thought about it. The card is my friends and he used to have a whole custom watercooling loop back in the day. He used a car radiator tho xd

 

[lumineZ]

Hehe I have seen picures of ppl using many crazy things as radiators 😀

But as a heads up to you. Please do search online and read up on it since there is in fact several things you need to think about and should know about before you start down that road.

This is just to get you started and are by no means the full picture or all the info you should know but it is a start ( read everything )

https://www.ekwb.com/guides/

 

[lumineZ]

Great.... and ofc atm the site is down 🙁 try it again tomorrow... Never seen that page offline before... typical aint it..

 

[Patrick_19]

Great.... and ofc atm the site is down 🙁 try it again tomorrow... Never seen that page offline before... typical aint it..

Thank you I'll do a bit more research into it before I actually order stuff in and really get down to it. Thanks for the help

 

[lumineZ]

No problem and as a last word of advice... its a dangerous road to start walking on 😀 its addictive 😀 And if you later on want to go hardlines and not soft... fittings... man they can be a real money pit 😀