first watercooled pc, done!

[ianh21]

i completed my first cpu watercooled project yesterday to my own rig. fairly easy really but i took my time as didn;t want leaks and learnt a few lessons. looks good, even better when i put some coloured water in.

do you guys think it'll be a good thing to show off at fairs and shows etc? thinking of offering it to customers. i see it as a good talking point at fairs etc.



love this shot:

 

[cypress]

Clean setup. Love it.

 

[Knightsman]

looks pretty sweet!

 

[NYJimbo]

Personally I will not work on a computer, at a hardware level, if it's watercooled. Nothing worse than taking a system apart and seeing it start leaking because everything became brittle or dry from the heat. If someone brings in a big gaming tower for a hardware job, I see if its water cooled and then politely tell them I don't work on them. 95% of the machines that come in are air cooled, the waters are usually gamers and geeks and when it comes to repairs, the water cooling is usually just the start of their problems.

 

[Larry Sabo]

I assume it's just the lighting that makes the rad look like it has water on it? http://prntscr.com/8c9g69

Normally, I avoid working on gamer machines, water cooled or not, because they are often overclocked or require hardware/components I don't normally have on hand for swap testing. Just not worth the grief, to me.

 

[kwest]

I would suggest draining the water and putting some coolant in it.

System looks good.

 

[altrenda]

is there any money in building systems like this?
There can't be much markup in parts since most gamers know about pc parts picker.

Most gamers I know of either build their own systems or have a gamer friend build it for a six pack.

are there many that would pay to have one built? how much would they pay for labor?

 

[kwest]

is there any money in building systems like this?
There can't be much markup in parts since most gamers know about pc parts picker.

Most gamers I know of either build their own systems or have a gamer friend build it for a six pack.

are there many that would pay to have one built? how much would they pay for labor?

I have made 400 to 500 on a 2500 gamer system several times in the past years. Some don't have time to mess with it.

If they provide their own parts $300 to install no warranty.

If I buy the parts I usually make 400 to 500.

 

[altrenda]

I have made 400 to 500 on a 2500 gamer system several times in the past years. Some don't have time to mess with it.

If they provide their own parts $300 to install no warranty.

If I buy the parts I usually make 400 to 500.

Seems like decent money. For a solo guy, a few of these a month would make a nice bump in the income.

 

[ianh21]

I assume it's just the lighting that makes the rad look like it has water on it? http://prntscr.com/8c9g69

Normally, I avoid working on gamer machines, water cooled or not, because they are often overclocked or require hardware/components I don't normally have on hand for swap testing. Just not worth the grief, to me.

nope, no water, just lighting. there was a spillage when i filled it to quickly but that was thoroughly dried before the final build.

i think you can make a good amount on a watercooled pc if a person wants it.

 

[mr m]

I worked on one a few months back. This rig was faster than mine! It absolutely screamed and the water cooling kept the heat under control.

I too told them no guarantees. Like Larry said gamers like to OC and they generate some serious heat. It took me forever to wade (get it?) through all the BIOS options to get the rig back to default. It still screamed.

Like nyjimbo, the water cooling makes me nervous. Water and electricity aren't good dance partners.

To the OP. Yeah, I think you can showcase your talents to the public with a water cooled rig. Nice touch adding the colored water.

I installed a VAX 9000 around 25 years ago that was designed to be water cooled but was an air cooled model. They sent me to a plumbing class to learn how to sweat copper pipes! It never took off so I never saw water cooling in the field. This was the first super computer that I ever worked on. I think they started at 1 million bucks!

 

[Rosco]

i agree. water cooling worries me. I worked on one a couple months ago. It was a coniar self contained unit. It was a gamer making his first rig. No over clocking but had wwater cooling and a fan on this ram. This rig would have been fine with air cooled.

 

[jbartlett323]

I would suggest draining the water and putting some coolant in it.

System looks good.

I would recommend against this. Coolants are not as efficient at heat transfer as good ol' Distilled water, and are rarely non-conductive (or at least more conductive than Distilled). I wouldn't have wasted the extra $ on the Meyhams Ultra Pure H20 either, as it has been shown in independent tests to do nothing over a $.78 gallon of Distilled water from your local grocer. Anyway you go though, be sure to run some sort of Biocide, else those pretty clear tubes will be ugly green tubes within 2 months. I typically suggest running colored tubing instead of colored water, as clear tubing allows UV light transference that algae thrives on, and dyes tend to coagulate and muck up the works. If ya gotta use clear, don't use a dye (just go clear) and use either a copper-sulfate based biocide (potentially dangerous) or preferably a .999% pure Silver "Kill-Coil" in your rad.

For those worried about working on a watercooled system because "it might become brittle", I would recommend diving in! if its that bad, you just saved their system! And you can now quote them a new WC system or just to go back to air. Either way, it is really trivial to touch the hoses before you move anything and determine if there is anything to worry about before moving components. And if it does leak, the system was powered off. Clean the mess up (typically not large), let it dry (might take a few days) and again, you just saved their system!

Overall, nice build though! I see one hose (from res/pump to rad) that looks a little tighter of a bend than I would have liked, but as long as it doesn't cause restriction its just fine! Remember to keep an eye on water level and drain and re-fill in a year or 2. Enjoy your well-cooled machine!

 

[ohio_grad_06]

Gamer systems can be a pain, but a nice upsell too. Case in point, we usually make 250-500 on a gamer rig because we buy the parts and install them. I helped a guy recently and made good money, he'd built his own gaming system, and it was overheating and shutting down. I ended up selling a new board, new case, and installing it all. He came back a couple of months ago with another issue, actually it was doing the same thing again. It was overheating a little, but the board was feeding the cpu stock voltage, the cpu was having none of it. He was using a raidmax power supply that was supposed to be good, personally I don't use raidmax products. I like my EVGA and Corsair PSU's just fine. But anyway, installed a small closed loop water cooler on it, and had to turn on load line calibration in the bios for it to stay stable. So far knock wood, he's not been back.

You'd be surprised how many kids watch a little youtube and think they can build a gaming rig. I have seen people bring them in missing the io sheilds on the back, sad really. Some of them have top notch components but if they only would take the time to set them up right. I had one guy in probably his 50's bring in a system with a real nice Asus board, high end stuff. Top PCI slot in the board was going out. He wanted to know if he could use the other slot. I finally convinced him that board would likely have more issues that he needed to RMA it. Ended up selling him a Gigabyte board, haven't heard of any issues in a year or so since then. Gaming systems can be a pain, but can make you a little cash here and there if you are patient and know what you're doing.

 

[glennd]

I've worked on a few water cooler laptops in my time and only this week I worked on a red wine cooled laptop. The red colour is much prettier.

 

[PC Doctor]

Glennd I initially thought "Water cooled laptops"?? but lol'd by the end

I generally find repairs to these gaming rigs take longer and aren't usually as profitable as a general repair

 

[frase]

I had one, because he touched the thermal pad was worried it would affect heat transfer [ was only a minor print barely recognizable]. I said no don't be concerned and hotfooted it out of there@

 

[TechPJC]

Water and electricity aren't good dance partners.