"Bladder" GPU water cooling

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Barney-

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Aug 3, 2014
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Okay, so sometimes people post crazy ideas for homespun cooling solutions here, so I'm following in that proud tradition, please don't ridicule me too much;)

Full coverage water blocks for GPUs are really, really pricey. It occurs to me that a simple bladder, i.e. bag of water, should be capable of "fitting" any GPU, naturally molding to the shape - I imagine that thermal pads (no grease) would need to be applied to get the best result. With the combined plasticity of the pads and the bladder I would imagine the overall degree of thermal contact would be high.

So why isn't this really cheap solution used? I have a notion for a prototype - of all things, a catheter bag seems to have the required properties - it's medical grade and therefore likely to be pretty robust, and it has two ports at opposite ends, the minimum requirement for any water cooling apparatus.

So is this idea completely insane?
 
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I was very surprised at the pricing of some water blocks ( the ones with pumps installed ) They do sell a basic water block (cooper ) for about $10 but you'd have to buy a pump for it. A low price water loop would be about $50 . Lots depend on the GPU which you would have to open and look at. For some GPU's the manufacturer makes special parts to convert to water cooling, Take a look at you tube videos on this topic.
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R_1

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plastic is an electrical insulator. the insulation properties will effect the thermal transfer ability of the bag.
even medical grade plastics will decay when heated, cooled, heated, rinse repeat. a catheter bag will be made to operate around body temp.
I know of no plastic with the required thermal conditions. the metal BLOCK method of fluid cooling allows far greater surface area for thermal transfer than a simple bag, the block has fins inside that cannot be replicated in a bladder design.

insane? no. improbably difficult? yes.
I would not suggest thermal pads, the added thickness would hinder thermal transfer.
 
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mwryder55

mwryder55

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Dec 31, 2011
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Other than the obvious fragility of the "bag" you have to worry about having the cooler holding shape despite the angle the card is mounted. I would worry about the material degrading from the heat and becoming brittle and cracking. Thermal pads have a much lower heat transfer than grease and also degrade much quicker.
 
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Barney-

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Aug 3, 2014
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To be honest the reasoning behind the thermal pads was more that they would provide some protection against sharp parts of the PCB possibly puncturing the water bag, obviously a concern. I did look into possible materials for this idea ... obviously the catheter bag isn't ideal, as you point out most plastics have poor thermal conductivity. Highly thermally conductive silicone rubbers exist which would probably make much more sense but would obviously be way beyond my ability to prototype with!
 
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jacksoncarl256

Jul 1, 2018
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I was very surprised at the pricing of some water blocks ( the ones with pumps installed ) They do sell a basic water block (cooper ) for about $10 but you'd have to buy a pump for it. A low price water loop would be about $50 . Lots depend on the GPU which you would have to open and look at. For some GPU's the manufacturer makes special parts to convert to water cooling, Take a look at you tube videos on this topic.
 
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