heatpipe to copperpipe watercooling

[wbirkin]

i had this idea when my northbridge keeps going 70c all the time and my big water 745 isnt being used in its max so what the hell. the plan is to remove the heatpipe for the MOSFET, northbridge, and southbridge, im going to use the existing heatsinks as the main water blocks, solder it to actually keep the copper pipes properly to the sinks and run through the water after the cpu.

the copper pipes im using is 1/8 as the 2 rads has it anyways and its the same size as heatpipes on it. i know that mosfets and southbridge doesnt need to be cooled this way as the southbridge doesnt generate much heat and heatsinks are sufficient to the mosfets but im so broke that i can only use the surplus that i have (25 ft 1/8 copper pipes only).

any advice before i go through with this?

 

[sirrobin4ever]

Ummm....be careful?

 

[Groveling_Wyrm]

just be careful of galvanization if you're not using all same metals...

 

[wun911]

you can buy mofset water blocks and NB water blocks...

 

[wbirkin]

just be careful of galvanization if you're not using all same metals...

im using solder metal, gold plated aluminum and the copper pipe. should i be worried?

 

[Groveling_Wyrm]

Yes, you should be worried, especially with the mixture of copper an aluminum in the loop. Those two metals mixed are especially bad for galvanization.

I would do whatever I could to get rid of one of those two metals if possible

 

[wbirkin]

but the rads of the tt bigwater 745 have aluminum fins with copper pipes

 

[Groveling_Wyrm]

You might notice that the TT rads are actually alloys...it delays the process, but nonetheless, it does occur even in TT systems...

I'm not saying that galvanization will happen instantly, but the more the different metals, the quicker it will happen.

Galvanization, if unchecked, will cause major damage to most all components of your system, in particular to your pump and copper parts. I would be very wary of prolonged use without periodical THOROUGH examination of the loop....

 

[Mugz]

AFAIK you can get additives for use in mixed-metal systems, either ask at your local enthusiast PC shop (if there's a decent techie working in the back) or at your local mechanic.

They'd have to have dealt with galvanisation before, with the prevalence of aluminium heads/blocks and copper-core radiators.

The point of periodic thorough inspection of the loop is a very valid one as well.

As for using the heatpipe as a water block array (?) - it could work quite well, once you cut the ends off and clean it out thoroughly. The inside of a heatpipe usually has a very rough texture, which equates to a large surface area, which equates to a high amount of heat transfer from pipe to coolant. Nice idea.

I think it was mpilchfamily who started a thread about heatpipes, how they work and so on. Worth a read if you're going to be hacking 'em.

 

[aigomorla]

ummm sorry to burst your bubble op... but heres my 2 cents on this project.

1. it wont work

Why because the restriction on that heat pipe will be so great, you'll have close to no flow of water going though the loop.

2. it wont work because your using thermaltake:

These kits were purely ment for bling. Not for performance. A tuniq tower will topple your temps using 2 high speed deltas. And it will be a very big difference with the tuniq winning.

3. There is no way to prevent galvanic corrosion. At best you can slow it. Even additives will slowly eat at. Alu watercooling parts are usually annodized, or plated with electrolitic copper. Never left out bare.


So, honestly, dont try to mickey mouse your system thinkn your goign to get an edge. It wont work. It wasnt designed that way. IF you want to watercool your NB, then your going to need to get better hardware. Meaning start from scratch.

If your happy the way it is, and just not happy about north bridge temps, then get a HR-05. It will cause far less headaches.

 

[wbirkin]

im not to break the heatpipe it self. im just going to remove it and replace it with copper pipes similar to those used by thermaltake so its pure copper. in terms of Galvanizations, the only aluminum part of the system is the compressors tt used for connection between the hose and the blocks. i was thingking of replacing that too with copper but still cant find adapters that go from 1/8 od to 1/2 od (tt's uv hose).

 

[aigomorla]

which brings me back to my original statement. Your going to cause restrictions and flow reductions. This will in turn hurt your temps on your CPU.

Also if you were to replace the pipe with copper, how would you mount it to the base. You would need to flatten it, and that itself would cause another restriction.

Your piling restrictions upon restrictions


Trust me, save yourself the headache. Either upgrade to a higher class watercooling kit, like a petrastechshop kit, or a swiftech apex kit and get NB blocks, or leave it as it is.


I promise you, you do this mod, you'll have serious heat issues unless you upgrade your gear. Your poor pump just cant handle that much output.