will this work for watercooling?

[cbr900son]

So I'm planning on making a case out of acrlyic and while doing some research I cam across somethign called a aquarium chiller which is basically a small water pupm/ac unit to cool the water in a fish tank to the right temp. Some use 1/2" hoses and i started to think "I wonder if I could use it for water cooling?" Think its possible?

Here is a link to a few. These prices are a little high. Ive seen them for 2/3 this other places.

http://www.marineandreef.com/1_15_hp_chiller_1_15_chiller_1_10_chiller_1_10_hp_chiller_s/200.htm

 

[faster3200]

This has been done before. Those aren't very powerful chillers, in fact rads can out do them. While I am sure they will probably work, they seem way too costly.

I also don't know how restrictive they are and how much they would hurt flow.

It is better to stick to rads unless you build a chiller. More info about that can be found here.

 

[ouch1]

I agree with faster on this. I have seen people who built thier own chillers using a combination of a heat exchanger and a large reserviour with a very power water cooling unit (straight from an industrial water cooler) cooling the water in the res well below ambient. But they had to wrap everything in neoprene to fight condensation. Plus I would not like to see the electricity bill for that rig.

-ouch1

 

[rubix_1011]

If you are that intent on using the fish tank idea, I saw a guy that used a refigerator compressor and ran the cooling coils through the tank which was just a big reservoir. He had some pretty cool temps that way, but seemed way too much work for what he accomplished.

 

[yaoiboimi]

I use a mini Igloo Travel Cooler, and use quick disconnects, dump the water every month and replace it. Modified the housing of it so the tubes run right out the side and are sealed with rubber gaskets. Cost of cooler $30 and houses 2.8 Gallons. Also a great pump to have is an Ehiem 1250 Hobby pump. It can do up to 12/16th inner diameter house or a 1/2 inch inner diameter hose, and is covered by a 5 year warranty, and does a max of 320 gallons per minute of water circulation and only operates on 28 watts of power, and is virtually silent. Only sound I can hear is the water moving, but with an inconvenience matter is when you turn off the system, you have to turn that off too unless you want to constantly cool it down. The igloo cooler has a manual dial which you can adjust the temp of the contents, and I have an antec fan on the blocks in the case just in case of condensation.