Hello all. I've decided that to post my group's senior design efforts at watercooling components into work log. Now, I was not the only one working on the project so I am not taking all the credit for it. However, I AM footing most of the bill for it hahahah.

Our project was to develop a heat exchanger (read: water block). Let me tell you, it isn't as easy as it looks to design when you had to do all the analysis with it. Not only was it designed but it was analyzed (calculatign pressure drops at certain points, calculating pin efficiency, optimizing the overall design, and developing it to meet certain heat outputs at a given temperature). Also, this was done by hand, no CFD (though i did compare CFD results of the pressure drops to what we calculated).

The block itself was made in solidworks. CFD was done using solidworks's addon COSMOS Floworks. It was then transferred into BobCAD for laying out the machine paths and finally CNC machined at school. I belive the shop guys said it took about 30 hours. There are 49 pins--each pin is square with 2mm sides and 2mm paths between them.

Here is the test system specs (my current system)
-- ASUS P5AD2 Premium
-- Intel P4 550 3.4GHz
-- MSI X800 PCI-e 256MB
-- Audigy 2ZS
-- Coolermaster Praetorian black aluminum case
-- 1GB Crucial Ballistix PC2-5300

As for the cooling system heres what will go into it
-- MCP350 Pump from Swiftech
-- MCR120 Radiator from Swiftech
-- 3/8" ID Vinyl tubing
-- Custom Waterblock for CPU

Now what about the project log you say? Well of course it would not be a project log with out lots of pics of the build up and of course we can not forget temperature readings. In the next few days I should have some shots of the build up into my case. For now, I can give you a sweet shot of the block all built up and ready for action (same photos from my album).

Behold the water block!

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Sweet man! You an engineering student? Those sort of projects are the best because, for one I love it when modders fab their own stuff. That's where the real frontiers of this scene are at in my opinion, and two, it's good to see someone really digging into the more scientific side of the scene. Sounds like you're not just pushing other people's engineering, you're pushing your own. I can't wait to see where you take this. Oh, and you should try to get your teammates to jump on and introduce themselves. That would be awesome to get all of your opinions/experiences with this project. Good luck with it!

Sorry for the lack of updates. Classes are KILLER at the moment. One of my team mates and I spent 8 hours today building up the rig with the new parts. We took pics along the way too.. though a bunch of them came out blurry (darn camera cant take decent non-flash shots for beans) I should be postin them up probably tomorrow when I got time. Its AMAZING what a little uv light can do to a case when done properly. All i gotta say is that im very pleased with hte outcome and performance of the block.

On a side note: fluidXP+ extreme pwns ahahah. I love this stuff. I got teh electric blue colored bottle.