Hardware Hacking Projects for Geeks

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Part I: Basic Hacks, Tools, and Techniques

Air cools the CPU reasonably well, but other substances pick up or

exchange heat from the CPU even better. Many liquids, including water,

are excellent.

The benefits of exploiting liquid cooling can be enormous compared to pas-

sive cooling. More often than not, mainframe makers turn to liquid cool-

ing to achieve levels of heat dissipation unmatched by any number of fans.

However, due to size restrictions and because water cooling is dangerous to

implement in home PCs, it has never caught on in the home users’ market.

Yet over the last year, a few companies have sprung up and begun producing

kits that allow you to make your own water-cooled PC. Unfortunately, these

kits, which range from $60 for just a water block to over $200 for the whole

cooling system, can become a very expensive setup. In this hack I will show

you how to build your own water-cooling system for your home PC, which

will allow you to overclock the CPU with less chance of damage.

Project Overview

This hack is based on work from Rob Dickinson, who designed and built

this very effective and inexpensive CPU cooler. All photos in this hack are

courtesy of Rob.

The project is targeted at single Socket7 CPU computers, but with some

careful planning it can be adapted to other types of processors. (A Socket7

processor looks like a square ceramic slab with many metal pins sticking

out the bottom.)

You will construct this water-cooling system using a waterproof metal can

connected to a water pump that attaches to your PC’s CPU.

You can find most, if not all, of the necessary parts in your local hardware

store. You will need a few hand tools such as a hacksaw, a bench vise, a pair

of pliers, and a soldering iron.

Before You Start

Putting water inside your PC can be risky. If the water cooling system you

build has any leaks, the water will likely damage or destroy parts inside of it.

Water and electricity are also a potentially dangerous combination, so take

extra care when building and testing your work.

Before you start, you need to figure out whether your CPU and motherboard

can actually be overclocked. First, determine the exact model and clock

speed of the processor. This information is shown when your PC first boots

up. You can also look under Control Panel ➝ System Properties ➝ General

(see Figure 4-1). Next, check the motherboard manufacturer and model

number by opening up the computer case and examining the main circuit

Project Overview

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1/21/2002 12:26:13 PM