guys the whole point of this video is to
undo the catastrophe of the car radiator
video this is a heater core and this is what I was supposed to have that time
around you can see we've designed a shroud for it that'll allow you to use a
regular pc cooling fan even though this was originally designed for a car these
were mostly popular in the early 2000s when custom-made PC water cooling
radiators weren't really a thing yet what does this have to do with any of
what I just said and what does it have to do with this
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your purchase it's this thing new from a 69 Camaro why
would it be new I don't know maybe there's a for enthusia just restoration
parts brand new or something look the
point is this AIO water cooler with a
triple 120 millimeter radiator costs a whopping
180 dollars which got us thinking given
that you can go to a junkyard and pick up a heater core that's got to have at
least that kind of cooling capacity for
like 40 bucks could we scrape together everything else we need and build a
competitive water cooling system I mean we all know about the problems with aios
weak pumps skinny tubing and want to
upgrade them forget about it this might not be pretty
but if we choose the right case we might be able to install it in such a way that
you would never know that it's inside the question is just how much did the
rest of this stuff cost us in total everything including the heater
core was a hundred and eleven dollars really so we beat this by 70 bucks yep
all we need to know now is how much work are we going to be putting into
installing it and what's the performance going to be like to be clear this isn't
a given and one of our obstacles is right in the name it's a heater core
it's not for cooling it actually takes
cold air coming into the front of your vehicle sometimes at a significant
velocity takes hot water from your engine Heats that air and then blows it
into your face on a cold Winter's day which means that even though it would
typically have a fan as an assist heater cores are thick with dense thin
Arrangements because they need a lot of static pressure to get through them
static pressure that a typical PC fan is
not really designed to provide although then again if those can't do it maybe
these can and if these can't well this
definitely can definitely not in the budget but I think
this would probably fit yeah that one that one plus it a bit while Alex gets
the fans mounted I want to talk about yet another obstacle you know how I just
said you'd expect to have way more airflow in a car well
you'd also expect to have way more water flow from the pump you would find in a
car and while we did find an affordable
aquarium pump that claims to do 1 400
liters per hour the issue with aquarium pumps is they're typically designed to
maximize flow rate even if it comes at the cost of head pressure so as soon as
we start to try to pump that water through a restrictive CPU block or a big
fat heater core we could see those flow
rates plummet also that's the least of our
concerns at the moment because like does this even hold water
what's yeah what's inside of it
solder
oh that's green okay uh that's not supposed to go down the sink okay tasty
that seems fairly minimal please don't
attack our office Greenpeace it warmed up when I cleaned it out with the hot
water now it just smells gross uh that's been in my office the whole week so I
know how you feel put your face right in it I don't mind it that's all that but
metal smell one of the big challenges with two
thousands era water cooling was finding a a heater core that would fit in a case
and B a case that would fit a heater core because you got to remember back
then most of our cases had a ton of
Drive Bays especially the large premium
ones that might have enough space so what folks often ended up doing is
dremeling out or otherwise removing large amounts of the front of the
internals and in some cases even the front of the case in order to get enough
airflow through these Hogs thankfully we shouldn't have to deal with any of that
because our handy dandy engineer Kyle made us a shroud which is going to serve
two purposes one it's going to create a gap between the spinning blades of our
fan and the heater core itself you can see it's about a centimeter right now
that's going to help us make more effective use of the fins that otherwise
would be under the Hub or under the corners or way over there where our fan
can't reach them the second purpose is it's going to make it compatible with
our case because we can mount the fan here and then we can mount our two fans
into the front of the case this is exactly how smoothly that car radiator
shoot was supposed to go if only we had gotten a heater core that time like I
asked what we have done literally nothing so far Linus we've done
something can you say this is going smoothly we haven't even JB welded our
fittings into it yet oh wait no we could just stretch tubing
over that uh that's three quarters of an inch I could stretch half inch
tubing over it seems like a tight fit you know what
oh where's that heat gun
oh if it fits you know you're gonna sit what what graphics card is that in there
don't worry about it okay bye-bye 4090 no
he's actually doing better than I thought he would I think my first rodeo
okay back of my day I used to do a 3 8 inch thick wall tubing over half inch
fittings to make sure they would never leak so one thing I've realized that's
going to be a problem that we could probably solve right now is that my
AliExpress water block
I'm listening it's not am5 compatible because I just forgot that I have am5
here it's dangerous don't worry about it oh that's that's fine you're actually a
lot further than I thought you'd be
at this point in the video you're probably wondering why we're even
bothering to show you this it doesn't seem like the sort of thing that you should do at home but that's not
actually the case I mean we are intentionally using the wrong size
tubing here because we would have to go all the way over to the other building to get thicker tubing so it's not the
kind of thing that you would have to deal with and as long as our performance
is okay there's no denying the difference in cost
so as long as you can find a good deal on a heater core I don't see any reason
why you couldn't replicate this at home however it's gotten a little bit more
difficult finding copper based heater cores these days since a lot of the
modern ones are aluminum and those of you who are experiencing water cooling
will know that if you run an aluminum component and a copper component
together in the same Loop even with an anti-corrosion additive you
are asking for a bad time and since aluminum water cooling components are
few and far between you will need to find a copper heater core motorcycle
radiators are another option if you can find one with Dimensions that'll fit in
your case ultimately you just do what a lot of people used to and you don't
bother putting it in your case just run some tubes out the back and uh
go whole room water cooling oh no I was just trying to think you might need to
do even more stretching now that I look at the fittings that we have for this
aquarium pump that's the only one you have to go into the other side well I
have this one oh ye of little faith
success sure if that doesn't look like
performance to you I don't know what would
uh guys what did you think to maybe
offset this so that it fits in the case
uh I thought that we can just take that part out yeah or Dremel ah oh yeah
LTC screwdriver for the win yes
hey this is a pretty big moment of truth
oh no oh you've kinked it bro
don't kink shame also I have a plan
he was supposed to cut the tubes shorter
that's a way worse plan hold on okay hey so now when it leaks
it's right on the power supply yeah oh geez you're spilling water in the case
too where were you planning to put the reservoir and pump well my thought was
we would cut these tubes short which I forgot to mention and then we would put
the radiator up top with the pump down below I see I really have to remove my
tube no you just cut the copper pipe off
the tube's still attached
uh rest in peace stretched tube hey guys
cavalry's here what's up Colin uh oh this is perfect we got some nice
thick boys uh yeah sure uh just just right here is good yeah just depth
literally anyway thank you
no thanks
excellent you contributed to that that was not all of us I got some tech tips
here for you Kyle
that looks pretty good Alex made the executive decision to not try to install
our cheap AliExpress block because it's not am5 compatible and we're just going
to use what an EK block Alpha cool actually yeah we're still
well under budget like 50 60 bucks under what we would have paid for an AIO yeah
and we're using a premium block from a
very reputable water cooling company oh that sounds so good it's pretty it's
a bad color I'm trying to sell this screwdriver you
the best way to do this would have been to braise fittings onto the copper pipes
however the good thing about the way we're doing it is we're showing you guys
a lot of the different options you can also just stretch a tube over and you
can also epoxy A fitting onto the bare
copper pipe just bear in mind that brazing would be the most reliable it's
bigger freaking a that's what you said all
right but do you have a fitting for this for the other side no wait
we're good we go from the radiator to that side of
the pump oh yeah as long as that is an appropriate Loop order then we're good
to go okay Alex is here with the big tube okay I think we're just gonna put
big tubing over JB Weld I also know how we can adapt between the
two oh no
I approve I approve perfect I approve no no no no
no no no no no no
yeah it didn't stick it in it didn't zip tie it
I'm bringing this back over and we're forgetting about the JB Weld then yep I
guess so all right oh it's pretty uh hardened boys
the good news is that it's at an in-between tacky phase where I can get
it off really cleanly guys this is great okay this one goes on this
side then that's a lot of JB Weld on my tube
okay we need one of those zip tie guns have you ever seen one of those zip ties
yeah they're super cool
they're not that expensive you want me to buy you one nope I've wasted so much
more of your money than the frequency of Thai gun mate
okay here we go come on
yeah yeah oh nice this is actually going a
lot better than I thought it would what happened last time someone said this is
going really well have you learned nothing
nope all right not bad though hey we
still haven't pressure tested it
I'm just saying it right now so that when we spill water all over 40 90 that
there's documentation of I told you sir I often tell this to people on the
leadership team here I Told You So is not acceptable all right if you knew
better you have to actually stop it could I stop you if I tried nope
well I for one am excited what are we using for a rep
really that loopy little thing yeah this is our radiator yeah and that's a
reservoir it's really cheap oh you realize how much bigger this is than the
reservoir that was in the AIO that's true yeah it is infinitely bigger than
the reservoir that was in the AIO which doesn't have one we are going to have
this Loop filled before you can say Bob's your uncle don't try to say Bob's
your uncle faster than I'm doing what I'm doing right now magnet
uh why did it have to be flesh colored
too bad we don't have the only fans anymore
freaking hey that like is not bad though
guys like for realsies not bad it
actually looks like industrial yeah I'm bringing the radiator down to the pump
which I just need to get repositioned so that the inlet has access to what's
coming off of the uh Reservoir I just
need a position for it where are you going to put the reservoir it'll have to
go somewhere right before the pump okay I can't screw this up so I'm gonna err
on the side of a little bit longer okay then
this bad boy has to go over this Barb or we are boned
oh look at that perfect actually that's that's a genius
way to mount the wow it's right here seems like yeah that's real good old
school freaking water cooling guys we are doing it I'm actually feeling really
good now this has been a bit of a discouraging project up until now
other than the first bit where things were going really well and I jinxed it
oh man we got this question select Kyle
how does the reservoir get water from this oh okay I didn't see that don't
worry Kyle everything's going to be okay
forgive me for not having faith in these guys I can see it I can smell Victory
right now look at this now we have
access to both the inlet which is going to come from can you pass me this one
this one here so you passed me that what do you mean goes to the inlet through
where yeah yeah exactly right there and we've got a fill Port do you want to cut
it shorter we'll just leave it long uh no no we'll cut it shorter we'll cut it shorter here okay don't kill it that
short tell me when just like look at it and
cut it in the right spot you're a smart guy okay sure
you should make educational videos Alex it's like a gift ah do you have those
scissors what are you doing cutting it oh my goodness okay can I have that
please no not that that's the sixth
what do you want oh can I have that the
tubing kind of looks that can you be less of a downer clear
black different kind of black luckily the same color black is this black oh
these are way too long you cut this one well yeah I was just doing a test to
make sure that it fit on the thinning what did you it's like Kyle these are
way too long and you grab the one that you freaking cut well I put you in charge
here unless you want this to cut tubing well you see I will say line is possibly
the scissors which are these how many times did I say scissors editor uh do
you have those scissors okay can I have that please hey look at this though guys
we're freaking installed I want to see some performance out of this thing
that pump is freaking going though hey that Pub is pretty ridiculous I'm pretty
happy it'll go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go okay now don't
don't turn it off whatever you do this
oh no the block the good news
is that the computer is not powered on which means everything should be alive
we weren't supposed to do it until later but I do have a water cooled 49er right
here that we're going to swap in if we felt the need I think we're swapping
this in uh oh I found some of your um
radiator schmoo oh yeah that's a pretty gross I know the problem look
it's not straight so the O-ring was sitting on this scene it's very obvious
what went wrong and how to fix it I have a lot of JB Weld on my fingers which is
probably not the best thing for an O-ring oh it's pretty bad yeah that's
that's not turning back on today all right no problem guys we might have got
away with one the heatsink for the SSD is very wet
but I think that the SSD itself is dry hey the good news is by the time you buy
a GPU block you are still not that far
off what you would have spent on that top of the line AIO you're an extra
maybe 40 bucks inch yeah that's the upgradability of a custom Loop yeah and
your sanity don't worry about that
new GPU upgrading all right are you ready
I'm ready do it
is okay we're good that was the problem
missing clear o-ring that's fine
okay hit me with another thank you so much good sir
the motherboard is very clean now especially the 490s very cleanly washed
it can I have some side Cutters you mean Flush Cutters I mean a thingy
pass me that okay
let's do it let's do it you ready yep
there's a lot of air bubbles in there that's okay because we have the
reservoir right above the pump and because we have the fittings for the
radiator at the top the bubbles have nowhere to get stuck so
they'll this will bleed extremely quickly it's a submersible pump so they tend not
to be that quiet although it's not very quiet it's pretty it's not bad now that
it's got the air bubbles out of it and like we have really got some water
moving in here you guys ready okay do it three two one do it do it oh press the
wrong button it's probably Knocked Up
come on baby I haven't checked anything else 24 pin
plugged in I'm getting postcodes and stuff it's doing stuff are we are we up
are we up we did it
yeah Jank water cooling save 50 bucks
we did yep well minus the GPU
this is moving yeah that's on finishing touches it
actually looks pretty fine from the front
that classic blue LED 120 mil fan look
though all right in summary then we
probably downgraded our radiator a little bit more surface area from the
front tends to be better than more thickness overall plus these are
probably better fans than what we put on this but we upgraded our block our pump
is probably fine we actually have a reservoir now at all and we did it for
50 60 bucks less so we could have splurged for premium
fans and we would still have a system that is upgradable that we can grow into
we will upgrade the fan but what we're looking for here the biggest thing is
CPU package power I'm guessing this is going to hit 95 degrees because AMD
targets that yeah but if this drops below about 184 Watts we're doing worse
if we're able to get above 200 we like killed it when we did the test before we
just had the AIO cooling the water block not the GPU yeah correct so now we're
cooling both CPU and the GPU yeah yeah so if we have the same package power not
only are we winning we are super windy yes but we also blew the budget with
that GPU block so
are you hitting it okay CPU
85 90. yeah so we have 200 watts can we
sustain it you're not hitting the GPU are you no no that would be pretty
unfair it's already got a little bit of extra load on it from that and more
restriction in the loop from having to push water through an additional block I
think that we're still already ahead of the AIO really yeah that actually makes
sense because aios use extremely
rudimentary cold plates so that's your bottleneck rather than
the temperature of the coolant you can throw all the fans and all the radiator you want at it
if the cold plate can't move heat fast enough it's just not going to be as
effective oh we're down to 92. what
192. yeah 190. that's still more
no 192 is kind of like where it liked hanging out before okay
well I guess we don't need to get good at high-fiving then the thing that might
be pulling it back is like the vrms and
not the CPU itself it's without a doubt as good or better than the AI and
upgradable should we upgrade it oh God
if you must I I think we just do it
right now right now we're doing it we're just we're just sending it oh we can do
it can we yeah no way okay let's put
some real airflow on this thing if you're finding yourself asking
did I just watch just know that you're not alone there are other people like
you and they all shop at lttstore.com all
right okay I'll be good I think we're good
okay hold on can I just yeah it's great
great is a strong if it takes off just get out of the way okay
what can possibly go this is basically like driving down the highway at 100
miles an hour we're up from 180 to 187
. this is moving some heat out of that heater core boys 188.
189. oh my 190.
all you need is the right fan configuration
this just keeps going guys we're all the way up to 194. the fans are spinning
fast enough that the LEDs turned on I gotta confess I'm actually a little
surprised that the heater core method is
still a viable option for PC water cooling
oh yeah it's great to be clear there are
more economical ways you could use proper PC water cooling parts to beat an
AIO and maybe that'd be a good idea for a follow-up video oh yeah you don't have
to buy your radiator from the most premium Brands like EK there are more
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if you guys enjoyed this video you know what I'm gonna throw to the time that
Alex and I tried to do this but ended up
with a radiator instead of a heater core oh that was so good
class one of our worst videos the best