$500 DIY Water Cooled PC Challenge - Scrapyard Wars Episode 2a
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2016-05-06
·
2,558 words · ~12 min read
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Welcome to Scrapyard Wars 2 episode a
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part one. Yeah, that's how it's going to be. So today we've got a new challenge.
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Instead of just building a budget PC, we're going to build a budget PC and
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then we're going to water cool it. We're going to have a full budget of $500.
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$300 for our computer and a maximum of $200 for the water cooling parts. But
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there's a twist. We cannot use any
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offthe-shelf PC water cooling gear.
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Nada. So, it'll be judged in five sections. One, creativity. Two,
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effectiveness. Three, aesthetics. Four, acoustics. And then five is just
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overall. We're going to have a few ground rules as usual. So, number one is
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it's tower only. We don't have to source a monitor and keyboard and mouse. Number
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two is that there's no pre-work or in between work. We weren't allowed doing
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research before the event, and we're not allowed doing research like after work or anything. And number three is going
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to get a bit of a curveball this time. Last time we said no help from friends,
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family, co-workers, social media contacts, whatever. This time we're
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going to allow it, but the panel of judges has been instructed that they are
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to deduct points from us depending on
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how much we take advantage of anyone other than our own wits. And last isn't
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really rules, but we're just going to define what constitutes as a water cooling component. So there's cooling
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blocks. So, your CPU water block or potentially GPU water block or whatever
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the heck else you decide to cool. Um, fittings, tubing, radiators, fans,
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pumps, reservoirs, or the coolant.
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So, that's it. Let's get started, shall we? Yeah. Scrapyard
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Wars. Scrapyard Wars.
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The time is now 2:30. Go before we start. All right, you can count it. I
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know mine's right. 12 9 13 9 8 7 12 15
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28 13 12 17 Okay,
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we are just going to charge on out of here as if we have some idea what's
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going on. Let's just wave by. He's leaving.
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All right, I'm not going to look at him. I'm going to let him waste time by harming
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at me. Are they ignoring us? It's okay. We'll get their attention.
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They're gone. I think they're
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gone.
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Bye. I kind of have a plan for this
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video. There is no performance judgment criteria. So, it
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actually doesn't matter what PC that we decide to use. So, instead of stressing
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out about building a great PC, I'm going
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to go straight for water cooling parts
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and I'm just going to kind of water cool whatever PC I find. Something that's
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actually critical for me is the lifeline
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component. Unlike Luke, I am planning to
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use the lifeline. And in fact, my strategy hinged on it so much that I was
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very, very afraid we weren't going to allow them. So Luke and I disagreed
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strongly about whether we should be allowed to have any kind of outside
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help. I said yes, he said no. And Nick
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was actually the one who saved my bacon here by settling it and saying, "Okay,
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it should be allowed, but the judges should factor it in because I have a
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neighbor who might be able to help me a little bit with this." Even though I
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know that I'm giving Luke the ability to leverage his dad, who is crazy handy and
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has a lot of tools, I want to find a
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uh a computer really quick so I can figure out the hole layout for the
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socket so that I can try to start making blocks pretty much immediately. Um, so I
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don't want to spend a ton of time looking for a computer.
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Uh, but I don't want it to be like garbage either. I'm going to go to
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probably an auto junkyard to find my
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radiator. I'm heading to the pet store now for my pump. I really don't have a
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plan in terms of the reservoir, but I'm hoping that um that I
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can come up with some kind of a good idea as far as that's concerned. And
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then the blocks, the blocks are going to be the challenge. And that's where my
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neighbor comes in. He has a CNC mill. So, we are going to try to
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actually make a CPU block, like a decent
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CPU block and a full cover GPU block.
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That is the plan right now. So, let's
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get some trash talk going early. Hey, you suck, lol. Yeah, take that, Luke.
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What a dick. I'm not going to play his silly little games. Time to be a man.
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Okay, so we're looking at pumps and
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uh these are all air pumps. Okay,
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then. Okay, so unfortunately they are
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doing some recajjiggering of their inventory and the only one they have is
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this one right here which is like 80 bucks. But they suggested that maybe if
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we go to Canadian Tire we can find something. I am interested in finding
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something that's submersible though since one of the judgment categories is
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acoustics and having a submersible pump will make my system very
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quiet. So that yeah won't help me for
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now though. I mean really we're not going about this the most efficient
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possible way right now. But frankly I'm not that concerned. We've got 3 days to
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pretty much build and water cool a computer and not get run over.
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So I don't know. Maybe I should be more worried. But I think we got this. Hi
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there. I saw your gaming tower ad on Craigslist.
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Um, I was just wondering if you could give me a deal if I didn't take the
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monitor, keyboard, or mouse.
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Um, yeah, I can let it go, I don't know,
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200 bucks. Two two something.
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200. Yeah. Yeah, I could do 200. Okay.
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Uh, can I come pick it up right now?
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Cool. So, he has
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a it's a classic case as you can see
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there. You guys, I'm going to turn the monitor like that. Um, some of you guys
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remember that case maybe from a long time ago. It's not the greatest looking case, but it's a classic case. He does
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have a graphics card in it, but it's super boring. Um, it's not the most
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interesting thing ever, but it'll work. And I got it for
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200 bucks. So, I have $100 to splurge on
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potentially an old graphics card that looks nice and potentially a better case
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cuz I saw some cases on there that were like 40 bucks and uh looks really nice.
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I don't want to do something as ghetto as like a sawoff milk jug.
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But yeah, I don't know what to use. Maybe like um maybe like one of those
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big gulp drink containers on the top with like like fittings coming down into
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the system or something. Why not one of those uh little goldfish aquarium things
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that are like terrible that you shouldn't use? But should I put a
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goldfish in my loop and a filter? We could store our goldfish in one of
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these. Seems harmless. Okay, so here's a
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submersible pump. $110. That would be literally over half
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of our budget. Um there's cheaper stuff
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here, but like the cheapest Oh, no. at Oh, okay.
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Hold on a second. The cheapest one is $13. But if that's the kind of flow rate
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we're talking about and only a one-year
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warranty, but then 20 bucks get us 70 gets us 75 gallons per hour. You know
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what? We should remember this. I'm not going to buy it now, but that actually
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may be a solution. whenever he's going to do something that's like cheating or
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borderline cheating, uh, he usually makes sure that there's very defined
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rules around it. Um, so that he knows
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specifically how he can go around those rules. So, I'm wondering if he's going
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to just try to find things that
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are essentially the same but are not
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technically for water cooling. I might. Yeah, I might source another graphics
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card. I might source a new case. Although, this is a fairly classic case.
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So, I might also stick with this guy. There's also a bit of metal and I'm
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going to be modding it quite heavily. So, there you go. Feel free to
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count. Okay, so this thing sucks, but
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there's a lot of metal, which I'm actually super down with.
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But getting a better graphics card at this point is going to be a little sketchy because I was pretty sure in his
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ad, I could totally be wrong, but I was pretty sure in his ad I'm going to put
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this in the back. Um, that he showed a 750 watt power
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supply. That might have been the other computer I was looking at. Oh well, I'll
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figure it out. Maybe no new graphics card. Probably new case cuz that one's
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actually fairly scratched up. Um, so we're going to go home and try to go to
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Princess Auto because if I can get a block working for
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the CPU and like that that's going to be the
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hardest thing. So, if I can source some materials and start trying to make a
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block work at all um, and I'll just make it for the CPU,
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then I'll then I'll know that I have the methodology down. Then I should be able
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to do it again for the graphics card. I'll just do one at once and then try to
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reproduce that instead of trying to deal
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with getting two of them working at the exact same time. Okay, so the last real
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store I want to go to before I start um
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calling places and browsing online is Home Depot, just cuz I think this is
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where I can probably find the tubing I need.
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And that's the one piece of the puzzle where I'm not even sure if I'm going to
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be able to find it used. So, I need to know how much that costs before I shop
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for everything else. So, that whole strategy where you leave your car
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unlocked cuz there's nothing valuable in it anyway only works if you don't leave
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your like razor blade in your car.
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They're like not that crazy expensive.
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Like this. This could work. Uh if I decide to bail on the on the reservoir
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outright, then I've got my tea line. So, that's only uh 250 here at Home Depot.
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So, it's time to do some napkin math. Let's figure out how much we know we're
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spending and then how much we have we have left to spend. So, um, so buying
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new, we need 20 here. We need about 10
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here. Actually, we should call that 25 cuz of tax. Uh, reservoir. You know
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what? I think I'm going to lock into the Tline. So, that gives us about
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$150 for radiator. So, pump. We can get away with
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saving one by getting us Oh, no. Can't have a submersible pump now because of
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the rez. Oh, we need to obtain a reservoir
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if we use a submersible pump.
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Shoot. So, Canadian Tire really didn't like us. We got threatened to be thrown
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in court. So, all that footage is going to be thrown away. But basically,
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they're actually super helpful auto parts guy got me a part number for their
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cheapest radiator, which is $108. So,
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that's Not that cheap, but could be workable in
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the budget. I know the pump that I'm looking for is also about
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$4550. So, that's 150 bucks out of my
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budget right there. And I would still need metal and fittings and a fish
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tank and tubing.
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So, I probably can't afford all of that.
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I didn't think the radiator was going to be hard.
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Um, so I would be looking for something fairly inexpensive, but and preferably
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with a fan already on it, but I'm not super picky about what exactly it is.
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See, radiator core for $25. I'd be looking for a car radiator, but I just I
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don't really care which one it is. I'd just be looking for something relatively small,
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like, do you guys have any salvage radiators that I could pick up? Yeah, I
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got a bunch of them. Oh, really? Wow.
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You're the you're the first person with good news that I've talked to in the
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last hour. Um, what would I be looking at for
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something like that? I don't have a huge budget for it. $150 or any kind of
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thing, but uh, since you're not really fluffy as to what radiator, I'm sure I
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can dig something out for 50 bucks. Okay. All right. Thank you so much.
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Copper pipe. Oh, here's some 20 bucks. 1/2 in half inch gas pipe new. Okay.
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Let's let's just let's call. Hi, I'm calling about the copper pipe and I mean
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is there anything wrong with it? No, it's brand new. Okay, wonderful. Thank
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you very much. 30 to 50 ft. That could
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work. So, here's where we're at. We've got two leads on PCs. The plan with the
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copper tube is that I'm basically just going to like bend it up and jam it
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inside the case so that it can take advantage of any of the air flow that's
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already coming through the case to cool the CPU and and hopefully the GPU. So,
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there it is. There's our there's our copper copper tubing. So, in terms of
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bendability, it looks like I will be able to hand bend it. I don't know with
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what amount of precision. We have our first part. Again, I'm not too concerned
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about the PC. And we have one cooling component with leads on most of the
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rest. It was a good day
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today. Oh, I just realized I'm going to have a
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mixed metal loop. I was planning to use a heater core or something, which is a
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lot of them are made of aluminum. And then I was planning to make aluminum
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blocks. Now that I have the copper tubing, I'm gonna have to budget for
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some kind of uh corrosion inhibitor. The judges probably won't
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know that anyway. Next time on Scrapyard Wars, Lionus
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whips it out. Oh my goodness, it's so long. And Luke comes into a serious
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situation with the Dremel tool. He always had three fingers, right?