Water Cooled Raspberry Pi

If your Raspberry Pi is running a bit hot you can add a few hunks of salvaged heat sink, or you can go all out and machine your own water cooling system.

Remember when everyone had a giant desktop computer which was a perfect receptacle for cool lighting effects and somewhat ridiculous cooling systems? Relive that experience with [Phame’s] multi-page forum post that serves as the build log. With the exception of the tiny pump itself, this one’s a fully custom job.

The image on the left shows the machined parts being tried on for side. There is a slug which contacts the ICs on the RPi board, conducting the heat to the chambers inside through which the liquid will flow. The upright rectangular enclosure serves as the reservoir which dissipates the collected heat as the water flows through it. The image on the right shows the finished project. It uses the power pins on the GPIO header to drive the pump.

[Thanks PL via Bit-Tech]

25 thoughts on “Water Cooled Raspberry Pi

    1. Not sure how extreme you can get with overclocking as the critical part here doesn’t actually contact the CPU. The top of the RPi is the RAM chip, and the CPU sits under it with an airgap.

      That said this build is insane, it’s a work of art!

  1. I love a good overkill in the morning!
    Still… why isn’t the fluid something fluorescent, illuminated with pulsating UV LEDs? With a mound of miniature skulls and skeletons in the fluid reservoir.
    Overkill should always be done right.

  2. When you have the machine tools, no project is to ridiculous to have an excuse to use them. I’d be more impressed if everything was orientated to create a thermosyphon eliminating the need for a pump.

  3. “Remember when everyone had a giant desktop computer”
    Yes. I also remember people predicting the end of the desktop PC, because all they ever did was internet and videos, so they couldn’t imagine why anyone would want a desktop. I was expecting a more realistic view from Hackaday.

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