You could make your own reservoir and buy a submersible pump with better flow rate than that overpriced, underperforming, noisy stuff sold for PC use. Fish tank flow pumps are quieter (particularly the submersed, sealed type with rubber sucker feet like these: http://www.marinedepot.com/powerheads_pumps_eheim_compact_pump-ap.html), cheaper, more reliable and flow more (and are cooled by the water, too). The only downside is you may have to rig your own power switching for it since most of them run on mains, not 12v (a simple relay can work fine). Upside is you have more power from your PSU for the other components. I find it quite ridiculous how much companies charge for watercooling parts. I've been DIY'ing them for myself (including CPU and GPU blocks) since 2001.
how are you making ur own cpu blocks.
1. Work out your flow pattern. I like starting in the middle of one end, splitting into 2 channels that work their way out to the edge and then combine on the far side.
2. Buy a solid copper block big enough to cover the whole top surface of the CPU (with some extra on opposite sides depending on your flow pattern), some 1mm or 1.5mm copper sheet and some correct diameter tubing for the pipe you're using.
3. Use a large diameter drill (or mill end) and hacksaw to make the pattern. Lots of thin fins work well with 1/2 drill / mill bit width per "channel" so you can alternate them.
4. Use tinsnips and a stepped drill bit to make a cover for the block.
5. Flare the ends of the copper tube pieces and fit the to the cover. Solder them in place.
6. Add solder to all the places the block contacts the cover and that you want to seal.
7. Use a heatgun to mate the cover to the block, melting the solder and sealing it up. You can touch up here and there with a powerful soldering iron if needed, but you have to preheat the block a bit with the heatgun.
8. Test it by putting a short piece of pipe from the inlet to outlet and putting it in a pot of hot water on the stove. If there are leaks you will see air bubbles escaping.
Or use a mill on a copper block and some acrylic and seal them with an oring. You can drill and tap holes in either the copper or acrylic to fit standard pipe fittings, but be careful of galvanic effects between dissimilar metals.
Depends on what tools you have available.
The best part is that once you've made a block, you don't need to make a new one when upgrading, even to completely new architecture (as long as the block is large enough), just need to make a new bracket to hold it, so IMHO it's worth the DIY.
My first one was quite a small block (for an Athlon Thunderbird, ) with about 8 holes drilled from one side to the other and a cover on each end with the pipes attached. Flow rate was quite poor, but it worked. I did have a bit of an incident with that block, though. I was using a mains powered pump on a separate switch, so I'd have to switch the pump on first, then the PC. One time I got distracted and turned on the PC first, then got called away. When I came back the solder had melted on one end of the block and water was everywhere. Amazingly the system still worked after everything cooled and dried off. I also learnt a lot about pump, reservoir and radiator placement and flow rates from that system. I used a Ziploc container for a reservoir, fish tank flow pump (800litres per hour) and a car heater radiator from a Ford. The pump still works
Currently using a full sized car radiator which also acts as my reservoir and covers one side of my PC with big, slow fans to reduce noise. High overall flow rate, low noise, good result
PSU fan is the noisiest part of the system.
I admit I caved on my latest system and bought full sized graphics card blocks, since they're not so easy to make when you want to cool all the voltage regulators, GPU and RAM. Older cards were fine with just a GPU block and passive heatsinks on the RAM (GeForce 2 to 4). For my GeForce 6 and 7's I made large flat blocks with thin shims to reach the RAM chips, but they were difficult to seal and not as effective as I wanted.
If I ever get my CNC machine up and running I'll use that for future card blocks.
