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I am considering converting an unused faucet with a G 1/4 thread to run a waterloop in and out of my computer to cool 5 7970's and cpu. Has anyone ever tried such a project or seen it been done?

Perceived benefits:
-cooler water (especially winter) or room temp water
-lower component temperatures -->  lower power consumption, allows good overclocking
-no reservoir, pump, and radiator needed (less tubing)
-much less noise relative to fan and fan+radiator
-I don't pay for water, its in the rent
-Water not continuously circulating in loop, possibly less bacterial growth
-less heat radiated into room

Perceived risks:
-water might leak
-water pressure might change
-water shortages  >:(
-possible condensation of water on tubing/blocks from environment and faucet temps
-Hard or soft water (controllable) - build of gunk in waterloop and clogging
-possible galvanic corrosion? piping uses copper, water blocks are copper

Any other risks outweight the benefits? (This is of course clean water, not toilet water  8))

That would be a pretty extreme waste of water. 

Someone's paying for the water. If you were on a house with a well/private septic, then maybe...

The faucet would not be open by much, certainly no where near its fullest, there is no need since the thread would bottleneck fluid flow. Part of the water I use is from a well (remaining = public), both would be lead back into public water supply. The concept is not use water in "pretty extreme" magnitude of say a golf course, waterpark, or lawn/garden maintenance. But rather just enough to keep the temperature at a decent limit (~40 to 60 C per device).

It could be done, but someone will be monitoring the usage and could actually mistake the usage for a leak, since it would be a constant flow.

Then you'll be having to explain the excessive usage even if it is included in the rent. Trust me, it would only be temporary, but you'd have to find another method or a new place.

Also, tap water is disgusting.  Your water blocks will look like mossy sea rocks after 3 months.

Well, then it seems it would work, but not for long, and it would probably not be a good idea. Unless the water would come from a large enough reservoir/tank/well, but even that would not be feasible.

I thought tap water was not that bad. Although I only thought of this idea, and won't do it. Wouldn't placing a couple of silver spirals inside the tubing counter that?

Silver maintains a basic pH.  New water is incoming and not recirculated.  Look up heat exchangers.  It's basically a radiator which transfers heat from the internal loop to an external loop.  Or heats the internal loop, depending on your use.

But this is long term stuff.  I think condensation is your biggest threat.  It only takes one drop to destroy a system.

I don't know if it's the same where you live, but using tap water in a cooling system is illegal in my country.

The water distribution services and the sewers aren't designed for such usage. If you could do it, anybody would be able to create home built air-conditioning devices that would empty the water tables and put large amounts of hot water in the sewers (you don't want that unless you like large scale health/pests problems).

We do have home cooling systems that use the tap water in the west desert areas of the US, it's the evaporative coolers (Swamp coolers) on the top of houses.

I once heard about those, do you happen to know how much water typical swamp coolers might use up per hour or day?

cals.arizona.edu/pubs/consumer/az9145.pdf

What an dumb idea,

You can handle that heat with a radiator, cost about $100 at local shop.

Why would you waste water for such stupid crap like this?

I just pump glacial runoff to a heat exchanger so as to not infest my closed loop. Works like a charm. Although.... the coast seems to be receding lately...

It actually does sound somewhat like an interesting idea worth exploring at first, though not for the long term. If you use a well or septic tank for the water it would be a fanless system, except the water having passed through the loop the first time should not return to septic tank. Either it goes down the drain or back to nature. The idea of multiple heat exchangers would keep the computer loop cool.  As for wasting water, you probably won't use close as much as a sprinkler system or two to three cycles on a washing machine if flow is managed. A bit unorthodox of a method, but I guess as you said, its just a concept.

LOL the well has an electric pump. Someone is paying for that constant electricity usage for it to pump water ...

Stupid idea in summary. Use radiator !

Please use your brain b4 making a dumb observation like that.

Do you know what the avg flow rate of a normal watercooled pc is? Either GPM or LPH, pick one then do some grade 1 math while in front of your bathroom mirror. Take pic of your dumbfound face and post here.

Although what he posted might not seem feasible, there's no need to troll like that.

According to the article 1l1l11ll1l posted, an average home uses about 2.17 GPH (19000 gallons per year) with an evaporative cooler.

If you started doing this, it wouldn't take long before you were. Once the first water bill came in, the landlord will have a good cause/case to raise your rent.
Put yourself in the landlords shoes.

Even with 37C summer ambient temperatures (mind you that's 100F) My 7970s can stay cool at 60C undervolted @ 550 Mhash/s (air cooled)

It's therefore completely uneconomical to try doing this.  Whatever performance gain you get from water cooling them like that is completely offset by the complete waste of waste of water. 

Your landlord would be quite happy as well and would probably give you a hefty rent increase, not to mention how ecologically unsound it is.

My advice is, don't do it.  Go green  8)

You could always go the geothermal route :P

5 feet down, soil is roughly 55F.  People use it to cool their homes.  Giant coils under the ground and big heat exchangers.  It's free, except for the electricity :P

the heat exchangers are barely bigger than a regular HVAC coil (I have geothermal HVAC with a desuperheater). since (in AC mode) the desuperheater transfers heat from the indoor air to a buffer tank to preheat the hot water (up to 130 F), my miners help provide me with "free" hot showers :)

a cooling only ground loop dedicated to directly cool a couple kilowatts of video cards would need to be hundreds of feet long though (guessing). there are tools to figure the actual heat transfer so a ground loop could be done.. wouldnt be real geothermal though (just as my "geothermal" isnt really geothermal, its actually a ground sourced heat pump) it would be using the ground as a heat sink.

a (really really long) hose, a pump, some waterblocks and a shovel. how good are you at digging heh.

Oh wow. So what you are refering to is something similar to this then?

http://geothermal-heatpump.com/images/Geothermal_Heat_Pump_Desuperheater-3762.jpg

http://www.ioannoualternative.com/images/geothermal/geothermal_heat_pump.jpg

Google returned an image in generating geothermal energy:

http://www.ioannoualternative.com/images/geothermal/Geothermal_heatexchange.jpg

Screw the landlords.. In my places they can only increase rent by x% per year... very little....


My rigs run free of charge on someones elses dime at my buds house :P All inclusive...

yes, I have a system like the above (the 2nd image in your post). 3 ton unit,  2000 foot vertical loop in four five foot deep 250 foot trenches. provides heat, a/c and preheat for hot water via the desuperheater. the desuperheater part is what transfers my miners waste heat (as well as other heat removed from the air in the house) into "free" hot water, as the heat would otherwise be dumped in to the ground. instead the heat is dumped into a 50 gallon buffer tank that feeds the hot water heater.

I have seen people cool big grows with those heat exchangers..... Neat things :) Some places have free municipal water, included in property tax.. in Canada anyway.....


Sand point wells come to mind...

don't forget the copper pipe :D  Imagine trying to cool off 2kw of energy through a garden hose. :P

a (big diameter.. and LONG) garden hose would indeed work, although its not exactly ideal :) copper pipe is not needed. as long as heat can get through it. the cooling liquid is in the loop for a while, so super high conductivity isnt needed.

my ground loop is PEX (pretty sure.. Ill check the specs later)

http://www.pexinfo.com/

 

Braided tubing would be good, its cheap... :)