Hi guys, asking here is a last resort for me because I can usually find what I need just by browsing, but now I'm completely lost. Approximately a year ago I bought components for a custom water cooling loop which, after much research, I assembled myself. I paid attention to the water level in the reservoir while filling the loop (bay reservoir) to avoid the pump (an Alphacool solo VPP655) running dry. After a couple of months, at one point the pump started making strange clinking noises. When I took the loop apart, I realized that the noises were caused by the impeller constantly making contact with the metal housing where the impeller fits. After having the pump sent back to the retailer, I learned that the cause of the failure was the plastic part, where the impeller sits on the ceramic bearing, getting damaged and thus lowering the impeller. According to the retailer, this was allegedly caused by the pump running dry which baffled me even then. Like I said, I was very careful when filling the loop and I also checked the water level in the reservoir at the time of the failure, which hadn't decreased at all. I also checked the radiator, the CPU block, everything where water should be flowing, but I found no blockages (the only thing I found is a little bit of black oxidation of copper inside the CPU block, but I assume it's very unlikely that it was the reason for the failure). The retailer offered me a new impeller for a relatively fair price, so I went with it and reinstalled the whole lot.
Fast forward a couple more months to the present. A few days ago I started hearing the same clinking noise, and I immediately knew I was in trouble yet again. I'm almost entirely sure that it's the same problem again, and I find it extremely unlikely that the pump indeed ran dry - like I said, water level hasn't decreased, the pump is directly bolted on the back of the bay reservoir and there were no leaks. Even if the pump did run dry (for example when I was filling it), why would it take 3-4 months for it to fail?
The only thing I can think of is that the water in the loop got too hot and slowly eroded the plastic, although I would assume hot water is something you anticipate while designing a water cooling pump. I'm running a fairly aggressive OC, 3570K@4,6GHz and roughly 1,35V. The CPU is delidded, new thermal paste everywhere, although it was still running fairly hot (close to 100 degrees Celsius under stress testing - I know, that's not a good number in a custom water cooling, but I guess I was unlucky with the silicon lottery).
Any ideas are greatly appreciated, although I'm primarily interested in the likely cause of the failure because I'm probably moving back to good old fashioned air cooling, this takes too much maintenance and money.
Fast forward a couple more months to the present. A few days ago I started hearing the same clinking noise, and I immediately knew I was in trouble yet again. I'm almost entirely sure that it's the same problem again, and I find it extremely unlikely that the pump indeed ran dry - like I said, water level hasn't decreased, the pump is directly bolted on the back of the bay reservoir and there were no leaks. Even if the pump did run dry (for example when I was filling it), why would it take 3-4 months for it to fail?
The only thing I can think of is that the water in the loop got too hot and slowly eroded the plastic, although I would assume hot water is something you anticipate while designing a water cooling pump. I'm running a fairly aggressive OC, 3570K@4,6GHz and roughly 1,35V. The CPU is delidded, new thermal paste everywhere, although it was still running fairly hot (close to 100 degrees Celsius under stress testing - I know, that's not a good number in a custom water cooling, but I guess I was unlucky with the silicon lottery).
Any ideas are greatly appreciated, although I'm primarily interested in the likely cause of the failure because I'm probably moving back to good old fashioned air cooling, this takes too much maintenance and money.
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