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Lend me your Liquid Cooling experience....

Forum CPU & Components : Other Components - Lend me your Liquid Cooling experience....

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dragonfang18   05-23-2009 at 07:48:03 AM

I've been thinking of going from fan to liquid cooling for a while...

Anyone with some tips.
How's your maintenance (any annoying moments)?
How do you rig the psu to power the cooling system only, to check for leaks?
Has there been any time you have lost a system due leakage?
Whats the best way to connect a hose to the heat sinks and pumps?

From my looking through the internet I think you just need:
1) a pump
2)a reservoir/T line
3) radiator
4) sinks for CPU,GPU...

Am I missing anything?

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starams5   05-23-2009 at 06:38:19 PM
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Q. How's your maintenance (any annoying moments)?

A. Just check the reservoir fluid level every now and then. A flow meter is good to have inline to let you know the pump is okay.

Q. How do you rig the psu to power the cooling system only, to check for leaks?

A. I just hook it and let it rip. I cover my system critical area's with an anti-static bag with a cloth of some sort on top of that. I check all of the fittings periodically for the remainder of the day.

Q. Has there been any time you have lost a system due leakage?

A. Yes, it was due to a cheap parts, I got what I deserved for cutting a corner. I purchased the ThermalTake ram water blocks which should have sent up red flags since it has no barb. 3 days later after all the leak testing was done the tubing slipped off and fried one of a VGA's and the motherboard. Both were covered by warranty but to lose a perfectly good working board kind of hurt. The ThermalTake water blocks were replaced by Koolance Ram-35 water blocks.

Q. Whats the best way to connect a hose to the heat sinks and pumps?

A. Compression fittings or steel hose clamps.

http://www.tradekey.com/ks-spring-hose-clamps/


Message edited by starams5 on 05-23-2009 at 11:00:39 PM
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APieceOfCheese   05-23-2009 at 07:53:20 PM
- 0 +

Maintenance: I usually take every thing apart, clean it and replace the hoses at least twice a year. For some reason no matter what I do something always starts to grow inside the loop. A little biocide works for a while but not forever.

 

You can jump the psu by connecting the green wire to any black ground wire on the 24 pin plug on the psu. Just keep it away from the liquid stuff when you're testing. A sink is a good place.

 

Never lost a system, but I did have multiple leaks/problems when setting it up the first time.

 

Steel worm drive hose clampsare the only way to go if you have a high pressure pump like the D5. I had to go to an automotive store and get them because the hardware stores didn't carry ones that were skinny enough.

 

As for components. A t-line is easier than a res in my opinion. Resivoirs can crack and spray water all over the place. Cpu and gpu are the only things worth cooling. ram and northbridge is overkill I think unless there is some ridiculous overclocking going on. Make sure you get good quality parts so as to avoid situations like starams. Danger den and swiftech for rads blocks and pumps, petras has some cool specialty sinks, koolance makes some pretty cool gpu blocks, feser has some rads that are supposed to be killer.


Message edited by APieceOfCheese on 05-23-2009 at 08:03:00 PM
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starams5   05-23-2009 at 07:59:55 PM
- 0 +

Before water my 4Gb 2x2 HyperX 1066 sticks were unstable above 925MHz, 2.1v. With water they run at 2.3v 1066MHz without issue. If you're worried about the res leaking mount it externally like I have mine. I have my pump, 2nd 220 rad, and res mounted outside of the case.


Message edited by starams5 on 05-23-2009 at 11:01:44 PM
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dragonfang18   05-24-2009 at 08:44:56 AM
- 0 +

Thanks guys! Geat help!

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starams5   09-29-2009 at 10:36:35 PM
- 0 +

Update on water cooled mem. After reading an article here at Tom's, I discovered they had OC'd the ram (HyperX 2 x 2GB 1066 KHX8500D2K2) to 1131MHz so I decided to push it some more. Ran it at 1100MHz 2.31v for about a month or so, all okay. A few days ago decided to crank it up some more. Running stable at 1115MHz but I had to up the voltage a notch to 2.33v. I probably won't be satisfied until I reach Tom's benchmark, will test again at a later date.

@dragonfang18
Did you complete your task yet?

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