Water + GPU doesn't = Fail?

[Rustyy117]

Hey all, So over the last few weeks I had been getting random crashes, ATi display driver has crashed, but has now recovered.... A few artifacts on desktop.

The weirdest thing however was that Water on my graphics card caused it to gain 6 x the bandwidth it had before and 4 x the memory, Incredible. (Images won't display for some reason, so I had to make do with links to the image.)

http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/2805/wtfgpuz.png

After countless driver reinstalls, setting every overclock back to stock and still having problems, I finally had the smart idea to take a look inside my PC and to my horror ( ) there was some dried bi-distilled water + PT_Nuke on my graphics card!!

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/7695/p2040013.jpg

I then Cleaned up the mess on my GPU with some tissue, left it for about 30Hrs, put the stock cooler back on, whacked it back in my PC and to my amazement it actually still works!! :lol:

I'd been running various benchmarks and games with water on the PCB of my GPU (obviously not knowing it had water on it), how did it not short out????

Turns out that both compression fittings on my CPU block came loose, then water dripped onto GPU1

http://img836.imageshack.us/f/tuberoutingcopy.jpg/

Just thought I'd share my watercooling trip to hell and back.

 

[Snipergod87]

I have had soda spilt into my system through a top vent. while I quickly pulled the plug it didnt short, it landed on the RAM, mobo and GPU. On another note it would have been awesome if that was your memory bandwidth.

Also distilled water does not conduct electricity as well as normal water

 

[Rustyy117]

@dipankar2007ind, The benifits out weigh the risks IMO.

@Snipergod87, Wow! you got lucky there then. Good job you reacted fast, I was just like OMG! for about 30 seconds, and then thought I'd better do something about this :lol:

I wish my bandwidth was 818GB/s..........45K 3DMark Vantage anyone?

 

[g00fysmiley]

meh water cooling 4tl ... now use of refrigerants on the other hand

 

[g00fysmiley]

well you can go against conventional thought and modify a mini fridge compressor and coild into a system easy enough but ideally you want to have the liquid expantion happening on dies but then you have moisture to combat i've had a few ideas and i'm gonna go with some in my next build i have a refrigerant lisence so i can get the freon and parts legally

 

[Rustyy117]

well you can go against conventional thought and modify a mini fridge compressor and coild into a system easy enough but ideally you want to have the liquid expantion happening on dies but then you have moisture to combat i've had a few ideas and i'm gonna go with some in my next build i have a refrigerant lisence so i can get the freon and parts legally

You could go for some Vapor Phase Change cooling.

 

[nforce4max]

That wasn't water that got on your card but a glycol solution sold as coolant. That is what causes most setup to become damaged during leaks. IBM always used distilled water in their mainframes as it didn't conduct current and the machines still functioned for extended periods of time before failing due to corrosion. You might still be able to recover your card but you have to act fast before corrosion sets in and when it does you're screwed. Remove the cooler and thermal pads and blast it under high pressure or flow under the tap for a short period of time then blast it with compressed air then do it once more to remove contaminants that are causing shorts and current to leak between circuits.

 

[Rustyy117]

That wasn't water that got on your card but a glycol solution sold as coolant. That is what causes most setup to become damaged during leaks. IBM always used distilled water in their mainframes as it didn't conduct current and the machines still functioned for extended periods of time before failing due to corrosion. You might still be able to recover your card but you have to act fast before corrosion sets in and when it does you're screwed. Remove the cooler and thermal pads and blast it under high pressure or flow under the tap for a short period of time then blast it with compressed air then do it once more to remove contaminants that are causing shorts and current to leak between circuits.

? Nope it was bi-distilled water (Feser Aqua Ultra Pure Water). Says on the bottle, " Pure bidistilled water for use with pc liquid cooling systems." I also used a few drops of Petra'sTech PT_Nuke -PHN Concentrated Biocide.

Maybe you didn't read my orginal post as I mentioned what leaked onto my GPU and also that the GPU is still working after cleaning it.

 

[gamerk316]

Assuming your coolant is non-conductive, you *should* be fine. Just to be safe, I'd run a full 24 hour stress test and see if you can induce anything to break. Better to find out now then later in my mind...

 

[nforce4max]

? Nope it was bi-distilled water (Feser Aqua Ultra Pure Water). Says on the bottle, " Pure bidistilled water for use with pc liquid cooling systems." I also used a few drops of Petra'sTech PT_Nuke -PHN Concentrated Biocide.

Maybe you didn't read my orginal post as I mentioned what leaked onto my GPU and also that the GPU is still working after cleaning it.

Smart ass.

 

[Rustyy117]

@gamerk316, I'll happily do a 24Hr Gaming session..... Er, I mean stress test...

@nforce4max, I do try.

 

[reccy]

Far too much hassel for me.. Water onto Electrics = Bad..

Air is much more safer, even if you farted onto the machine insides, it would just smell bad... opps

Give me good old air thank you very much..

 

[microterf]

@dipankar2007ind, The benifits out weigh the risks IMO.

@Snipergod87, Wow! you got lucky there then. Good job you reacted fast, I was just like OMG! for about 30 seconds, and then thought I'd better do something about this :lol:

I wish my bandwidth was 818GB/s..........45K 3DMark Vantage anyone?

I got a 46K vantage score

 

[microterf]

http://service.futuremark.com/resultComparison.action?compareResultId=2700312&compareResultType=19

 

[g00fysmiley]

micro... your rig cost more than my car (93 camaro) .... very impressive though

 

[Rustyy117]

@microterf, If you ever feel that your wallet is getting too heavy for you, You know I'm always here to help, I really don't mind helping you spend money. I know, I'm a nice guy like that...

Seriously Nice rig you got there /Jealous!

@reccy, Air maybe safe, but its also boring, hotter and louder than air, However water is much more risky, and alot more expensive. I choose water because I like heavy overclocking and also the quietness of 900RPM fans

 

[microterf]

Thanks all, @OMG, my wallet is very light now after a crazy equipment spending spree over the last 2 weeks. (microcenter loves me)

When I built the rig, and waiting for the 580s to come out, I had a 5870 in there, and think I have driver issues, so I need to go back and run drivercleaner I think to remove all the drivers and then reinstall Nvidia drivers

(Have to put PhysX on CPU or Vantage will crash at the second cpu test.) GPU-Z will crash at startup.

Can anyone recommend the best driver cleaners out there (except formatting and reinstalling windows)

 

[Rustyy117]

Yeah nVidia and AMD Drivers don't play nice. Maybe try Driver Sweeper?

http://www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/

EDIT: ahhh Dipankar beat me to it. LOL

 

[reccy]

@microterf, If you ever feel that your wallet is getting too heavy for you, You know I'm always here to help, I really don't mind helping you spend money. I know, I'm a nice guy like that...

Seriously Nice rig you got there /Jealous!

@reccy, Air maybe safe, but its also boring, hotter and louder than air, However water is much more risky, and alot more expensive. I choose water because I like heavy overclocking and also the quietness of 900RPM fans

I think you mean, louder than water..

I will admit, ive been very tempted to experiment over to the water side, but lost my bottle, as with air, it really cant do any damage.. Water on the other hand is a huge risk and at the moment, and i'd rather not tense my hoop when i switch the bloody thing on every morning hoping there isnt a spilt or leak somwhere lol

 

[Rustyy117]

I think you mean, louder than water..

I will admit, ive been very tempted to experiment over to the water side, but lost my bottle, as with air, it really cant do any damage.. Water on the other hand is a huge risk and at the moment, and i'd rather not tense my hoop when i switch the bloody thing on every morning hoping there isnt a spilt or leak somwhere lol

Lol Ooops yeah, Thats what I meant XD.

Both my Brother and my friend are PC Gamers and are really tempted by the Pro's of watercooling, There both worried about the risks involved though. Me, my Bro and a few friends go to LAN sessions sometimes so watercooling really isn't a great idea when moving a PC around.

I'd say watercooling is only really worth the investment if you want heavy overclocks and a quiet PC.

 

[reccy]

Lol Ooops yeah, Thats what I meant XD.

Both my Brother and my friend are PC Gamers and are really tempted by the Pro's of watercooling, There both worried about the risks involved though. Me, my Bro and a few friends go to LAN sessions sometimes so watercooling really isn't a great idea when moving a PC around.

I'd say watercooling is only really worth the investment if you want heavy overclocks and a quiet PC.

See, this now gets my nose sniffing out more reasons to try water, but again, my hoop is adament on not too

I want to overclock my CPU over 4ghz (@3.8ghz at the moment) and the GPU's to a decent overclock, but there is no need as all the games i play run flawlessly..

Ahhhhh!!!

 

[Rustyy117]

See, this now gets my nose sniffing out more reasons to try water, but again, my hoop is adament on not too

I want to overclock my CPU over 4ghz (@3.8ghz at the moment) and the GPU's to a decent overclock, but there is no need as all the games i play run flawlessly..

Ahhhhh!!!

Don't allow logic and reason to stand in the way of your PC hardware purchases.

I had a Thermaltake ULtra 120 Extreme on my Core i7 920@4Ghz and it would reach about 78C under OCCT, under water it loads at 58C, but I haven't increased the speed at it takes a ridiculous amount of Voltage to get to 4.2Ghz and the performance increase is basically non-existant.

Watercooling GPU's is where its at, Went from 775Mhz Core, 1125Mhz Mem on my HD5850's on Air, To 950Mhz Core, 1200Mhz Mem (water) and temps went from 75C to 40C Under load.

But don't let me tempt you. :lol:

 

[microterf]

Watercooling is def a pain in the ass setting up, but def worth it. I only have a CPU loop, and stock its right above ambient, and gets to about 40 under prime. At 4.16GHZ its 22 and 50 under load

 

[rofl_my_waffle]

This is why I don't use biocide. Most additives would dry and leave stuff there. Worst of all, the dried solution can conduct electricity. You can have a little bit of dried gunk on a PCB somewhere causing all sorts of errors until you find out where. While straight distilled water is sure to dry in several minutes.

Any sort of distilled water / non-conductive fluid would pick up conductivity from the (Copper?) blocks. A recent change of water or coolant would have little conductivity. The tiny amount of current running through parts of the PCB can't really damage anything but can definitely cause errors.

If you dripped water on the power connectors however.... I bet you would see sparks fly.

Also you don't need biocide. Most people only use Biocide because other people told them to (have you ever experienced algae? I haven't) Algae doesn't grow out of nowhere. It doesn't grow in bottled water in store shelves (have you seen?) No because they are clean (are you?) If you are careless enough put tap water anywhere near your stuff, then YES you need biocide. If you only rinse with distilled water, then you should be fine (my loop is running fine).

 

[microterf]

I've done 3 watercooling setups now, and I haven't had any problems. As long as you leak test, you should be fine. If you don't move a rig, it'd be hard for it to just start leaking. Not to mention you'll be proud of yourself, its something every self respecting geek should experience.